When a commercial truck is involved in an accident, there are many different parties that have something to say. Each person involved might be responsible, so they start pointing fingers. If there is an issue with the brakes, the owner could say that the brakes were faulty. If the driver was falling asleep, the driver could say he was being overworked. At the same time, the owner of the truck could say that the driver should have known to pull over when he was getting sleepy.
Determining who is at fault can get very complicated, considering all of the movable parts, but contacting Lewis & Keller as your truck accident lawyer should be your first step to settling this issue.
Difficulties of Determining Who is at Fault
A few years ago, cases proved to be more difficult when coming to a conclusion to determine exactly who was at fault. Now, it doesn’t really take place between the parties involved in the accident. The truck owner, the lease owner/company owner and the driver are three of the parties involved pointing fingers trying to be freed of fault in the accident.
The truck owner and the company owner aren’t usually the same people, even though most people don’t know that to be true. When the truck owner rents out said truck, the name of the company that is leasing the truck then has their name placed on the side of it. E.G: Coca-Cola, PowerAde, Publix, Budweiser.
The trucking company has set up loopholes that would protect it if they were to be sued by a party in an accident. They would argue that the driver of the truck is not their employee and they would argue that, although it is their truck, it is not their equipment, so they do not oversee the repairs. The whole business is really messy and the government grew sight of that.
It used to be that the victims of these accidents only had formal reports from the police to determine who was at fault in the accident. Since then, trucks have installed GPS equipment and other facets that allow key information to be recorded. The information is recorded very similarly to the way that information is recorded in an airplane with the “black box.” Now that this mechanism is put in place, there is a small margin for error and confusion for the victim.
How a Truck Accident Lawyer Can Help
Since all of these issues were very prominent and it took much too long of a time to determine who was at fault when an accident took place, there have been a number of laws set in place to prevent them. Under the federal law that is now in place, the company that owns the permit on the truck and has its name on it is responsible for all accidents that occur.
Even with clearer laws put in place, things are never cut and dry in regards to an accident anyway. For best results or questions about your case in particular, contact Lewis & Keller for your free case review today.
