Pittsburg Truck Accident Lawyer

With a population of over 20,000, our city in southeastern Kansas has the highest population of all cities in Crawford County. With a prime location due west from one state border and just north of another and main thoroughfares, including Business Route 69 and U.S. Route 160 traversing our city, we see a fair amount of truckers carrying goods locally as well as to more distant locales, which also means that there are a lot of crashes that occur, as well.

If you’ve been hurt in a collision with an 18-wheeler, get in contact with a Pittsburg truck accident lawyer for a free case consultation. This meeting will provide you with an opportunity to learn what rights Kansas law affords you if you’ve been hurt in a crash, including filing an insurance claim to recover compensation for your losses.

What To Know About How Insurance Works in Kansas

Our state is one of only a handful that subscribes to a no-fault insurance system. What does that mean for you if you’ve been hurt in a crash with a tractor-trailer in Pittsburg, KS? You would typically file a claim with your own auto carrier, exhausting all of your mandatory personal injury protection (PIP) coverage if a crash injured you. However, if you’re wondering what happens if your injuries are particularly serious, as is often the case with wrecks involving trucks, that’s when you’d be able to turn to the other party’s insurance (the one responsible for causing the crash) for compensation.

Understanding How Liability Works in Tractor-Trailer Cases

Our state has a modified comparative fault rule in place (also called a 50% rule). This rule prohibits injury victims from filing a claim to recover compensation for their losses if they are 50% or more liable for what happened. So, if it was determined that the trucker who struck you was distracted by their phone when it happened, but say you were intoxicated when it occurred and weaving within or in and out of your lane, then it’s possible that you may be deemed 50% or more liable and therefore not be able to take legal action to recover a settlement to cover your accident-related costs.

Types Truck Crashes

Many of the crashes involving trucks are similar to car crashes, such as:

• Head-on or front-end collisions
• Rear-end accidents
• T-bone crashes
• Sideswipe accidents
• Rollover crash

However, there are some dissimilar types of wrecks truckers become involved in that uniquely involve trucks, including:

• Jackknife accidents
• Overturn crashes
• Turn/crush collisions
• Blindspot accidents

If you’ve had the misfortune of becoming tangled up and injured in one of the incidents above, reach out to our law firm, Prochaska, Howell & Prochaska LLC, to discuss how your crash transpired. Meeting with a Pittsburg truck accident lawyer will give you an opportunity to learn if you might qualify to file a claim to recover compensation for losses you incurred.

Common Causes of Commercial Vehicle Wrecks

Liability often comes down to determining what someone was doing at the time a crash occurred that resulted in an adverse outcome. Although truckers must secure additional licensing, a commercial driver’s license (CDL), and they’re subject to more regulations, they make just as many poor driving choices (if not more) than any other type of motorist. The following driving errors or negligence often result in preventable crashes:

• Fatigued driving
• Running red lights or stop signs
• Intoxicated driving
• Following too close or tailgating
• Distracted driving
• Not inspecting their trucks to verify their roadworthiness
• Speeding
• Overloading their trailers
• Not maintaining or repairing their tractor-trailers
• Failing to brake in time

This list isn’t exhaustive, but it gives you an idea of just how similar factors that cause any type of auto accident also result in truck-involved ones. The only problem with trucks crashing into passenger cars, as opposed to two similarly sized vehicles colliding with one another, is that tractor-trailers, for example, weigh as much as 80,000 pounds. This means they can cause some serious damage and injuries.

Possible Liable Parties

If you’ve suffered serious injuries or lost a loved one in a crash with a tractor-trailer and liability is clear, meaning it’s obvious the trucker was in the wrong and not you or your loved one, you’re likely able to file a civil suit. If a Pittsburg truck accident lawyer determines you can, then you may be able to sue one or more of the following who either directly caused or played a contributing role in causing your trucking accident:

• The truck driver
• An auto manufacturer
• The warehouse that packed the trailer
• After-market auto parts makers
• The trucking company that employs the trucker

You may be able to pursue many other parties for damages stemming from an 18-wheeler or other truck wreck. Pursuing more than one of these, the above-referenced defendants, is also possible, as is recovering compensation up to their respective insurance policy limits if warranted.

Help with Liability Determinations

Again, although Kansas is a no-fault state, in particularly catastrophic cases like semi-truck crashes, it matters if you were less than 50% responsible for the crash. This key detail can determine whether you can file suit.

Attorneys like ours will generally review evidence in a case, including the police report, to determine who was responsible for what happened and then start requesting insurance policy documents for those parties, so you’ll know what the maximum recoverable amount their clients are entitled to. Contact our firm for your own complimentary case review with a Pittsburg truck accident lawyer so we can determine where liability lies in your own case.