After a Truck Accident, Call an Attorney Before Evidence Disappears

This video features Marc Lenahan, a Personal Injury attorney based in Texas.

Immediately after a truck accident, the trucking company is working to secure evidence and frame the accident scene in their favor. This could be devastating for the victims who are trying to seek compensation for medical bills, injuries, damage, and other costs.

We spoke to attorney Marc Lenahan, the owner of Lenahan Law Firm in Dallas, TX. He spills the secrets that the trucking companies don’t want you to know. The important takeaway: contact a lawyer immediately to make sure important evidence is preserved.

To get help, call 888-981-0019 now or submit the contact form on this page.

What are the most common causes of truck accidents?

You might suspect that bad brakes, bad tires, mechanical fires are a primary cause.

Or maybe it’s a result of driver error. The driver might be tired from working long shifts, or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The driver may not be properly trained.

The truth is that all of these are common causes, and they’re all motivated by money.

Drivers are not paid properly, and trucking companies have an incentive to hire drivers for the lowest possible rate. This means they’re hiring new and untrained drivers, or drivers with drug problems, who don’t spend money maintaining their trucks.

This means a good driver with a clean record is waiting for a job, but the company goes with the cheaper driver willing to falsify records and break the law by driving too many hours in a row.

Can policy changes put a stop these truck accidents?

The laws themselves aren’t the problem. They are well-written, but they are not strongly enforced. In a recent accident the attorney investigated, he found that the reflective tape around the flatbed had not been replaced. If this tape isn’t replaced every few years, it doesn’t work as well. It suggests that spending money to improve safety standards isn’t a priority for this trucking company.

Even with strict laws for inspection standards, the inspectors themselves have a financial incentive to give a passing score to unsafe trucks. If they have a habit of pointing out violations and failing inspections, the truckers will simply go to a different inspector that treats them better.

What are you supposed to do after a truck accident?

While you’re being loaded into an ambulance, there’s someone on their way to the accident scene. The trucker has been told to stay in his cab. He’s calling his insurance company and dispatcher, who are activating a 24 hour rapid response team. This team is on its way to the scene to begin documentation on behalf of the trucking company. This documentation could paint a biased picture of the accident, and be used in the official police investigation. This team will also alter the scene of the accident and remove things (like stickers or decals) that might make the trucker look bad in court.

If a truck is inspected, that inspector is obligated to keep an inspection receipt for 14 months. After that, it might go missing.

All of this means that you need to contact an attorney as soon as possible after a truck accident so that they can begin an investigation to preserve evidence before it goes missing.

To get help, call 888-981-0019 now or submit the contact form on this page.

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