The person that has been injured during a commercial truck accident needs to undertake an entire list of actions. Yet one particular action must always go at the top of such a listing. If you get hit by a commercial truck, then before you do anything else, you should make sure that the police have been contacted.
The police know what sort of records a truck driver has in his or her vehicle, and the police can ask to see those same records. Moreover, the police know what to look for in the form of tell-tale markings. Were there any skid marks on the road? Could tire tracks be seen in the ground close to the road?
Actions to take after calling police
While the police take care of the jobs that those same officers-of-the-laws have been trained to handle, any victim of the accident should gather information on a certain truck. That would be the truck that seems to have been incapable of carrying out its intended task. What was the name of the driver? Can the driver provide his or her contact information? How about the driver’s most recent address?
Did the truck have a number? What was the name of the company that owned that same truck? Did that same trucking company pay for insurance coverage; what was the name of the company that had agreed to be the trucking company’s insurer?
Before leaving the scene, try to get some pictures. Get photographs of the vehicles, the roadway, any road signs and any sort of on-road debris. Finally seek medical treatment, even if you have no visible injuries.
Actions to take during and after your recovery
Once you have seen a doctor, get a personal injury lawyer in Huntsville. Working with that same lawyer, file a claim against the person or entity that appears responsible. If the driver seems responsible, should no one else be held even partly responsible? A lawyer knows how to answer questions like that.
A lawyer will try to learn, if the truck appears to have been defective. Was the truck’s driver tired? Did some vehicle enter the truck driver’s blind spot? Was the driver new or impaired in some fashion? Those are the sorts of questions that a lawyer will want answered. A good lawyer will see each answer as a reason for asking yet more questions.
Did the driver fail to take a break, because he was trying to stick to his company’s rigorous schedule? What was the condition of the road? If the accident happened at night, what information exists that indicates how well the roadway might have been lighted?
Only after an examination of all the new evidence, which has come in the form of answers to all the new questions, can the case proceed. Then lawyers from both sides will suggest what the new evidence indicates. Ideally, the lawyer for the plaintiff should be someone that has gained experience in handling commercial truck accidents.