While all motor vehicle accidents pose a significant risk of causing severe injury, tractor-trailers (e.g. commercial trucks, big-rigs, semi-trucks, 18-wheelers) pose a unique risk due to their mammoth size. A fully loaded tractor-trailer truck may weigh as much as forty tons, which is more than 25 times the weight of many passenger vehicles. The bulk and mass of tractor-trailer trucks make them more difficult to drive and less responsive in emergency situations. These massive vehicles present a higher risk of being involved in a collision and are prone to cause catastrophic injuries and fatalities when a collision occurs.
The trucking industry can essentially be divided into two types of trucking categories: (1) intrastate trucking refers to trucks that operate exclusive within the boundaries of a single state (e.g. California), and (2) interstate trucking refers to tractor-trailers that operate in multiple states. While both intrastate trucking and interstate trucking companies and drivers are subject to extensive regulations, these regulations vary depending on the state in which the trucking company operates and other factors. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is a federal agency that provides extensive regulation of the trucking industry at the federal level.
These extensive state and federal regulatory systems make litigating a trucking accident case far more complex than a typical motor vehicle accident case. When you are considering the right trucking accident law firm to represent your family, you should retain a legal team with extensive knowledge in the regulations that apply to the trucking industry. Violations of these regulations are often the basis for liability in trucking accident cases.
Some regulatory violations that frequently form a basis for liability in a trucking accident case include:
- Hours of service (HOS) rules, which regulate maximum driving shifts and on-duty times on a daily basis or a quasi-weekly basis and impose mandatory rest periods.
- Mandatory pre-trip and post-trip inspection rules
- Random drug testing
- Rules regarding maximum loads and proper securing of loads
- Medical fitness requirements
- Prescreening of drivers prior to hiring
- Limitations on weight and length
When tractor-trailer companies violate regulations aimed at reducing the risk of accidents caused by commercial big-rigs, the result can be horrific collisions resulting in severe permanent injuries. In virtually all trucking accidents where serious injury occurs, it is usually the occupant of the other vehicle whose life is changed forever by catastrophic injury.
Trucking accident cases also require a thorough understanding of the common trucking industry practices used to avert liability for potentially fatal trucking collisions. Many trucking companies will dispatch an investigation team to the location of a serious tractor-trailer collision within minutes of the accident. In some cases, these teams have had a history of tampering with accident scene evidence by removing debris from the vehicles, removing and altering the truck driver’s log book, or erasing data on the big-rig’s data recorder. Our experienced Bay Area trucking accident lawyers are well aware of these practices and will take aggressive steps to preserve key evidence in our client’s truck accident case.
Contact Us
If you were injured in a truck accident in California and if you need a San Francisco truck accident attorney, contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation. We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits. We offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis, so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.
Call (800) 266-5000 to speak with an experienced California truck accident attorney about your case today.