Hiring An Attorney - Tractor Trailer Accident Situations

If you've been in a crash with a semi, you may need to contact an attorney. Tractor trailer accident aftermath can be very serious and lead to extraordinary injury and death. Because of their much larger weight, these vehicles are governed by a separate and more thorough set of laws. Failure to stay within these laws can be proof of negligence in a court case. In a perfect world, drivers and companies would regularly review the safety regulations to ensure compliance, but we live in a world that is far from perfect. Safety regulations may have been broken in your case, making it easier to push for a quick settlement. Here are some of the most important.

Weight Regulations

While it is understood that semis carry much more weight than the average vehicle, they must stay within certain boundaries to be road-safe. These weight regulations are more tightly enforced than many other rules, with numerous weigh stations located on the nation's interstates. That, of course, doesn't necessarily mean a driver staying mostly off the interstate will not overload his or her truck. If this happens, it can make handling of the vehicle much more difficult and it can lead to tragedy. As for your attorney, tractor trailer accident lawyers will make it a priority to check to see if the weight of the truck was established at the time of the crash.

Weather

Heavy rain, thick fog, and snowy streets can make driving a nightmare even for the most easily controlled vehicle. These threats are tripled when it comes to navigating through them with a semi. When the streets are wet, it forces a situation where a driver has to apply the brakes earlier than usual when bringing the truck to a stop. Considering that truck drivers already need to do this even under optimum conditions, you have a recipe for potential disaster. On the other hand, drivers should be specifically trained in how to handle adverse weather. Its presence, or even if it is the primary cause behind a crash, is not necessarily a defense against fault or negligence.

Truck Failure

In some cases, the driver is completely without fault, even when the company he works for can still be considered negligent. This seeming contradiction comes into play when there is some sort of preventable failure on the part of the truck itself. With the right attorney, tractor trailer accident cases will often require a detailed examination of the police report and may even lead to the lawyer's independent examination of the vehicle in question. If it was preventable failure (i.e., something that should have been caught through responsible maintenance), it could be the clincher for a successful lawsuit.