Common Indiana Trucking Injuries

• Truck accidents inflict some of the worst injuries on Indiana’s roads, and among the most common and most punishing are traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), spinal cord injuries, orthopedic injuries, and amputation injuries.
• Injuries like these can be both physically and financially devastating, although substantial compensation may be available when somebody else is at fault for your truck accident thanks to federal commercial insurance requirements.
• To increase the amount you obtain, reach out to the Indiana truck accident lawyers at Hensley Legal Group, PC, who have a history of success with large vehicle injury claims, like a $25 jury million verdict* for an ambulance accident.

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

Trucks and semi-trailers seem to be practically everywhere you look in the State of Indiana, which is located along some of America’s major freight corridors and has more than 417,000 tons of goods transported within its borders on any given day. But with so many trucks spending so much time on Indiana highways like Route 31, truck accidents may be inevitable, and the sheer size of these massive vehicles can make them some of the worst disasters on the state’s roads.

Data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggests that a collision with a truck is about 2.5 to three times as deadly as a car crash, and the injuries in non-fatal truck accidents tend to be incredibly punishing too. Four of the most common (and most punishing) trucking injuries are:

• Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs)
• Spinal Cord Injuries
• Orthopedic Injuries
• Amputation Injuries

Injuries of this magnitude can be as devastating financially as they are physically, often demanding prolonged treatment at a price that few Indiana families could afford on their own. Fortunately, assistance may be available when somebody else is at fault for your trucking injuries, and you might be able to obtain even more if you partner with the tenacious truck accident lawyers at 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 and who have a history of success with large vehicle injury claims, including:

• A $25 million jury verdict for an ambulance accident.
• An $8.0 million resolution for a delivery truck claim.
• A $5.5 million settlement for a semi-trailer collision.

In recognition of these and other achievements, Hensley has been named one of the Best Law Firms in the United States by Best Lawyers®. Hensley truck accident attorney Sarah Graziano has also been named Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, while attorneys at the firm have been included in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, Super Lawyers, America’s Top 100 Attorneys, the National Trial Lawyers’ lists of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers and the Top 40 Under 40, and the American Association for Justice, Trucking Litigation Group.

Yet as proud as we are of these accolades, we’d be just as proud to make a difference for you and your loved ones and hope you give us a call at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form for a free case review with a knowledgeable Indiana truck accident attorney today.

Why Truck Accident Injuries Are So Extreme

A variety of factors could make truck accident injuries more extreme than car accident injuries, but the main factor is that semi trucks can be around 20 to 30 times as big as most passenger vehicles.

As a consequence, the momentum (a measure of mass (weight) times velocity (speed)) generated when a truck smashes into another vehicle can be 20 to 30 times as much, and most of it will be absorbed by the other vehicle, and by anyone unlucky enough to be inside it.

Indeed, the occupants of the smaller vehicles in these kinds of accidents suffer about 72 percent of the deaths and the lion’s share of the injuries. These injuries could take nearly any form, but we’d like to focus on the most extreme trucking injuries, examining both the negative effects they can have and what our skilled Indiana truck accident lawyers can do to alleviate them.

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs)

Traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs for short, kill over 69,000 Americans per year and dramatically impair many more.

The most common traumatic brain injuries sustained in truck and other accidents are concussions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a concussion as “a type of traumatic brain injury…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,” agitation that is likely to occur during a truck accident. This abrupt head motion jostles the brain against the walls of the skull and may lead to:

• Loss of consciousness
• Headaches or head “pressure”
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Dizziness
• Imbalance
• Clumsiness
• Blurred/double vision
• Light or noise sensitivity
• “Ringing” in the ears (tinnitus)
• Hindered memory or concentration
• Confusion
• Sluggishness
• Delayed responses
• Behavior, mood, and personality changes

Around 80 percent of concussions go away by themselves within a couple of weeks, although patients who develop post-concussion syndrome may have to endure these symptoms much longer, sometimes permanently. In fact, recent research indicates that a severe concussion could double to quadruple the odds of a dementia diagnosis down the line.

While concussions are the most common truck accident TBIs, they certainly aren’t the only ones, since accidents like these can similarly cause:

• Contusions or bleeding on the brain
• Penetrations or punctures of the skull or brain
• Diffuse axonal injuries or torn brain connections

The medical treatment for a TBI will depend upon the injury but could include:

• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy
• Speech therapy
• Psychological therapy
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Surgery

And the more elaborate a course of treatment is, the more expensive a traumatic brain injury can be. Whereas a concussion treated solely in an emergency room might cost as little as $800.10, inpatient rehabilitation could run as much as $46,000.00 per stay, and the costs of a TBI could positively skyrocket when a primary breadwinner has to take off work or quit altogether.

As such, it can be critical to team up with attorneys who have what it takes to get you full compensation for your Indiana traumatic brain injury truck accident.

Spinal Cord Injuries

The spinal cord is the information superhighway of the human body, transmitting essential messages from the brain that support basic functions and facilitate complex movements, and any damage to it could shut everything down, a tragedy that might easily happen in a truck accident.

Auto accidents account for about 38.4 percent of spinal cord injuries nationwide, and the greater momentum produced by a truck could exacerbate the damage, while the heightened probability of a rollover or ejection could further harm the spinal cord.

The amount of damage incurred in a spinal cord injury semi truck crash will influence the injured motorist’s symptoms, and the most profound symptom is paralysis, a loss of nerve or muscle function that could make it much tougher or impossible to move the affected area of the body. Broadly speaking, spinal cord injuries can be classified as either:

• Complete, in which there is absolutely no nerve communication below the affected area, meaning that feeling, function, and muscle control are lost completely; or
• Incomplete, in which the spinal cord continues to transmit some messages to and from the brain, meaning that a limited amount of feeling, function, and muscle control persists below the affected area.

The point of injury has a significant bearing on the completeness of the paralysis as well. For instance, an injury that takes place farther down the spinal cord might only paralyze the lower body and legs (paraplegia), but a broken neck or a substantial cervical spinal injury could paralyze every limb (quadriplegia or tetraplegia) and most of the rest of the body.

Aside from paralysis, other truck accident spinal cord injuries include:

• Head, neck, or back pain or pressure
• Lost sensation, numbness, or tingling of the hands or feet
• Spinal bruising
• Bladder or bowel incontinence
• Enfeeblement
• Breathing or walking problems
• Alteration in sexual function

Medical attention should be sought promptly whenever the symptoms of a spinal cord injury appear. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes, a spinal patient’s condition could worsen secondary to cellular damage or death, and other complications could emerge over time, such as:

• Breathing and circulatory problems
• Pneumonia
• Autonomic dysreflexia
• Pressure sores
• Neurogenic pain
• Depression

Understandably, a spinal cord injury can necessitate an immense amount of care, including:

• External bracing and spinal realignment
• Usage of wheelchairs, crutches, and other devices
• Surgery
• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy
• Recreational therapy
• Psychological therapy
• Electronic stimulators
• Computer adaptations
• Neural prosthetics

None of this comes cheap either. The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center calculated the medical costs for paraplegia as $593,660.00 for the first year and $78,642.00 for every year afterward. Quadriplegia costs could be up to $1,218,106.00 for the first year and as much as $211,528.00 for each year to follow, to say nothing of the losses in salary and productivity that average out to $82,329.00 per year.

Orthopedic Injuries

The spinal cord may not be the only part of the back that gets injured in a truck accident. Any of the 33 bones encasing the spinal cord (vertebrae) could be damaged at the same time, as could the other bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and nerves that make up the musculoskeletal system. These are known as orthopedic injuries.

The most common orthopedic injuries are broken or fractured bones, and they can be divided into two groups:

• Simple or closed fractures – The bones break but stay inside the body; and
• Compound or open fractures – The fragments puncture the skin and expose the interior bones, muscles, and tissues.

Moreover, simple and compound fractures can each be divided into narrower subcategories, such as:

• Displaced fractures – The bones move out of alignment.
• Comminuted fractures – The bones break into tinier pieces.
• Transverse fractures – The bones break perpendicularly when force is applied at a right angle.
• Oblique fractures – The bones break at a slant when force is applied at an angle other than right.
• Spiral fractures – The bones break while being rotated or twisted.
• Avulsion fractures – Bone fragments tear off because of pressure to tendons or ligaments.

The treatment options will be contingent upon the nature of an orthopedic injury but may include:

• Application of casts and braces
• Use of crutches and wheelchairs
• Physical therapy
• Oral pain medications
• Epidural steroid injections
• Surgery

The costs associated with orthopedic injury care might range from hundreds of dollars on one end of the spectrum to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more on the other, and you could soon find yourself struggling to keep up with them.

Amputation Injuries

An exceptionally intense orthopedic injury, particularly of the ankle, foot, and leg, could result in an amputation of the impacted limb. The challenges that come with amputations can be considerable, whether they are:

• Traumatic amputations, in which limbs are severed during accidents; or
• Surgical amputations, in which limbs are removed operatively to save lives.

One study links approximately 51 percent of traumatic amputations in the country to car, truck, and other motor vehicle accidents, but either sort of amputation could stem from an Indiana truck accident, especially when:

• Drivers or passengers are crushed, such as in underrides
• Limbs are trapped or pinned, like in rollovers
• Vehicles struck by trucks catch fire
• Bacterial or viral infections set in

No matter if a limb is amputated at the scene of a truck accident or taken off in an operating room, it is hard to overstate how detrimental it can be to an amputee’s activities of daily living or ability to make a living.

Losing a hand, arm, leg, foot, or other appendage could create serious impediments to bathing, dressing, preparing and eating meals, writing, using phones and other implements, or merely getting around. Additionally, the medical interventions for an amputation injury can be as extensive as they are frustrating and may include:

• Surgery
• Physical, occupational, and psychological therapy
• Prosthetics, with corresponding fittings, training sessions, and periodic replacements
• Home healthcare
• Dwelling modifications

Unsurprisingly, the fiscal toll of an amputation injury can be monumental, estimated to be in excess of $509,000.00 over a lifetime according to a study published well over a decade ago. This can be a staggering sum under ideal circumstances, much less when your earning capacity has taken an enormous hit because of an amputation injury, but it may not be insurmountable in the wake of a truck accident thanks to federal government’s commercial insurance requirements.

How Commercial Insurance Policies Can Help You Get Fairly Compensated

In any viable truck accident injury claim, your chief source of recovery will be the liability insurance coverage on the truck that hit you. Since trucks and semi-trailers are usually engaged in the commercial transportation of goods, the FMCSA requires them to have insurance policies that are hefty enough to offset the hefty damages they can inflict.

Under Section 387.303 of the Code of Federal Regulations, any freight vehicle with a “Gross Vehicle Weight Rating” (GVWR) of 10,001 pounds or more must carry at least $750,000.00 in liability insurance, although that’s only if the freight is non-hazardous.

If the freight is “hazardous,” a term the Department of Transportation applies to materials posing an “unreasonable risk to health, safety, and property when transported,” the minimum is $1 million, and it could go up to $5 million for “explosives, poison gas, or radioactive materials.”

It isn’t difficult to imagine how insurance policies like these could help you get fairly compensated for your Indiana trucking injury, be it a TBI, a spinal cord or orthopedic injury, an amputation, or something equally burdensome. On the other hand, however, it isn’t difficult to imagine how these policies can incentivize the insurance companies to do everything in their power to push back against your claim by shifting the blame elsewhere, like at one of the other defendants or at you.

This level of resistance could doom a claim before it has barely gotten off the ground, but it doesn’t have to doom yours if you retain the seasoned Indiana truck accident lawyers at Hensley Legal Group, PC.

What Hensley Can Do for Your Trucking Injuries

If you become one of the many Hoosiers who choose to hire Hensley, our meticulous Indiana truck accident attorneys will identify all of the defendants who may be liable for your trucking injuries and establish valid claims and/or file suit against them within the time allotted by law.

Next, we will act swiftly to amass the materials needed to build a rock-solid Indiana truck accident case, then enter into exhaustive negotiations with the defendants’ insurers for a settlement that reflects the entirety of your damages, including your:

• Past, present, and future medical bills
• Lost wages and reduced earning potential
• Pain and suffering
• Mental and emotional trauma
• Mobility restrictions
• Scarring and disfigurement
• Diminished quality of living
• Loss of consortium

If we don’t receive an offer that is worthy of your claim, we aren’t afraid to go to trial for a verdict that is, unlike many of our competitors, who seldom, if ever, venture into a courtroom.

No two trucking injury cases are exactly alike, but our firm will always strive to maximize the value of your case so that you can begin getting back to normal.

Reach Out to Hensley’s Indiana Truck Accident Lawyers

Hensley Legal Group has been standing up for the badly injured for more than a quarter century. If your world has been upended by a reckless trucker in Indiana or somewhere else, reach out to Hensley’s Indiana truck accident lawyers to learn how they can set things right.

You can schedule a complimentary consultation with an accomplished Indiana truck accident attorney by calling us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form now.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are truck accidents more devastating than car accidents?

Various factors could make truck accidents more devastating than car accidents, but the main factor is that trucks are around 20 to 30 times the size of the average passenger vehicle.

As such, the momentum produced in a truck accident can be 20 to 30 times as big as it would be in a similar car accident and is therefore more likely to result in a catastrophic injury, like a traumatic brain injury (TBI), a spinal cord injury, an orthopedic injury, or an amputation injury.

What is a traumatic brain injury?

A traumatic brain injury or TBI is any injury in which the brain is suddenly harmed, usually by a blow to the head.

Concussions are the most common traumatic brain injuries, and they can have grave consequences in both the short and the long term. Other TBIs include brain contusions, penetrations of the skull or brain, and diffuse axonal injuries.

What is a spinal cord injury?

A spinal cord injury is any damage to the spinal cord, the complex bundle of nerves in the spine that transmits messages from the brain that are essential to supporting basic bodily functions and facilitating movement, with the most damaging spinal cord injury being paralysis.

Spinal cord injuries can be categorized as either complete, meaning there is absolutely no nerve communication along with no feeling, function, or muscle control, or incomplete, in which some messages can be transmitted and some level of feeling, function, and muscle control persists.

What is an orthopedic injury?

An orthopedic injury is an injury to some part of the musculoskeletal system, such as a bone, joint, ligament, tendon, muscle, or nerve.

Broken or fractured bones are the most common orthopedic injuries, and they can be broadly categorized as simple (closed) and compound (open) fractures and further grouped into subcategories like displaced, comminuted, transverse, oblique, spiral, and avulsion fractures.

What is an amputation injury?

An amputation injury is the loss of a limb or appendage.

Amputations can be divided into traumatic amputations, in which the body part is severed during an accident, and surgical amputations, in which the part is removed later, but any amputation can deeply impact a victim’s activities of daily living as well as his or her ability to make a living.