Las Vegas Truck Accident Attorney
Experienced Las Vegas Injury Lawyer Helping Victims of Truck Accidents Throughout Nevada
If you were injured in a trucking accident in Nevada, contact experienced Las Vegas truck accident attorney Craig Murphy for a free one-on-one consultation.
Despite Nevada’s famous large cities like Las Vegas and Henderson, the state is mostly rural. People from across Nevada rely on trucks and commercial vehicles to keep necessities such as food and gasoline readily available. Without daily freight transport via semi-trailers, it would be far harder to sustain the tourism industry that keeps the Las Vegas metropolitan area flourishing. Though it may be somewhat nerve-wracking to share the road with such large and slower-moving vehicles, the economic benefits of shipping by truck far outweigh the roadway inconvenience.
A legal case following a truck accident, though such an accident still counts as a motor vehicle collision, is a bit different from lawsuits involving car accidents. Unlike cars and motorcycles, trucks have multiple parties responsible for their maintenance and usage: the drivers, the manufacturers, and the companies that manage the trucks. Each of these individuals or organizations, or some combination of all three, can be held accountable for a truck accident. If you have any further concerns questions about how a truck accident in the Las Vegas area can affect you or a loved one, our team of truck injury attorneys would be glad to provide further information.
How Do Truck Accidents Usually Happen?
One of the most sobering facts about truck accidents is that, when injuries occur, the truck drivers are usually not the ones to be injured. The sheer size of trucks makes them ideal for carrying large loads from coast to coast, but this size also comes at a cost. The weight and dimensions of an average semi mean that it can easily impact another car and continue on its way with little to no damage. When a car shares a road with a truck, be it a pickup truck or an eighteen-wheeler, the driver of the car and any passengers run a higher risk of sustaining injuries in a collision.
A major cause of motor vehicle crashes is distracted driving. Distracted driving is when drivers are deliberately not focusing on the road and nearby traffic. The Nevada Department of Transportation reports that reaching for a moving object while driving makes an accident nine times likelier to happen. Driving while tired is also a deadly choice, as it quadruples the risk of an accident. Other actions such as reading, applying makeup, and dialing a phone also dramatically elevate the likelihood that an accident will occur, and truck drivers engaging in any of these behaviors are knowingly putting the safety of everyone else on the road at risk. Nevada has placed bans on the use of hand-held devices, on sending text messages, and on accessing the Internet while driving, and truck drivers passing through the Las Vegas area can expect to face fines and demerits for disrespecting the law.
Even when truck drivers are taking appropriate precautions behind the wheel, the actions of another driver can create a dangerous situation. Because truck drivers cannot see through their rearview windows, they have an additional and far greater blindspot than drivers of passenger vehicles have. If a car disappears into one of these blindspots and the car’s driver does not maintain an appropriate distance or signal correctly, the truck can swerve or suddenly slow down and collide with the car. This impact would most likely result in significant damage to the car and injuries for the driver and all passengers, and the truck may not be affected at all.
Drivers in the Las Vegas area are relatively lucky in that weather is less likely to play a role in truck accidents than it is in other parts of the United States. Las Vegas summers may be scorching, but because rain is rare, the adverse conditions that would normally play a role in affecting highway safety are almost absent. Your Las Vegas truck accident attorney may tell you that, unless the truck driver failed to prepare for decreased visibility brought on by the sunny weather, the company representing the truck driver cannot use inclement weather as an excuse for the accident.
Could I Be Considered at Fault for a Truck Accident Even If I Was Driving a Car?
More than 500,000 truck accidents occur in the United States every year, and while fatalities in these accidents are uncommon, about one percent of truck accidents to end in death. In the state of Nevada, there were over 1400 truck accidents in 2010, the most recent year for which data is available. Though truck accidents represented less than two percent of all the motor vehicle accidents in Nevada, this still means that there was one truck accident for every 2000 Nevadans.
Although truck drivers receive training specifically regarding how to weave in and out of lanes without affecting other cars and motorcycles, car drivers who are unaware of how to accommodate trucks on the road can make poor decisions. Because of their size and weight, trucks require extra time to accelerate and decelerate, and if a car tries to abruptly change lanes in front of a truck, the truck driver may not have enough advance warning to slow down. As mentioned above, truck drivers have ample blind spots, and cars traveling directly behind or alongside a truck run the risk of causing collisions.
A common question that dedicated Las Vegas truck accident attorney Craig Murphy receives from clients is whether truck accident cases are treated differently than car accident cases can be. Though the many of the factors at play are the same in both types of accidents, one key difference lies in the at-fault party. Unlike in accidents involving two cars, in which at least one of the two drivers is typically at fault, there are at least three parties who can be responsible for a truck: the driver, the manufacturer, and the company contracting the truck. In these cases, the drivers of the car and the truck may both be completely innocent. The fault may lie instead with the truck’s manufacturer for improperly or incompletely assembling the vehicle, or the responsibility may be that of the contractor for commissioning a shipment without first providing adequate maintenance to the truck.
Contact An Experienced Las Vegas Truck Accident Attorney
Even if you were not injured in a truck accident, you will need representation from a qualified Las Vegas truck accident attorney if the truck’s contractor decides to file a lawsuit. Whether you want to receive compensation or to merely have a case dismissed, experienced Las Vegas truck accident attorney Craig Murphy would be glad to assist you at every step of your lawsuit.
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