About Tractor-trailer truck accidents
In a tangle with a large truck, a car usually comes out the loser. Tractor-trailer trucks often weigh 20-30 times what cars do, and they take longer to come to a stop. It is no surprise, then, that 85% of the people who die in crashes involving a large truck were not riding in the truck. Furthermore, 23% of all truck crashes result in at least one fatality. According to SafeStat, a U.S. government database, in 2004, 5190 people were killed and 91,502 were injured in collisions involving a large truck.

Truck drivers can break the rules of the road, just as car drivers can. And sometimes their companies have encouraged them to break the rules:

The trucking company should have carefully checked the driver’s background before they let him get behind the wheel of their truck. Sometimes trucking companies skip the evaluation, and end up hiring people who are unfit to drive a potentially dangerous vehicle such as a large truck.

Truck drivers often make mistakes because they have pushed -- or been pushed – beyond their capacities. SafeStat looked at accidents where a truck had caused a wreck. The government found that 7% of the time the truck driver who caused the wreck was actually asleep. Laws limit the amount of time a truck driver can spend behind the wheel, but some trucking companies permit their drivers to falsify their log books so that they can drive more hours than are legally allowed.

Obviously trucks should be carefully maintained.

SafeStat found that in a full 10% of all wrecks, however, the vehicle was the critical reason for the wreck. In a full 4% of the wrecks, the truck’s brakes were not working properly. See SafeStat’s Large Truck Crash Causation Study.

According to a 1996 study done for the Department of Transportation, 32% of all trucks that were inspected had safety violations that were serious enough to take them out of service, and of those violations, 49% were brake-related. See this study and more.

A number of valuable online resources can tell you more about trucking companies and tractor-trailer accidents:

U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System, Traffic Safety Facts

Insurance Institute For Highway Safety, Fatality Facts for Large Trucks

SafeStat’s search module

SAFER, “Safety and Fitness Electronic Records System,” by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (free profiles on federally licensed motor carriers, including insurance information)

The damages you can recover vary from state to state. In addition to medical bills, many states allow lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and in very limited circumstances, pain and suffering. To find out more about what damages you can legally claim in Georgia, contact a Georgia lawyer. <<Contact the Wallace Law Firm.>>

If you have medical insurance, your medical insurance company may ask you to reimburse them for the money they laid out on your behalf. Depending on the circumstances, the medical insurance company may or may not be entitled to be paid back, or may not be entitled to be fully paid back. To find out more about what the insurance company can or cannot claim in Georgia, contact a Georgia lawyer to find out more about the rules that apply to your situation. <<Contact the Wallace Law Firm.>>

If the accident totaled your car, the insurance company may offer you substantially less than the car was worth. The best way to get a fair and full value for your car is to arm yourself with facts and statistics about how much your car would have been worth had it not been for the wreck.

The Internet has been a tremendous boon for people who have been in wrecks. You can find out what your car would have been worth had it not been for the wreck, and use that information as you talk to the insurance company.

Kelley Blue Book
Trade-in, private party, and suggested retail values for most makes and models

Edmunds:
Used car appraiser