Helping Individuals and Families After Serious Truck Accidents
A collision with a semi-truck can change a family's life in seconds. The size and weight of a commercial truck can leave the occupants of a passenger vehicle with catastrophic injuries, lengthy hospital stays, months of rehabilitation, and questions about what their future will look like.
At Allen Law Group, we represent individuals and families in Merrillville and throughout Indiana after serious accidents involving semi-trucks and other commercial vehicles. We understand that our clients are often facing much more than an insurance claim. They may be trying to recover physically while missing work, caring for their families, attending medical appointments, and adjusting to limitations they never expected to have.
Our role is to investigate the crash, identify the individuals and companies that may be responsible, preserve important evidence, and pursue fair compensation that reflects the full impact of the injuries on our client's life.
A Serious Truck Accident Can Affect the Entire Family
The consequences of a truck crash often extend well beyond the person who was physically injured. A spouse may suddenly become a caregiver. Parents may need help caring for their children. A family may lose income at the same time medical expenses and other costs are increasing. Someone who was independent before the crash may need assistance getting dressed, driving, preparing meals, or simply moving around their home. For individuals who suffer permanent injuries, these changes may continue long after the accident itself.
Allen Law Group takes the time to understand those effects. We want to know who our client was before the crash, what responsibilities they had, what activities mattered to them, how their work has been affected, and what their doctors expect for the future. Those details matter when evaluating the true impact of a serious truck accident.
Truck Accidents Can Happen in Many Different Ways
Commercial trucks share highways, local roads, intersections, and construction zones with much smaller passenger vehicles. When something goes wrong, the size difference between the vehicles can make the consequences especially severe.
Our semi-truck accident attorneys represent clients injured in crashes involving:
- Semi-trucks and tractor-trailers
- 18-wheelers
- Rear-end truck collisions
- Jackknife accidents
- Truck rollovers
- Underride crashes
- Wide-turn accidents
- Blind-spot and unsafe lane-change collisions
- Lost or unsecured cargo
- Overloaded trucks
- Delivery and box trucks
- Dump trucks and construction vehicles
- Commercial vehicles
- Work-zone truck accidents
- Multi-vehicle crashes involving commercial trucks
- Fatal truck accidents
Each type of crash can present different issues. A rollover may require investigation into speed, cargo, and vehicle stability. An underride crash may involve the truck's safety equipment. A lost-load accident can raise questions about who loaded and secured the cargo. A collision involving a commercial vehicle may require an examination of the driver's training, schedule, vehicle maintenance, and the trucking company's safety practices.
Understanding how the crash occurred is only the beginning. Our attorneys also work to determine why it happened and whether it should have been prevented.
A Truck Accident Claim May Involve More Than the Driver
One of the biggest differences between a serious car accident and a commercial truck accident is the number of individuals and companies that may be involved. The truck driver may be responsible for the collision, but the investigation should not necessarily end there.
Depending on the circumstances, liability may involve:
- The trucking company or motor carrier
- The company that employed or contracted with the driver
- The owner of the tractor or trailer
- A maintenance or repair company
- A company responsible for loading or securing cargo
- A freight or logistics company
- An equipment or parts manufacturer
- Another contractor involved in the truck's operation
A trucking company may have information about the driver's qualifications, training, driving schedule, safety history, vehicle inspections, maintenance, and other issues that can become important after a serious crash. Allen Law Group investigates the companies behind the truck as well as the actions of the individual driver. That broader investigation can help identify everyone whose conduct contributed to the accident and the insurance coverage that may be available.
Preserving Evidence After a Commercial Truck Crash
Some of the most important evidence in a trucking case may exist only temporarily. Commercial trucks and trucking companies can generate substantial amounts of information about a driver's activity and the operation of the vehicle. Depending on the truck and circumstances, evidence may include electronic control module data, electronic logging information, dash-camera footage, inspection records, maintenance records, driver qualification information, dispatch communications, cargo records, GPS information, and other business records. Witness statements, photographs, police reports, roadway evidence, and damage to the vehicles may also help explain what occurred.
Allen Law Group's transportation accident attorneys understand the importance of identifying and preserving available evidence after a serious commercial vehicle collision. In appropriate cases, our attorneys may work with accident reconstruction professionals, trucking industry specialists, engineers, medical professionals, or other experts to help evaluate the evidence.
The injured person should not have to become a trucking investigator while also trying to recover. Our job is to take on that responsibility for our client.
Driver Fatigue and Hours Behind the Wheel
Professional truck drivers spend long hours on the road, and fatigue can have serious consequences when someone is operating a tractor-trailer weighing many times more than the vehicles around it. Commercial truck drivers and motor carriers are subject to safety rules and requirements governing driving time, rest periods, vehicle inspections, and other aspects of commercial trucking.
When fatigue may have contributed to a crash, the investigation can include the driver's electronic logging records, work schedule, dispatch information, trip history, and other records that help establish how long the driver had been working and driving.
Fatigue is not the only concern. Truck crashes can also result from speeding, distraction, unsafe lane changes, following too closely, inadequate training, impaired driving, or failing to adjust to traffic, weather, or roadway conditions. Our attorneys look at the circumstances leading up to the collision rather than focusing only on the moment of impact.
Trucking Companies Have Safety Responsibilities
Safe commercial trucking involves more than placing a qualified driver behind the wheel. Trucks must be properly inspected and maintained. Drivers must be appropriately qualified. Cargo must be loaded and secured safely. Brakes, tires, lights, steering systems, and other critical components need to function as intended. A failure in any of these areas can contribute to a serious crash.
Maintenance records, inspection reports, repair histories, driver records, company policies, and other documents may help determine whether a preventable safety problem existed before the collision. When the evidence supports it, Allen Law Group works to hold responsible not only the driver who caused the crash, but also the companies whose decisions or failures caused or contributed to what happened.
Serious Truck Accident Injuries Can Change a Person's Future
The forces involved in a collision with a large commercial truck can cause injuries that require months or years of treatment. Some people recover and eventually return to most of their previous activities. Others live with permanent physical or neurological limitations.
Serious truck accident injuries can include:
- Traumatic brain injuries: A blow to the head or violent movement of the brain inside the skull can affect memory, concentration, speech, balance, mood, and other cognitive or physical abilities. More severe brain injuries may require long-term rehabilitation or daily assistance.
- Spinal cord injuries: Trauma to the spinal cord can affect movement, strength, sensation, and bodily functions. Severe injuries may result in partial or complete paralysis and substantial long-term medical and personal care needs.
- Neck and back injuries: Damage to the spine, muscles, ligaments, joints, and surrounding tissues can cause persistent pain and limited mobility. For some individuals, these injuries make returning to physical work extremely difficult.
- Herniated and damaged discs: The impact from a truck collision can damage the discs between the vertebrae, creating pressure on nerves and causing pain, weakness, numbness, or tingling in the arms or legs.
- Multiple fractures: Truck accidents can cause complex fractures involving the legs, arms, pelvis, ribs, hands, feet, and other areas of the body. Some require several surgeries followed by extensive rehabilitation.
- Crushing injuries: When a passenger vehicle is struck or trapped by a large truck, occupants can suffer extensive damage to muscles, bones, nerves, and internal organs. Severe crushing injuries may result in permanent disabilities or amputation.
- Internal injuries: Trauma to the chest and abdomen can damage organs and blood vessels and may cause internal bleeding. Some internal injuries require emergency surgery and intensive medical care.
- Nerve damage: Injured or compressed nerves can cause chronic pain, weakness, numbness, burning sensations, or reduced function that may continue long after other injuries have healed.
- Burn injuries: Fires, explosions, fuel spills, and contact with hot materials can cause serious burns requiring surgeries, skin grafts, rehabilitation, and long-term care.
- Scarring and disfigurement: Severe lacerations, burns, surgeries, and other injuries may leave permanent scars or changes in appearance that affect a person's everyday life.
- Permanent physical limitations: Some individuals lose the ability to lift, walk, drive, work, participate in recreational activities, or perform household responsibilities the way they did before the crash.
- Chronic pain: Persistent pain can interfere with work, sleep, family activities, and independence and may require ongoing treatment or pain management.
Allen Law Group represents individuals living with serious injuries, including traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. We look beyond the initial diagnosis to understand what the injury means for our client's future.
The Trucking Company's Insurance Carrier May Begin Working Quickly
After a serious truck accident, the trucking company and its insurance carrier may begin investigating almost immediately with rapid response teams. That investigation is being conducted to protect their interests. Representatives may gather driver statements, examine the vehicles, review company records, photograph the scene, or communicate with witnesses. An insurance adjuster may also contact the injured person or family.
Allen Law Group works to make sure our client's interests are represented as well. We can communicate with insurance companies, request and preserve evidence, investigate liability, and evaluate whether a proposed settlement reflects the injuries and losses caused by the crash.
A seriously injured person should be cautious about resolving a claim before doctors have a clear understanding of the injury, the treatment that may still be required, and whether permanent limitations are expected.
Understanding the Financial Impact of a Serious Truck Accident
A catastrophic injury can create financial problems at the same time a family is trying to concentrate on medical treatment and recovery. The financial consequences may continue for years.
Depending on the circumstances of the case, a truck accident claim may involve compensation for losses such as:
- Emergency medical treatment and hospitalization
- Surgeries and follow-up medical care
- Physical and occupational rehabilitation
- Future medical treatment and long-term care
- Lost wages while recovering
- Reduced future earning ability
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional trauma
- Permanent disability or physical limitations
- Scarring or disfigurement
- Loss of enjoyment of normal activities
Every injury affects a person differently. Two individuals with similar medical diagnoses may experience very different effects on their ability to work, care for themselves, participate in family life, or enjoy activities that were important to them before the crash. Allen Law Group works to understand those individual losses, so the claim reflects what the accident actually changed in our client's life.
When a Truck Accident Changes Your Ability to Work
For many clients, returning to work is one of the biggest concerns after a serious truck crash. Someone whose job requires lifting, standing, driving, climbing, concentration, or physical stamina may be unable to perform the same work after a permanent injury. Other individuals may return to employment but only with restrictions, fewer hours, or a lower-paying position.
Lost earning capacity can become an important issue when the injuries affect someone's ability to support themselves and their family over the long term. Evaluating that loss may require reviewing the client's employment history, wages, benefits, education, physical restrictions, expected recovery, and remaining work life. In appropriate cases, economists, vocational specialists, medical professionals, and other experts can help evaluate how a permanent injury may affect a client's future.
A Merrillville Office Serving Northwest Indiana
Allen Law Group maintains its Justice Center at 3700 E. Lincoln Highway in Merrillville, serving individuals and families throughout Merrillville, Lake County, and Indiana. Northwest Indiana's highways and transportation corridors carry substantial commercial truck traffic, placing local motorists alongside tractor-trailers and other large commercial vehicles every day.
When a serious collision occurs, our Merrillville office gives injured individuals and their families access to a personal injury law firm close to home. You can also learn more about the firm's broader representation through our Merrillville personal injury attorneys and Allen Law Group's statewide resources for Indiana truck accident claims.
Talk With Allen Law Group After a Truck Accident in Merrillville
After a serious truck accident, your attention should be on your medical care, your recovery, and your family. You should not also have to determine which trucking companies may be responsible, which records need to be preserved, which insurance policies apply, or whether an insurance company is fairly evaluating what the accident has taken from you.
Allen Law Group is here to listen to what happened, investigate the circumstances of the crash, explain your legal options, and help you understand what comes next.
Contact Allen Law Group to speak with a truck accident lawyer in Merrillville, Indiana. Your initial consultation is free, and there are no attorney fees until we win!
