An Indiana Truck Accident Attorney Helps Navigate the Road to Recovery
Every day, people use trucks to transport goods or perform heavy tasks. Unfortunately, these large vehicles can cause significant and sometimes irreversible harm and injuries in an accident. If you’ve been injured in a truck accident in Indiana, an experienced Indiana truck accident attorney can help you hold the people or businesses responsible for injuries sustained by you or a loved one.
Keffer Hirschauer LLP helps truck accident victims throughout Indiana fight for the compensation they deserve. Our experienced personal injury attorneys can help identify the correct party or parties to file a claim or lawsuit against, gather evidence to prove their liability, and maximize your recovery of damages.
An Indiana Truck Accident Attorney to Help Prove Liability and Damages
Whether they occur in city traffic, on an interstate, or on a country road, truck accidents can cause incredible damage and serious injury. Moreover, they are not limited to accidents between the truck and just one other vehicle. They also can involve third-party vehicles or pedestrians. An Indiana truck accident attorney can help you hold the defendant liable no matter the type of truck accident in Indiana.
Third-Party Vehicles
When a truck accident involved a third party, your case can become complex as it may involve naming several parties as defendants in your lawsuit. You must which party, the truck driver or a third party, was the cause of the accident. If both drivers are potentially at fault, you should pursue both.
Pursuing a claim against multiple parties requires experience and skill found in attorneys focused on personal injury law. Moreover, an Indiana truck accident may involve other factors as well, such as road and weather conditions, faulty equipment, or other circumstances. A personal injury attorney is best suited to identifying, evaluating, and persuasively all such factors in your factor.
Pedestrian Accidents
Indiana injury law protects more than just other drivers and passengers on the road. The law requires all drivers to exercise due care to avoid colliding with pedestrians, too. Pedestrians may become victims of a truck accident when the truck driver fails to see them or loses control of the truck. Other causes of pedestrian truck accidents include:
- Running a stoplight or stop sign
- Speeding
- Failing to check for pedestrians
- Failing to yield the right of way to pedestrians
Failure by the pedestrian to follow rules of the road or exercise reasonable care may reduce the recovery they receive. Your contribution to the cause of the accident may reduce your recovery by the percentage of fault you are determined to have had in causing the accident. A skilled trucking accident attorney in Indiana can help establish that you did not contribute to the accident or minimize the level of fault attributed to your actions.
An Indiana Truck Accident Attorney Identifies All Possible Defendants in Your Case
The person driving the truck involved in an accident is usually the first one considered as responsible in a truck accident claim. While this is a great place to start, there are several other parties who could also have a hand in causing your accident. An Indiana truck accident attorney can help you identify the correct at-fault party or parties and pursue damages from them.
The Driver of the Truck
A truck driver must operate his or her vehicle reasonably to avoid causing accidents and injuring others. The reasonableness of the driver’s actions is judged based on what the average person would do in similar circumstances. Should the driver be found to have operated the vehicle unreasonably, an Indianapolis trucking accident lawyer can help you hold them liable for your injuries.
What constitutes unreasonable driving or operation of a large truck depends on the situation. Instances of negligence include:
- Driving too fast
- Running a stop sign or red light
- Talking, texting or otherwise using a phone
- Failing to pay attention to the road
- Failing to maintain proper safety equipment or other follow regulations
Driver error of any kind can cause significant injury and property damage to other drivers on the road. Every Indiana truck accident attorney thorough investigates the cause of your accident to gather the evidence needed to prove liability.
The Driver’s Employer
In addition to holding the driver responsible, you may also seek compensation from the driver’s employer if the driver was working at the time of the accident. Employers are responsible for the actions of their employees when committed within the scope of their employment.
An employee acts within the scope of employment when he or she commits an act that falls under the assigned work responsibilities, such as a truck driver driving a truck. Should the driver be running a personal errand at the time of the accident, he or she is not acting within the scope of employment, and the truck company would not be liable.
Alternatively, a trucking company may also be found liable for negligent hiring if it hired the employee and knew or should have known that the driver posed a risk of harm to others. An employer’s failure to conduct a background check or look into the driver’s employment history could be grounds for a claim of negligent hiring. A knowledgeable personal injury can fully investigate this possible avenue of recovery for you.
Indiana Truck Accident on Construction Sites
Given how many trucks come and go from a construction site, it is common to see truck accidents occur near these sites. When a construction site’s design or condition leads to a truck accident, you may be able to hold the owners or operators of the construction site responsible.
An owner or operator of a construction site who has notice of a dangerous condition that can lead to a truck accident must remedy the condition. Failure to remedy a hazardous condition can lead to liability when the plaintiff can establish that the design or hazards on the property were avoidable or fixable.
Third-Party Negligence: Proving Fault
When plaintiffs sue more than one party, they do not need to prove each party’s fault, simply that the defendants’ actions caused their injuries. Once the plaintiff establishes that his or her injuries arose out of the defendants’ actions, the defendants are responsible for proving each other’s fault or percentage of fault.
Your Indiana Truck Accident Attorney Should Fight to Maximize the Damages You Recover
Once you establish the defendant’s or defendants’ liability, the next step is proving how much will compensate you for your injuries. Recoverable damages include compensation for your injuries, financial loss, and property damage. An experienced trucking accident attorney can help hold the truck driver responsible and understand what compensation is available.
Personal Injuries in an Indiana Truck Accident
Victims of a truck accident in Indiana can recover damages for their injuries, including pain and suffering and loss in the quality of their life. To measure loss in quality of life, the courts compare your daily life before the accident to afterward. Loss in quality of life includes the inability to perform the same tasks as before the accident, such as hobbies and enjoying family time like playing with your children or grandchildren.
You may also recover all financial losses arising out of the accident. These economic damages can include the following:
- Lost wages
- Loss in working capacity leading to lower future wages
- Medical bills
- Any out-of-pocket expenses
Economic damages may also include a life plan for those with injuries requiring medical assistance in the future. The need for a life plan typically arises when the injury is so bad the individual requires full-time medical care.
Property Damage in a Truck Accident in Indiana
In addition to recovering compensation for injuries, you may also receive compensation for property damage arising from an Indiana truck accident. If your vehicle was damages in the accident, you can recover for the cost of repairing the damage to that vehicle. This can include the replacement cost of the vehicle if it is totaled, meaning the repair costs exceed the value of the vehicle.
Not every attorney has the experienced in personal injury law in general and truck accident cases in particular to identify all possible types of compensation you’re entitled to recover. To maximize your compensation, contact an Indiana truck accident attorney from Keffer Hirschauer LLP.
Investigating the Truck Accident and Collecting Evidence for Your Case
The key to a successful outcome in litigation is to have a good argument and substantial evidence. As such, collecting evidence of the negligence of the other driver and other responsible parties as well as proof of your injuries should begin immediately after the accident.
The first pieces of evidence gathered are often photographs of the accident scene and of the vehicles involved in the crash. You should also identify all witnesses to the accident and obtain their contact information. Lastly, give the police your version of events and any witnesses you found so that your statement goes into the police report and the police can obtain statements from the witnesses.
This evidence is just the start of preparation to make your case. Additional evidence to collect in truck accident investigations include:
- Vehicle repair estimates
- Any video or photographs from third parties
- Cellphone records of all drivers
- Dashcam or other video footage
In addition to evidence of fault, it is important to maintain a record of your injuries and subsequent medical treatment. This includes collecting all medical records as well as keeping a medical journal that highlights your symptoms, pain levels, and the progression of your injuries over time. Medical records help you establish the cause and severity of your injuries and the journal helps demonstrate the impact of the injuries on your life, all of which helps maximize the damages you can recover.
Contact an Indianapolis Trucking Accident Lawyer
To be successful, your truck accident claim or lawsuit requires identifying the correct defendants and collecting enough evidence to prove your case. Getting compensation to make you whole requires putting together a strong case establishing both liability and the extent of your injuries and their impact on your life. Your best chance for success comes from working with an experienced Indiana truck accident attorney like those at Keffer Hirschauer LLP. For a free consultation to learn more about how a Indianapolis trucking accident lawyer can help, call (317) 455-4043 or complete our online contact form today.
