Driven by e-commerce companies like Amazon, there are now 38.9 million trucks on the road for business purposes, moving roughly 72% of the nation's freight by weight. And with so many trucks on the road pushing to make deliveries on time, inevitably serious accidents occur.
No matter how many vehicles or people are involved, any traffic accident is frightening and disruptive.
But when your motor vehicle accident involves large commercial vehicles like a tractor-trailer, semi truck, dump truck, van or another oversized vehicle, the investigation into that crash becomes that much more complicated, and requires the expertise of an experienced truck accident attorney like those at Kline & Specter, PC, in Philadelphia. Several of our truck accident attorneys also are experienced physicians.
When you need an attorney after a truck accident, please contact one of the lawyers at Kline & Specter online or by calling 215-772-1000 or 800-243-1100. Our attorneys represent truck accident victims in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and nationwide.
Big, Heavy and Menacing
The sheer size and weight of commercial trucks and school buses compared to other vehicles on the road means they pose a unique safety risk to other drivers.
The average tractor-trailer weighs 80,000 pounds and measures roughly 65 feet in length. These vehicles accelerate and brake more slowly than the average passenger car, and truck drivers must contend with significant blind spots. It is estimated that a fully-loaded tractor-trailer traveling at 65 miles per hour in good weather may still need as much as two football fields, or 525 feet, to come to a complete stop.
When truck brakes are worn or heated, stopping a truck becomes even more difficult.
Many traffic accidents involving trucks or buses are not the fault of those commercial drivers.
In some cases, however, truck or bus drivers are to blame.
Consider this: As part of its ongoing pushed for heightened safety measures, the American Trucking Associations chronicled the following troubling issues:
- Driver Shortage: Coming out of the "The Great Recession" and then the pandemic, consumer spending increased, as did the amount of consumer goods that must travel the country's highways. The commercial trucking industry has faced a shortage for years, with it estimating that another 80,000 drivers are needed.
- Driver Turnover: With competition high for professional truck drivers, many trained truckers move often between employers.
- Driver Fatigue: In some cases, commercial drivers report being awake more than a day at a time. This scenario makes a driver slower to react, produces poor judgment, and causes some drivers to fall asleep at the wheel.
- Congestion: American highways have become more crowded, which makes for more dangerous circumstances when big-rigs are traveling alongside passenger vehicles.
- Technology: Professional trucking and commercial bus companies should improve their safety technology to include such features as dashboard and rearview cameras.
Truck drivers often log many miles and long hours on the road. Although there are regulations that dictate how many hours a professional driver is supposed to be behind the wheel, some drivers don’t follow the rules.
Truck Accident Lawsuit Expertise
The truck accident and injury attorneys at Kline & Specter will conduct a thorough investigation to determine who's at fault for your accident.
In one truck accident case litigated by Shanin Specter, work-hour logs indicated the trucker in question had driven 765 miles in a single day before swerving his tractor-trailer into a minivan in which our client was a passenger. She suffered very serious injuries as the result of the accident, and was rendered a paraplegic.
Specter negotiated a $25 million settlement for this truck accident victim.
Lawyers for Kline & Specter have obtained substantial recoveries for clients injured in other tracking accidents, including:
- Obtained a $2.85 million settlement in a wrongful death case involving a trucking company in Pennsylvania.
- Secured a settlement of more than $4 million for the family of a man who died in a multiple vehicle crash involving tractor trailers.
- Obtained a $3.08 million settlement for the family of a man who died after a trailer unhitched from a truck and crashed into his vehicle.
- Secured a $5.75 million settlement for a man who suffered catastrophic brain injuries when his car was struck by a 36-ton dump truck in Delaware County, Pa.
Defective Trucks
In other cases involving accidents with trucks and large commercial vehicles, the vehicles themselves cause harm due to manufacturing defects or poor maintenance.
There are a number of avenues our attorneys take while preparing your case. For instance, our truck accident attorneys often:
Contact the trucking firm, bus company or other relevant transportation management agency with a legal request to preserve any evidence related to your accident. Our truck accident attorneys also will:
- Thoroughly examine all physical evidence related to your case including damaged vehicles and property.
- Track down and interview as many witnesses as we can.
- Use traffic accident and forensic experts to reconstruct your crash.
- Scrutinize local and federal laws and regulations that may be relevant to your case.
Here's the bottom line: The truck accident lawyers at Kline & Specter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania will go above and beyond to determine fault in your accident, win the best possible recovery on your behalf, and see your case through suit until you are satisfied that justice has been served.
That's how our truck accident attorneys win millions on behalf of truck accident victims.
Attorneys Who Listen and Care
Kline & Specter is an esteemed Pennsylvania accident and injury law firm with more than 60 skilled attorneys, several of whom also are doctors. Our lawyers have the expertise to litigate large truck accident lawsuits. Please contact one of our truck accident attorneys today for your free accident law suit consultation by dialing (215) 772-1000 or 800-243-1100. We represent truck accident victims in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and nationwide.