Sacramento Truck Accident Lawyer

Truck Accident Attorneys in Sacramento, CA

Throughout Sacramento, residents, visitors, and companies rely on thousands of products every day. These products often arrive in the city via commercial trucks, commonly referred to as semi-trucks, big-rigs or tractor-trailers. While commercial motor vehicles have a powerful role to play in Sacramento’s economy, their massive size makes them more difficult to maneuver than smaller vehicle types.

When an accident that involves a commercial truck occurs on a Sacramento roadway, those most likely to be injured are the occupants of other vehicles. If the accident is found to be the fault of the truck driver or the driver of another vehicle involved, those who are injured have the right to seek compensation for the expenses and impacts of the injuries they incurred. An experienced Sacramento personal injury lawyer can help you or a loved one get the compensation you deserve if you were injured in a truck accident due to another’s negligence.

Proving Fault For a Truck Accident in Sacramento

Being able to prove the fault is the cornerstone to having a successful resolution to a Sacramento truck accident claim. Generally, the fault is proven by showing the three elements of negligence, which include:

• Duty of Care: All users of public roadways in Sacramento are required to take reasonable actions in order to avoid harming others. For most drivers, this involves ensuring that they’re driving safely and legally. While this is true in commercial truck accident cases as well, if the truck driver is liable, they also have the duty to uphold numerous regulations as required to maintain their commercial driver’s license.
• Breach of Duty: The claim must show that the at-fault driver breached their duty by taking actions contrary to protecting others from harm. This can involve multiple types of negligence that lead to traffic accidents, such as distracted driving, speeding, or failing to ensure that the travel lane is clear before merging.
• Cause: The claimant and their attorney must also present evidence that shows that the at-fault driver’s breach of duty led to the accident in which the claimant sustained harm.

In addition to proving liability, a Sacramento truck accident lawyer also assists their client by gathering the documentation needed to adequately portray any injuries, the treatments that were received for that injury, and the expenses that were incurred as a result.

Why Are Truck Accidents So Complex?

The trucking industry is overseen by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which has implemented several regulations designed to make sharing the roadway with 80,000-pound vehicles safer. These regulations include reduced legal impairment limits for alcohol, controls as to how long the driver can operate the vehicle before taking a break, and even how often their truck undergoes routine maintenance.

In the midst of all these regulations, there are many types of evidence that a truck accident lawyer can consider when determining a strategy for proving the claim. Many of these types of evidence are held by the at-fault party, meaning that legal procedures will need to be used in order to access the information. Some of the evidence that can be used to prove a Sacramento truck accident claim includes:

• Photographs of the scene and of visible injuries, as well as a police report of the accident and witness testimony. These types of evidence are commonly used in any type of motor vehicle accident claim.
• The truck’s black box (event data recorder) and in-cab cameras, which can reveal how the truck driver was driving or behaving in the moments leading up to the accident.
• The driver’s electronic logbooks, which will reveal how long they had been driving without a break. This information is particularly useful if the driver was believed to have been fatigued at the time of the crash.
• Receipts that can help prove whether the driver’s electronic logbooks were truthful, such as receipts from gas stations or restaurants.
• Maintenance records from when the vehicle was serviced, as well as a copy of the pre-trip inspection the driver was required to perform before each trip.
• The trucker’s personnel file, which will show whether they had obtained the proper licensing and training to operate the vehicle, and also reveal whether the driver had past tickets for hazardous driving.

Truck accident lawyers have a legal team to assist them in obtaining the evidence needed to prove liability, making it far easier to handle than it would be for a claimant to attempt to deal with on their own.

Injured in a Sacramento Truck Accident? Setareh Law Can Help

Accidents involving commercial trucks are often among the most serious, and the potential for life-altering impacts and expenses in this type of accident is high. The legal team at Setareh Law can help you if you were injured in a truck accident. We can utilize our many years of experience as you pursue the compensation you need for the expenses, wage loss, property damage, and profound impacts that are often suffered in this type of accident.

To speak with a Sacramento big-rig trucking accident lawyer about your case, contact us at (310) 659-1826 or send us a message online. Our lawyers also speak Spanish.