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Who Can Be Held Liable for a Truck Accident?

Published on Jan 14, 2025 at 4:38 pm in Truck Accidents.

Who can be held liable for a truck accident?

You were recently involved in a collision with a tractor-trailer in Charleston, WV and suffered serious injuries that are likely to change the trajectory of your life, or a close family member died from their involvement in a trucking crash in Kanawha County. You have significant losses, and you’re wondering who can be held liable for a truck accident like yours or your family member’s.

Liability is often a difficult issue to sort out after any motor vehicle collision, but when an 18-wheeler or another truck is involved, it can be even more so. Let us explain.

Potential Parties That May Be Responsible for Tractor-Trailer Crashes

Common parties Charleston truck accident attorneys like ours at DiPiero Simmons McGinley & Bastress, PLLC frequently hold liable for trucking collisions include:

  • Truck drivers, such as tractor-trailer operators
  • Trucking companies
  • Auto manufacturers
  • Mechanics

In some rare instances, we also file civil complaints against road design engineers or maintenance crews and other parties as well.

Factors That Affect Liability Determinations in Charleston Truck Accident Cases

Trucks, unlike most passenger cars, aren’t often owned, operated, and maintained by the same person. Instead, there’s often one party that owns the vehicle, another that operates it, and a third that is responsible for ensuring regular maintenance is performed on it. Just this difference can add a layer of complication when sorting out liability for crashes like these. There are other factors that can play a role in determining where liability lies, too, though.

How do different factors impact liability determinations in wreck cases like these?

Take, for example, a trucker who has a history of traffic violations. Another one, speeding, led to him striking and injuring you. Holding the tractor-trailer operator in this instance may be a given. However, you may be able to also hold the fleet company that hired that truck driver liable if you can prove that they failed to exercise due diligence and pull the trucker’s driving record or did so, yet didn’t allow that to impact its hiring decision.

As another example, a manufacturer may have released its new fleet of trucks on the market and later discovered they have defective components. While they may have ultimately issued a recall ordering owners to have their trucks repaired at no cost to them, the mechanic performing that maintenance could have not carried out the work properly. In a combination scenario like this, both the automaker and mechanic could be held liable for their roles in contributing to causing the Charleston truck accident that harmed you or your relative.

Why Determining Liability for Charleston Truck Collisions Matters

As you might have been able to already surmise from analyzing the examples above, when it comes to liability determinations for truck accidents, the reason it matters is because it dictates who is held financially accountable for any losses you suffered because of the crash, including:

  • Medical expenses
  • Lost wages and future earnings
  • Pain and suffering
  • Mental anguish
  • Loss of consortium
  • Funeral and burial costs

Factors That Truck Crash Attorneys Weigh When Making Pinpointing Who To Hold Responsible for a Wreck

When reading a law firm website like ours, you may read that your attorney will investigate your case. Why is that, and what does that mean?

This means that we will look into the root causes of your crash and identify those who may have potentially been negligent or intentionally acted harmfully, leading to your suffering harm. Evidence attorneys like ours may consider when making such liability determinations in Charleston truck accident cases include the following:

  • Police reports
  • Medical records
  • Crash scene reconstructionist reports
  • Videos and photographs of the crash scene
  • Trucker driving records
  • Vehicle maintenance records
  • The tractor-trailer operator’s employment records
  • Physical evidence, such as auto parts

In short, there’s no shortage of evidence a truck accident lawyer like ours may review to pinpoint exactly while a collision occurred, if necessary, to determine where liability lies so the person or entities who harmed you can be held fully accountable for their wrongful actions.

Get Help in Figuring Out Who Can Be Held Liable for a Truck Accident You Had in Charleston, WV

Since you undoubtedly have significant bills and other losses if you or a loved one were involved in a truck crash in or around Kanawha County, you’ll need to recover compensation to pay for them and restore some sense of financial normalcy to your life again. Our attorneys at DiPiero Simmons McGinley & Bastress, PLLC  can help.

Contact us by phone or email to schedule an initial consultation with a truck accident lawyer in Charleston to discuss your case. That meeting is free and will greatly aid you in learning if liability is clear and how to best proceed in taking legal action in your case.