Traumatic Brain Injuries from Indiana Truck Accidents

• Truck accidents are among the leading causes of traumatic brain injuries in Indiana, and the occupants of any smaller vehicles involved tend to suffer physically and financially catastrophic TBIs at a disproportionate rate.
• While greater compensation may be available for trucking TBIs thanks to the federal insurance requirements on commercial trucks, you might also face greater opposition from insurers looking to minimize the value of your claim.
• Fortunately, you can overcome this opposition with help from Hensley Legal Group, PC, which has had a proven history of success with large vehicle injury claims, including a $25 million verdict* for a collision with an ambulance.

*SPECIFIC CASE RESULTS. NO TWO CASES ARE EXACTLY ALIKE.

The trucking industry may be central to life and commerce in Indiana, with more than 417,000 tons of goods transported by trucks within the state’s borders each and every day, but it comes with a major downside in the form of truck accidents. With so many trucks and semi-trailers traveling so much on critical Indiana freight corridors like I-65, serious crashes might be inevitable, and the injuries can be catastrophic for the occupants of any smaller vehicles that may be involved.

Among the most frequent trucking accident injuries is the traumatic brain injury or TBI, defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as “a disruption in the normal function of the brain that can be caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head, or penetrating head injury.” Over 61,000 Americans die annually because of TBIs, although a non-fatal traumatic brain injury can still impair you to such an immense degree that you might soon have trouble simply taking care of yourself, to say nothing of the loved ones who count on you for support and guidance.

Fortunately, assistance may be available if somebody else is at fault for a truck accident TBI in Indiana, and you could increase the amount you obtain by joining the thousands of Hoosiers every year who choose to hire Hensley Legal Group, PC, a dedicated Indiana personal injury law firm whose experienced attorneys have been fighting on behalf of the wrongfully injured since 1998.

Named one of the Best Law Firms in the United States by Best Lawyers®, Hensley has a proven history of success with large vehicle injury cases, such as:

• A $25 million verdict for a collision with an ambulance.
• An $8 million settlement for a delivery truck accident.
• A $5.5 million claim resolution for a semi-trailer crash.

Additionally, Hensley truck accident attorney Sarah Graziano has received the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, while other attorneys at the firm have earned inclusion in the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, the American Association for Justice, Trucking Litigation Group, the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, Super Lawyers, America’s Top 100 Attorneys, and the National Trial Lawyers’ lists of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers and the Top 40 Under 40.

But as proud as we are of these accolades, we’d be equally proud to stand up for you at this difficult time and hope you schedule a free consultation with an Indiana traumatic brain injury attorney by calling us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form now.

How Do Truck Accidents Cause Traumatic Brain Injuries?

Practically any significant head trauma can lead to a TBI. Some of the main causes of traumatic brain injuries in the country today are:

• Falls
• Sports accidents
• Assaults
• Construction site disasters

Also among the greatest contributors to TBIs are auto accidents, which send over 218,000 drivers, passengers, and pedestrians per year to emergency rooms nationwide with traumatic brain injuries.

Vehicular TBIs can be sustained through either indirect or direct mechanisms. Usually, a traffic accident will injure a motorist’s brain indirectly by jerking the head in a vigorous manner, thereby causing the brain to jostle around and maybe strike the inside of the skull. Alternatively, the skull and by extension the brain could be harmed directly if the head smashes into the windshield, the steering wheel, or another fixture or person within the vehicle or if an outside vehicle or object penetrates the motorist’s vehicle.

As traumatic to the brain as car accidents can be, truck accidents tend to be far worse, mostly because of the sheer size of these massive machines, with semi-trailers weighing around 20 to 30 times as much as the average passenger vehicle.

This means that a collision between a truck and a car could generate 20 to 30 times as much momentum (a measure of an object’s mass multiplied by its speed), and most of it will be absorbed by the car and the individuals inside of it, along with their brains, whether directly or indirectly.

Compounding the problem further is the fact that this much momentum could make it much likelier for the truck to breach the occupant compartment of the car and expose the occupants’ heads to trauma from fragments of the car or the truck itself.

The initial crash might not be the only source of cranial injury either, since the overall momentum could make the car roll over, subjecting the occupants to many more direct or indirect head injuries. Moreover, truck accidents eject people from their vehicles at a higher rate, sometimes through open doors and windows and sometimes through closed ones, and their head injuries might be punishing enough to call for the services of a skilled Indiana traumatic brain injury lawyer.

Common Truck Accident Traumatic Brain Injuries

Truck accidents can inflict a wide range of traumatic brain injuries that can be placed on a spectrum of intensity from mild to moderate to severe. The most common trucking TBI is the concussion. According to the CDC, a concussion is typically “caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or by a hit to the body that causes the head and brain to move rapidly back and forth,” and its symptoms may include:

• Loss of consciousness
• Headaches or “pressure” in the head
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Dizziness
• Imbalance or clumsiness
• Blurred or double vision
• Sensitivity to light or noise
• Tinnitus/’ringing” in the ears
• Impeded concentration or memory
• Muddled thinking
• Delayed responses
• Sluggishness
• Altered mood, behavior, or personality

Although concussions are considered to be on the “mild” end of the TBI spectrum, since they are rarely deadly and around 80 percent of them go away by themselves within a couple of weeks, their effects can be anything but mild. This is particularly true for patients who develop post-concussion syndrome and have to endure their symptoms for much longer, perhaps permanently, and recent research has even indicated that a severe concussion could double to quadruple the odds of a dementia diagnosis later on.

Other trucking accident TBIs run the gamut from moderate to severe, such as the contusion. This might sound mild enough, but you may be surprised to learn that a contusion in this context refers to bleeding on the brain.

Contusions often though not automatically coincide with concussions, and the damages associated with them can be substantial depending upon the size, location, and duration of the bleeding, with around a quarter of contusion-related head injuries resulting in long-term disability.

Another trucking TBI in the “moderate to severe” category is the diffuse axonal injury, where connections in the brain tear secondary to agitation or rotation of the head, something that could easily occur during a truck accident.

Like with contusions, the parts of the brain damaged in diffuse axonal injuries and the extent of that damage will depend upon the location and length of the tearing, inducing a coma or a “change in functional outcome status and post-concussive symptoms” in extreme cases.

On the most severe end of the TBI spectrum is the cerebral penetration, in which the skull and potentially the brain get punctured by a sharp object, like a piece of the car’s interior when a truck intrudes into the occupant compartment.

It’s tough to overstate how dire the consequences of a penetration injury can be. About 70 to 90 percent of patients die before they can get to a hospital, while half of the ones who do get there die shortly afterward, and anyone who manages to survive a trucking penetration injury may nevertheless have to cope with:

• Cognitive and neurological deficiencies
• Changes in personality
• Partial or complete paralysis
• Seizures

Just as the kinds of traumatic brain injuries can vary, the expenses arising from them can vary too. Whereas a concussion treated in an ER might produce a bill as low as $800.10, inpatient rehabilitation can cost around $46,000.00 per stay, and that could pale in comparison to the economic toll on a family when a TBI prevents its primary breadwinner from returning to work.

Regardless of how devastating your truck accident TBI is, however, you can always rely on Hensley’s tenacious Indiana traumatic brain injury attorneys to do everything in their power to get you the maximum amount of compensation possible for it.

Why Commercial Insurance Policies Can Help – and Hinder – Your TBI Claim

Your chief avenues of fiscal recovery for a trucking accident TBI will generally be the insurance companies for the defendants responsible for the accident, and their pockets can be very deep indeed if the truck was engaged in commercial transportation, as most of them are.

Thanks to the insurance requirements that the federal government imposes on “for-hire property carriers,” there might be upwards of $1 million (or more) in applicable coverage, although this could actually be something of a mixed blessing. While in theory policies this big can help you get fairly compensated for a traumatic brain injury no matter how bad it is, in practice they could give the insurers a bigger incentive to hinder your TBI claim at every juncture by casting doubt on your damages, the defendants’ liability, or both.

Yet while justice can be elusive in the face of such staunch resistance, it doesn’t have to be out of reach forever if you partner with the seasoned Indiana traumatic brain injury lawyers at Hensley Legal Group, PC.

What You Can Expect from Hensley’s Indiana Traumatic Brain Injury Attorneys

Once you retain our firm, we will carry out a comprehensive investigation to identify each of the defendants who may be to blame for your trucking TBI, then establish valid claims and/or file suit against them all within the time allotted by law.

After moving swiftly to amass the evidence necessary to build an airtight case, interceding legally to stop its destruction if warranted, we will enter into exhaustive negotiations with the defendants’ insurance carriers for a settlement that reflects the totality of your damages.

And if an offer isn’t proposed that is worthy of your case, we are more than willing to take it to trial for a verdict that is, unlike many of our competitors, who seldom see the inside of a courtroom.

We understand that you might be incredibly reluctant to agree to more expenditures, especially if you’ve had to spend quite a bit already, but our firm operates on a contingency basis, so you won’t owe us anything unless our Indiana traumatic brain injury attorneys win your case.

You have enough to worry about at this moment merely recovering from your traumatic brain injury. Let Hensley worry about recovering the resources you need to do it.

Get in Touch with Our Indiana Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyers

Hensley Legal Group has been fiercely advocating for the innocent victims of negligence for more than a quarter century. If you’ve been struggling to get back on track after suffering a TBI in an Indiana truck accident, get in touch with our Indiana traumatic brain injury lawyers to explore your legal options.

You can call us at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form for a complimentary case review with an accomplished Indiana traumatic brain injury attorney at our firm.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a traumatic brain injury?

A traumatic brain injury or TBI is defined by the CDC as “a disruption in the normal function of the brain that can be caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head, or penetrating head injury.”

TBIs can have a number of different causes, including falls, sports injuries, criminal assaults, and construction site disasters, but auto accidents are among the leading causes of traumatic brain injuries in the modern era, and some of the most serious TBIs are the result of truck accidents.

How can truck accidents cause TBIs?

Truck accidents can cause TBIs through either indirect or direct mechanisms. Usually, a victim will suffer a traumatic brain injury indirectly when a crash jerks the head forcefully and jostles the brain against the skull.

Alternatively, a TBI can be incurred directly if the victim’s head strikes something inside the vehicle or if the head is struck by another vehicle or object penetrating from outside, something that can happen more often in truck accidents because of the greater momentum generated.

What are the most common traumatic brain injuries sustained in Indiana truck accidents?

The most common traumatic brain injuries sustained in Indiana truck accidents are concussions, which occur when the head and brain move rapidly back and forth.

Although concussions are generally on the “mild” end of the traumatic brain injury spectrum, truck accidents are disproportionately likely to inflict “moderate to severe” TBIs like brain contusions, diffuse axonal injuries, and cerebral penetrations.

How much do truck accident TBIs cost?

The costs associated with truck accident TBIs can vary depending upon the nature of the injuries, the amount of medical attention required for them, and the long-term consequences for the patients and their loved ones.

Whereas a concussion treated in an ER might only cost as little as $800.10, inpatient TBI rehabilitation could cost as much as $46,000.00 per stay, and the economic toll on a family could be astronomical if a TBI prevents its primary breadwinner from returning to work.

Can I be compensated for my trucking traumatic brain injury?

Because of the federal insurance requirements for commercial trucks and semi-trailers, there might be upwards of $1 million (or more) in coverage applicable to a single truck accident.

While policies that big could increase your chances of getting fairly compensated for your trucking TBI, they could also give the insurers an even bigger incentive to oppose your claim, but you can overcome this opposition with help from our dedicated Indiana traumatic brain injury lawyers.