Articles Posted in Truck Accident

Federal and state laws mandate that car and SUV manufacturers equip their vehicles with safety features to prevent serious injuries. However, despite the heightened dangers of large commercial trucks, many of these vehicles do not have the same safety features. Further, the safety standards do not always address the scope of the vehicle’s dangers. As such, Florida accidents involving large trucks often result in serious and fatal injuries.

For example, a recent Florida news report described a disturbing underride accident involving a minivan and tractor-trailer. The accident occurred when the semi-truck was turning onto a roadway near State Road 520. The minivan was turning at the same time and went underneath the truck. Emergency personnel immediately removed two of the minivan occupants and transported them to a hospital. The minivan driver required assistance from firefighters to extricate her from her vehicle. State Police reported that the accident is still under investigation.

Many Florida trucking collisions involve underride accidents. An underride accident occurs when a smaller vehicle slams into the side or backend of a truck’s trailer and slides underneath. The shape and design of the back of a truck often cause a smaller vehicle to become trapped underneath. The sheer impact of these accidents may result in the top of the car ripping off or becoming crushed. As a result, the car’s occupants often suffer the brunt of the initial impact. Underride accident victims rarely leave the accident unscathed. These accidents typically result in traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, internal organ damage, sprained and broken bones, paralysis, and disfigurement.

Personal injury lawsuits, especially those involving trucks, often entail various complex issues and multiple parties. Those injured in a Florida trucking accident, should seek representation from an attorney to protect their rights and help pursue their remedies.

Trucking accidents tend to result in the most severe injuries and significant damages. Although some accidents are unavoidable, most Florida trucking accidents are due to one or more parties’ negligence or recklessness.

Truck manufacturers, trucking companies, loaders, and drivers, all maintain a duty to ensure that they act safely in the manufacture, training, securing, loading, and operation of their vehicles. A failure at any of these steps may result in serious dangers to anyone in the vicinity of the truck. People often attribute accidents to a defect in the truck itself or truck driver operation error; however, many Florida trucking accidents occur because of insecure cargo that becomes detached while the truck is in motion.

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According to data gathered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Florida continually ranks in the top five states with the highest trucking accident rates. Data also reveals that Florida trucking accidents resulting in severe injuries and fatalities occur more than three times than that of the national average. These harrowing statistics reveal a disturbing trend that can have a lifelong impact on truck accident victims and their families.

Every year close to 150,000 individuals suffer injuries in an accident involving a semi-truck, and close to 700 semi-truck occupants die in these crashes. Most recent annual statistics by the FMCSA reports that Florida trucking accidents killed nearly 30 people, incapacitated 57, and over 1000 suffered other serious injuries. Despite advances in safety mechanisms, increased training, and monitoring, these accidents continue to occur at an alarming rate. It is critical that motorists take steps to protect themselves while sharing the road with large trucks, especially if they are traveling on particularly hazardous roadways.

There are particular roads and highways in Florida that are prone to large truck accidents. For example, I-95 stretches across the state and has over 300,000 motorists every day. Understandably, the high rate of vehicles on the road corresponds with the significant number of accidents on the road. However, there is also a large number of accidents that occur on the stretch north of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. Florida’s Interstate 10 and the 11-county stretch of the Florida Turnpike are also considered some of the most dangerous roadways in the state and country.

Defective commercial vehicles are a serious hazard to the health and public safety of all Floridians. Although Florida trucking accidents often involve the negligence of a trucking company or its drivers, design defects and faulty parts frequently play a significant role in a trucking accident. The sheer size and mechanical complexity of these vehicles require the safe interplay of various systems. Even seemingly minor defects can cause these large vehicles to become massive safety hazards.

The majority of truck accidents involving defective parts include faulty brakes, defective steering systems, tire failures, defective hydraulics and fuel systems, and inadequate safety and cargo restraints. For instance, recently, a state court heard a case arising from a tractor trailer’s malfunctioning dump gate. In that case, the truck driver was traveling on a highway when the trailer unexpectedly released its dump gate. The uncommanded action resulted in the trailer spilling massive amounts of gravel and sand onto the highway on more than one occasion. One of the incidents resulted in several collisions, damaging cars and injuring several motorists and passengers.

Injury victims and their loved ones may file a claim against various entities. The manufacturer, designer, distributor, retailer, or any other party responsible for putting a defective truck on the road may be liable. In the case above, the plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against both the trucking company and the defective valve manufacturer that caused the dump gate to spontaneously open. Following a settlement with the plaintiffs, the company sought contribution from the manufacturer. The company filed cross-claims against the manufacturer alleging unreasonably dangerous and defective design of the valve. The manufacturer sought to dismiss the claims, arguing that the company discarded relevant evidence. The court ultimately found that the company acted negligently in discarding the evidence, but not willfully.

Last month, a state appellate court issued a written opinion in a Florida pedestrian accident case involving a pick-up truck that struck a woman who was standing on the side of the road waiting for a bus. Specifically, the court was asked to determine whether the owner of the pick-up truck had a duty to install brakes on the trailer that was being towed. Ultimately, the court concluded that such a duty may exist, depending on the surrounding circumstances, but remanded the case to the lower court to make the determination.

According to the court’s opinion, the plaintiff was standing on the side of the road, waiting for a bus with her grandchildren when she was struck by a pick-up truck towing a trailer. The driver of the pick-up truck was the daughter of the truck’s owner, who had loaded the truck in preparation for the trip. However, before leaving, the owner of the truck did not feel well and asked his daughter to make the trip. The trailer was overloaded and did not have brakes installed.

As the owner’s daughter was driving, the traffic in front of her suddenly stopped. She applied the brakes in an attempt to safely come to a stop. However, as the owner’s daughter approached the traffic ahead of her, she realized she wasn’t going to stop in time. She swerved onto the shoulder to avoid stopped traffic, but struck the plaintiff.

Florida accidents involving commercial tractor-trailers and semi-trucks often result in serious and potentially life-threatening injuries. The risk of serious injuries increases because of the size differential between commercial trucks and passenger vehicles. Even if evidence suggests that a Florida truck driver was responsible for an accident, there are often additional parties who may be liable for the damages.

Determining fault and apportioning liability in Florida trucking accidents often present injury victims with various challenges. Courts and insurance companies will engage in lengthy and comprehensive investigations before deciding who is at fault. Despite the size of commercial trucks, there may be evidence that suggests that the passenger vehicle was partially at fault. Injury victims must understand potential limitations to recovery and defenses that the other party may assert.

In some cases, truck drivers engage in blatantly negligent or reckless behavior that results in an accident. Some common examples of this are speeding, operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol, falling asleep behind the wheel, or driving while distracted. Other situations may open the door to additional liable parties. For example, equipment failure, misloaded freight, and overloaded trailers may result in the truck fishtailing or swerving into other vehicles. In these cases, the truck driver, in addition to their employer or truck part manufacturer, may be liable as well.

An appellate court in Florida recently released an opinion addressing issues that frequently arise in South Florida truck accident cases. The case arose after a woman suffered severe injuries when a trailer flew off a truck and collided with her vehicle. The woman filed a lawsuit against various parties, including the trucking company as well as the automotive company that installed the wheels on the trailer. After amending her complaints, the trucking company was the only defendant remaining. At this point, the trucking company moved to dismiss the claim, alleging that their duty to maintain the truck was a delegable one, and therefore the company was not liable for the injuries that the plaintiff sustained.

The trucking company argued that they were not negligent because they conducted all relevant and applicable safety inspections, and they did not know that the automotive company was negligent in their repair. The woman argued that the company’s duty to maintain and repair its fleet was non-delegable.

Under Florida law, when a person suffers injuries because of a trucking accident, various parties may be liable. Some common defendants in Florida trucking accidents are the truck driver, the truck company, manufacturers of trucking component parts, and mechanics who worked on the vehicle. Although all of these parties may owe the victim a duty of care, issues arise when determining which parties breached that duty. Many times, defendants will argue that they are not responsible because they delegated a duty that was owed to the plaintiff to another party, and that other party should be accountable for the injuries that the victim suffered.

It is hard to understand, given the wealth of knowledge illustrating the dangers of drunk driving, why anyone would drive after having too much to drink. However, it happens all the time. In Florida, there were over 5,000 Florida drunk driving accidents in 2017 alone. Of those accidents, 350 resulted in at least one death.

Florida truck accidents involving an intoxicated driver are more common than many motorists believe. One reason for this is that truck drivers spend long hours on the road, and often take various substances to stay awake. Aside from alcohol, the three most common drugs used by truck drivers are marijuana, amphetamines, and cocaine. Each of these drugs tends to cause a driver to be more alert initially; however, as the drug wears off, truck drivers may feel tired or lethargic.

Taking drugs while driving a large truck increases several risks. First, the mind-altering effect the drug has on the driver can decrease reaction time and reduce cognitive functioning overall. And second, once the drug wears off, the risk of a Florida drowsy driving accident increases.

Last month, a state appellate court issued an opinion in a Florida truck accident case seeking clarification from the state’s high court. The Fifth District Court of Appeal released the opinion, asking the Florida Supreme Court whether there should be a different summary judgment standard involving video evidence.

Summary judgment is a stage in which either party can ask the judge to enter judgment in their favor based on the other side’s inability to succeed at trial. When reviewing a party’s motion for summary judgment, the court considers all the evidence that is not in dispute and applies the applicable law to those facts. If the court determines that the law favors the moving party, it will grant that party’s motion for summary judgment, avoiding the need for a trial. Of course, if there is conflicting evidence relating to a material issue in the case, summary judgment is not appropriate, and the case must be submitted to a jury. The jury will then resolve the factual issues, and the court will instruct the jury how it should rule based on how the jury decides the issues.

This case presented an issue that arises with increasing frequency; how courts should handle conflicting evidence in the summary judgment stage when one party presents video evidence. The facts of the case are explained in the court’s opinion as follows: A man was driving on the highway when he rear-ended a semi-truck. The man died, and his estate filed a Florida wrongful death case against the truck driver.

Determining which parties to name as defendants in a Florida trucking accident is a crucial decision that must be made early on in the process. Of course, an obvious choice is to name the driver of the truck involved in the accident. However, Florida truck accident victims would be wise to consider whether additional parties may also be liable for their injuries.

As a general rule, employers are vicariously liable for the negligent actions of their employees so long as, at the time of the accident, the employee was acting within the scope of their employment. However, this only applies when the truck driver and the trucking company have an employee/employer relationship. If the truck driver is an independent contractor, the contracting company will likely not be held liable for the driver’s actions. Thus, the determination of whether a truck driver is an employee or a contractor commonly comes up in Florida truck accident cases.

A recent state appellate decision illustrates how courts analyze claims against trucking companies.

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