4 Truck Accident Tips

Have you or a loved one been seriously injured in a truck accident? Check out these 4 truck accident tips that we put together for you. Then, give our Utah office a call.

1) Collecting Evidence
Dealing with truck crash claims in the state of Utah is very different than dealing with car crashes. For one, these trucks on the highways have so many electronic devices that can provide you information, so you need to know all the telematics from the trucks. You need to know what they were carrying, who they’re reporting too, and how all of that information can be tracked. You will be able to determine truck speed, its braking, where it stopped, and how long it’s been going. Also, driver’s logs become critical in this, and there’s a list of multiple documents that you would want to know about and get that you don’t have in a regular car crash case.

2) Truck Accident Injury Claims
I’ve been asked by clients, “What’s the difference between handling a trucking case and a regular car crash case?” The code of federal regulations has extensive regulations dealing with truck drivers, trucking companies, and individuals who lease space from the truckers. It gets very deep and complex with the number of parties that can get involved in that. The regulations are very extensive. It’s critical to know when those regulations are violated, who violated them, and what the effect of that is. You need to deal with somebody who has extensive experience in dealing with those regulations and going after the trucking companies to preserve your rights.

3) Partial Fault Truck Accident
If you’ve been injured in a truck crash in the state of Utah and the officer thought you were partly at fault or had some involvement in the fault, you still have a claim for whatever the trucking company is responsible for. In Utah, as long as you’re not more than 50% at fault, you have a claim. We have found that, a lot of times, some of the stuff that should be identified in the police report isn’t because the police officers don’t have the specific training as to what to look for in determining fault.

4) Truck Accident Settlement Offers
If you have been injured in a commercial truck crash in the state of Utah, we would never recommend taking an insurance company’s first offer. What we have experienced is if an insurance carrier is nervous about a case, they’ll come in and try to settle a case quickly and for as cheap as they can. What we have also experienced is, when an insurance company makes an initial offer, there is always room to negotiate. They are willing to negotiate and continue to offer more money in an attempt to settle your case. Unless the insurance carrier is offering the full value of the policy, we would never recommend accepting an insurance company’s initial offer.

Were you or a loved one seriously injured in a commercial vehicle crash and have questions? Check out these 4 truck accident tips that we have created for you.

Contact our dedicated Utah truck accident attorneys at Swenson & Shelley today for a free confidential consultation.

Let our experience work for you.

Author: Swenson & Shelley PLLC

Kevin Swenson was raised in Bountiful, Utah, and is a co-founding partner of Swenson & Shelley. After graduating from Bountiful High School, Kevin attended business school at Westminster College.