Riverside Truck Accident Lawyers

The Riverside California truck accident attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo have had over three decades of experience helping their clients who were injured truck drivers or truck accident victims get the maximum compensation they could under the law. Injuries are always tragic but trucking injuries can be catastrophic due to the size and speed of trucks. We have seen the full scope of injuries from trucking accidents from wrongful death and amputation to broken bones and fire injuries. We strive to always stay the best Riverside trucking accident injury attorneys around and we are ready to start fighting in and out of court on your behalf. Our winning reputation throughout Riverside County speaks for itself: We are experienced and successful truck accident lawyers who will work tirelessly for their clients so they can focus on healing from their unfortunate trucking accident injuries.

How to File a Truck Accident Lawsuit Claim

You are no doubt thinking about how to bring a semi truck legal cause of action and/or how to file a workers’ compensation claim for a shipping truck catastrophic injury. You can contact us any time of the day or night at (951)-977-7787. We will discuss all of your questions and the following with you during your free consultation:

Options for how you may be able to do-it-yourself.
What would actually be involved step-by-step in suing another party and filing your legal claim(s) for workers’ comp and/or third party personal injury.
The answers to all of your questions that you have regarding how we can help you navigate the legal system during this very trying time.
Potential litigation issues including: investigation, expert witness depositions, written discovery, law and motion, pleadings, lay witness depositions, legal evidentiary standards of proof and legal requirements, types of causes of action, potential special and general damages including: medical treatment, bodily injury, temporary disability benefits, loss of earnings, and other damages and benefits you are entitled to recover.
How we could make your case as simple, efficient and successful as possible.

Our experienced truck accidents lawyers and staff are here to take the stress, load, and pressure of a lawsuit off of your shoulders and onto ours. We want to offer you the peace of mind that you will be in good hands. In other words, if after meeting with us, and hearing about the numerous critical steps and costs that are needed to investigate, file, litigate, negotiate and potentially take your trucking injury case to trial, know that we are always here to step in and handle it for you. We wish you the best of health and as close to a full recovery as is possible.

Contact Us Today

Work Injury Attorneys
Law Firm of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo
Riverside County, California ~ (951)-977-7787
You may call us anytime of the day or night

You and your family deserve the best lawyers in Riverside who have the experience and knowhow to get you the maximum possible legal compensation. It is rather important for you to have legal guidance as soon after a trucking accident injury as is possible to ensure you are receiving proper and comprehensive medical care and to investigate and prepare your case. We are positive that the insurance companies will have their lawyers and investigators to the scene of the accident as quickly as they can so you will probably want to even the playing field by taking quick action on getting your own legal team on the case. The Better Business Bureau gave us their highest award of an A+ so you can rest assured that we will work hard for you. We are ready to start your trucking and hauling work injury, workers’ compensation, and personal injury case so call us today at (951)-977-7787. The initial meeting is free and we’ll work on a contingency basis after that where you will not have to pay our firm anything unless we win your case.

Truck Accident Workers’ Compensation

Like all employees in the State of California, truckers are required by law to be covered by workers’ compensation insurance that is paid for by their employers. It provides assistance when someone is injured while working and protects the rights of the injured employee. The employer cannot penalize or fire employees for filing a workers’ compensation claim. Most of the time, employers are required to pay disability while the injured trucker is unable to work. Workers’ compensation does have limits set in place by law and furthermore, it does not allow for damages for pain and suffering. The workers’ compensation insurance held by your employer could pay disability, income, death benefits, medical expenses, permanent disability compensation, medical benefits, and vocational rehabilitation, when the injury warrants such payments. See the paragraph below regarding third parties who are also at fault for trucking accidents.

We Will Give Thorough Answers to all of your Questions

Be sure to call our firm today to inquire about your workmen comp claim and schedule the free initial consultation to discuss the job injury. We will answer all of your questions including if you are wondering how State Disability Insurance (SDI) works, what the workman comp benefits may end up being specifically for you, and how much a workers’ comp lawyer costs or how much a work injury attorney costs? You will not have to pay anything unless and until we win your case. Our firm also firmly believes in continuing to educate the client throughout the entire process.

Third Party Also at Fault

Third parties are people, companies or government entities that are also responsible for all or part of your workplace injury other than just your employer. If you are an injured trucker, you may be able to obtain compensation beyond that which is provided by the California workers' compensation laws. In fact, to be compensated for your full lost income and pain and suffering, our firm will need to find a responsible third party like that of a road or highway construction firm, truck mechanic, truck manufacturer, or another responsible party.

Third Party Cases Need to be Coordinated

Call one of our local Riverside County workers’ comp accident lawyers today to discuss your case and your options. This may be especially important since cases that could have an additional third party need to be coordinated and handled correctly since there could be two or more cases for the one truck accident injury. Our experienced truck accident injury lawyers and staff have handled cases like these for over 30 years and are ready to smoothly take yours on.

Truck Accident Injuries and OSHA

The goal of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (www.osha.gov) is to keep work environments as safe and healthful as possible. This even includes truckers, the freeways and their mobile workplace of their truck, big rig, tanker, 18-wheeler, 16-wheeler, semi-tractor trailer, and all other types of trucks. OSHA claims that “Every day in this country, more than 14 workers lose their lives in preventable workplace tragedies.” Due to that very grim statistic, OSHA continues to attempt to improve road safety, freeway safety and driving conditions so that less people get hurt as truck drivers or because of truck drivers. OSHA even has a section of its standards and laws devoted to the trucking drivers and the trucking industry in general.

Enforcing their Safety Regulations by Investigation

OSHA will investigate injuries and safety code violations by conducting site inspections, interviewing witnesses and employees, checking the driving logs, reviewing all of the maintenance records and the black box and other investigative tactics. Perhaps one of their most successful techniques is that they will keep the names of all truckers or employees who call them regarding unsafe working conditions, OSHA violations, unsafe work hours and potential truck accident risks anonymous, if the employee requests it.

The Common Trucking Injuries

Due to the large size and fast speed of trucks, many of the potential results of truck accidents can be rather traumatic. Concussions, coma, amputation, blindness, broken bones, contusions, back injury, lacerations, whiplash, burns, neck injury, ligament sprains, brain injury, muscle strains, heavy bleeding, becoming deformed, cuts, being crushed, and death are all possible outcomes of trucking accidents. The truck accident injury attorneys of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo have over thirty years of experience helping truckers or those hit by a truck with their legal cases for all the above injuries, results and more. We will stay with you every leg of the journey. If you do not have your own doctor for your truck highway, truck loading, truck unloading or truck road accident, we can help find a local one that will be able to give you the comprehensive and timely treatment that you legally and ethically deserve.

How Trucking Accidents Occur

Truckers can be on the road for many hours on end. They invariably encounter many types of challenges and dangers. A main reason truck accidents cause so many injuries and deaths each year is that trucks can be forty times heavier than the car or van it collides with on the freeway or road or in the parking lot. Over seventy percent of truck accident injury victims were not passengers or drivers in the truck. Trucking accidents can happen in many ways including illegal lane change, air-brake failure, rear-ender, improper loading, rollover, unsafe lane change, out of control downhill, under the influence driver, brake failure, jack-knife, spill, an intoxicated driver (DUI), a drunk driver, poor repair or maintenance of the truck or car who started the accident, drugged driver, overworked driver, negligent hiring, illegal loads, driver on drugs, improperly secured load, another driver hit the truck, driver on his cell phone, run-off-road collision, side collision, load too heavy, driver fell asleep at the wheel, and animal collision. It is important that the trucking company you work for always keeps up on the maintenance of your truck as that helps avoid some trucking accidents.

Additional Truck Accident Causes

Some more types of causes of trucking accidents that occur in Riverside include collision with a pole or stop light, collision with a median or barrier, swerved into a car, side swiped a car, hit a pedestrian, hit a deer, head-on collision, speeding, jack brake failure, load shift, poor road design, poor road construction, equipment failure, poor road condition, hit road debris, swerved off road, blind spot accident, too much downhill speed, trucker texting, driver eating or calling, low bridge clearance, low building clearance, inexperienced UHaul driver, low warehouse clearance, sleep deprivation, poor eyesight or poor reflexes, or a distracted trucker on a cell phone while driving. Trucking accident injuries can be catastrophic, serious, tragic and/or fatal and we hope that you give our firm the chance to defend you, get you the compensation you deserve and protect your rights.

The Trucking Companies Response

The trucking company has no doubt been the defender in countless truck accident legal proceedings and they probably have a team of experienced defense lawyers ready to do all that it takes for you not to win the case. It would be tough for an individual to take on such a foe. You need our legal assistance to have the best chance of receiving the maximum compensation that is legally possible for your truck accident injury. Trucking companies have been accused of tying up the legal process so that individuals cannot sustain the legal effort (unless you have a law firm that works on a contingency basis like us so we won’t give up since we only get paid if we win), falsifying driving logs, falsifying maintenance records, not enforcing their trucker rules and regulations, and losing critical records like the receipts, black box, computer records, driving logs and more.

Trucking Companies Start their Legal Case at the Site of the Truck Accident

It is true that when a trucker is involved in an accident, they radio their dispatcher. The dispatcher then gets the trucking company’s lawyers and investigative team to the trucking accident site usually within just one hour. Their legal team sometimes gets there faster than even the tow trucks, ambulance, police, or fire trucks. They immediately start to defend the case and possibly even destroy, hide or change the evidence. If the large company you will be up against in court is legally defending their case within an hour of the accident, shouldn’t you be too? Call us as soon as you can as we can help you preserve the evidence and protect your side of the case. It is important that you are proactive when facing the above and hire some of the best Riverside County truck accident attorneys at our firm as we’ve been representing truck accident victims since the late 1970s. If the accident already happened and you did not get a lawyer to the scene, it will still be alright as we can take the case from here. Rest assured that most people do not think of calling a lawyer at the time of the accident and we still have a great track record of success handling trucking accident cases.

What to do After the Truck Accident

After any truck accident, it is crucial to try to remain as calm as is possible for you. Decisions made after a truck accident do matter, so be sure to call family or friends for help after you call 911. It is important to get immediate medical attention as many injuries, such as neck injuries and back injuries, do not have immediate symptoms but they do need quick treatment for the best possible recovery. As we mentioned earlier, it is smart to also get a local experienced truck accident attorney like the ones in our firm involved as soon as possible so they can help guide you toward the best outcome. Be sure to also document and retain as much evidence from the trucking and car accident scene as possible including taking your own pictures, writing your own records and protecting your vehicle that was involved in the crash. Our trained staff will want to investigate the vehicle for signs of defect or evidence to help with the case.

Possible Compensation for You and Your Family

The law is designed to protect the rights of those that get injured due to the fault of another person, company or corporation. The law takes into account the many ways your life may have changed due to the semi-truck, 18-wheeler, big rig or tractor trailer accident since injuries caused by a bad truck accident can be life-threatening, life altering, debilitating, career hindering and tragic. The types of compensation that you could be entitled to receive possibly include payment for your life-care, punitive damages, medical bills, pain and suffering, changes to your lifestyle, property damage, loss of current and future wages, and more. We can discuss with you during the free consultation whether your case and circumstance warrant each of those compensation categories.

Government Liability & Oversight

Our federal, state and local levels of governments have really tried to make trucking and driving safer over the last few decades. For the trucking industry, they have many size, route, weight, and design regulations and restrictions. As long as trucks stay on the National Network of United States and state highways that are considered interstate freeways, then they come under federal limits. If those same trucks venture onto intrastate highways and freeways, they come under the state’s rules.

Other Protective Measures

To protect bridges, there is the Federal Bridge Gross Weight Formula that governs the relationship between axle weight and spacing. Weigh stations are an important part of how the government enforces its trucking regulations and they try to closely monitor the trucks on our roads. In addition, the government continues to pass laws that require trucks to continually add safety features, warning lights and secondary safety features.

CalTRANS and Road Conditions

Additional causes of trucking and car accidents are defective road designs, poor road conditions, a lack of a center divider or guard rails, and unmaintained roads and highways. In addition, poor water flow and drainage can cause puddles, slippery conditions, loose gravel and other unsafe conditions. Caltrans may also be liable if it is found that their traffic control devices are negligent or not properly installed such as stop signs, reflectors, road paint, warning signage, traffic signage, traffic lights, and detours. Caltrans is the California state department that manages more than 50,000 miles of freeway and highway driving lanes and works with local agencies to connect local streets and roads to the highway’s offramps, onramps, overpasses and interchanges. CalTRANS has been involved in the high speed flow of cars, trucks, semi-trucks, vans, SUVs and commerce in this state for over one hundred years. We can help you look at your semi-truck accident, 16-wheeler accident or other truck accident to see if CalTRANS was partially at fault.

Limiting the Hours Truck Drivers Can Drive Continuously

Since one of the main causes for truck accident injuries in this country is sleepy, overworked or exhausted truck drivers, the federal and state governments have also tried to regulate the amount of hours a trucker can drive in a certain amount of time. These Hours of Service rules have been rewritten 3 times since they were introduced in the late 1930s. A trucker keeps a log book or an electronic on-board recorder to track their hours of driving, breaks and duties. The current hours of service rules revolve around a max of eleven hours of driving in a fourteen hour window which is then supposed to be followed by a ten hour period of rest. Truckers are also required to get a commercial driver’s license to be able to operate a truck in the United States.

Commercial Licenses

The DMV and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has developed minimum standards that states need to meet or exceed for their version of the commercial licenses. Class A, Class B and Class C commercial licenses are needed when one is driving a vehicle with either the capacity to hold a certain number of passengers or a certain amount of load or cargo. Further tests are needed for drivers of semi trailers, school buses, tank trucks, and trucks with hazardous materials.

Governments Have a Duty to Oversee Construction

In addition to planning, governments have oversight over the construction projects of all road and traffic projects including street, intersection, bridge, underpass, overpass and freeway projects. They also plan out the flow of traffic using signals, lanes and signage. This oversight can create a duty and responsibility of the building, safety, permit and/or planning division of any municipalities, state and federal governments. Most cities, county or statewide agencies have a building and planning division that oversees commercial and residential construction projects. We have experience with cases involving government entities and we are sure to look at that angle when approaching all trucking accidents cases.

Distracted Truck and Car Drivers Also Cause Accidents

The DMV, Department of Transportation and CalTrans also work hard to try to prevent trucking accidents and trucking injuries. The Department of Transportation is trying to crack down on distracted driving and distracted truckers. Texting, cell phones, eating, drinking and loud music all have contributed to truck accidents in the last few years.

Types of Trucks and Tractor Trailers

Since 1979, our firm has helped thousands of clients who have suffered all types of work injuries and personal injuries. We are proud to say that a rather large number of those clients have been injured truckers who we’ve been able to help rebuild their lives through a positive settlement or trial verdict. The major types and brands of trucks and tractor trailers that are on the road today include big rig, semi-truck, Kenworth, Penworth, semi-trailer, cab over, double trailer, Peterbilt, Mack, flat bed, tractor, tanker, tractor trailer, enclosed truck, live stock truck, refrigeration truck, 18 wheeler, open truck, car/vehicle transport, dump trailers, grocery truck, retail truck, Bobtail, construction trucks, cement truck, three axel truck, Colet, Dodge truck, Ford truck, GMC truck, Pierce truck, Oshkosh, Crane Carrier Corporation, oil tanker, dog truck, pic trailer, plant trailer, horse trailer, ballast tractor, and cement mixer.

Additional Trucks that are on California Roads Today

More types of trucks and tractor trailers include Sterling, GINAF, Leyland, Freightliner, dump truck, garbage truck, crane truck, mobile crane truck, heavy hauler, log carrier, truck-mounted crane, fire truck, Western Star, platform truck, box truck, motorhome, Renault Magnum truck, Daimler truck, multi-stop truck, bottler truck, DAF truck, Tata Motors, Hyundai truck, Isuzu truck, UD Nissan truck, recreational vehicle (RV), tow truck, Chevrolet truck, MAN truck, Hino Truck, panel truck, pickup truck, and full-sized pickup trucks. All of these types and brands of trucks are useful for what they were designed to do and accomplish but it is crucial that you are always on alert for truck defects or product defects as they can cause truck accidents as well.

Major California Truck Routes

Southern California has some of the country’s biggest ports, airports, farms, manufacturers, refineries and stores that need to ship their raw materials, products, supplies, produce, and merchandise all across the state and country. Some of the major truck routes in California where trucking accidents happen are: Interstate Highway 8 (I-8), Interstate Highway 805 (I-805), Interstate Highway 905 (I-905), Interstate Highway 405 (I-405), Interstate Highway 80 (I-80), Interstate Highway 10 (I-10), Interstate Highway 5 (I-5), Interstate Highway 14 (I-14), Interstate Highway 99 (I-99), Interstate Highway 40 (I-40), Interstate Highway 19 (I-19), Interstate Highway 215 (I-215), Interstate Highway 15 (I-15), Interstate Highway 60 (I-60), Interstate Highway 395 (I-395), State Route 60, State Route 91, State Route 71 State Route 74, State Route 79, State Route 210 and Interstate Highway 710 (I-710). Every single day of the year, thousands of trucks, semi-trucks and 18 wheelers use these highways to move goods back and forth to and from airports, warehouses and ports and throughout our state.

Call Our Firm for Quality Legal Help

We believe that every injured person deserves a chance to discuss their case and their legal options. We are well known throughout Riverside County, California, Moreno Valley, Corona, Long Beach, Perris, San Bernardino, Palm Desert, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Hemet, Rancho Mirage, Temecula, Menifee, Coachella, Orange County, San Diego, and San Francisco as top trucking accident lawyers who know how to help you. We offer a free initial consultation and case evaluation for all injured truckers. Even after that first no-cost meeting, we work on a contingency basis where you won’t owe us anything unless we win your injury case. The Riverside County trucking injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo are willing to have the meeting at your home or hospital room if you are unable to come to our office.

We are available to meet Monday through Friday between 8:30am and 5:30pm and we can also setup appointments on Saturdays, Sundays and in the evening. Many throughout Riverside consider us to be the best trucking accident lawyers around. Let us represent your trucker accident injury and start the process of protecting your rights.

Law Firm of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo
Riverside County, California ~ (951)-977-7787