Garbage trucks provide a very necessary service, but when you share the road with one, you may not be paying attention to the service they provide. Instead, you might be focused on the increased traffic issues and potential dangers on the road that garbage trucks can cause. If you were hit by a garbage truck or involved in an accident caused by a garbage truck driver’s negligence, you might be entitled to sue the driver and their employer for the harm you faced.
For a free legal consultation on your potential garbage truck accident case, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras today. Our Maryland lawyer for car accidents caused by garbage trucks fights to get compensation for victims of serious accidents, helping them and their families recover damages for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering after an accident. For a free legal consultation on your case, call (410) 694-7291.
Can You Sue for an Accident with a Garbage Truck in Maryland
If you were involved in a car crash with a garbage truck in Maryland, you might be entitled to file a lawsuit. Typically, auto insurance coverage might pay for some damages after a crash, and filing an insurance claim might be your first thought after a crash. However, with serious car accidents, the damages paid through an insurance settlement are often too low to cover your injuries because they cover only a percentage of the damages or because they do not include damages for pain and suffering.
When you file a lawsuit instead of an insurance claim, you might be entitled to additional damages. Although “pain and suffering” damages sound somewhat vague, these damages can actually be one of the most substantial parts of your case. Insurance claims usually block these damages entirely, meaning that you cannot get full compensation for serious injuries through an insurance claim.
When you sue for injuries in a car accident, you typically sue the at-fault driver directly. If they carry insurance – which all drivers must do in Maryland – their insurance company will ultimately pay for the damages. Additionally, the garbage company that hires the drivers and maintains the trucks might be responsible for their driver’s mistakes, for their fault in putting an unsafe vehicle on the road, and for their fault in hiring a driver whom they should have known was dangerous.
To get the compensation you deserve in a lawsuit, you and your Baltimore personal injury lawyers must prove that the other driver was negligent. This means pointing to traffic laws they violated or unreasonably dangerous moves they made on the road. If your lawyer can prove that it was their fault that caused the crash, not anything that you did, then the court can award you damages for any harms you prove in court. This typically means getting coverage for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering related to the crash.
How Garbage Trucks Cause Car Crashes in Maryland
Garbage trucks, like any other truck, are typically quite large and heavy. This makes them a potential obstruction to anyone else driving on the road, and it makes it difficult for the garbage truck driver to see what is happening behind them and next to them. To make matters worse, the vehicle’s weight makes it harder to slow down and maneuver, and any crash between a garbage truck and a smaller car will usually cause more damage to the car and its occupants.
Garbage truck drivers must be properly licensed and able to drive their vehicles. They must also obey traffic laws like any other vehicle on the road, which means that drunk driving, speeding, distracted driving, and running red lights are all dangerous things that a garbage truck operator should be held responsible for, especially if they cause a crash.
Garbage trucks often stop and go very suddenly, and their drivers might not use a proper turn signal or flashers to indicate what they are doing. This can be quite dangerous for other drivers on the road, and it is illegal under Maryland’s traffic laws. This means that any accident caused by seemingly erratic or random driving should be the truck driver’s fault.
Garbage trucks often stop in unsafe locations. This could mean stopping around a blind corner with no warning for approaching cars, or it could mean stopping on a narrow street, potentially causing accidents with oncoming traffic. Truck drivers who drive unreasonably or stop in unreasonable locations might be held liable for dangerous decisions, even if they do not explicitly violate any traffic rules.
Garbage trucks on local routes are often large, but 18-wheelers used to haul trash from one collection site to another are even larger. These trucks often take garbage onto the highway, meaning that these trucks carry the same sorts of dangers as any other large truck on the road. This often includes the risk of jackknifing or fishtailing, crashing into cars because the driver did not check their blind spots, or failing to stop quickly enough because they were speeding or driving unsafely. Long-haul jobs could also mean that the driver gets tired and worn-down on the road, potentially causing accidents because of drowsy driving.
Call Our Maryland Garbage Truck Accident Lawyers for a Free Case Consultation
If you were injured in a crash involving a garbage truck in Maryland, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras today. Our Baltimore lawyer for car accidents caused by garbage trucks offers free legal consultations on injury cases where we can sit down and discuss what your case might be worth, how best to go about getting you the compensation you deserve, and whom we have to sue to do so. For your free legal consultation, call us today at (410) 694-7291.