According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and its most recent full-year statistics for 2022, there were 1,005 truck-involved wrecks, which caused 406 injuries and 29 deaths. While a reliable source of city-by-city or county-by-county breakdown of those incidents is hard to come by, considering how many semi-trucks pass through Charleston on a daily basis, it’s safe to conclude that many happened here. Each and every Charleston truck accident lawyer in our office has undoubtedly represented at least some of those people hurt in these crashes and wants to be of service to you, too.
The help we provide starts with a free initial consultation during which we can discuss the trucking incident that seriously hurt you or caused your loved one’s wrongful death. Our lawyers have one aim in meeting with you, which is to apprise you of your rights when you’ve been hurt due to someone else’s negligence in West Virginia. So, reach out to our law office to schedule a no-risk, no-obligation case review today.
As you might imagine, there is a wide variety of truck crashes that can occur, including ones involving:
These trucks may cause various types of wrecks, such as jackknife, rollover, underride truck, and head-on or rear-end truck collisions. No matter the wreck you had, please contact our attorneys for a free consultation to discuss the next best steps you should take in your case.
While most of the seven interstates that currently traverse West Virginia carry truckers to additional portions of the Mountain State, ones like I-64, I-77, and I-79 are three that pass through Charleston and its suburbs, such as Belle, Clendenin, Sissonville, Nitro, and Dupont City. U.S. Routes 35, 60, and 119 and WV highways 3, 34, and 94 also see a fair amount of tractor-trailers as they carry consumer goods, logs or industrial equipment, and much more within our state’s borders and beyond. It’s on our state’s busiest thoroughfares, including the ones above, where the majority of crashes involving 18-wheelers occur.
The extreme disparities in weight between passenger cars and large trucks often mean that accidents involving the two vehicles (or the larger one with a pedestrian, bicyclist, or motorcyclist) result in catastrophic injuries or deaths.
Fortunately, West Virginia is an “at-fault” or “tort” state, which entitles injured motorists to hold operators, employers, manufacturers, or any other negligent parties liable for any damages sustained in accidents with big rigs. However, in order to be eligible to recover compensation for your losses, you must be 49% or less at fault for the wreck per West Virginia’s modified comparative fault rule.
The responsibility rests on your shoulders as the accident victim to prove what caused the crash. It’s only once you sort this out that you can determine who to hold liable for their breach of duty that led to the crash’s occurrence. Some negligent behaviors that our firm’s lawyers often find resulted in our clients getting hurt or dying in 18-wheeler collisions include:
While there are plenty of other factors that may result in a truck crash, the aforementioned are some of the more common examples of negligence that our attorneys see here in West Virginia. When assessing for liability, our Charleston truck accident lawyers review crash reports and any of the following that may be available:
Identifying the factors that led to any collision can be challenging; however, our attorneys at Forbes Law Offices have the necessary expertise to make such determinations. So, call or email our firm for a free case review with a Charleston truck accident lawyer so we can advise you of the rights our state’s laws afford you.
Once you determine the cause of your collision involving an 18-wheeler, the next step you, independently or along with your attorney, will need to do is to identify who to pursue for potential damages. This may include the following persons or entities:
While perhaps less common, it’s also possible to sue another third party, such as another passenger car that loses its tire, sending debris flying and causing a crash. There are hundreds of other scenarios that may warrant doing this.
Damages or losses are terms often used interchangeably to describe the ways in which a crash changed your life. These can be quantifiable, meaning they’re documentable by records and bills, or they can be more qualitative in nature, which may involve anecdotal information like journal entries, highlighting the impact a collision has had on them and their loved ones. Attorneys like ours at Forbes Law Offices incorporate the value of both when determining what type of out-of-court settlement to demand and, when necessary, encouraging a judge or jury to reach a verdict in a client’s favor in a courtroom.
That’s why we always tell trucking accident victims to see doctors after their involvement in a crash—even if they don’t initially feel unwell—and to do so until their physician releases them from their care.
We also tell them to preserve their medical records and bills and any pay stubs documenting lost work, as all of this plays a big role in helping our legal team calculate the value of cases and shape how much we request to reimburse the financial harm you suffered.
Additionally, we instruct injury victims to see therapists or, at the very least, keep a journal detailing their post-wreck emotions, as this can speak to pain and suffering and other non-economic losses when we request compensation for our clients.
Our experience is that even with clients who have extensive documentable proof of having suffered harm, it’s sometimes not enough to motivate responsible parties to “do the right thing” and tender a settlement. This is why we always encourage victims who’ve suffered life-altering injuries or who have prematurely lost a loved one to work closely with a lawyer in forwarding their case. It gives you the best chance of recovering the maximum compensation necessary to cover your future expenses.
A desire to stop pesky insurance adjuster calls or the realization that taking on a big player involved in the trucking industry may have led to you deciding to reach out to an attorney for help with your case.
When you searched online for a Charleston truck accident lawyer, you likely found that there’s no shortage of options to choose from. However, like anything, not all attorneys and firms are created equally. Some benefits you derive from working with Forbes Law Office include:
A two-year statute of limitations applies to almost every tractor-trailer crash case that we take on, and preserving evidence as early on as possible in these types of cases (given the sheer number of miles big drivers travel annually) is particularly critical.
So, reach out to our firm to schedule a complimentary consultation with a Charleston truck accident lawyer to discuss your potential case today. Know that if we decide to work with one another, there’s no upfront cost for attorneys’ fees, and we only collect them if we secure a settlement for you.
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