Garbage trucks are huge vehicles that can carry tons of weight. If you are hit by one of these vehicles, it is likely that you could suffer serious injuries. Especially if you were hit as a pedestrian, the injuries could be extremely serious or even deadly. Our Baltimore lawyer for car accidents caused by garbage trucks represent injury victims from these kinds of crashes, and we fight to get them the compensation they need.
If you or a loved one was injured in a car crash involving a garbage truck in the Baltimore area, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras today. Our attorneys might be able to take your case to court, filing a lawsuit against the at-fault driver and their employer to get you the compensation you need for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. To schedule a free legal consultation on your potential case, call us today at (410) 694-7291.
Suing Garbage Truck Companies for Car Accidents in Baltimore
If you were hit by a garbage truck, you might have suffered serious damage to your vehicle as well as physical injuries. While insurance claims can often get a portion of some of these damages covered, these claims might be unable to cover the full value of your injury case. Filing a lawsuit against the at-fault driver and the company they work for often has a better chance of getting you the full compensation you are entitled to.
To file a lawsuit against a driver, you need to file paperwork with the court alleging how the accident happened and why the other driver was at fault. In addition to suing the driver directly, you can usually sue the company they work for. the garbage hauling company is usually responsible for mistakes its drivers and workers make on the job, especially if they cause serious injuries. A garbage hauling company can also be partly responsible for the crash in their own right if they hired a driver that they should have known would be dangerous because of a history of unsafe driving or a lack of proper licensure or qualifications. Moreover, the trucking company could also be liable for problems with its equipment, such as equipment malfunctions with tires, lighting, or machinery that lead to a crash.
Proving Fault in a Baltimore Garbage Truck Accident Case
To hold the driver and the garbage company responsible for the crash, you need to prove what exactly they did wrong. In most cases, this will involve pointing to traffic laws to help prove that the driver made a mistake that caused the crash. Garbage trucks may provide a necessary service to the public, but this does not excuse their drivers from following basic traffic laws requiring drivers to stop at stop signs, to signal before pulling over or stopping, to drive sober, etc. Similarly, if a garbage truck driver was driving distracted, violated traffic laws, or was speeding, they should be responsible for any crash they caused.
Garbage truck drivers can also cause accidents because of negligent or dangerous decisions about where and when to stop. Garbage trucks need to pull to the side of the road every few feet on some routes, but this does not mean that they should obstruct traffic more than necessary, that they should suddenly stop without signaling, or that they should make sudden turns and movements without signaling. If this causes a crash, you might be able to use this kind of unreasonable driving as proof that the truck driver caused the crash. Moreover, garbage trucks often stop around blind corners or in other areas that might be unreasonable without additional warning to keep drivers from crashing into them when they come across them.
Large garbage trucks that haul garbage on the highway can also be dangerous. These trucks are more like 18-wheelers and often have problems with tired drivers, maintenance issues, or visibility problems that cause serious crashes the driver and the trucking company should be held liable for.
Damages for Garbage Trucks Accidents in Baltimore
After being involved in a serious car crash, you might be entitled to a variety of damages for the harms you faced. the biggest issue in serious cases is personal injury. If you or a loved one faced physical injuries that required treatment at a hospital, ongoing medical care, rehabilitation, physical therapy, and other medical care, you might be entitled to full compensation for any medical expenses stemming from the injury.
Additionally, there are many harms that we cannot see on a medical chart or a hospital bill, including the physical pain that you faced because of the injury and the mental suffering of dealing with the pain. Pain and suffering damages often make up a large portion of the damages you can claim in your case. These damages are typically not available in an insurance claim, which is one of the reasons that you might need to file your case as a lawsuit to get the full compensation you are entitled to.
Most injury cases also require injury victims to take some time off work, either while they recover, to attend additional medical appointments, or because the injuries are too severe for them to go back to work. If you missed any wages because of the injury, you should be entitled to claim those lost wages as damages in a personal injury lawsuit. Moreover, if your injury causes you to take reduced wages or keeps you from working anymore, you should be entitled to compensation for that reduced earning capacity as well.
Call Our Baltimore Garbage Truck Accident and Injury Lawyers for a Free Consultation
If injuries from a serious accident with a garbage truck in the Baltimore area have caused you to face medical expenses, pain and suffering, and lost wages, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras today. Our Baltimore lawyers for car accidents caused by garbage trucks represent injury victims and their families in the fight to recover financial compensation from the at-fault truck driver and garbage company that caused their injuries. For a free case consultation, call our lawyers today at (410) 694-7291.