Accidents with a Commercial Vehicle

Accidents happen every day on the roads. It’s an unfortunate reality with the high number of vehicles that commute each day. The best defense against a potential accident is to be aware of your surroundings and practice safe driving. However, you cannot control what other drivers do. An accident of any kind can cause significant damage to your vehicle and person but an accident with a large commercial vehicle can be deadly.

After any type of motor vehicle accident, you should contact an experienced attorney, especially if you’ve sustained a serious personal injury. This is even more important when your accident was caused by a commercial vehicle. That’s because you will be dealing not just with an individual and their insurance but multiple parties including the driver of the vehicle, the business, and the company’s insurance. This can be a complicated matter and having an experienced lawyer on your side will help you get the fair compensation you deserve.

Since commercial vehicles are used for business purposes that means it’s owned by a business or corporation that hires a driver to transport its goods. It also means that there are individuals who work on and maintain the vehicle, load the vehicle, and check it for safety. This can make it difficult to establish liability in an accident case.

There are many types of commercial vehicles on the roads. All of which can cause you serious personal injury if they cause an accident. The most common types of commercial vehicles you’ll encounter include:

• Box trucks
• Delivery and cargo vans
• Catering trucks or vans
• Garbage trucks
• Cement trucks
• Tow trucks
• Semi-trucks
• Refrigerated trucks
• Construction vehicles

Whether an accident occurs in a parking lot or on the highway if it was caused by a commercial vehicle you have the right to file a claim for any damages or injury you incur. The important part is determining who is at fault for the negligence that caused the accident. Negligence is the most important principle that needs to be proved to have a winning personal injury case. Our attorneys have years of experience conducting thorough investigations to determine who is at fault so that you can get the compensation you need for your recovery.

Dealing with companies of commercial vehicles can be a tricky process. Fortunately, though, insurance for large trucks is generally higher than that of automobiles. In Maryland, for example, the state requires that large commercial trucks have $750,000 worth of insurance for bodily injury and truck accidents. Federal laws also require companies to have the minimum liability insurance for commercial trucks:

• $750,000 for vehicles over 10,000 lbs that carry non-hazardous freight
• $1,000,000 for those that carry hazardous materials and oil
• $5,000,000 for trucks operating portable tanks with a capacity over 3,500 gallons, passenger trucks

If you’ve been injured by a commercial vehicle in an accident they caused, please call the experienced attorneys at Portner & Shure today for a free consultation at (410) 995-1515. We serve clients throughout Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. We work on a contingency basis, which means that we don’t get paid unless your case is successful.