Who Might Be Held Responsible For Large Truck Accident?

It might seem like the truck’s driver should be held liable for an accident that involves that same driver’s vehicle. Yet not all truck drivers are private contractors. While a list of those drivers that are part of the trucking industry would include some of those that could be held responsible for any of the large truck accidents, such a list would never include all of the men and women that could be held liable.

Many different people play a part in the trucking industry

Truck drivers: Some are independent contractors. Each of those drivers owns the truck that gets used to carry some company’s load. Other drivers are employed by a trucking company. That company determines the driver’s schedule.

Trucking companies: These companies make a vehicle and driver available to any business that needs a load of items transported, and is willing to pay someone else to carry out that job.

Cargo companies: These companies make arrangements for the loading of a truck, if the business that plans to transport certain items does not have anyone that is familiar with the loading process.

A maker of trucks/a maker of truck parts: Negligence on the part of anyone that works for a truck or component manufacturer could cause a malfunction. That malfunction might be responsible for a truck’s failure to perform properly. The truck’s poor performance could cause an accident.

Problem created by the large number of men and women that might be held responsible for a given accident.

All the parties that could be held liable must be sued within the statute of limitations. A car owner that was hit by a large truck might not know how to sue each liable party within the timeframe established by the statute of limitations. In other words, the effort to carry out that task could be a problem.

Fortunately, lawyers have more experience in that area. That is why smart accident victims take the time to locate and hire a lawyer. An attorney can study the details regarding a given accident, and then locate the probable source of the problem that caused such an incident.

An attorney could get hold of the truck driver’s log, in order to see if that same driver appears to have been sleepy or medicated. The absence of such evidence would suggest that something other than the driver’s actions caused the accidental occurrence. In that case, the Personal Injury Lawyer in Hamilton would need to look for other pieces of evidence. For instance, perhaps a video camera caught a shot of the truck being loaded. Maybe some mechanic tried to cut corners and failed to do an adequate job of fixing the trucking company’s vehicle during the truck’s recent stop.