How Trucking Insurance Works in Indiana

• Truck accidents are among the most devastating events in Indiana today, but greater compensation may be available for the damages that trucks inflict thanks to the substantial insurance policies they are usually required to carry.
• Unfortunately, the additional financial obligations imposed on commercial trucks and semi-trailers could inspire significant pushback from trucking insurance carriers desperate to find any opportunity to minimize their exposure.
• However, you can overcome this opposition with help from Hensley’s Indiana truck accident lawyers, who have had proven success with large vehicle injury cases, like a $25 million verdict* for a collision with an ambulance.

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

Trucks, semi-trailers, and other commercial motor vehicles collectively travel more than 9.5 billion miles each and every year in Indiana, both on local streets and major freight corridors like I-70. Yet as important as trucking is to the state, it comes with a huge downside in the form of truck accidents, which are among the most devastating events in Indiana traffic, especially for any smaller vehicles that may be involved.

When a truck that could weigh up to 80,000 pounds smashes into a car that weighs maybe a thirtieth as much, it may be no surprise that the car’s occupants statistically account for about 72 percent of the deaths and most of the injuries, or that those injuries are often extreme, such as:

• TBIs
• Spinal cord damage
• Loss of limbs
• Internal hemorrhaging
• Paralysis
• Coma

Medical conditions this dire can demand prolonged care at a price that can be tough to afford on your own, although you may not have to be on your own thanks to the insurance requirements that the federal government imposes on for-hire carriers. Unfortunately, a million dollars or more in insurance coverage could create an enormous incentive for an insurance company to oppose your claim at every juncture, but you can overcome this opposition by partnering with the skilled 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.

Hensley has had decades of success with large vehicle injury cases, including:

• 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.

Outcomes like these have earned HLG recognition as one of the Best Law Firms in the United States by Best Lawyers®. Hensley truck accident attorney Sarah Graziano has also been honored with the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, while attorneys at the firm have been honored with 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.

To discover how a knowledgeable Indiana truck accident attorney can make a real difference during this difficult time, please schedule a free consultation by calling us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form now.

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

Who Can Be at Fault for an Indiana Truck Accident?

Indiana records an average of more than 5,700 truck accidents annually, and serious injuries tend to be the rule, not the exception, although you probably won’t be compensated for your Indiana trucking injuries unless somebody else is at fault for the accident.

Exactly who the at-fault party could be may vary depending upon the circumstances. The two most common defendants in Indiana truck accident cases are the drivers of the trucks and the trucking companies deploying them, although other individuals and entities might be at fault too, such as:

• Brokers
• Shipper
• Loaders
• Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of defective trucks and component parts
• Road construction contractors

In general, a truck driver in Indiana will be at fault on the basis of direct liability. That is, the fault will arise from negligent deeds that the driver committed directly, such as speeding, tailgating, failing to yield, falling asleep at the wheel, or driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and the same could be true of many other kinds of defendants.

In contrast, an Indiana trucking company will mostly have vicarious liability for a truck driver’s actions, although the company may have some level of direct liability in addition to its vicarious liability, frequently because of negligent hiring, retention, training, or vehicular maintenance. But while the trucking company’s liability may be less apparent than the truck driver’s, it is absolutely vital for you to expose any liability that exists because doing so could dramatically increase the amount you might receive for your trucking injuries.

This is because the primary avenues of financial recovery for most personal injury claims are the insurance policies that are applicable to them. For an Indiana truck accident insurance claim, the biggest applicable policy will usually be held by the trucking company that dispatches the truck, and federal insurance regulations on commercial vehicles will mostly dictate how big that policy will be.

How Federal Insurance Requirements Affect How Much a Truck Accident Is Worth

For-hire carriers in the United States are required under Sec. 387.9 of the Code of Federal Regulations to purchase insurance policies that are substantial enough to cover the substantial harm that might be inflicted by trucks. There are two core factors that chiefly determine a truck’s liability insurance requirements and therefore how much an accident with that truck may be worth.

The first core factor is the truck’s “gross vehicle weight rating” (GVWR), a measure of a vehicle’s total combined weight, including the net weight of the vehicle and its accessories along with the weight of any passengers, fuel, and cargo. The second core factor is the type of freight that is being transported.

At the lowest end of the insurance requirement spectrum is a “for-hire property carrier” transporting nonhazardous property in a vehicle with a GVWR of less than 10,001 pounds. A truck in that category must carry at least $300,000.00 in liability insurance coverage.

On the other hand, any “for-hire” vehicle weighing 10,001 pounds or more is required to carry a minimum of $750,000.00 in liability insurance, and that’s only if the goods being carried are still classified as “nonhazardous.” However, if a for-hire carrier is transporting “hazardous material,” the minimum liability coverage will jump up to $1 million, and it might be as high as $5 million for explosives, poison gas, or radioactive materials.

While a word like “hazardous” might make you automatically think of something life-threatening, Sec. 5103 of the Federal Hazardous Materials Transportation Law actually grants the Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation the authority to:

“designate material (including an explosive, radioactive material, infectious substance, flammable or combustible liquid, solid, or gas, toxic, oxidizing, or corrosive material, and compressed gas) or a group or class of material as hazardous when the Secretary determines that transporting the material in commerce in a particular amount and form may pose an unreasonable risk to health and safety or property.”

As such, a host of seemingly mundane (and some admittedly less mundane) household items are routinely designated as hazardous, and trucking companies normally have to procure much heftier commercial trucking insurance policy limits before they are permitted to transport them. Some of the hazardous items that may have to be insured at a higher rate are:

• Aerosol or carbon dioxide cylinders and canisters
• Airbags
• Alcohol
• Bleach
• Automobile and lithium batteries
• Cosmetics
• Dry ice
• Electronic devices
• Fertilizers
• Fire extinguishers
• Fireworks
• Fuel
• Guns and ammo
• Ink drums cartridges
• Insecticides and pesticides
• Lighters and matches
• Oxygen tanks
• Paint, paint thinners, and paint removers
• Refrigerant gases
• Sanitizers
• Scuba equipment
• Smoke alarms
• Swimming pool chemicals
• Wood treatment products

As a consequence, you may have a greater chance of obtaining fair compensation for even the most severe injuries if you get into an accident with a truck that’s hauling one of these items – or at least you may have a greater chance of obtaining it in theory.

In practice, the more skin an insurance company has in the game for an Indiana truck accident, the more pressure that company may be under fiscally, and drastic attempts to release that pressure by diminishing the worth of your Indiana truck accident case may be soon to follow.

Problems You Could Face When Dealing with a Trucking Insurer

Indeed, getting reimbursed out of a trucking insurance policy isn’t simply a matter of sending a stack of your medical bills over to the trucking insurer and then waiting around patiently for a check that takes all of them and any other losses you may have sustained into account.

At the risk of stating the obvious, an insurance company is in the business of making money, so it will want to pay out as little as possible on your Indiana truck accident claim and may constantly be on the lookout for plausible justifications for making a lowball offer.

One of the main ways of devaluing an Indiana truck accident case is casting doubt on the losses that have been incurred. For example, an insurance adjuster might seize on any gaps in treatment to argue that the injury was unrelated to the Indiana truck accident or twist some casual comment you make about feeling “fine today” as an indication that you aren’t actually as injured as you’ve previously insisted.

Alternatively, the responsibility for your truck accident could be shifted away from the insurance carrier’s policyholder and towards someone else, such as another driver or one of the other potential defendants listed above.

More distressingly, the insurer could point the finger at you. The fact is that liability for an Indiana truck accident isn’t always so cut and dried, and the degree to which you can be shown to be liable could influence the viability of your case under the state’s “modified comparative fault” system.

According to Sec. 34-51-2-5 of the Indiana Code, “any contributory fault chargeable to the claimant diminishes proportionately the amount awarded as compensatory damages for an injury attributable to the claimant’s contributory fault.” Nevertheless, it shouldn’t bar recovery unless “the claimant’s contributory fault is greater than the fault of all persons whose fault proximately contributed to the claimant’s damages” (IC Sec. 34-51-2-6).

Basically, you may be able to recover something if you’re 50 percent to blame or less for a truck accident, although it may be reduced by your share of the blame, but you might not recover anything if you’re over 50 percent culpable, and the insurance carrier will be eager to prove it.

As you can see, the problems you could face when dealing with a trucking insurer can be daunting, but they don’t have to be insurmountable when you have Hensley’s seasoned Indiana truck accident lawyers in your corner.

What Our Indiana Truck Accident Attorneys Can Do to Help

If you join the ranks of the many Hoosiers every day who choose to hire Hensley, our Indiana truck accident attorneys will begin by launching a comprehensive investigation to identify the root causes of your accident and each of the defendants who may have contributed to it within the time allotted by law.

Next, our firm will establish valid claims against them by sending them formal notification in writing and alerting their insurance companies (if they’re already known to us), and a lawsuit will more than likely be filed as well in a court with the power to issue a binding judgment.

Whether the insurance carriers learn about our intentions from us immediately or from their policyholders shortly afterward, we will be sure to do everything we can to get you everything that may be owed to you as a function of your damages and the insurers’ obligations.

To achieve this goal, our steadfast team of Indiana truck accident lawyers will search far and wide for the materials necessary to support any allegations you make, interceding legally when warranted to prohibit the destruction or “spoliation” of critical evidence, such as:

• Dash cam, in-cab, loading dock, and surveillance videos
• Black box, ECM, ELD, and GPS data
• Employment documentation
• DQFs and MVRs
• Emails, memos, and handbooks
• Drug and alcohol testing
• Dispatches, calls, and communications
• Timetables and itineraries
• Bills of lading, manifests, and weight tickets
• FMCSA Hours of Service (HOS) logs
• Pre- and post-trip inspection reports (DVIRs)
• Fueling and tollbooth receipts
• Servicing histories

Once we have put together an airtight Indiana truck accident case that thoroughly conveys the extent of the defendants’ misconduct, we won’t stop until we negotiate a settlement in a conference room or win a verdict in a courtroom that accurately reflects the depth of your losses.

By putting you in a position to take full advantage of the commercial insurance available for this incident, our tenacious Indiana truck accident attorneys may ultimately be able to get you the resources you need to become whole again.

Reach Out to Hensley’s Indiana Truck Accident Lawyers

Hensley Legal Group has been standing up for the innocent victims of negligence for more than a quarter century. If your world has been turned upside down by a commercially insured truck or semi-trailer in the State of Indiana, reach out to Hensley’s Indiana truck accident lawyers to find out what they can do to set things right.

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 truck accident attorney at our firm.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is my Indiana truck accident case worth?

It is impossible to definitively say up front what your Indiana truck accident case is worth because every case is different.

Nonetheless, a number of factors could influence your final compensation package, such as the circumstances leading up to the accident, the damages you incurred, and the amount of applicable insurance coverage, which could be significantly higher when a commercial truck is involved.

Who is at fault for a commercial truck accident?

Many parties could be at fault for a commercial truck accident. The two most common defendants are the driver of the truck and the trucking company deploying it, although a host of other individuals and entities could be liable too.

But no matter how many defendants ultimately share blame, it is critical to identify them all, since their insurance policies tend to be the chief means of financial recovery in Indiana commercial truck accident cases, and the biggest policy will usually be held by the trucking company.

How much insurance coverage could a commercial truck have in Indiana?

The minimum insurance coverage on a commercial truck will primarily depend upon the truck’s size and the cargo it is transporting.

On the low end of the spectrum, a truck weighing less than 10,0001 pounds that’s transporting non-hazardous goods might carry as little as $300,000.00 in liability insurance. In contrast, a heavier truck hauling hazardous freight might have anywhere from $750,000.00 to $1 million or more in insurance coverage.

What type of material is considered “hazardous”?

While the term “hazardous” can be used to describe something as obviously life-threatening as toxic waste or nuclear isotopes, a wide range of seemingly mundane household items could also be considered “hazardous.”

Under federal law, the Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation can designate material as “hazardous” if “transporting the material in commerce in a particular amount and form may pose an unreasonable risk to health and safety or property.” This classification is especially likely to be applied to an “explosive, radioactive material, infectious substance, flammable or combustible liquid, solid, or gas, toxic, oxidizing, or corrosive material, and compressed gas.”

How can an Indiana truck accident lawyer help with my case?

An insurer may try to resolve your case for pennies on the dollar by casting doubt on the extent of your damages or on the policyholder’s liability, potentially by arguing that you were more liable for the Indiana truck accident.

However, a seasoned attorney can overcome these attempts by establishing valid claims and/or filing suit against each of the defendants, securing irrefutable evidence of their liability and your losses, and fighting for a settlement or verdict that reflects the true value of your case.