South Bend Truck Accident Lawyer

Trucking is at the heart of life and commerce in South Bend, providing residents with essential supplies while powering the activities of local manufacturers like Honeywell and AM General. Trucks have the potential to do so much good, but they can do even more harm when a serious truck accident takes place.

Trucks and semi-trailers weighing as much as 127,400 pounds are permitted to travel in the State of Indiana. When a truck that heavy collides with a car, the occupants of the smaller vehicle suffer 72 percent of the casualties. Sadly, deadly truck-related crashes are not rare in the state, where trucks accounted for 11.8 percent of the vehicles associated with lethal crashes in 2020. Even non-fatal truck accidents can inflict catastrophic injuries that may be beyond the means of most families.

If your world has been turned upside down by a truck accident, get in touch with the South Bend truck accident attorneys at Hensley Legal Group, who are committed to ensuring that every Hoosier enjoys equal access to justice.

Please call or text us at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form to schedule a no-cost consultation with a knowledgeable South Bend truck accident lawyer today.

How Do Truck Accidents Happen?

Trucks may be significantly larger than most automobiles, with specialized features that can make their operation uniquely challenging, but all vehicles are driven by human beings, who occasionally make mistakes. The Indiana University Public Policy Institute reports that 65 percent of traffic accidents in the state are caused by a driver’s actions, while a study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration estimates that driver misconduct is the primary contributor to 87 percent of trucking collisions. No matter what the correct percentage is, tragedy is often the end result of motorist negligence, examples of which may include:

· Speeding

· Distraction

· Inappropriate phone use

· Following too closely (“tailgating”)

· Sudden lane changes

· Failure to yield

· Improper passing or overtaking

· Drug or alcohol intoxication

· Ignoring traffic signals

This sort of carelessness is not limited to truckers, since the drivers of any type of vehicle may be guilty of these and other offenses. However, the demands of their profession may make truck drivers more prone to certain unsafe practices, especially fatigued driving, which factors into about 100,000 auto accidents, 50,000 injuries, and 800 deaths in the United States each year.

While the average American driver is behind the wheel about 61.3 minutes per day, truckers spend most of their working hours driving, sometimes for many days in a row during cross-country trips. Even though federal regulations only allow truck drivers to work for 14 hours a day, with no more than 11 of those hours dedicated to actual driving, economic pressures may lead truckers to push themselves past the bounds of the law or common sense, thereby increasing the probability of a truck accident.

Aside from driver error, vehicular defects or malfunctioning components could play a role in truck accidents as well, including:

· Failing brakes

· Overloaded or unfastened cargo

· Jackknifing trailers

· Separation of tire treads

· Dimming headlights

· Broken turn signals

· Snapped tow hitches

No matter how your truck accident happened, our South Bend truck accident attorneys can advise you of the next steps to take if you are contemplating a case against the ones responsible.

Who Is Responsible for a Truck Accident?

But who exactly is responsible for a truck accident? The answer is not always obvious because of the number of parties who may be involved. Indiana has about 15,820 registered trucking companies moving around 417,500 tons of manufactured goods within its borders on a daily basis, and even a single shipment by truck can be the work of many hands. Because of this logistical complexity, truck accidents present some of the greatest difficulties in personal injury litigation,11 which can make it much harder to assign blame.

For instance, a truck’s driver could be held accountable for his or her own misconduct, along with the truck’s owner (if different from the driver), both for the actions of the driver and for the owner’s own shortcomings. The company deploying the truck (if different from the owner) at the time of the accident could also bear responsibility.

Furthermore, an outside loader could be culpable if a truck accident is caused by an excessive or poorly secured load, and an outside servicing agent could be at fault if an inadequately maintained

truck breaks down while it is in use. If a defectively designed or produced part contributes to that breakdown, the manufacturer, distributor, and/or retailer of that part could be liable too. And if hazardous road conditions bring about an otherwise avoidable truck accident, the government body in charge of roadway construction and repair could be civilly pursued, as could private subcontractors to whom the government body outsourced the roadwork in question. In some situations, multiple individuals and entities might have varying degrees of legal liability simultaneously, for which they might have varying degrees of fiscal liability.

Given how many defendants there could be, it is critical to go after every one of them within the time allotted by law, known as the Statute of Limitations. The Statute for an Indiana truck accident is typically two years, though the window can be narrower in cases against the government, with additional requirements that must be met. Failure to file a lawsuit or resolve a claim before the Statute elapses could forever bar you from financial recovery – an oversight that Hensley’s meticulous South Bend truck accident lawyers will never allow.

How Our South Bend Truck Accident Attorneys Can Help

Nothing can prepare you for a major truck accident, which could overwhelm you with escalating expenses while making it almost impossible to earn a living. Without outside help, you could soon find yourself teetering on the brink of disaster.

Fortunately, help is available from the South Bend truck accident attorneys at Hensley Legal Group, where we have been fighting for the everyday people of Indiana for more than 25 years. No task is too daunting or adversary too intimidating to stop us from doing whatever is necessary to protect the rights of our clients.

If you choose to hire Hensley, we will launch an exhaustive investigation into the causes of your truck accident and everyone who may be liable for it, acting swiftly to amass the materials to construct your claim, including:

· Police reports

· Tickets and dispositions

· Crash scene photos

· Streetlight, dash cam, and surveillance footage

· Black box data

· Witness statements

· Phone records

· Driving histories

· Hours of Service (HOS) and maintenance logs

· Forensic analysis and accident reconstruction

If evidence of wrongdoing exists, our South Bend truck accident lawyers will work tirelessly to find it.

Maximize the Value of Your Truck Accident Case

After putting together an airtight case against all of the defendants, we will enter into negotiations with their insurance companies to obtain a settlement that takes the full spectrum of your losses into consideration, including:

· Medical bills

· Lost wages

· Pain and suffering

· Psychological and emotional anguish

· Diminished quality of life

· Permanent impairment

· Scarring and disfigurement

· Loss of consortium

· Punitive and wrongful death damages (if applicable)

And unlike some of our competitors, who seldom see the inside of a courtroom, we are not afraid to take your case to trial if we do not receive an offer that reflects its true value.

No two truck accident cases are completely alike, but we will strive to maximize the value of yours.

You Won’t Pay Until We Win

You may be reluctant to agree to more expenditures when you can least afford them, but our firm works on a contingency basis, so you won’t have to pay us anything until our South Bend truck accident attorneys win your case.

You have been forced to shoulder an unimaginable burden since your truck accident. Let Hensley shoulder that burden so that you can focus on becoming well again.

Our South Bend Truck Accident Lawyers Want to Hear from You

Hensley Legal Group has been standing up for the innocent victims of negligence since 1998. If you have been hurt through no fault of your own, our South Bend personal injury lawyers want to hear from you.

You can arrange a free case review with an accomplished South Bend truck accident attorney by calling or texting us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form.