Truck Accidents Cause Life-Changing Injuries

As noted above, a semi-trailer truck outweighs most of the other vehicles on the road by a factor of about 20. Given this, these trucks can easily demolish anything they hit. They’re big, heavy, hard to maneuver, slow to stop—and you’re in their way. These potential injuries are life-threatening and may leave victims with a permanently diminished quality of life.

Once a semi-trailer does hit your car, catastrophic injuries will result, including:

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) – Traumatic brain injuries commonly feature in truck accidents because of the violence of collisions involving large trailer trucks. Often called concussions, traumatic brain injuries result from bumps, blows, or jolts to the head or body. Physicians used to talk about them as ranging from mild to severe. Still, more recently, medical science has established that any injury to the brain is severe, and we must treat them with great respect.

Spinal Cord Injuries – Again, because of the extreme violence resulting from the forces of the semi-truck hitting the car, passengers are forcefully tossed around the interior of the vehicle and sometimes even evicted from it. One of the potential consequences of this violent movement is a spinal cord injury. A fracture of a vertebra or bruising or tearing the nerves inside them can injure the spinal cord. As a major component of the central nervous system, the spine and its proper function are vital to day-to-day living.

Spinal cord injuries can cause:

• Loss of movement
• Loss of cognitive function
• Loss or alteration of sensation, including loss of sense of touch and temperature
• Loss of evacuation control
• Chronic pain
• Difficulty in breathing
• Changes in sexual function
• Spasms or odd reflexes

• Burns and Scarring – The violence of the collision between a semi-truck and a passenger car, along with the potentially hazardous materials often found in such trucks, means that the potential for fires and explosions after a collision is high. When these occur, victims will often suffer severe burns. Burns are painful, serious wounds, prone to infection, and requiring long-term treatment. A burn victim may spend months in the hospital and end up with severe and disfiguring scar tissue that leads, in turn, to emotional and mood disorders requiring further treatment.
• Internal Injuries & Bleeding – Once again, the violence of the impact in a truck/car collision contributes to the severity of the potential internal injuries that victims can receive. Blunt force trauma when the body strikes the vehicle’s interior or the pavement can damage vital organs like the bladder, liver, kidneys, spleen, and pancreas. This bleeding is difficult to control, and these injuries often result in permanent damage or the loss of an organ. Related injuries can take place to the ribs, which protect these internal organs. Broken ribs increase the risk of punctured lungs.

Who Is Liable in a Semi-Truck Accident in Florida?

In a commercial vehicle accident, the driver may not be solely responsible for the damages resulting from the accident. The trucking company may share in that liability. If you simply sue the driver, you follow the regular rules of Florida’s no-fault insurance laws as to when you can or cannot sue. A truck accident attorney from Boohoff Law’s North Port office can help you untangle this web of potential liability.

In addition to the driver, you can sue the driver’s employer. Under Florida law, the trucking company can be vicariously liable for the driver’s conduct. For you to succeed with this kind of suit, the driver must have been actively engaged in work duties when the accident occurred. In other words, if a commercial truck driver hits you while on duty and performing the job, you can sue the driver’s employers. This process can allow you to receive a much higher level of compensation simply because the company will carry bigger policies limits.

You can also sue the company that owns the truck if they failed to keep it properly maintained. If the problem is with the truck itself, you can also sue the maker of the truck or its parts.

In other words, determining liability when a commercial vehicle is involved can be complex. If you’ve been a victim in a commercial truck accident in Florida, let the experienced truck accident attorneys at Boohoff Law help you figure out who might be liable for your injuries.

What Does My Lawyer Need to Prove in a Truck Accident Claim?

As with any motor vehicle accident in Florida, a collision involving a semi-trailer truck usually requires that you prove that the truck driver was acting carelessly. In other words, like any accident, this is a personal injury lawsuit based on the theory of negligence.

To win a case in negligence, you must allege and prove that it is more like than not that:

• The driver owed you a duty of care. Anyone accepting a driver’s license assumes an inherent duty to act with care toward all other users of the roads. Commercial drivers require a higher level of knowledge and skill to obtain that license. Often courts hold individuals with such licenses or credentials to higher standards of care.
• The driver breached that duty of care. The breach of the duty of care means, in essence, that the driver acted carelessly or recklessly. You can demonstrate this breach in any number of ways, including:
  • Failure to obey traffic signs or signals
  • Speeding
  • Distracted driving
  • Driving under the influence
  • Sudden or improper braking
• The driver’s breach of the duty of care caused your injury. Causation in Florida means two different things. First, you must show that, but for the driver’s act or omission, your injury would not have occurred. There cannot be any intervening cause of your injury. Second, you have to demonstrate that your injury was a natural and foreseeable consequence of the driver’s careless act or omission.
• That the injury caused your injuries for which money damages can make you whole, you are seeking money to compensate you for the damage your injury has caused you and its impact on your life.