Driving alongside a tractor trailer can be a scary experience for any driver. They’re traveling at high speeds. You don’t know if the trucker’s alert, rested, overloaded, sober, or even paying attention as they speed down the road. These fears are justified — crashes with these highway giants are extremely dangerous and often fatal, especially to people other than the truck driver. In 2010, on American roads, 94.6% of people killed in multiple-vehicle crashes involving a large truck were people other than the truck driver.[1]
The danger trucks pose to everyone on the road requires trucking companies and drivers to take the utmost safety precautions. But sadly, they commonly fail to do so — with devastating consequences to other motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. At the law firm of Zaytoun & Ballew, our North Carolina truck accident attorneys seek justice and accountability for trucking negligence that has caused our clients preventable injury or death.
Investigating The Trucking Accident
After a trucking wreck, it’s essential for victims and their families to act quickly to investigate the accident and obtain, preserve and analyze the vital evidence that could help prove liability. Unlike cars, large trucks have black boxes that save crash information; GPS systems; driver’s logs; and detailed maintenance records. All of these could be critical in your case against the truck driver and company that killed your loved one or caused you serious injury. This information needs to be accessed quickly to best protect your rights — and you need a legal team, like the experienced litigators at Zaytoun & Ballew, to fight for you against insurance companies whose only goal is to limit the amount they have to pay in your case.
Examples of negligence in trucking accidents:
- Speeding, traffic violations, or other negligent driving
- Driver fatigue or falling asleep behind the wheel
- Drug or alcohol use by the driver
- Improper cargo loading
- Improper vehicle maintenance
- Broken headlights or taillights, brake failure, trailer-hitch failure, flat tires or other vehicle malfunction
- Inadequate driver training or negligent hiring of a driver
At the law firm of Zaytoun & Ballew, we know truck wrecks often involve complex issues like accident reconstruction, and in certain cases we retain top-flight engineers, accident reconstructionists and other liability experts to prove who is responsible for these tragedies. We also know the severity of harm that can occur in these wrecks, such as traumatic brain injury, spinal injury, or wrongful death, and we can utilize damages experts and other resources to prove the extent of our clients’ injuries.
If you or a loved one has been the victim of a trucking wreck, contact an experienced Raleigh truck accident attorney at Zaytoun & Ballew today for a free consultation on your rights and our ability to help you.
[1] U.S. Department of Transportation, Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts 2010, p. 64. Available at http://ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/