Collisions with Commercial Vehicles: How Am I Compensated for My Injuries?

The thought of being involved in a car accident is enough to lead most drivers to drive responsibly, put away distractions, and always buckle up—no one wants to think about the inconvenience or the tragedy that being involved in a crash can bring. And even worse than a car accident involving two passenger vehicles is a car accident involving a large commercial vehicle. Commercial vehicles often weigh 10 or 20 times more than passenger cars and can cause severe, life-changing harm when involved in a crash.

At Mississippi Car Accident Attorney, we understand that there is nothing more terrifying or tragic than being involved in a collision with a commercial vehicle. If you’re involved in a crash with a commercial truck or bus, here’s what you should know about compensation for your harm. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Mississippi Car Accident Attorney directly today.

Types of Compensation in a Commercial Vehicle Crash 

When a person is involved in a commercial vehicle crash, the amount of damages that they may suffer could be catastrophic. Common types of damages that the victim of a commercial crash may incur include:

• Property damage expenses. When a passenger car is involved in a commercial vehicle crash, the sheer size of the commercial vehicle usually results in the smaller vehicle being completely totaled. If repairs are possible, they will likely be very costly. In most cases, however, repairs are not possible and the vehicle will need to be replaced.

• Medical costs. When a person survives a commercial vehicle accident, they are often considered lucky. However, commercial vehicle crashes usually leave victims with disabling injuries that will impact them for life, such as traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputation injuries, internal injuries, severe bone fracture injuries, etc. Treating these injuries is expensive. A person will incur high bills for hospital stays, surgeries, medications, doctors’ visits, medical equipment, rehabilitation costs, and more. Medical costs should be compensated in full. 

• Lost wages. Injuries not only lead to high medical costs, but also disabilities that can prevent a person from returning to work, sometimes permanently. When a person is unable to work and earn an income, they can suffer serious financial harm. One type of compensation that commercial vehicle accident victims are entitled to after a crash is compensation for their lost wages, future lost wages, and loss of earning capacity. 

• Pain and suffering. Injuries are expensive, and also painful. A victim of a commercial vehicle crash can seek compensation for the value of their physical pain and suffering. Our team can help you to understand how this type of noneconomic compensation is calculated after a crash. 

• Psychological injury. Like physical pain, a victim of a crash may also seek compensation for the value of their emotional and psychological harm and suffering. It is very common for car accident victims to develop conditions such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder after a crash. 

If you’ve been in a commercial vehicle crash, you deserve to be compensated in full for your losses. An attorney can help you to recover compensation for your economic and noneconomic losses. 

Liability for a Commercial Crash: Who Pays for Injuries?

Liability—or legal responsibility—for a crash is based on fault. In a commercial vehicle accident claim, providing liability can be difficult and, therefore, you may not know against whom you should file your claim. Potentially liable parties in a commercial vehicle crash might include the commercial vehicle driver, the commercial vehicle company, a shipper or loader of cargo, a vehicle or vehicle part manufacturer, a third-party driver, a party responsible for road maintenance, or another third party. Once you know who should be held liable, you can file a claim against that party’s liability insurance party for damages.

In order to help you determine liability, hiring a Mississippi commercial vehicle accident attorney is strongly recommended. An attorney will be able to investigate your case and will know what type of evidence to look for. What’s more, an attorney can hire experts, such as accident reconstruction experts, to help piece together what happened and prove fault. An attorney can also request access to certain types of evidence that could be critical to your claim, such as the truck driver’s logs, the commercial vehicle maintenance and repair record, video footage of the accident, the truck’s “black box” data, and more.

Get the Help You Need Today 

If you’ve been involved in a commercial vehicle accident, you may be facing catastrophic losses and could be feeling hopeless about the future. When you contact Mississippi Car Accident Attorney, we can provide you with the legal information and support you need, and put you in touch with a highly experienced Mississippi car and motorcycle accident attorney. To learn more, please reach out to us online today. We are here for you.