Truck accidents have the potential to result in devastating or even fatal injuries,
especially for the occupants of smaller vehicles that are hit by larger, heavier trucks. These are some of the most dangerous accidents for a victim because the injuries tend to be more serious and more difficult to recover from, and the risk of a fatal injury is significantly higher.
If you are the victim of a truck accident in New York who is filing a personal injury lawsuit, please remember that investigating the collision is a crucial part of building your case. A detailed accident reconstruction effort is a significant element of that investigative process — one that can add substantial information to help verify your claim as well as prove negligence (carelessness) on the part of a truck driver, trucking company or other involved parties.
Understanding Accident Reconstruction
To put it simply, accident reconstruction is the process of gathering pertinent and critical information about an accident and performing scientific analysis to determine the cause of the collision. This process can give us invaluable information to explain the factors that caused or contributed to the collision, how or why the accident occurred and how it may have been prevented.
Accident reconstruction can help truck accident attorneys determine important factors that led to the accident including, but not limited to:
• The speed of the vehicles involved in the accident
• How the accident actually occurred
• How human factors such as driver error or distraction affected the accident
• Principal directions of force
• The point of impact and the speed at the point of impact
• The vehicles’ direction of travel
The Investigative Process
There are several steps involved in the investigative phase of accident reconstruction. For example, an accident reconstruction expert who is retained by your New York truck accident lawyer, will visit the scene of the accident and examine all vehicles involved in the collision. They will inspect and photograph all objects involved in the collision such as other vehicles, trees, buildings, poles, etc. They will collect visual evidence from the scene such as photos, surveillance videos, etc.
They will also review all victim, eyewitness and police reports, and examine physical evidence such as tire marks. It is important to note that tire marks can tell a lot of details. For example, the length of a skid mark can indicate the original speed of the vehicle. Tire marks also provide information about whether the drivers involved in the crash reacted to the hazard or were unaware of the impending crash.
Proving Negligence (carelessness)
Proving negligence (carelessness) on the part of a truck driver, trucking company or other party will impact the compensation you can secure in your truck accident case. Once the accident scene has been investigated and evidence has been collected, an accident reconstruction expert will work to analyze and interpret the data.
This should help, for example, outline actions (or inaction) on the part of the truck driver that contributed to the accident. For example, a long skid mark usually indicates that the driver did not apply the brakes even when a hazard was present, which in turn suggests that he or she wasn’t paying attention to the road. Experts can also determine if any driver error caused or contributed to the crash by creating models or computer-generated simulations of the crash. The testimony that these accident reconstruction experts provide before a jury is extremely valuable and typically has a huge impact on the outcome of the case.
If you have been injured in a truck accident, it is important that you contact an experienced New York truck accident lawyer as soon as possible so an accident reconstruction expert can get to the accident scene in time to perform their investigation.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
Victims who have been injured in truck accidents can seek compensation for damages including, but not limited to, medical expenses, lost income and benefits, hospitalization, rehabilitation, permanent injuries, disabilities, past and future pain and suffering, etc. Families of deceased accident victims may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit seeking compensation for damages such as lost future income, funeral costs, medical expenses, pain and suffering, etc.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a truck accident, or if you have lost a loved one in a crash caused by a negligent or careless driver, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you.
For 50 years, our skilled accident attorneys have established a proven track record of helping injured victims. Our law firm recently recovered $5,600,000 for a bicyclist who was hit by a van, and $2,550,000 for another victim of a truck accident, and $3,000,000 for a pedestrian who was hit by a car, and the full $1,000,000 insurance policy for a pedestrian who was hit by a truck, and $4,625,000 for a driver who was in a car and was hit by a van, and $2,500,000 for a man who fell through an improperly secured hole. Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury and/or medical malpractice cases in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com