Truck vs. Truck Accident Attorney in Salt Lake City, UT

Are You Looking for Skilled Truck vs. Truck Accident Attorneys in Salt Lake City?

When two commercial trucks collide, the crash rarely stays simple.

Salt Lake City’s freight corridors along I-15, I-80, and I-215 carry a constant stream of big rigs and semi-trucks moving between distribution centers, and when two of them collide, the case that follows involves two separate companies, two separate insurance policies, and two separate sets of electronic logging data pointing in different directions.

A truck vs. truck accident attorney Salt Lake City families turn to understand that these cases are built differently than a crash involving just one commercial vehicle.

Why Salt Lake City Truck vs. Truck Cases Are Uniquely Complex

A crash between two commercial trucks means investigating two motor carriers at once, each with its own driver, its own maintenance history, and its own incentive to place blame on the other company.

Where a single-truck crash usually narrows fault to one driver and one carrier fairly quickly, a truck vs. truck accident lawyer Salt Lake City families rely on has to build parallel investigations into both companies before either one will acknowledge responsibility.

Two Companies, Two Insurance Policies, Two Stories in a Salt Lake City Case

Each trucking company involved in the collision carries its own commercial liability policy, and each insurer’s first priority is protecting its own client rather than getting to the truth of what happened.

It is common for both carriers to blame the other driver from the earliest stages of a claim, sometimes before either company has actually reviewed its own electronic logging device data or dashcam footage.

Sorting out competing versions of events from two commercial defendants, rather than one, is often the single biggest difference between a truck vs. truck case and a more straightforward trucking claim.

Salt Lake City truck vs. truck accident attorneys typically request the following from both carriers involved:

• Electronic logging device data from both trucks showing speed, braking, and hours of service
• Maintenance and inspection records for both vehicles
• Dispatch communications and delivery schedules from both companies
• Each driver’s qualification file and prior safety violation history
• Each carrier’s FMCSA safety rating and inspection history

If You Are a Truck Driver Hurt by Another Company’s Truck in Salt Lake City

One scenario unique to truck vs. truck crashes involves a commercial driver who is injured on the job by a truck from a different company.

Under Utah’s workers’ compensation law, an injured employee generally cannot sue their own employer for a workplace injury, since workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy under Utah Code section 34A-2-105. That rule does not protect the other trucking company, however.

Utah Code section 34A-2-106 specifically preserves an injured worker’s right to bring a separate claim against a negligent third party, which means a truck driver hurt by another company’s negligent driver can often pursue both workers’ compensation benefits and a personal injury claim against the other carrier at the same time.

This distinction matters because workers’ compensation alone typically does not cover pain and suffering or the full scope of lost future earnings, while a third-party claim against the other trucking company can.

Identifying this option early is one of the more valuable services a truck vs. truck accident lawyer Salt Lake City drivers turn to can provide to an injured driver who assumes workers’ compensation is their only path to compensation.

Establishing Fault Between Two Commercial Carriers in a Salt Lake City Crash

Fault in a truck vs. truck collision often depends on which driver violated a specific safety regulation, whether that involves hours-of-service limits, following distance, an unsafe lane change, or a mechanical failure tied to poor maintenance.

Since both vehicles are commercial trucks, both are typically equipped with electronic logging devices and, increasingly, forward and rear-facing dashcams, which can provide far more objective evidence than witness accounts alone.

Pulling this data from both trucks before it is overwritten or a smaller carrier’s records are lost is one of the first priorities in any truck vs. truck investigation.

What a Salt Lake City Truck vs. Truck Claim Can Include

A well-documented claim generally accounts for current and future medical treatment, lost income during recovery, and any permanent reduction in earning capacity caused by the injury. Pain, disruption to daily life, and the toll a serious crash takes on your family also factor into a properly valued case.

Since a truck vs. truck crash may involve two separate insurance policies, the potential coverage available to a claim is often greater than in a single-carrier case, though accessing it requires establishing how much fault belongs to each company, which is exactly the kind of work Salt Lake City truck vs. truck accident lawyers spend most of their time on in these cases.

Injuries in Salt Lake City Truck vs. Truck Collisions

Crashes between two heavy commercial vehicles tend to produce severe injuries, including:

• Traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord damage
• Multiple fractures and crush injuries
• Internal organ damage requiring surgery
• Burns from fuel or cargo fires in the most severe collisions

The severity of these injuries often comes down to speed and cargo weight rather than which company was more clearly at fault, which is part of why the value of a claim should never be estimated before both carriers’ records have been fully reviewed.

A crash that looks straightforward from the outside, two trucks, one intersection or lane change, can still involve months of documentation once both companies’ safety histories and equipment records are accounted for.

Utah’s Rules on Shared Fault and Filing Deadlines

Utah follows a modified comparative negligence rule under Utah Code section 78B-5-818, which allows an injured person to recover damages as long as they were less than 50 percent at fault for the crash, with recovery reduced by their own share of responsibility.

When two commercial carriers are involved, this analysis can become more complicated, since a jury or insurer may need to apportion fault across multiple parties rather than deciding between just two.

Most injury claims in Utah must be filed within four years of the crash under Utah Code section 78B-2-307, though records from two separate companies can disappear at different rates and for different reasons.

How Our Firm Handles These Cases in Salt Lake City

Our first step is identifying every company and every insurance policy connected to both trucks involved in your crash.

From there, we send preservation letters to both carriers, request electronic logging and maintenance records from each, and review both companies’ safety histories with the FMCSA.

We manage communication with two sets of insurance adjusters at once, so you are not left coordinating two separate claims on your own while you recover.

Talk to Our Salt Lake City Truck vs. Truck Accident Attorneys

A collision between two commercial trucks is one of the more complicated cases in trucking litigation, and treating it like an ordinary single-truck claim can leave real compensation unclaimed.

If you or a loved one has been hurt in a crash between two commercial trucks in Salt Lake City, do not wait to get help sorting out which company is responsible for what.

Swenson & Shelley Law has represented Salt Lake City families and commercial drivers in truck vs. truck cases for years, and we know how to investigate two companies at once rather than settling for whichever story comes first.

Contact our Salt Lake City truck vs. truck accident lawyers today, and let us help you determine exactly who is responsible for what happened to you.