Are you exploring legal recourse after you or a loved one was in a truck-related accident? If so, you may be eligible to seek compensation in your Florida truck accident case. If you need a Sarasota truck accident attorney ready to fight for justice, contact the firm of Shapiro | Delgado.
As large truck accidents cause 9% of all vehicles in fatal crashes each year across the United States. With a legal team like Shapiro | Delgado on your side, we will work together to get maximum compensation for your injuries.
Get started by requesting your free, no-obligation truck case review today.
Consistently, there are around 300 fatalities attributable to collisions or large truck accidents each year on Florida roads, according to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHSTA)’s state-level data tables. NHSTA defines a large truck as a “medium or heavy truck, excluding buses and motor homes, with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) greater than 10,000 pounds […] including both commercial and non-commercial vehicles.”
As documented by research performed by Florida’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV), here’s the breakdown of how large truck accident crashes caused injuries to individuals in Florida.
In 2020, large truck accidents caused:
According to NHTSA’s county-level data, Sarasota County has had 30 fatalities from 2016 to 2020 that are attributable to crashes involving at least one large truck.
According to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), the most frequent cause of large truck accidents is driver error – in fact, 92% of crashes over nine years were attributable to this.
Vehicle defects and poor road conditions were the most frequent subsequent causes of crashes, with approximately 3% of total large truck crashes attributable to both.
In a large-scale study performed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), specific causes of large truck accidents include:
Regardless of this cause of action or inaction, truck drivers should be held responsible for their behavior on the road.
Due to the size and speed disparity between a standard consumer-grade motor vehicle and a large multi-axel truck (that may or may not be hauling a load of product), it is likely there will be more serious injuries resulting from an accident involving a large truck.
Injuries resulting from a large-truck collision can often be more severe and require much more rehabilitation for the victim.
Examples of injuries sustainable from a large-truck related car accident include
In the case of injuries in Florida truck accidents, individuals have four years (according to the statute of limitations) to bring a case against a negligent truck operator. Contact a Sarasota truck accident attorney to get compensation for your injuries.
While negligent actions resulting in injuries will yield a four-year statute of limitations in Florida, if a truck accident results in the wrongful death of the victim in a truck accident, this amount of time will change.
Individuals have two years to file a claim for wrongful deaths caused by third-party negligence (such as a truck accident), with the clock beginning when the victim passes away. While in other states, there is more leeway as to who is eligible to file a wrongful death claim, in Florida, this is limited solely to executors (also known as personal representatives) of the deceased’s estate.
Claims filed by the executor must include all potential beneficiaries when filing the claim against the third party. If someone who would be a rightful recipient of damages is not included in the claim, likely, they will not receive any financial compensation after the verdict is reached or the settlement is formalized.
First, if the truck in question is not a commercial vehicle driven for non-commercial purposes, the driver will likely be held wholly liable for the accident.
However, if this large truck is being driven on behalf of a commercial operation, or owned by a commercial operation, this liability question becomes more complex. Negligent driver activity, as previously discussed, will likely fall under the purview of the company’s responsibility. However, this can be affected if the driver was driving on the clock or operating within the scope of their employment during the accident in question.
Additionally, if the collision was due to a malfunctioning truck or mechanical failure and the truck was owned or leased by the driver, the company may be liable due to neglecting maintenance protocols.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) dictates that any commercial operation that leases trucks on behalf of the truck operators has “exclusive possession, control, and use of the trucking equipment for the duration of the lease and assumes responsibility for the operation for the equipment.”
Individuals seeking damages in a Florida trucking accident case can get economic and non-economic damages to compensate for lost wages and pain and suffering.
Throughout the years, the legal team at Shapiro | Delgado has fought and won cases for our clients, with millions in successful damages awarded to our clients. As a result of a truck accident case, our clients have received awards of up to $5.7 million in the past few years.
So don’t suffer alone because of your truck accident – our Sarasota truck accident attorneys are ready to work on your case.
Starting the path to healing is easy. Request your no-obligation Florida truck accident case review today.
