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Stockton Truck Accident Lawyers
Both Interstate 5 and Highway 99 run through Stockton, California. As you may be aware, large trucks —including big rigs, 18-wheelers, and tractor-trailers, traverse these roadways daily. With more trucks on local roads, unfortunately, comes the possibility of severe truck crashes and deadly collisions.
Big rigs and 18-wheelers are enormous and heavy vehicles. Therefore, most accidents involving these vehicles lead to severe injuries and fatalities.
If you or someone you love suffered injuries in a recent truck accident, the Stockton truck accident attorneys at Silva Injury Law can help you. Our legal team can meet with you to discuss how your truck accident occurred and determine if you may be eligible to file a claim or lawsuit for monetary damages.
In many instances, negligent truck drivers are responsible for these accidents, but accidents may also occur because of defective truck parts and roadway conditions.
If you are eligible to file a claim, we can assist you with every step of the process, including negotiations with trucking company representatives. In addition, we can help you litigate your case in the California court system if the insurance company refuses to offer you the fair compensation you need.
Our legal team offers truck accident victims thorough, comprehensive, and result-oriented legal representation. Let us help you recover the monetary damages you need for your truck accident injuries. For your free case evaluation and legal consultation with a knowledgeable Stockton truck accident lawyer, please contact our office today.
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Table of Contents
- Why You Should Choose Us to Represent You in Your Truck Accident Claim or Lawsuit
- How Do Stockton Truck Collisions Happen?
- Common Stockton Truck Accidents
- Stockton Truck Accident Injuries
Why You Should Choose Us to Represent You in Your Truck Accident Claim or Lawsuit
However, these factors set Silva Injury Law apart from other local law firms:
- We treat our clients as family.
- We offer you a free case evaluation and legal consultation to learn more about your case and determine if you can file a claim or lawsuit in the first place.
- We will never accept a case we feel we cannot take to a civil jury trial if that step becomes necessary.
- We focus on resolving your legal problem in full rather than beginning unnecessary legal fights that can ultimately prevent you from recovering the total monetary damages you deserve to recover in your case.
- We operate on a contingency fee basis, meaning you do not pay a retainer or hourly fee. We do not take legal fees unless we recover monetary compensation for you via settlement or litigation.
How Do Stockton Truck Collisions Happen?
Truck collisions in the Stockton region can happen for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common causes of truck accidents include distracted driving, impaired driving, improper loading procedures, failing to adjust mirrors, disregarding traffic laws, and inexperienced drivers.
First, some truck accidents in Stockton happen because of distracted driving. A distracted driver does not give sufficient time or attention to the road. Instead of observing the road, a truck driver might be adjusting a radio, listening to loud music, programming a GPS navigation device, or responding to a cellular phone text message. These activities may divert a truck driver’s eyes off the road, preventing them from seeing an oncoming vehicle or pedestrian and causing a severe crash.
In addition to distracted driving, some truck accidents happen when people drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Passenger vehicles are intoxicated if they have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 percent or greater.
Commercial truck drivers, on the other hand, must follow stricter legal standards.
Alcohol can alter a driver’s depth perception, blur their vision, and delay their reaction time. Alcohol may also impair reflexes, preventing drivers from stopping their trucks in time to avoid a crash.
In addition to alcohol intoxication, some truck drivers resort to stimulant drugs to try and keep themselves awake for long hours. The trucking companies that employ these drivers are sometimes partially to blame for this activity since drivers often receive high bonuses for delivering their cargo to its final destination ahead of schedule. However, when truck drivers take these drugs, they may become drowsy while behind the wheel, causing them to fall asleep and cause a serious traffic crash.
In addition to distracted and impaired truck driving, some accidents happen when drivers fail to load cargo onto their trucks properly. Federal and state motor carrier regulations prescribe the proper procedures for loading and unloading truck freight to a trailer. When a truck driver does not load the cargo properly, the truck may become top-heavy, or its center of balance may become offset. As a result, the truck might overturn while proceeding around a sharp curve, causing a multi-vehicle pile-up.
Truck accidents may also happen when drivers fail to adjust their mirrors adequately. Truck drivers must look in their side view mirrors frequently to see what’s behind them. If they fail to adjust their mirrors or use them properly, they may not see an approaching vehicle, cutting the vehicle off in traffic and causing a severe collision.
Collisions that involve large trucks may also happen when drivers violate traffic laws, such as by exceeding the posted speed limit or failing to yield the right-of-way to other vehicles at the proper times. A truck driver might also forget to use their turn signals when switching lanes or turning, causing a severe accident.
Finally, some truck accidents happen due to driver inexperience. When trucking companies fail to ensure that their drivers attend the necessary continuing education classes and log a certain number of hours while on the road, an inexperienced driver may cause an accident that leads to severe injuries and damages.
Truck drivers must also ensure that their brake systems always work correctly and that their lights work.
If you suffered injuries in a truck crash resulting from driver error or negligence, you should seek the legal help you need immediately. The Stockton truck accident attorneys at Silva Injury Law can evaluate your circumstances and determine your eligibility for filing a successful claim or lawsuit. We can assist you with every step of the claims-filing and litigation processes and work to recover fair monetary damages on your behalf.
Common Stockton Truck Accidents
When truck drivers negligently operate their vehicles, several types of accidents may occur.
One common type of truck accident that may occur is a rollover accident. These accidents often happen when truck drivers fail to load cargo onto their trucks properly, offsetting the tractor-trailer’s center of gravity and making it unstable. If the driver loses control, the tractor-trailer may overturn completely, causing other vehicles to collide with it.
Similarly, truck jackknife accidents happen when the tractor and trailer fold inward on one another, especially when speeding down a hill or around a sharp curve too fast. When a large truck jackknifes, it may skid forward, hitting anything in its path. At other times, the trailer portion of the truck may fishtail on a wet road, causing it to hit other vehicles in the vicinity.
Other truck accidents may happen when truck drivers tailgate other drivers and follow them too closely. This may cause the front of the tractor-trailer to hit the back of another vehicle. Truck drivers should leave sufficient distance between the front of their vehicle and the back of another vehicle to avoid these accidents. They should also watch their speeds in inclement weather and heavy traffic.
Rear-end collisions may also cause an underride accident. This type of accident happens when a vehicle becomes stuck under a tractor-trailer.
Finally, head-on truck collisions happen when the front of a tractor-trailer hits the front of an oncoming vehicle. When the vehicles are traveling at high rates of speed, these accidents can lead to permanent and disfiguring injuries—along with fatal injuries, in some circumstances.
If you suffered injuries in one of these truck accidents, obtain the legal help you need immediately.
The experienced Stockton truck accident lawyers at Silva Injury Law can review the circumstances of your accident with you and determine your eligibility to successfully file a personal injury claim or lawsuit for damages. If you are eligible to file a claim, we can assist you with every step of the process and work towards a favorable monetary recovery in your case.
Stockton Truck Accident Injuries
The injuries that truck accident victims suffer are highly case-specific. Therefore, one truck accident victim may suffer more severe injuries than another. The injuries a truck accident victim sustains may depend on the type of accident, the force of the collision, and how the accident victim’s body moves around the vehicle when the crash occurs.
Typical truck accident injuries include:
- Neck and back contusions
- Broken bones
- Rib fractures
- Burn injuries
- Traumatic head injuries
- Wrongful death
- Lower extremity injuries
- Torso injuries
- Spinal cord damage
- Full and partial paralysis injuries
- Internal organ damage
- Lacerations
- Internal bleeding
The injuries that truck accident victims suffer are not limited to physical injuries. In some instances, truck accident victims may suffer severe emotional trauma, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
If you sustained an injury in a recent truck accident, seek medical help immediately. Following up at a local hospital emergency room or urgent care facility ensures that your injuries do not worsen. You also show the insurance company that they should take your injuries seriously, given your early medical treatment.
The medical provider on duty can physically examine you at an emergency room facility and order the necessary imaging studies, including MRIs and X-rays. Moreover, if you need additional medical treatment, the medical provider can recommend it.
While you focus on recovering from your truck accident injuries, the legal team at Silva Injury Law can start advocating for you. We can help you gather up your medical treatment records, lost wage documentation, police reports, and other vital documents to send to the insurance company after you complete your medical treatment. Once that happens, we can begin pursuing favorable settlement compensation in your case.
Liability for Truck Accidents
To recover monetary compensation for your injuries in a truck accident case, you must establish your legal burden of proof. Specifically, you must show that the at-fault truck driver, or someone else, deviated from the standard of care. As a result, your accident and injuries must have occurred. When you can satisfy your legal burden of proof, you can recover various monetary damages in your case.
In many instances, our legal team will deal with the insurance company for the at-fault truck driver. However, other individuals besides the truck driver may be fully or partially responsible for your accident—and your injuries. Other liable parties may include the trucking company that employed the negligent driver, a mechanic, and a county or city agency.
The Stockton truck accident attorneys at Silva Injury Law can ascertain all potentially responsible parties in your accident case and file the appropriate claim or lawsuit on your behalf. We can then work to pursue the fair monetary compensation and damages you deserve to recover in your case.
Call a Stockton Truck Accident Attorney Today
Michael Joe Silva, Truck Accident Attorney
If you sustained injuries in a recent truck accident, you should seek the legal help you need immediately. Truck accident victims only have two years from their accident date to seek monetary recovery and damages for their injuries. If you file your lawsuit in the court system belatedly, you will not be eligible to recover any monetary damages. Therefore, the best time to act in your case is right away.
At Silva Injury Law, our experienced truck accident attorneys can begin advocating for you immediately. We can file a claim on your behalf with a truck driver or trucking company’s insurer and engage in settlement negotiations.
If the insurance company does not offer you the fair damages you deserve, we welcome the opportunity to litigate your case in court and, if necessary, take your case to a jury trial. We can help you recover monetary damages for your medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, inconvenience, and emotional distress.
For a free case evaluation and legal consultation with a Stockton truck accident lawyer, please call us at 209 600 4389 or contact us online today. Reach out to a personal injury lawyer.
Testimonial
“I cannot say enough good things about Silva Injury Law. Everyone starting with the front desk were very professional, honest and hardworking. Michael and his team worked diligently to make sure everything went as quickly and as smooth as possible. Silva Injury Law genuinely care about their clients and I would highly recommend them.”
Promoting Healing Through Compassionate Advocacy
We believe that our duty goes beyond achieving large monetary awards for our clients. We strive first to be decent human beings who seek not to stir up fights, but to solve problems.