Phoenix Truck Accident Attorney: Liability in Truck Crashes

This video features Montana Thompson, a Personal Injury attorney based in Utah.

Montana Thompson | 800-260-0800 | Free Consult

“Trucking companies are not dumb. They are able to evolve and figure out new ways to skirt the rules, new ways to hide their behavior.”

If a semi-truck accident occurs, who is liable for damages that occur: the driver, the driver’s employer, or someone else?

Montana Thompson is a Phoenix truck accident attorney with Phillips Law Group. He focuses his practice on helping those affected by personal injury and wrongful death, including victims of car accidents, truck accidents, slip and falls, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and many more. He is also fluent in Spanish.

In this interview, he explains that trucking companies often encourage their drivers to bend or break the rules in the interest of saving money. They assume they can get away with it, but it puts everyone on the road at an increased risk of a crash.

To learn more, contact the attorney directly by calling 800-260-0800 or by submitting a contact form on this page. There is no charge for the consultation, and you never owe any out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Key Takeaways From Montana Thompson:

Truck drivers are required to follow state and federal laws regarding industry safe practices, training requirements, loading requirements, and more. Truck drivers are held to a higher standard of responsibility regarding their driving practices, primarily due to the fact that they are operating a large, heavy piece of machinery that could do far more damage in the event of an accident than a standard passenger vehicle.

Truck drivers are only allowed to be behind the wheel for a certain number of hours before they are required to take a break.

These hours-of-service rules are designed to prevent truck drivers from driving while fatigued. With many of these drivers covering extraordinary distances in a relatively short amount of time, the need for rest breaks is more apparent than ever and is actually mandated by law. Unfortunately, the general rule of thumb is that if a truck isn’t moving, it isn’t making money. This can lead trucking companies to push their drivers beyond their limits, and even encourage them to break the law, even when doing so would be unsafe for the truck driver and anyone else on the road with them.

Fault can be difficult to determine after a truck accident.

Due to the number of players involved in these accidents (i.e. parent companies, freight forwarders, individual contractors, etc.) it can be hard to tell at first glance who should be held liable after a trucking accident. Thompson explains that it can take a good deal of investigation before the truly liable party becomes apparent, as they will rarely reveal themselves voluntarily. Additionally, more than one party could be at fault. A truck accident attorney will hire experts to obtain and pore over pertinent driving records and tracking data. An attorney may even subpoena employees to get to the bottom of one of these collisions and discover where the liability should rightly fall.

It’s important to contact a truck accident attorney after being involved in one of these situations.

Truck accident attorneys have seen these situations often enough to know exactly what kind of evidence is likely to exist, as well as how to obtain that evidence. Unfortunately, due to a lack of cooperation from trucking companies, it can be extremely difficult and even impossible for an injured party to obtain this evidence on their own. Truck accident attorneys have access to expert resources who can not only help obtain information from the trucking company but also help analyze and interpret it to determine what really caused the accident. If hiring a truck accident attorney seems out of the question due to finances, it may help to note that the majority of truck accident attorneys only get paid if they are able to reach a favorable verdict or settlement for their client.

To learn more, contact Montana Thompson directly by calling 800-260-0800 or by submitting a contact form on this page. There is no charge for the consultation, and you never owe any out-of-pocket attorney fees.

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