Muncie Truck Accident Lawyers

Muncie, Indiana is located between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. Situated near US-35 and I-69, this town sees a lot of passenger car and commercial truck traffic. Car accidents are more common than truck accidents because of how many people drive regular passenger cars, but truck accidents are more likely to be severe than car accidents.

For example, sometimes, two cars can bump into one another and both drivers can drive away with no damage done. If you are part of a truck collision, however, the chances of you and your vehicle leaving unscathed shrink significantly.

If you are injured in a truck accident in Muncie, Indiana, hire a Wilson Kehoe Winingham big rig accident lawyer to help you recover compensation.

Why Hire a Big Rig Accident Lawyer in Muncie, Indiana?

When you are in a car accident in Indiana, it is strongly recommended that you reach out to a law firm to hire legal counsel. When you are in a truck accident, hiring legal counsel becomes essential. Trucking accident cases have the potential to be much more complex than car accident cases because of the number of parties involved.

Because there are multiple companies responsible for the upkeep, scheduling, and transportation of commercial vehicles, there are more avenues for compensation in a truck accident lawsuit. Not to mention the fact that trucks carry much more weight than cars, significantly increasing the potential for serious injury.

Case Preparation

You should start preparing for a truck accident claim directly after a truck accident occurs. Of course, before anything else, you should ensure that you receive proper medical care. But once you have seen to your health, you should begin working toward compensation.

Preparing your case involves collecting evidence, determining fault, and presenting all relevant information to the insurance companies in hopes of convincing them that you were wronged. As you might assume, doing this all after you have been in a severe truck crash can be quite daunting.

An experienced truck accident attorney will know what information to collect, where to find it, and what to do with it. The overall process will be quicker, easier, and likely lead to a better outcome when you involve a professional.

Communicating Directly With Insurance Companies

One reason hiring legal counsel is so important is because the other party already has a professional team working for them. If you file a claim with an insurance company, representatives from that company will likely try to minimize their own fault in the accident to avoid paying benefits. Insurance companies want to reduce the money they payout to protect their bottom line.

Semi-truck accident attorneys are familiar with insurance company tactics and do not budge in the face of intimidation tactics or lowball initial offers. The WKW team will ensure that you get the money you deserve, no matter who you are up against.

It’s not easy to prove that the way a truck was loaded caused your accident, but if that is what happened, we will prove it. Don’t let a big company bully you into settling for less, contact Wilson Kehoe Winingham to fight for what you deserve.

Reduced Stress From Your Injuries

One of the most important functions of a Muncie truck accident lawyer is making life easier for you. More so than anything else, a truck accident claim is meant to help the victim of a truck crash on their road to recovery.

The financial benefits recovered will help the victim avoid any overwhelming debt and receive the proper treatment for their injuries. The emotional and physical consequences of a truck accident can be harder to compensate, and sometimes just require time.

Muncie truck accident attorneys give the victim that needed time. Instead of trying to prepare a case and communicating with insurance companies, the victim has time to focus all of their energy on recovering. The last thing you need after a truck accident is more stress. Hire one of the experienced lawyers at Wilson Kehoe Winingham to help you through the legal process to earn compensation.

Different Types of Truck Accidents

Large trucks with tractor-trailers are more difficult to control than smaller vehicles. They have big blind spots, weigh more than cars, and take longer to slow down. This mix of factors can lead to a variety of accidents, including the following:

• A jackknife accident occurs when the cab of a truck folds into the trailer, causing the vehicle to take the shape of a bent jackknife. Smaller vehicles can then hit the trailer or get caught in the middle, causing serious damage.
• Rear-end accidents occur when one vehicle collides with the back of another. Because trucks are more difficult to stop, this can happen more easily than with a car, thus causing much more damage to whatever it runs into.
• Rollovers happen because their high center of gravity makes trucks more likely to completely tip over. When a truck rolls over, it creates a large barrier which can be dangerous to other vehicles on the road.
• An underride accident occurs when a smaller vehicle slides underneath a raised tractor trailer. These crashes can result in serious accidents for the driver of the smaller car, including loss of limbs, brain injuries, and sometimes death.

Truck accidents can create large obstacles covering multiple lanes of highways, resulting in vehicle pile ups and very long delays. It’s important to always use caution when driving around large vehicles, and stay aware of what causes them.

Causes of Muncie Truck Accidents

Truck accidents in Muncie, Indiana can be caused by a range of factors, but there are some common scenarios.

• Distracted driving: Texting, eating, singing, talking, checking the GPS, changing the radio, it doesn’t matter. Anything that leads a truck driver to look away from the road at the wrong time can result in a serious accident.
• Poor vehicle maintenance: Mechanical issues can lead to collisions. This includes things that are not the error of a driver, like a tire blowout or defective brakes.
• Tired driving: When drivers get fatigued or drive too long without taking a break, they may start to get tired. The increased level of awareness necessary to drive a large truck is not easy to maintain when exhaustion sets in. This can lead the driver to make mistakes or miss important road signals.
• Aggressive driving: When a truck driver needs to meet a certain deadline, they may speed to make up for lost time. Combined with increased stopping time, truck drivers may not be able to avoid a crash when the flow of traffic slows in front of them.
• Inexperienced drivers: Trucking companies are responsible for training their drivers to properly handle large commercial vehicles. If an inexperienced driver is operating a truck in an environment they aren’t prepared for, it can result in a jackknife or rollover accident.

Identifying what caused an accident is a key part in determining the accident’s at-fault party/parties. Hire an experienced big rig lawyer from Wilson Kehoe Winingham to help you find out why a crash happened.

Truck Accident Victim Rights

If you sustained an injury from a truck accident as a result of another party’s negligence, you have the right to take action against the liable party for the damages you suffered. As the victim, you are entitled to compensation from any of the parties which played a role in causing the accident, so long as you can prove that they contributed. This can be a single party, or multiple different entities.

Who Is Liable for My Damages After a Truck Accident?

Finding out who is liable in a truck accident takes more research than in a car accident. You have to rule out many more parties than just the other driver. Not to mention each party has its own insurance policy that you will be required to file a claim to if pursuing damages.

Truck Drivers

The easiest person to blame in a semi-truck accident is the driver. If the accident occurs as a result of laws being broken or distracted driving, the driver might be the sole responsible party. Texting, drinking, and ignoring trucking regulations are examples of times the driver may be at fault.

Truck Manufacturers

Sometimes the vehicle itself can cause an accident if it was not properly manufactured. There are certain standards that must be met when building big rigs, and if the company does not meet those standards out of negligence, they may be held responsible.

Truck Loading Companies

Sometimes another company is responsible for loading the truck and does so in a way that could contribute to an accident. If heavy items are loose or unevenly distributed in a tractor-trailer, it may be more susceptible to tipping over.

Trucking Companies

Oftentimes the trucking company is an additional responsible party because they have a part in partnering with any other responsible party. They hire the driver who made the mistake, they choose the manufacturer who didn’t build the truck to code, and they hire the people who pack and maintain the trailer.

If you can prove that the trucking company hired these other parties knowing they were not fully qualified, you may be eligible for additional compensation on top of what you are getting from the other liable party.

Trucking companies can also be at fault if they encourage truck drivers to ignore trucking regulations in an effort to meet deadlines.

How Much Is My Case Worth?

The settlement value of a truck accident lawsuit in Muncie, Indiana is decided on a case-by-case basis. In some cases, you may only be awarded economic damages for the expenses involved in a crash. In other cases, you may receive non-economic damages for emotional suffering and other subjective costs which cannot be easily quantified.

In cases of particularly grotesque negligence, you may even be awarded punitive damages, which are only added on to discourage the liable party from continuing their outrageous behavior. If you’d like a more accurate estimate of what you might be able to recover, you can contact our firm for a free consultation.

Working With WKW: What Makes Us Different?

Wilson Kehoe Winingham has three and a half decades of experience representing truck accident victims in Indiana. We know how to use our technology to recreate the scene of an accident and we use that to help you prove fault.

We budget our time to give you the best possible care, and we only get paid if you get paid, thus minimizing your financial risk.

If you sustain injuries as a result of someone else’s negligence in a Muncie semi-truck crash, hire our law firm. You can reach out to our Muncie truck accident lawyers by calling (317) 920-6400 or filling out the online contact form on our website.