Salt Lake City is the most populous city in Utah, which means it attracts a lot of truck traffic. Trucks pass through on I-15 and I-80 all the time. All this traffic raises the risk of truck accidents, which for the average driver, are tickets to enormous expenses and lasting injuries.
If a negligent truck driver hit your vehicle and caused you injury, you have legal recourse. You can get compensation by working with one of our truck accident attorneys in Salt Lake City. Our lawyer network at 1Law has the experience you need to get paid after your accident.
If you think back to your physics classes, you know that force equals mass times acceleration. Commercial trucks are far heavier than even the largest pickup truck. This means that smaller vehicles can get seriously mangled, and the riders inside, even in a low-speed crash.
There is another danger with tractor-trailers. Sometimes, a car can get trapped underneath the edge of the trailer in a crash. That raised edge can crash directly through a windshield and into the passenger compartment, and the results are often fatal.
This is one reason commercial truck drivers must carry far more insurance than the average driver. This is an opportunity for you because many truck accident cases meet the minimum standards for a severe accident in Utah, so you can go beyond the no-fault system.
One major difference between car accidents and truck accidents is that there are more possible parties for liability. A commercial truck driver may be liable, but so could their employer, a mechanic, a part manufacturer, or others.
One task of a Salt Lake City truck accident lawyer is to find out who is liable for your accident and how much coverage they have. You may need to sue multiple parties in the case to get all the compensation you deserve, but to do that, we need evidence.
There are trucking companies who push drivers to go longer distances without a break. Tired driving isn’t just illegal, it’s just as dangerous as drunk driving. If we can show that an employer broke FMCSA regulations, that could prove their negligence in your case.
Utah is one of a handful of states that uses a no-fault system for insurance. This means that you use your own auto insurance to cover damages first before you can make a claim against the at-fault driver. No fault is assumed, so both drivers can make a claim against their PIP policy to cover costs.
However, the minimum amount of coverage is $3,000, which may hardly be enough to cover your medical bills after a truck accident. However, you have to show that your costs will exceed that amount before you can make an at-fault claim against the truck driver’s insurance.
There is one exception to this. If your injury is permanent, you can make a claim directly with the at-fault driver’s insurance. The injury must be one that’s disabling or disfiguring. Given the force of truck accidents, your case could qualify. A truck accident lawyer can confirm it for you.
Between insurance questions and liability issues, it’s no wonder that people turn to truck accident lawyers in Salt Lake City all the time to help them with accident cases. The most important reason is so that you can make a convincing argument to the insurers that you’re owed compensation.
Your lawyer will do things for you like:
As you can see, a truck accident attorney does a lot more than talk with the insurance company. Plus, truck accident attorneys work on contingency. This means that if you lose your case and get nothing, you’ll owe your lawyer nothing as well. This makes the system fair and gives lawyers incentive to do the best job possible.
You can contact our Salt Lake City truck accident attorneys at 1Law by calling the number on your screen or use our online chat. Your consultation is free and without obligation. Let our lawyers make the case to you that they’re the one to choose for your truck accident attorney case.
During your consultation, bring any evidence you have so far, like the accident report or your medical records. Your lawyer will use that information to help evaluate your case. The more evidence you have, the better they can give you an estimate of your case’s value.