Being involved in a truck accident is one of the most frightening things that can happen. Truck accidents account for a disproportionate number of fatalities among other motorists, and survivors often suffer devastating injuries.
Many truck accidents occur because the truck is carrying too much weight. This entirely preventable circumstance greatly increases the risks to others on the road.
Consult a lawyer at Berkowitz Hanna if you are hurt or a loved one dies in an overloaded/overweight truck accident in Stamford. Our skilled truck accident attorneys will work tirelessly to hold responsible parties accountable and ensure you receive appropriate compensation for the harm they caused.
Trucks are manufactured to haul a specific amount of weight. Overloading a truck can strain its systems past the breaking point, leading to mechanical malfunctions or failures that cause accidents.
Even a properly loaded truck can be difficult to control when moving downhill, and excess weight can greatly increase the risk. On the other hand, trucks are typically slow to ascend steep hills, and excess weight can exacerbate that problem. More serious issues that can develop when a truck hauls too much weight include:
In addition, the additional stress of handling an overweight vehicle can increase driver fatigue, a frequent cause of accidents.
Trucks are not overweight or overloaded by accident. When loaded, the truck is weighed, and drivers must ensure the load is within their vehicle’s weight limits. Our Berkowitz Hanna attorneys in Stamford can verify that a truck crashed because it was overloaded or overweight and hold everyone who contributed to the violation of weight regulations responsible for compensating the victim.
When an injured person brings a claim for compensation after a car accident, they must prove another party was negligent and that their negligence was a direct cause of the injuries. Transportation companies are negligent when they do not use the utmost care to protect others from injury, and others are negligent if they fail to use reasonable care.
Any violation of safety laws and regulations is proof of negligence. If a truck is overweight, the driver, transportation company, or owner of the truck is negligent, as is the company that loaded the truck.
Others might be negligent, depending on the circumstances. For example, a local government or agency might have partial liability if road conditions contributed to the crash. Sometimes, other drivers’ conduct contributed to the crash. The Stamford attorneys at Berkowitz Hanna will try to identify as many potentially negligent parties in an overloaded/overweight truck accident as possible to increase the pool of insurance coverage and enhance the likelihood of a severely injured person receiving appropriate compensation.
The compensation an injured person receives after an accident is called their damages. Injured people are entitled to be made whole, meaning a negligent party must pay sufficient compensation to put them in the position they would have been in if the accident had never happened.
A claimant is entitled to reimbursement of all losses they suffer because of the crash, including medical costs, incidental expenditures, and reduced income. They can receive compensation for their non-economic losses like physical pain, disfigurement, disability, and emotional trauma. In rare cases, a judge could award punitive damages to deter other trucking companies from running overweight vehicles.
However, a plaintiff’s damages might be reduced if they were partially at fault for a crash or contributed to the severity of their injuries. When an accident case goes to trial, a judge will allocate responsibility among the parties. Connecticut General Statutes § 52-572h requires the court to reduce the damages of a partially responsible plaintiff by a percentage that equals their degree of fault. Our Stamford attorneys could explain the impact this law might have on the damages an injured person could collect in a specific case.
A trucking company that runs an overweight truck is prioritizing profits over safety. If you were injured or a loved one killed because of their choice to ignore critical safety rules, you must hold them accountable.
Talk to a lawyer from Berkowitz Hanna about claiming damages after an overloaded/overweight truck accident in Stamford. They will use their extensive legal knowledge and negotiating skills to obtain an appropriate settlement. Get in touch today.
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