While it might be the last thing you want to worry about after a side-impact truck accident in Albuquerque, it is imperative you take swift action to preserve your legal rights so you can seek compensation. When you are involved in a side-impact or “T-bone” collision with a truck you need to seek medical attention, take photos of the crash scene, and contact law enforcement. However, far more goes into building a convincing claim.
Our truck crash attorneys could use their years of experience and knowledge of federal and state laws to get the compensation you deserve.
Side collisions are common accidents. The most frequent areas for side-impact accidents are at intersections, parking lots, and merging lanes for highways. With several highways running through and around the city, Albuquerque experiences a high rate of side-impact accidents with trucks.
A person could experience side collisions for any number of reasons, but the most common causes are failure to yield right-of-way, distracted driving, speeding or reckless driving, weather conditions, impaired driving, mechanical failures, or aggressive or impatient drivers. The various reasons make it important to collect evidence to prove who is liable for the resulting side-impact truck accident.
Thorough investigations into Albuquerque T-bone truck collisions can establish fault against the driver, its company, and even the truck manufacturer. Public records and evidence contained inside the truck can establish fault with a truck driver.
Our attorneys know how to find driving history to check out whether a driver was involved in previous accidents or received proper training. Inside the truck, a black box, also known as an electronic logging device, or dashcam can reveal the immediate activity a driver took before the crash, such as speed and braking.
Trucking companies might be held liable based on the information included in their hiring and training policies or their maintenance and inspection records. All of this evidence is critical to gather because insurance and trucking companies will do whatever they can to deny a claim.
Insurance and trucking companies often exploit New Mexico’s pure comparative negligence rule by taking aggressive action to minimize or outright deny claims from Albuquerque victims in side-impact semi-truck accidents.
The easiest defense is for companies to blame the victim for the accident, arguing they engaged in poor driving habits like speeding, running a red light, texting, or more. This reduces the overall cost they pay to victims. New Mexico is a pure comparative negligence. That means an injured person’s overall reward can be reduced by their percentage of fault. For example, if a victim is awarded $100,000, but the court finds they were 25 percent at fault, the victim would only collect $75,000.
Additionally, companies often argue that the victim is blowing their injuries out of proportion. They argue against injury severity and recovery time, that the injuries pre-dated the accident, and even that victims caused their own injuries by delaying medical attention.
Finally, trucking companies can challenge liability altogether, placing blame on manufacturing errors, third-party drivers, or weather or road conditions.
Frequently, companies try to dodge high compensation judgments by using the legal process and victims’ inexperience to their advantage. Insurance and trucking companies alike might act slowly in responding to claims, attempting to take advantage of your pressing financial circumstances and pressuring you to settle for less money than you are entitled to receive. If you are slow to report an accident or miss the deadline to submit a claim, companies will immediately act to throw out the claim entirely.
Our team of attorneys boasts well over a decade of experience in negotiating and trying side-impact truck accidents in Albuquerque. We are familiar with the federal and state laws governing these cases, as well as the strategies that insurance and trucking companies use to avoid large payouts. Your attorney can act promptly to build a strong case with detailed documentation, statements from eye witnesses, and expert testimony that can refute defenses from company lawyers.
Do not let yourself get overwhelmed by the microdetails of building an effective truck crash case. Instead, book a free consultation with our attorneys who can tell you right away how you can get the best settlement available to you.
