Fort Wayne Truck Accident Lawyers

As both a major producer and a major consumer of goods, Fort Wayne relies heavily on the trucking industry to meet its daily needs.  In many ways, trucks and semi-trailers are indispensable to life and commerce in the city, but the fact remains that truck accidents are some of the most devastating events on Indiana roads – and far from rare either, with large trucks involved in 5,410 collisions across the state in 2023 alone.  

Since trucks can weigh upwards of 20 to 30 times more than most passenger vehicles, the occupants of the smaller autos will probably experience the brunt of any of these crashes, including 72 percent of the total casualties.  However, even a non-fatal truck accident could inflict punishing injuries that may necessitate prolonged medical care at a cost that could exceed what most Fort Wayne families could manage on their own. 

If you are struggling to get back to normal after being hurt in a truck accident, the Fort Wayne truck accident attorneys at Hensley Legal Group are ready to help.  Our firm has been standing up for honest Hoosiers like you for more than 25 years, and we are eager to get justice for you and the ones you love. 

You can schedule a free consultation with a dedicated Fort Wayne truck accident lawyer by calling or texting us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form at your earliest convenience. 

Who Is at Fault for a Truck Accident? 

Truck accidents pose some of the greatest challenges in personal injury litigation, not least because of the sheer number of parties who could be at fault for them.  There are an estimated 15,829 trucking companies currently registered in Indiana, and they collectively move around 417,517 tons of freight throughout the state each day.  Even a single shipment by truck could be the work of many hands, all of whom could be held to account when something goes wrong, including a truck’s driver, its owner (if separate from the driver), and any company making use of a truck immediately prior to a collision (if separate from the owner).   

Others could be culpable as well, such as a loader if poorly secured cargo leads to a truck accident, a mechanic if an inadequately maintained truck precipitates a breakdown-related crash, or a manufacturer, distributor, or retailer of a defective component part if it contributes to that breakdown.  If bad road conditions lead to a truck accident, a government agency in charge of building or repairing that road might be civilly pursued too, along with any outside contractors that it employs.  Sometimes multiple individuals and entities could share differing levels of legal liability for the same truck accident, for which they could share differing levels of financial liability. 

Given how many defendants there might be, it is imperative to go after all of them within the time allotted by law, known as the Statute of Limitations.  The Statute is two years for most truck accidents in Indiana, though the window could be narrower in cases against the government, with further requirements that must be satisfied, and neglecting to file a lawsuit or otherwise resolve your claim before it expires could forever bar you from full economic recovery.   

But you can rest assured that Hensley’s meticulous Fort Wayne truck accident attorneys will dot every “i” and cross every “t” so that your case will never be derailed by a careless oversight.  

Common Causes of Truck Accidents 

If you hope to find out everyone who is responsible for your truck accident, it is important to determine why it happened in the first place. 

The truth is that truck accidents may have many causes, some of which may stem from the trucks themselves, with various design, manufacturing, or maintenance flaws either bringing about a truck accident or making it worse.  Some vehicular causes may include: 

• Shifting or excessive cargo 

• Malfunctioning brakes 

• Tire tread separation 

• Dimming headlights 

• Jackknifing trailers 

• Broken turn signals 

• Severed tow hitches 

Other causes may be more external in nature, such as: 

• Inclement weather 

• Road hazards 

Ultimately, though, research suggests that driver error tends to be the most likely cause.  One study by the Indiana University Public Policy Institute tied 65 percent of the state’s traffic accidents to “unsafe [driver] actions,” while a study from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration credited 87 percent of the “critical reasons” for truck accidents to drivers.  Examples of driver misconduct might include:    

• Traveling too fast 

• Following too closely (tailgating) 

• Distraction 

• Failing to yield 

• Improper overtaking or passing 

• Sudden lane changes 

• Ignoring traffic control signals 

It should be noted that drivers of all vehicles could make these sorts of mistakes, and truck drivers may even be more conscientious than most.  Nonetheless, professional pressures could make truckers more susceptible to certain shortcomings, especially when it comes to fatigue, which plays a role in approximately 100,000 motor vehicle accidents, 50,000 injuries, and 800 deaths annually in the United States.   

Unlike the average American motorist, who only drives about 61.3 minutes per day, truckers must spend almost all of their working lives behind the wheel.  And though the federal government constrains truck drivers to 14-hour workdays, with no more than 11 of those hours devoted to driving, the demands of their employers and their own wallets may push them beyond the bounds of the law and their abilities, sometimes with tragic results. 

Regardless of the specific cause of your truck accident, you can count on Hensley’s Fort Wayne truck accident lawyers to decide on the best course of action if you are contemplating a case. 

What Our Fort Wayne Truck Accident Attorneys Can Do for You 

A truck accident can turn your world upside down, burying you beneath an avalanche of medical bills while making it much harder for you to earn the money to cover them.  Very quickly, you could have trouble merely making ends meet, much less acquiring the funds to stave off ruin. 

You need lawyers with the compassion to support you during this difficult period and the wisdom to guide you through it – like the Fort Wayne personal injury lawyers at Hensley Legal Group, who will do whatever it takes to protect the rights of their injured clients. 

If you choose to hire Hensley, we will exhaustively investigate your truck accident and everyone who may be to blame for it, establishing valid claims against all of them within the time permitted by law.  We will then act swiftly to amass any evidence of their wrongdoing that may exist, such as: 

• Police reports 

• Citations and dispositions 

• Eyewitness statements 

• Crash scene photos 

• Dash cam, streetlight, and surveillance footage 

• Black box data 

• Phone records 

• Driving histories 

• Hours of Service (HOS) and maintenance logs 

• Accident reconstruction and forensic analysis 

After putting together the strongest case possible against all of the defendants, our Fort Wayne truck accident lawyers will enter into negotiations with their insurance companies, working tirelessly to reach a settlement that considers the entirety of your damages, including your: 

• Medical bills 

• Lost wages 

• Pain and suffering 

• Mental and emotional trauma 

• Mobility restrictions 

• Scarring and disfigurement 

• Diminished quality of living 

• Loss of consortium 

• Punitive and wrongful death damages (if applicable) 

And if we do not receive an offer that is worthy of your claim, we are more than willing to go to trial for a verdict that is, unlike many of our competitors, who seldom, if ever, venture into a courtroom. 

We realize that spending more money may be the last thing you can afford to do at this moment, but you should know that Hensley Legal Group works on a contingency basis.  This means that you won’t have to pay us anything until our Fort Wayne truck accident attorneys win your case. 

You have enough to worry about just trying to heal from your injuries.  Let us worry about getting you the resources to do it. 

Fighting for the Hardworking People of Indiana 

Hensley Legal Group has been fighting for the hardworking people of Indiana since 1998.  If you have been seriously injured because of somebody else’s thoughtlessness, get in touch with our Fort Wayne truck accident lawyers to discover the remedies available to you. 

You can call or text us at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form to arrange a complementary case review with an accomplished Fort Wayne truck accident attorney today.