Austin Speeding Truck Accident Lawyers
If you were involved in an accident with a speeding truck driver, don’t wait to contact the Austin truck accident attorneys at Gibson Hill Personal Injury for legal representation. Driving at excessive speeds is dangerous and could cause severe injuries to the occupants of other vehicles. If the truck driver who caused your accident was speeding, you may be able to pursue maximum financial compensation from them to cover your expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other losses.
It’s crucial that truck drivers follow the rules of the road to keep everyone around them safe. When a driver goes past the speed limit or drives too fast for conditions, and someone is injured as a result, the negligent driver should be held accountable for their actions.
You can depend on our award-winning truck accident lawyers to work aggressively and decisively to seek the justice you deserve. We will hold the truck driver liable for their actions and work to recover the compensation you need to live your life again.
If you want to learn more about the legal services we offer, call us at (737) 249-6300 today for a free consultation. We’ll take the time to listen to your story and help you understand your legal options.
Why Does Speeding Cause More Severe Truck Accidents?
Driving too fast is reckless and puts other people at risk of injury. When a driver of a truck that weighs up to 80,000 speeds and crashes into a much smaller vehicle, the force of the impact could have devastating consequences. The weight and size of a tractor-trailer are enough to crush another vehicle, pinning the occupants inside. Furthermore, if cargo spills out of the speeding truck, it could pose a dangerous obstacle for other vehicles on the road, potentially leading to additional crashes and injuries.
Large trucks require more distance to come to a complete stop. A driver traveling at 65 miles an hour will need at least two lengths of a football field to stop. If they’re driving faster, they’ll require an even longer distance.
The chance of an accident increases when speeding is combined with other irresponsible behavior. Various factors that could contribute to a crash when a truck driver is speeding includes:
- Sharp turn – When a truck driver is approaching a turn, they must prepare for it by slowing down and using their turn signal. If they take the turn too fast, the momentum could cause the vehicle to roll onto its side or crash into another vehicle.
- Jackknife – Jackknifing occurs when the trailer and cab of a truck slide towards each other. It happens when the driver loses control of the vehicle. Speeding makes it difficult to maneuver safely on the road. A small car could become trapped underneath the trailer or pinned between the truck and a stationary object.
- Blind spots – Commercial trucks have much larger blind spots than passenger vehicles. They are on all four sides and can extend up to thirty feet. The driver must carefully check every blind spot for a car before merging or changing lanes.
- Improperly loaded cargo – There are weight, size, and securement requirements for loading cargo. Everything must be loaded and tied down adequately to avoid shifting or falling off the truck.
Injuries from a speeding truck accident can be fatal. Some people are lucky enough to heal completely, but others end up with a physical or mental disability. Some of the most common injuries associated with accidents caused by a speeding truck driver include:
- Broken bones
- Crush injuries
- Facial scarring or disfigurement
- Paralysis
- Traumatic brain injury
- Internal damage
- Loss of limb
- Spinal cord injuries
- Mental or emotional trauma
- Disability
Injuries that are painful and require ongoing treatment can create significant financial problems. When you’re forced to pay expensive medical bills for months or lifelong medical care and other expenses, it’s overwhelming. Gibson Hill Personal Injury knows that you need adequate compensation from the truck driver to cover your losses. You not only need reimbursement for the bills you already paid but the cost of future treatment. We will gather all the necessary evidence that sufficiently proves the truck driver was speeding and should be responsible for the losses you suffered.
Seeking Compensation After a Speeding Truck Accident
Texas uses a fault system that requires the at-fault driver to provide monetary compensation to the victim for their injuries, expenses, and other losses. They can usually accomplish this through their insurance company. If they have liability insurance, you could file a claim and pursue a settlement.
Truck drivers have a legal obligation to carry liability insurance with minimum limits to cover an injured party’s losses. These losses may include:
- Loss of consortium
- Out of pocket expenses
- Mental anguish
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Lost earning capacity
- Property damage
- Pain and suffering
- Disfigurement
- Physical impairment
Since commercial trucks can cause more damage than two small cars involved in an accident, truck drivers have high liability limits on their policies. The minimum limit is $300,000 for anyone transporting non-hazardous material on a truck that weighs less than 10,001 pounds. If the truck is greater than 10,000, they must carry at least $750,000 in liability insurance. Limits go up to $5 million for trucks carrying hazardous cargo, such as toxic or flammable substances.
Filing a Wrongful Death Lawsuit for a Speeding Truck Fatality
If you lost someone in an accident caused by a speeding truck driver, you might be able to file a lawsuit for compensation for your losses. Texas laws define wrongful death as a person’s death caused by the default, carelessness, wrongful act, unskillfulness, or neglect of another.
In order to pursue legal action for a family member who died in a collision with a truck, you must be one of the individuals below:
- Surviving spouse
- Surviving children
- Surviving parents
If there are no surviving relatives or three months have passed after the accident, and no one filed a lawsuit, the personal representative of the deceased’s estate could pursue a case.
Adult children are also allowed to file if they lost one or both of their parents in an accident. The same goes for an adopted child of an adoptive parent or the adoptive parent of an adopted child. However, siblings can’t file wrongful death lawsuits.
The monetary award you could seek is meant to compensate you and the estate. The various losses available include:
- Emotional and mental pain, anguish, and suffering
- Lost earning capacity
- Lost companionship, comfort, society, and love
- Loss of services, maintenance, care, advice, and support provided by the deceased if they survived
- Lost inheritance, including income and other benefits the deceased would have earned if they were still alive
You must follow the statute of limitations if you want to file a wrongful death lawsuit. It is a two-year timeframe and runs out two years after the date your family member died. If the deadline passes, you won’t be able to sue the truck driver for compensation.
You might also be entitled to punitive damages (exemplary damages). If you can provide the jury with clear and convincing evidence that the defendant exhibited gross negligence, fraud, or malice, they might award you with this form of compensation. Instead of compensating you for your losses, it intends to punish the wrongdoer for their irresponsible behavior.
How Gibson Hill Personal Injury Can Help With Your Case
Insurance companies are intimidating to claimants and will use every tactic they have to deny your claim or trick you into accepting a lowball offer. An experienced Austin speeding truck accident lawyer won’t allow anyone to take advantage of you during the injury claim process.
We will thoroughly investigate your accident, reconstruct the accident scene, and work meticulously to prove the truck driver was at fault for your injuries. Some of the relevant evidence we can obtain includes:
- Crash report
- Video surveillance of the events leading up to the accident
- Photos from the accident scene
- Copies of your medical records
- Truck driver’s employment history, licensing, and qualifications
- Data from the truck’s “black box”
- Repair estimates from the damage to your car
We will file a claim and submit all the evidence we found to the insurance company. If they don’t want to be fair during the settlement negotiations, we can file a lawsuit against them. While our goal might be to settle before going to trial, we have experience arguing cases in front of a judge and jury. We won’t back down from the fight to pursue the justice you deserve.
Gibson Hill Personal Injury Is Ready to Advocate for Your Rights
What you’ve been through is traumatic. You might feel frustrated about the challenges of recovering from severe injuries. Our Austin speeding truck accident lawyers know the uphill battle you’re facing. You don’t have to go through this alone. We will fight by your side for justice and aggressively pursue the financial compensation you need to move forward with your life.
At Gibson Hill Personal Injury, our legal team takes our job seriously. We care about our clients and want to protect them at all costs. We know no amount of money can change what happened, but we hope it can help heal your physical and emotional scars. We will be there throughout the entire process to provide support and guidance during this devastating experience.
If a speeding truck driver caused your injuries, call us at (737) 249-6300 right now for a free consultation with one of our Austin speeding truck accident lawyers.