Representing Clients Injured in Devastating Truck Accidents

As a state bustling with a wide range of industries, there are few places where car drivers do not regularly share the road with cargo trucks, construction vehicles, tankers, 18-wheelers, and other big-rigs. When all parties exercise caution and drive responsibly, traffic flows freely and everyone remains safe. But too often, careless or reckless driving and other unsafe conditions can cause truck and tractor-trailer accidents that have the potential to produce catastrophic or fatal results. 

If you or a loved one sustained severe injuries in a truck or tractor-trailer accident in Essex County, you should contact Birkhold & Maider, LLC, for an experienced attorney on your side to fight for your right to fair compensation. Many injuries that result from collisions between ordinary passenger vehicles and large trucks can cause long-lasting or permanent damage. This means your medical treatment will likely be costly, and insurance companies will be eager to minimize their financial responsibility. This means injured truck accident victims like you need to act quickly and aggressively in taking legal action, starting by hiring highly skilled truck accident lawyers for legal representation. 

When you contact our law office, you can rest assured that our experienced team of truck accident lawyers will work hard to help you recover the full and fair compensation for your injuries. We aim to ensure the settlements our clients receive provide the money they need for medical care, car repairs, and other expenses they might face after a serious truck accident. You can count on our trusted Essex County truck accident attorneys to be here to evaluate your accident and help you chart the best course to reach a fair outcome. Your initial consultation is free, and you make no commitment in seeking out our honest opinion on your truck accident case, so call our law firm today for legal assistance. 

What Injuries Are Common in Essex County Truck Accidents?

If you or a family member sustained serious injuries in a semi-truck accident, you’re not alone. Unfortunately, these accidents are known for causing severe injuries or death to accident victims. This is because commercial trucks outweigh most passenger vehicles by thousands of pounds, and some contain hazardous cargo that could cause explosions or toxic spills during collisions, making the accident scene more dangerous than usual.  

Some of the most common truck accident injuries include:

• Broken bones

• Burns

• Traumatic brain injuries

• Lacerations

• Limb amputation

• Internal bleeding

• Organ damage

• Whiplash 

• Spinal cord injury

• Paralysis

These and other severe injuries can be life changing or even fatal, which is why truck accident victims need to be compensated to afford medical treatment, lost wages, funeral expenses, and other costs associated with serious accidents. Of course, insurance companies do not want to pay for these and other expenses that truck accident victims often have, so they nearly always offer much less than they should, or even outright deny valid truck accident claims. 

Our Essex County truck accident lawyers have spent years protecting our clients from this unfair treatment from insurance companies, and we can do the same for you. Call our law firm for a free consultation to learn how our truck accident attorneys can assist you with the legal process as you pursue financial compensation.

How Do Truck and Tractor-Trailer Accidents in Essex County, NJ, Occur?

Many truck and tractor-trailer accidents are caused by the truck driver’s negligence. Because drivers must be on the roads for long periods of time, driver fatigue and driver distraction ultimately cause many catastrophic truck accidents.  

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, some common ways that a truck driver’s negligence or error caused a fatal truck or tractor-trailer accident include:

• Failure of the vehicle operator to properly control their truck, often due to driver fatigue, driver distraction, or impairment 

• Failure to recognize dangers, whether because of improper training or otherwise

• Failure to make the correct decisions on the road 

• Performance issues with the vehicle itself, which can result from failure to inspect and maintain the truck properly

A negligent truck driver can cause a serious truck crash that could be described as a rollover, underride, or jackknife accident, causing injuries or death to other drivers and their passengers. Some of the primary factors that often lead to the issues identified above include:

• Prescription drug or over-the-counter drug use by the truck driver

• Failure to properly inspect and maintain the truck brakes and other safety equipment

• Excessive speeding based on road and weather conditions

• Adverse road conditions

• Failure to drive safely in the face of traffic flow interruption, such as congested roadways or a prior crash

• The driver’s unfamiliarity with the roads

• Inadequate surveillance

In general, Essex County truck accidents may be caused by the same issues that lead to other types of motor vehicle accidents. These can include drunk driving, distracted driving, fatigue, negligence, poor vehicle maintenance, and more. However, additional factors could lead to accidents involving commercial trucks, since someone driving for work might feel pressured to speed, run red lights, or sacrifice sleep to arrive at their destination sooner to satisfy their employer or make more money. Additionally, truck drivers are not usually in charge of maintaining their trucks’ brakes, tires, and equipment, since trucking companies often leave this task to their own mechanics. 

This means truck accident claims are often more complicated than the motor vehicle accident case involving passenger vehicles, as more than one party could be liable. A skilled truck accident lawyer in Essex County, NJ, can review the details of your case to identify the responsible parties before determining which insurance companies to contact. Call our law firm today to discuss your truck accident case with a trusted attorney.

Who Can Be Held Liable for Essex County Truck Accidents?

While most claims for motor vehicle accidents typically hold one party liable for damages, it’s common for truck accident claims to hold two or more parties responsible. When the truck driver’s negligence causes a truck accident, it is often the trucking company or another entity that is responsible for compensating you for your injuries. 

You can rest assured that our skilled lawyers will identify all potential sources of compensation in your truck accident case. Depending on the details of your case, responsible parties may include:

• The company that owns the truck

• The truck driver’s employer

• The company that leased the truck

• The company responsible for loading the truck cargo

• The company tasked with inspecting or maintaining the truck

• The truck manufacturer that produced a defective vehicle

• The local government agency responsible for keeping the roads safe

Experienced attorneys know how to review the details of truck accident cases to identify which parties helped cause the crash. So, when you reach out to our law firm for legal help, a trusted truck accident lawyer will begin looking at the evidence to pinpoint who and what caused the truck accident. 

Because these vehicles are so large, they tend to leave behind a lot of evidence for our truck accident lawyers to examine. When we start working on your case, we will request all relevant evidence, including the truck’s maintenance log and the log of hours the driver was on the road. This can allow us to determine if the driver or their employer ignored important trucking regulations before the crash occurred. 

We will also review police reports, hiring and training protocols, and even the black box data recording device contained in some newer model trucks. In addition, we work with accident reconstruction specialists to analyze the physical evidence left behind at the accident scene to determine what went wrong to cause the accident. If you’re ready to learn how a truck accident lawyer in Essex County can benefit your case, call our law firm for a free initial consultation.

What Compensation Can Truck Accident Victims Collect in Essex County?

Catastrophic injuries occur at an increased rate in accidents involving big rigs, 18-wheelers, tankers, and other commercial trucks – and it’s not hard to see why. Passenger vehicles are no match for these large trucks in terms of weight and size. In many cases, the truck involved in these crashes can be up to 25 times heavier than an ordinary passenger vehicle. In other cases, secondary injuries can occur from dangerous types of cargo these vehicles may be transporting.

Injuries from semi-truck accidents can leave victims with thousands of dollars in medical bills at best and, when an accident turns fatal, grieving loved ones at worst. At Birkhold & Maider, LLC, our experienced tractor-trailer accident lawyers will evaluate your truck accident claim and help you determine the best course for a fair outcome in your case. We will be your advocate when recovering compensation for you so you can focus your energy on recovering your health.

We work hard to get the maximum compensation for our clients, which usually includes money to pay for:

• Current and future medical bills

• Vehicle damage

• Lost wages

• Loss of future earning capacity 

• Pain and suffering

• Mental anguish

• Emotional distress

If you’d like the chance to recover these and other economic and non-economic damages, call us for a free case review with a caring truck accident lawyer in Essex County.

Call Birkhold & Maider Today for a Free Consultation

It is crucial that your truck accident injury insurance claim or lawsuit is handled professionally and compassionately–and that your lawyer gets to work as soon as possible to gather all relevant evidence if fault is contested in your case. This is why you need a dedicated attorney to guide you through the legal system as you pursue compensation, as trucking companies, drivers, and their insurance companies will do everything possible to avoid paying your claim. 

When you hire Birkhold & Maider, LLC, you will have an Essex County truck accident attorney by your side, working tirelessly to recover the monetary damages that you rightfully deserve after your accident. If you or a loved one have sustained injuries in a truck or tractor-trailer accident, we invite you to call 973-319-7795 for a free consultation.