Tennessee Truck Accidents – Matters to Consider

It seems to me that too often lawyers and the public think of truck accident cases just like in other car wreck case. Unfortunately, this failure to consider a truck accident case as unique often a tragic mistake. In doing so, the trucking company may escape responsibility for putting an unsafe vehicle on the road, pushing a driver to the point of exhaustion and/or putting profits over public safety. Although there is a long list of items my office considers in any trucking case I would like to set forth a few that we often see in this blog and the next few blogs to come. I will start with the rear end collision:

First, people often believe that rear in cases are always the fault of the driver that collides into the rear of a vehicle. This is not always the case. When a passenger vehicle impacts the back or side of a large truck and/or tractor-trailer, running beneath it, the resulting accident is termed “under ride.” Sometime an underide collisions is not a fault of the driver following the truck. Specifically, some of the reasons an under-ride occurs are:

1. The truck has no guard designed to prevent these types of accidents.
2. The truck has a guard, but it is designed poorly and fails to provides adequate protection.
3. Reflective tape or reflectors, used to warn approaching cars, is missing or obscured by mud or dirt.

It is also important to note how the car held up in this type of collision. Was the car “crash worthy”? Did the air bags deploy? Did the glass shatter? Did the seat belt work? A proper inspection should be made of any car involved in a serious accident.