Maryland Trucking Accident Lawyer Blog
When it comes to trucking-related traffic accidents, especially those involving serious bodily injury, there are some key differences between these and the more or less “normal” passenger car collisions. In fact, many people who seek assistance from a Maryland personal injury attorney will often understand this intrinsically, though they may not know the specifics of understanding their rights following such commercial trucking wrecks.
Whether one is injured in roadway accident here in the Owings Mills area, somewhere in the greater Baltimore metro area, or over in the District of Columbia, the aftermath of a bad tractor-trailer crash can be a devastating sight to see. As we alluded, from a legal standpoint, my legal team of auto, commercial truck and motorcycle injury lawyers look at trucking accidents through a much different lens than other private motor vehicle collisions.
For instance, when determining negligence based solely on the rules of the road, there is no particular difference between a commercial truck-related crash and a passenger sedan or motorcycle accident. However, when a violation has occurred in terms of the state and federal rules covering commercial vehicle — such as 18-wheelers, tanker trucks, construction vehicles, commercial service vans, and even municipal buses and touring coaches — there is a large difference.
There are several aspects that must be considered when an accident involves possible negligence on the part of a truck driver or other commercial vehicle operator. First there are the specific Maryland state laws, as well as federal regulations that apply to drivers and also the owners of commercial vehicle fleets. Second, a personal injury attorney must consider the type of claim that his or her client wishes to file against the trucker and/or trucking company, as well as type of investigation necessitated by the particular case.
In addition to these, a personal injury attorney will likely research the advantages to filing a lawsuit in one or another jurisdiction based on the circumstances surrounding the crash and the issues that will likely be brought up at trial; choosing the best venue, where possible, can be beneficial to an injury victim.
Many people ask if it is proper to sue the trucking company as well as a trucker himself for injuries received in bad commercial truck-related traffic accident. To that we remind our clients that it all depends on the specific relationship between trucker and the company who employs him and who probably owns the vehicle involved.
In some instances, a truck fleet owner may also be found liable in whole or in part for a particular accident under the theory of negligent entrustment (or negligent supervision), especially if that entity failed it have a screening process in place that may have let a potentially negligent individual operate one of their vehicles. Certainly, in cases of wrongful death caused by severe bodily injury, this is a serious consideration — though this can also apply in cases where lesser injuries were received.
A commercial truck crash in the Aberdeen, MD, area may not have been a fatal one, but it does point up the danger of being involved in a crash with a larger, more massive vehicle. The commercial vehicle was reportedly one of those large double trailer dump trucks seen often near construction sites and quarries. According to the news, the semi tractor-trailer dump truck was rear-ended by a lightweight pickup truck causing some minor injuries to the driver.
According to news articles, that particular injury accident took place along a stretch of Interstate 95 on a Wednesday afternoon. Police reports indicated that a pickup truck heading northbound on the interstate hit a dump truck from behind a little before 3:30pm. Based on information from the Maryland State Police, the collision happened in between Maxa and Paradise roads a little bit north of the town of Aberdeen.
The pickup truck was apparently traveling fast enough to end up literally wedged beneath the back end of the tandem dump trailer. The MSP stated that the pickup truck’s driver was taken by emergency personnel to Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace with non-life-threatening injuries. Of course, had circumstances been different, there could have been a fatality. In our experience, a percentage of semi-passenger car crashes involve what is referred to as an under-ride collision, which can be deadly depending on the speed and type of motor vehicles involved.
Wednesday afternoon crash causes some delays on I-95 near Aberdeen, BaltimoreSun.com, October 24, 2012