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Whenever a motor vehicle accident involves at least one truck, it gets counted as a truck accident. The truck’s size is of no importance, as long as it was some type of commercial vehicle. The record of truck-related collisions does not include a collision involving a pickup or an SUV.
How does fault get determined?
Those responsible for making such a determination study the police reports. Additionally, the personal injury lawyer in North Bay review the witness statements. Some of them might listen to an expert on accident scene reconstruction, while others view a computer-generated reconstruction. The camera on the dashboard is the equipment can aid those that must determine who was at fault. Many trucks carry such a camera.
Who can be held liable for any injury or loss of property?
There are certain times when the truck driver can be held liable: Any time when the accident was intentional; any time when the driver was an independent contractor.
There are other times when the trucking company can be held liable: Any time when the accident was not intentional and the driver had been hired by a trucking company. It is also possible that a company that has serviced the involved truck might be held liable for the collision. Examples of such a time can be found in the following list.
Typical reasons for a trucking accident
Truck’s engine has a problem: this could be due to negligence on the part of the trucking company or on the part of the company that serviced the company’s trucks.
The hood flew up unexpectedly: It could be that the truck driver did not close it properly, or it could be that the truck’s inspection failed to reveal a defect in the hood.
Poor road conditions
• Poor weather conditions: trucks should be equipped with the right sort of gear, if they will be traveling through a region that has snow or ice during the winter months.
• Speeding on the part of the person sitting at the steering wheel.
• Lane drifting, as carried out by the person at the steering wheel.
• Improper truck maneuvering
• Driver fatigue: This condition causes 87% of the accidents that resulted from negligence on the driver’s part.
How to lower the chances for the various trucking accidents?
Obviously, those concerned about such occurrences should focus on the number one cause for such collisions. That is driver fatigue. Efforts must be made to keep a close track on the number of hours that different truckers remain on the road.
Such efforts have been initiated in some localities. In those areas, truckers must maintain a log of some sort, one that can be shared with government authorities.