In this article, you can learn about:
- The required evidence to support who is liable for damages and injury.
- How insurance companies delay claims.
- How insurance companies shift the blame.
What Is Generally Involved In An Investigation In An Accident With A Large Commercial Vehicle Or Semi-Truck?
Generally, a commercial accident investigation needs to determine several things:
- The location of the accident
- How the accident happened
- Road conditions at the time of the accident
- Who was at fault
- Applicable regulations
- Insurance coverage
Although many accidents may appear simple and straightforward on the surface, there can be small details about the incident which can affect the overall liability of each party involved, the damages, and how much those damages are worth.
Additionally, in commercial vehicle situations, there’s the added layer of employment and the employer’s insurance. A driver may be employed by one company, but that company may be in service of another. There may be a primary layer of insurance and a second layer of insurance – depending on the companies involved.
What Information And Evidence At The Scene Of The Accident Are Important To Preserve?
It’s important to preserve evidence from the exact spot where the accident occurred. That evidence should show how many travel lanes there were and what the right of way was for each of those lanes.
Documenting as much detail as possible at the scene of an accident is also important. In some cases, you may be able to retrieve some of this evidence via video footage and photographs captured by the local police.
Unfortunately, because commercial vehicles are so much larger than others, a commercial vehicle driver may not realize they’ve been involved in an accident. As such, they may continue on the roadway – not stopping until sometime later when they finally realize they were in an accident.
By contacting a truck accident attorney right away you can ensure that you get the police report as soon as it’s available. Additionally, the attorney can notify the commercial vehicle’s company of the claim. Often, the commercial vehicle’s company will be conducting an investigation. Your attorney can try to obtain some of the information directly from them.
Commercial vehicle companies often immediately send a company representative to the scene to talk to their driver to preserve evidence at the scene. It is in an individual’s best interest to contact an attorney as soon as they can after a truck accident to get the same level of investigation as the truck company’s insurance provider.
What Are Some Of The Defenses And Tactics That The Trucking Company’s Insurance Company May Use To Deny Or Limit My Claim?
One tactic that many insurance companies use is to be slow to respond and slow to adjust the claim…
It does not matter whether it’s for the property damage or to begin discussing injury claims after an accident – these companies will try to draw out the claim as long as possible with the hopes that you will get tired of waiting and settle low (or drop the matter altogether).
Unlike some of the typical insurance carriers for passenger vehicles, trucking company insurers tend to require hiring outside adjusters. This means the claims process can be slower to get started and complete rather than dealing with one of the larger companies that provides coverage for passenger vehicles.
Trucking companies will also try to shift blame about who was at fault for the accident from the commercial vehicle to one of the other vehicles involved in the accident. When it comes to evaluating the damages, they tend to undervalue various aspects of the claim.
Finally, trucking companies try to run out the clock. In Louisiana, you only have one year to file a lawsuit from the date of the wreck. By delaying the claim right up to the deadline, the trucking company will try to minimize the value that they have to pay.
By hiring an attorney like myself as soon as possible, you can make sure there’s ample time to investigate all the facts of the accident. The attorney can properly determine how the fault will be divided, whether it’s 100% on the commercial vehicle driver – or some other division of fault and blame.
An experienced vehicle collision lawyer can also make sure to properly analyze and evaluate all the damages. This assessment gets you closer to the true value of the claim, which influences discussions about a settlement or moving forward to a trial.
For more information on Trucking Accidents in Louisiana, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (504) 384-7770 today.
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