Orange County Truck Accident Attorneys
The Orange County California truck accident lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo have over thirty years of experience helping injured truck drivers and truck accident victims get the maximum compensation they are due under the law. We have seen the full range of possible injuries from trucking accidents that range from wrongful death and broken bones to crushed limbs and brain injuries. We strive to be the best Orange County trucking accident injury lawyers and we are ready to fight the legal battle for you. Our winning reputation throughout Orange County should speak for itself: We are experienced and successful truck accident attorneys who will work tirelessly for their clients so they can focus on healing from their unfortunate trucking injuries.
How to File a Truck Accident Lawsuit Claim
If you have questions about how to bring a “big rig” legal cause of action and/or how to file a workers’ compensation claim for a shipping truck catastrophic injury, call us today at (714)-783-2205. We will discuss all of your questions and the following with you during your free consultation:
- Options of how you may be able to do-it-yourself.
- What would be involved in suing another party and filing your legal claim(s) for workers’ comp and/or third party personal injury.
- Potential litigation issues including: pleadings, investigation, expert witness depositions, written discovery, law and motion, types of causes of action, lay witness depositions, legal evidentiary standards of proof and legal requirements, potential special and general damages including: medical treatment, bodily injury, loss of earnings, temporary disability benefits and other damages and benefits you are entitled to recover.
- The answers to all of the questions you probably have about how we can help you and your family navigate the legal system during this very difficult time.
- How we could make your case simple, efficient and successful.
Our experienced truck accidents attorneys and staff are here to take the stress, load, and pressure of a lawsuit off of your shoulders. We want to offer you the peace of mind that you are in good hands. If after meeting with us, and hearing about the numerous critical steps 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 speediest of recoveries and a positive legal outcome.
Call Us Today
Work Injury Attorneys
Law Firm of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo
Orange County, California ~ (714) 783-2205
Available 24 hours a day
You deserve the best attorneys available who have the experience to get you the maximum possible compensation under the law. It is crucial for you to have legal guidance as soon after a trucking accident injury as possible to ensure you are receiving proper and comprehensive medical care and to investigate and prepare your 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 (714) 783-2205. 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 workers in California, truckers are required by law to be covered by workers’ compensation. It provides assistance when one is injured on the job 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 and does not allow for damages for pain and suffering. The workers’ compensation insurance held by your employer could pay medical expenses, disability, income, death benefits, permanent disability compensation, medical benefits, and vocational rehabilitation, when the injury and circumstance warrants. See the paragraph below regarding third parties who are also at fault for trucking accidents.
We Will Answer 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 your questions including if you are wondering how State Disability Insurance (SDI) works, what the workman comp benefits would be 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.
Third (3rd) Party Also at Fault
This paragraph refers to work compensation claims and not personal injury cases. Third parties are people, companies or government entities who are also responsible for all or part of your workplace injury other than just your employer. 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 for 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, and others. Call one of our local Orange 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.
OSHA and Truck Accident Injuries
The goal of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (www.osha.gov) is to keep work environments as safe and healthful as possible. This even includes truckers and their mobile workplace of their truck, 18-wheeler, big rig, tanker, semi-truck, 16-wheeler, and all other types of trucks. They state that “Every day in this country, more than 14 workers lose their lives in preventable workplace tragedies.” Due to that grim statistic, OSHA is always trying to improve safety so that less people get hurt on the job, cause accidents or get injured while working. OSHA even has a section of its standards and laws devoted to the trucking industry.
Enforcing Safety Regulations
OSHA will investigate injuries and safety code violations by conducting site inspections, interviewing witnesses and employees, checking driving logs, reviewing maintenance records 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.
Common Trucking Injuries
Due to the size and speed of trucks, many of the possible results of truck accidents can be rather traumatic. Concussions, blindness, coma, amputation, lacerations, broken bones, contusions, back injury, neck injury, whiplash, burns, muscle strains, ligament sprains, brain injury, cuts, being crushed, heavy bleeding, becoming deformed, 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 those hit by trucks and truckers with their legal cases for all the above injuries, results and more. We will be with you every step of the way. If you do not have your own doctor for your truck highway accident, truck loading injury, truck unloading accident 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 deserve.
How Trucking Accidents Happen
Truckers can be on the road for many hours on end. They invariably encounter many types of challenges and dangers. A main reasons truck accidents cause so many injuries each and every year is that trucks can be forty times heavier than the car or van it crashes with. Most (over 70%) of truck accident injury victims were not the ones in the truck. Trucking accidents can happen in many ways including air-brake failure, illegal lane change, a car got in the way of the wide turn, unsafe lane change, rear-ender, rollover, jack-knife, spill, out of control downhill, under the influence driver, brake failure, speeding, jack brake failure, load shift, 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, improper loading, 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 Orange County include collision with a pole or stop light, collision with a median or barrier, sleep deprivation, poor eyesight or poor reflexes, hit a pedestrian, hit a deer, head-on collision, run-off-road collision, side collision, load too heavy, poor road design, poor road construction, equipment failure, poor road condition, hit road debris, swerved off road, swerved into a car, side swiped a car, blind spot accident, too much downhill speed, another driver hit the truck, driver on his cell phone, trucker texting, driver eating or calling, low bridge clearance, low building clearance, inexperienced UHaul driver, low warehouse clearance, or a distracted trucker on a cell phone while driving. Trucking accident injuries can be catastrophic, serious or fatal and we hope you give us the chance to defend you and protect your rights.
The Trucking Companies Response
The trucking company has no doubt been the defender in truck accident legal proceedings before and most likely has a team of experienced defense lawyers ready to do what it takes for you not to win the case. You need our legal assistance to have the best chance of receiving the maximum compensation possible. Trucking companies have been accused of falsifying driving logs, falsifying maintenance records, not enforcing their trucker rules and regulations, tying up the legal process so that individuals cannot sustain the legal effort (unless you have a law firm like ours that works on a contingency basis so we won’t give up), and losing critical records like the black box, computer records, receipts, and more.
Trucking Companies Start Preparing their Legal Case within One Hour
In fact, 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 within an hour and sometimes faster than even the police, tow trucks, ambulance or fire trucks arrive. Their team immediately starts 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 are able to 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 Orange County truck accident attorneys at our firm as we’ve been representing truck accident victims for over thirty years. We know their tricks and we know how to help you win your case.
What to do After the Truck Accident
After any of the above accidents, it is important to try and remain as calm as possible. Decisions made after a truck accident matter, so be sure to call family or friends for help after you call 911. It is, of course, important to get immediate medical attention as many injuries, such as neck injuries, do not have immediate symptoms but need quick treatment for the best recovery. As is mentioned above, it is always smart to get a local experienced truck accident attorney like the ones in our firm involved in your case as soon as possible (even immediately at the truck accident site) so they can help guide you toward the best outcome. Additionally, be sure to document and retain as much evidence from the trucking accident scene as possible including taking your own pictures and watching over even 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
The law wants to protect the rights of those that get injured due to the fault of another. The law takes into account the many ways your life may have changed due to the semi-truck, 18-wheeler or tractor trailer accident since injuries caused by a bad truck accident can be debilitating, life-threatening, life altering and tragic. The types of compensation that you could be entitled to receive potentially include payment for your medical bills, life-care, punitive damages, loss of current and future wages, pain and suffering, changes to your lifestyle, property damage, 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 tried to make trucking and driving safer over the years. For trucking, they have many size, weight, route, and design regulations and restrictions. As long as trucks stay on the National Network of US and state highways that are considered interstate freeways, then they come under federal limits whereas if they are on intrastate highways and freeways, they come under the state’s rules. To protect bridges, there is the Federal Bridge Gross Weight Formula that governs the relationship between axle weight and spacing. Weigh stations and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) are also important parts of how the government enforces its trucking regulations.
CalTRANS
More causes of accidents are poor road conditions, ineffective road designs, defective downhill designs, 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, obstructive water spray onto windshields, and other accident causing conditions. Caltrans can also be liable if their traffic control devices are negligent or not properly installed such as stop signs, road paint, reflectors, traffic lights, warning signage, unsafe merging lanes, and detours. Caltrans is the state department that manages California’s 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 people and commerce in this state for over a century. We can help you look at your semi-truck accident, big rig truck accident, truck jack knife accident, 18-wheeler accident or other truck accident to see if CalTRANS was fully or partially responsible.
Limiting the Hours Truck Drivers Can Go Continuously
The government has also tried to regulate the amount of hours a trucker can drive to limit how many tired or sleep deprived truckers are on the road. These Hours of Service rules have been rewritten three times since they were introduced in 1938. 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. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has developed minimum standards that states need to meet or exceed for their 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 Road and Bridge Construction
In addition to planning, governments have oversight over the construction projects including road, street, intersection and freeway projects. They also plan out the flow of traffic using signals 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. This responsibility to make sure all traffic construction is safe and sound may put the government at fault for your injury. See below for more information.
Distracted Drivers Can Also Cause Accidents
The 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, distracted truckers and sleep deprived or overworked truckers. As stated before, be aware of poor road construction, poor road conditions or poor road maintenance as those factors can greatly influence and cause truck accidents.
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, semi-trailer, Kenworth, Penworth, Peterbilt, Mack, cab over, double trailer, tanker, tractor trailer, flat bed, tractor, 18 wheeler, open truck, enclosed truck, live stock truck, refrigeration truck, grocery truck, retail truck, car/vehicle transport, dump trailers, three axel truck, Bobtail, construction trucks, cement truck, Oshkosh, Crane Carrier Corporation, Colet, Dodge truck, Ford truck, GMC truck, Pierce truck, oil tanker, dog truck, pic trailer, plant trailer, horse trailer, ballast tractor, and cement mixer.
Additional Trucks that are on California Roads
More types of trucks and tractor trailers include Freightliner, Sterling, GINAF, Leyland, crane truck, mobile crane truck, dump truck, garbage truck, log carrier, truck-mounted crane, heavy hauler, platform truck, box truck, fire truck, Western Star, multi-stop truck, bottler truck, motorhome, Renault Magnum truck, Daimler truck, Chevrolet truck, MAN truck, DAF truck, Tata Motors, Hyundai truck, Isuzu truck, UD Nissan truck, recreational vehicle (RV), tow truck, panel truck, pickup truck, Hino Truck, and full-sized pickup trucks. In addition, some of the most dangerous trucks and vans out there are moving and rental trucks as the drivers usually do not have the same experience as professional truckers. Examples of rental trucks are U-Haul, Penske, Budget, Ryder, and Hertz. All of these types and brands of trucks are useful for what they were designed to do but always be on the alert for truck defects or product defects.
Major California Truck Routes
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 10 (I-10), Interstate Highway 5 (I-5), Interstate Highway 8 (I-8), Interstate Highway 405 (I-405), Interstate Highway 80 (I-80), Interstate Highway 15 (I-15), Interstate Highway 60 (I-60), Interstate Highway 395 (I-395), 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 805 (I-805), Interstate Highway 905 (I-905), and Interstate Highway 710 (I-710). Every single day and night, thousands of trucks, semi-trucks and 18 wheelers use these highways to move goods back and forth 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. Even if you believe that your case might not have merit, please contact us anyway as we will be able to discuss that with you over the phone and give you prudent advice as to your legal options. We are well known throughout Orange County, California, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Long Beach, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Los Angeles, 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 Orange 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 Orange County 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 and making you and your family whole again.
Law Firm of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo
Orange County, California ~ (714) 783-2205
