Truck Accident Attorney in Cherry Hill

Anytime you get in a car, you risk getting into an accident. While car accidents are relatively rare compared to the number of miles you’ll drive every year, they are still a legitimate risk. In fact, nearly every driver will get into at least one accident in their lifetime.

This danger and risk increase dramatically if the other vehicle in an accident is a truck. While truck accidents are rarer than car accidents, the odds are high that you will be seriously injured if you get into an accident with a truck.

Of course, you shouldn’t let this scare you out of driving. However, you should be aware of the dangers and act appropriately. You should know what to expect, how to avoid a potential accident with a truck, and what you should do if you’re unfortunate enough to experience one.

Finally, if you have been injured in a truck accident due to someone else’s negligence, you deserve compensation for your pain and suffering. Contact Morgan & Morgan’s truck accident lawyers in Cherry Hill immediately to schedule a free case evaluation.

Differences Between a Car Accident and a Truck Accident

Typically, car accidents are less serious than truck accidents. After all, when two cars collide, both vehicles have roughly the same mass. This means damage is more evenly distributed between the vehicles involved in the accident.

Furthermore, cars have safety features designed to prevent passenger injuries. These features are typically calibrated for collisions with vehicles roughly the size of passenger cars because that is the most likely type of accident. It would also be far more expensive for manufacturers to produce and consumers to purchase if commuter vehicles were made to protect passengers against a much larger vehicle.

Unfortunately, trucks typically weigh anywhere from 10 to 20 times as much as a car. This fact means the truck exerts significantly more force on the car than the other way around. Furthermore, the safety features that work extremely well against two- to three-ton vehicles just aren’t very effective against ones that weigh 20 tons or more.

As a result, when a car and a truck collide, the truck typically takes minimal damage while the car gets torn apart. This is particularly dangerous for car passengers because it means they are likely to be thrown from the vehicle or directly contact the truck's frame.

Sadly, this means that truck accidents are significantly more likely to be lethal than car accidents. And even when passengers survive, they commonly suffer:

• Crushed or broken bones
• Lost limbs
• Severe organ damage
• Spinal injuries, including paralysis
• Traumatic brain injuries

Most of these injuries require years of treatment, and many people never fully recover. Furthermore, you may need hundreds of thousands of dollars to fully recover your expenses and losses after a truck accident. Thankfully, reputable truck accident lawyers in Cherry Hill can help you get the money you need.

What You Need to Know About Commercial Trucks

Commercial trucks differ from passenger vehicles in several ways. In addition to being much larger, they have features that make them more dangerous than passenger vehicles. However, they also have several features that mitigate the risk of tragic accidents.

Specialized Training for Drivers

Just because you have a driver’s license doesn’t mean you can legally drive a commercial truck. You must have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to operate these types of vehicles.

This requirement is the first safeguard to ensure the safety of others. To obtain a CDL, you need to undergo additional, rigorous training—beyond what is required for a basic driver’s license. You also need to take extra tests and continually maintain these certifications. If the state determines you aren’t driving a truck safely, it can strip you of your CDL.

Because truck drivers receive more safety training than average drivers, they get in fewer accidents than other drivers. Thus, while truck accidents are more likely to result in serious injury, they are also less common than car accidents.

Trucks Have Limited Sightlines

Every car has blind spots. These areas on the side of your car are not covered by your mirrors, forcing you to physically turn your head to ensure you don’t merge into another car in the next lane.

Trucks have significantly more blind spots than cars do. To begin with, a truck doesn’t have a rearview mirror—its sightline would be completely obscured by the truck's payload. Without a rearview mirror, truck drivers can’t see anything within about 50 feet behind the truck. Some trucks may have rear cameras, but these have limited visibility, and some only turn on when the truck is in reverse.

As such, truck drivers primarily rely on side mirrors. And while trucks have larger side view mirrors than cars, those mirrors only reveal a limited portion of the road. To make matters worse, truck drivers usually can’t turn their heads to get any meaningful additional visibility.

Finally, trucks are quite a bit taller than cars. This disparity means that passenger vehicles may be invisible to a truck driver, especially if it is close to the truck.

All this means that you should exercise extreme caution when driving alongside trucks, and don’t spend any longer to its immediate left or right than you absolutely have to.

Trucks Take Longer to Slow Down

One of the main ways that most drivers avoid getting into an accident is either by slamming their brakes. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work well with trucks.

Because trucks weigh so much, they require significantly more distance to come to a stop than a car moving at the same speed. Furthermore, when a truck driver slams on their brakes, the rear of the truck may fishtail and cause the truck to roll.

This means that if danger appears anywhere close to a truck, the truck driver usually can’t do much to prevent an accident. They may be able to do something to mitigate the damage, but even that isn’t certain.

Because trucks can’t respond to dangerous conditions as easily as a car, you should take extra care when driving near a truck. By being extra cautious and maintaining safe distances, you can help minimize your chance of getting into a truck accident.

How Truck Accident Lawyers in Cherry Hill Can Help

Despite all of your precautions, it’s still possible that you’ll suffer an accident with a truck. So what comes next? With hospital bills mounting and tons of red tape from insurance companies, you need help from experienced truck accident lawyers in Cherry Hill.

At Morgan and Morgan, we understand how much stress you’re under after getting injured in a truck accident. In fact, you may have no choice but to contact us while you’re still confined to a hospital bed. If this happens, we will often send our lawyers to meet you for a free case evaluation at the hospital.

This is just one of many ways we can make your life easier when you are focused on recovering from serious injuries.

Another way we will help is by taking over communication with your insurance company. The last thing you want to do while bedridden is file paperwork or navigate the bureaucracy. We’ll take this off your plate completely so you can focus on recovering.

Additionally, we will investigate the accident to determine who was at fault and what compensation you are eligible for. Our team knows how to find crucial evidence that supports your claim, and once we find it, we’ll make sure the insurance company gets it.

Communicating with the insurance company is the most important benefit that truck accident lawyers in Cherry Hill provide for you. Due to our experience with similar cases, we know what type of evidence the insurance company needs, how to collect it, and what is the true value of your injuries.

Because we understand the value of your injuries, we can successfully negotiate a fair settlement offer. We never accept lowball offers, and our attorneys won’t let the insurance company illegally deny you anything that it is required to pay for.

If you were to try collecting compensation without being represented by knowledgeable attorneys, you would probably get a fraction of what you’re properly owed. And because you aren’t familiar with these types of injuries, it could be decades before you realize that you were ripped off. Don’t let this happen and risk facing a mountain of bills you can’t afford—contact our truck accident lawyers in Cherry Hill so you can get the compensation you deserve.