Baton Rouge Truck Accidents Lawyers

Driving near trucks can be a little nerve-wracking.  Maybe it’s having to pass an 18-wheel rig on I-110. Or it could be seeing a truck in the rearview mirror on a back road. An actual crash is a worst-case scenario come to life. The good news is that if negligence is involved, a driver can recover financial damages in a civil lawsuit. The bad news is that identifying who is liable can be more difficult in truck accident cases than a standard car crash case. 

The experienced Baton Rouge truck accident lawyers at Beall & Thies understand what it takes to properly investigate a crash, to hold the right person accountable, and to fight for a fair settlement. Call today at (225) 577-6223 or contact us online to set up a consultation.

Who Is Liable in a Truck Accident? 

Presuming the source of fault doesn’t lie with the injured automobile driver themselves, liability can go in several different directions…

The Individual Truck Driver

This might be the most straightforward answer. If a truck driver was speeding, driving inattentively or otherwise handling their rig in a reckless manner, then they are a logical place to start in the search for liability. If the truck driver is an independent contractor who owns their own rig, that simplifies the search for liability even more. But many cases, even when the fault of the truck driver is evident, aren’t always so simple. 

The Trucking Company

Is it possible that the trucker should never have been hired to begin with? Trucking companies are responsible for screening their new hires and if they handed an 18-wheel rig to an unqualified driver, then fault can go to the company. 

It’s also possible that the trucking company submits its hires to their insurance company for approval. In circumstances like these, an insurance firm that signed off on the hiring of a driver whose lack of qualifications could have been unearthed by a background check, could find itself liable for negligence on the part of that driver .

Truck drivers also have clear limits placed on how much they can drive. A trucker cannot drive more than 11 hours in a day. Furthermore, that 11 hours must be done within a 14-hour window, meaning there must be 10 consecutive hours of rest. On a weekly basis, there are further limits falling between 60-70 hours of drive time. 

Part of adhering to that limit falls on the driver, but it also falls on the company to schedule workloads in a way that make staying within the limits possible. A company that hands a driver a schedule of cross-country deliveries that can’t be done without either speeding or breaking the time limits can be held liable for trucker fatigue.  Our Baton Rouge truck accident attorneys know how to go about finding where fault in these situations lies. 

Subcontractors

The trucking industry relies heavily on subcontractors, including for tasks like loading up the rig. One possible source of accidents is objects poorly packed and flying off the truck. If the subcontractor was negligent in the way the rig was packed, they can be the source of liability. 

Mechanical and repair contractors that work on the truck are responsible for making sure its functions and equipment are in good working order. Negligence here can result in malfunctions that lead to accidents, which mean legal liability. 

A Third Vehicle

What if the truck wasn’t at fault for the fact, they hit another car. Let’s say a third car recklessly cuts in front of the truck. An 18-wheel rig isn’t designed to adjust quickly and the effort to get out of the way might have then led to the crash.

That doesn’t make the truck driver negligent—Louisiana law requires only that drivers of any vehicle exercise reasonable care, not that they prevent every accident. In this example, the truck driver exercised reasonable care, but the operator of the third vehicle did not. It’s the latter would be the proper target of this lawsuit. 

Identifying the correct defendant might require some detailed research and a knowledge of how to investigate everything from the scene of an accident to a trucking company’s internal hiring practices to its subcontractor relationships to its work schedules. Furthermore, that work is just the beginning. Once the defendant has been identified and the lawsuit filed, a Baton Rouge truck accident lawyer must do the diligent footwork necessary to prove negligence.

Don't Wait to Get Help!

The injuries that come from a truck accident might be catastrophic and the quality of the attorney investigating the case might be the different in a settlement an injured plaintiff can live on and one that fails to meet their needs. At Beall & Thies, we’ll fight for what should be yours. 

Call today at (225) 577-6223 or contact us online to set up a consultation.