reports@rankings.io | October 4, 2024
How to File a Truck Accident Lawsuit in St. Petersburg
If you’re looking at how to file a truck accident lawsuit in St. Petersburg, you likely need an experienced attorney. The process can be complex and confusing unless you’re educated and experienced in personal injury law.
Truck accident attorneys typically offer contingency arrangements so their clients never have to pay out-of-pocket expenses. Speak with an experienced lawyer to evaluate the circumstances of your truck accident lawsuit and see what type of financial compensation you may be entitled to.
Table of Contents
How Truck Accidents Differ From Motor Vehicle Accidents
Truck accidents may sound like or paint a similar mental picture to any other motor vehicle accident. However, several things make a truck accident lawsuit in St. Petersburg more complex than others, such as:
- Truck Laws and Regulations: Commercial trucks operate under local, state, and federal laws and regulations in addition to motor vehicle laws. State laws vary. Ask your attorney to clarify how these regulations may affect or benefit your case.
- Evidence Collection and Preservation: Truck accidents involve a lot of evidence to collect and analyze. In addition to traditional motor vehicle crash evidence gathered, trucks have electronic logging devices and event data recorders. Analyzing the data may require the help of additional experts your attorney has access to, such as engineers or truck industry experts.
- The Financial Impact: Truck accidents are typically more severe due to the size and weight of the vehicles and cargo loads. The financial impact of these accidents tends to be more significant than other accident types due to the severity of injuries and actual damages.
- Multiple Victims: Many truck collisions involve multiple vehicle pile-ups, which amount to several victims. That can make recovering compensation more challenging. Insurance policies may not be large enough to accommodate all victims’ injuries, pain, and suffering damages. Having an attorney may ensure you’re paid a fair share.
Another significant factor in truck accidents is liability. Often, multiple liable parties are involved, which can make determining which insurance companies are responsible for what damages more challenging, especially without a lawyer.
Who Can Be Liable in a Truck Accident Lawsuit in St. Petersburg
Liable parties in truck accident lawsuits range from truck drivers and their companies to faulty mechanics and the automotive shops where they work. Your lawyer will investigate all appropriate parties to determine who is at fault and if your truck accident lawsuit involves multiple liable parties.
Truck Drivers
Truck drivers are typically the liable party in a truck accident lawsuit in St. Petersburg. Distracted and impaired driving are significant factors in these accidents. Speeding and not seeing vehicles in blind spots are also common driver errors that are liable.
Trucking Companies
Trucking companies are generally second in line for recovering financial compensation. They carry higher insurance policies than the drivers and are often liable even when driver negligence causes the accident. Vicarious liability is the law that holds trucking companies responsible for negligent drivers.
Truck Safety Inspectors
Truck safety inspectors are responsible for ensuring trucks are safe before operating on the roads. Failure to inspect a truck or to insist on necessary vehicle maintenance may make them liable for compensating an accident victim.
Truck and Part Manufacturers
Defective trucks or truck parts that cause an accident make the manufacturers liable for compensating accident victims. Tires, brakes, steering, and suspension systems are among the defective parts responsible for truck accidents.
Cargo Loaders
Cargo loaders are responsible for adequately inspecting, loading, and securing cargo onto large trucks. If they fail to exercise their duty of ensuring safe cargo loads, they may be liable for damages in a truck accident lawsuit in St. Petersburg.
Roadway Users
Roadway or road users are motorists, truck drivers, public transportation operators, and motorcyclists. However, the term also includes non-motorist roadway users, such as:
- Pedestrians
- Bicyclists and e-bike riders
- Skateboarders and hoverboarders
- Scooter and e-scooter riders
- People on mobility devices, like wheelchairs
- Horse riders
If a road user other than the truck driver is found to be partially liable, their insurance company will be responsible for paying a percentage of your final compensation.
Faulty Mechanics and Automotive Shops
Though uncommon, if your lawyer determines during their investigation that faulty repairs on the truck were responsible for the crash, the faulty mechanic or automotive shop may be liable.
Municipalities
Municipalities (local governments) are responsible for maintaining public roads and may be liable if poor road conditions cause an accident.
While failure to do so is grounds for liability, establishing negligence against municipalities is more challenging. Your attorney will assess whether this is relevant to your truck accident lawsuit in St. Petersburg.
The Process of Filing a Truck Accident Lawsuit in St. Petersburg
Before an attorney files a truck accident lawsuit in St. Petersburg, they will file a claim with liable insurance companies. The goal is to settle the case without having to go to trial. After accepting your case, a truck accident lawyer will thoroughly investigate anything that will help establish liability.
Collect All Evidence Associated With the Truck Accident
The evidence is critical for your attorney to prove negligence in your case. Some evidence must be obtained quickly before it is lost or destroyed forever —for example, video surveillance footage that commercial businesses record over after a specified time. Evidence in a truck accident lawsuit involves:
- Police or accident report
- Witness statements
- Medical and rehabilitation records
- Lost income statements
- Electronic logging devices (ELDs)
- Event data recorders (EDRs)
- Photos of the accident scene, vehicle damage, and your injuries
- Video from traffic, dash, business, and residential cameras
- A driver’s cell phone records at the time of the accident
- A driver’s GPS data at the time of the accident
- Truck inspection records
- Truck maintenance records
Bring any evidence to your initial consultation with a truck accident attorney. Also, you must start today if you’ve not already begun a post-accident journal.
Keep dated and detailed entries documenting pain levels, emotional distress, loss of abilities, or any other pain and suffering caused by the accident. It’s also pertinent to write down a detailed accounting of how the truck accident occurred while it is fresh in your memory.
Accident Reconstruction
Lawyers work with accident reconstruction specialists to determine the sequence of events leading to a truck accident. It’s an intricate process involving analyzing the physical evidence of the scene, such as:
- Evidence at the accident scene, such as paint chips, paint transfers, glass, and plastic
- Crash test results
- The vehicle’s ejection portals, including doors, windows, sun and moon roofs
- Vehicle deformation
- Braking distance relative to the speed of the vehicle
Recreating and analyzing the evidence from the accident scene helps reconstruction experts recreate your circumstances, which can help pinpoint critical moments of liability. They may create visualizations using computer software to render 3D models of the accident scene or animations showing how the truck accident occurred.
Accident reconstruction experts use mathematical equations for determining acceleration, velocity, energy, and momentum. Their testimony can help prove negligence and value damages in your case.
Valuation of Claim
Valuing all the financial losses and other damages in your truck accident lawsuit in St. Petersburg is a significant part of your attorney’s investigation. You may be eligible to receive compensation for economic and non-economic losses, including:
- Medical Expenses —emergency services, hospital stay, surgery, follow-up care, physical therapy, chiropractor, medical devices, prescription medications, and future medical costs.
- Lost Income —earnings, benefits, future earnings, and loss of opportunities for non-salary compensation, such as bonuses, tips, and commissions.
- Vehicle Damages —Vehicle repairs, replacement if your auto was totaled, and temporary transportation needed while you’re without a vehicle, such as a rental car or Uber services.
- Disability Damages —In-home and vehicle mobility modifications, including accessible bathrooms, widened doorframes, chair lifts, ramps, steering devices, and hand pedals to maneuver brake and acceleration pads.
- Pain and Suffering —Physical pain, emotional distress, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of activities, scarring, disfigurement, and other pain and suffering losses.
Surviving spouses and family members who have a wrongful death truck accident lawsuit in St. Petersburg are entitled to many of the already listed damages. However, they may also seek loss of consortium, loss of financial support, loss of guidance, loss of inheritance, and funeral and burial expenses.
Settlement Negotiations
Negotiations with insurance companies can be time-consuming in the truck accident claim process. Insurers are notorious for doing what they can to delay, undervalue, or deny claims altogether.
Most unrepresented clients take the first lowball offer and walk away. Having an attorney attached to your demands ensures serious negotiations because they know that lawyers understand the process and numbers. Represented clients tend to receive bigger payouts than unrepresented truck accident victims.
Litigation (If Necessary)
Most truck accidents are settled with insurance companies without a need for litigation. However, if your case moves to trial, your attorney will represent your legal needs in court. If they are unsuccessful in obtaining financial compensation for your accident, you do not owe contingency fee-based lawyers a dime.
Common Causes of Truck Accidents in St. Petersburg
An average of 16,422 traffic collisions occur annually in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, 1,340 of which are commercial vehicle accidents. Common causes for these crashes include:
Distracted Driving
Distracted driving is the number one cause of motor vehicle accidents today. Society can blame the need to be on their cell phone for that. Top examples of distracted driving are:
- Talking or texting on a smartphone
- Scrolling social media
- Creating and uploading TikTok and other short video content behind the wheel
- Applying toiletries (makeup, deodorant, hair gel, skincare)
- Smoking
- Reading
- Watching sports or other videos
- Eating or drinking
- Using GPS navigation systems
- Adjusting vehicle controls (climate and radio)
- Moving objects in the vehicle (dogs, bugs)
Fortunately, your lawyer will demand access to evidence to determine whether the at-fault truck driver was on their cellular device at the time of the accident.
Impaired Driving
Impaired driving is another significant cause of truck accidents in St. Petersburg. Fatigued or drowsy driving is a leading cause of impairment and can be as dangerous as drunk driving.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration imposes Hours of Service (HOS) regulations that govern how long drivers can operate commercial trucks. You have a case if your attorney proves the driver violated those regulations. Other types of impairment include:
- Drunk driving
- Driving while under the influence of illicit street drugs
- Driving while under the influence of over-the-counter medications (cold and allergy, sleep aids)
- Driving while under the influence of prescription medications (opioids, sedatives, muscle relaxers, benzos, some anti-depressants)
Certain medical conditions can affect driving and be considered impaired if they cause a truck accident. These conditions include epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Improper Driver Training
Truck companies are responsible for ensuring their truck drivers are fully licensed and adequately trained. If it is found that negligent hiring practices allowed an improperly trained driver behind the wheel, they may be liable.
Failure to Properly Inspect and Maintain Trucks
Truck companies also have a reasonable duty of care to inspect and properly maintain their trucks. If truck inspection and maintenance records indicate a failure to uphold this responsibility, they may be liable for damages in a truck accident lawsuit in St. Petersburg.
Failure to Properly Load Cargo
Failing to load cargo properly causes balance issues and is a significant cause of truck accidents. If cargo loaders fail to inspect or secure a cargo load leading to the accident thoroughly, they may be liable for damages.
Hazardous Road Conditions
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) reports roadway problems are present in 16 percent of two-vehicle truck accidents, and adverse weather conditions are present in approximately 13 percent of these collisions. Typical poor road and weather conditions include:
- Cracked concrete
- Potholes
- Lack of or missing guardrails
- Inadequate lighting
- Open and expansion bridge joints
- Edge breaks between the lanes
- Loose debris (branches, gravel)
- Wet concrete or snow and ice
- Inadequate road signage
- Malfunctioning traffic lights
- Railroad crossings
If hazardous road conditions were responsible for the truck accident in St. Petersburg, your attorney will proceed with filing a claim against liable municipalities.
Talk to A St. Petersburg Truck Accident Attorney Today
Schedule a free consultation with a St. Petersburg truck accident lawyer to discuss the circumstances of your accident and see if you have a case. Let an experienced lawyer assess your damages today.
