Charleston Truck Accident Attorney

A Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) report states that there were nearly 160,000 truck crashes in the United States in 2023, including almost 75,000 injuries and 5,000 deaths.

As you know, if you’ve been recently involved in a tractor-trailer crash, these accidents can be life-altering events, leaving victims with severe injuries, emotional trauma, and significant financial burdens. Navigating the legal complexities that follow such truck collisions can be overwhelming, especially when you’re focused on recovery.

A Charleston truck accident lawyer can provide the expertise and support needed for you to secure fair compensation and protect your rights. If you’re looking for that level of support as you recover from your serious injuries caused by a truck wreck in West Virginia, be sure to reach out to us at Hendrickson & Long, PLLC to schedule a free case evaluation with one of our attorneys to learn more about how we can help you.

Where Tractor-Trailer Crashes in Charleston, WV Occur

Corridor G, US-622, US-119, and MacCorkle Avenue.  These are just some of the accident-prone roadways in Charleston, WV, and the greater Kanawha County area. Then there are Interstates 64, 77, and 79, along with the West Virginia turnpike, that see their fair share of crashes, as well.

Many of these trucking accidents involve big rigs traveling in and around West Virginia to and from other states.

Whether the truck crash that injured you occurred on one of the Charleston area roadways referenced above or elsewhere in our state, our legal team is licensed to practice law statewide. So, be sure to contact our office to speak with a truck accident lawyer now.

Types of Trucks That Cause Collisions

Trucks come in all shapes and sizes to accommodate the different types of loads they carry. Some of the common types of these commercial motor vehicles involved in West Virginia accidents include:

• Logging trucks
• Multi-car hauling trucks
• Delivery trucks
• Open-air trucks
• Flatbed cargo-hauling trucks
• Utility trucks
• Box trucks
• 18-wheelers
• Tow trucks
• Utility trucks

In terms of different weights and lengths, varying kinds of trucks can be as long as 72 feet and weigh anywhere from 35,000 to 80,000 pounds, depending on how loaded it is.

By contrast, a small box truck used by a business for local deliveries, for example, might only be 18 to 26 feet long and weigh a maximum of 15,000 pounds.

As you might imagine, a weightier truck, in particular, has the potential of causing more damage than a lighter one. This is often why Charleston truck injury law firms like ours, Hendrickson & Long, PLLC, are often brought in by accident victims to assist in handling their cases following a tractor-trailer crash. Their injuries are often too significant to even consider handling their cases on their own. They rely on our trucking accident attorneys to shepherd their case through the claims process.

If you need assistance after a catastrophic collision with an 18-wheeler in Charleston, we’re here to help you, too. Call or email us for a complimentary case consultation today.

Types of Trucking Accidents That Occur in Kanawha County

Just as there are many different types of trucks that circulate on our West Virginia roadways, the crashes they might become involved in can vary significantly. Some of the many different kinds of truck-involved accidents occurring in and around Charleston include:

• Broadside collisions (also known as T-bone accidents)
• Override crashes
• Sideswipe accidents
• Underride collisions
• Lost load wrecks
• Jackknife accidents
• Loss of control collisions caused by tire blowouts
• Front-end crashes and head-on accidents
• Blindspot accidents
• Rollover accidents
• Rear-end crashes

And, since many of the truck wrecks above can not only result in physical injuries but also death, we feel it important to relay that we support surviving loved ones lost in fatal trucking accidents in Charleston, WV as well.

Common Causes of Trucking Accidents in Charleston

When you account for each Charleston truck accident lawyer in our office, our attorneys have a combined several decades of experience in practicing personal injury law. Thus, we’ve spent a lot of time evaluating crash reports and other evidence to pinpoint the causes of truck crashes.

Our experience is that some of the most common contributing factors that result in Charleston truck accidents include:

• Substance abuse: Life can get lonely out on long haul trips that last several days, leading truckers to engage in abusing alcohol along with illegal or prescription drugs, resulting in drunk or drugged driving
• Trucker fatigue: While drowsy driving can occur for a wide variety of reasons, it’s often attributable to federal Hours of Service violations
• Roadworthiness issues involving the truck: This is often caused by failures to perform required pre-trip inspections, insufficient regular maintenance, or improperly fixed mechanical issues
• Cargo loading issues: This category includes improperly secured loads or cargo imbalances, including overloading a trailer. For this reason, there are strict federal cargo securement rules that outline how to load and secure loads, weight restrictions, and what types of vehicles and license endorsements are required to carry certain types of hazardous cargo.
• Reckless driving: Speeding, including driving too fast for conditions, along with failing to yield to the right of way of others, are examples of this
• Trucker inexperience: As veteran commercial driver license (CDL) holders have retired, new, less experienced truckers have come onto the scene who aren’t familiar with crash avoidance techniques like more seasoned operators are
• Design and manufacturing concerns: Truck defects, caused by poor design or ineffective fabrication, can cause equipment failure issues, giving way to crashes
• Operator errors: Reckless driving aside, carelessness or negligence, including incidents like leaving a dump truck’s bed up in the air or failing to properly tie down a load, can result in preventable and potentially deadly crashes
• Passing issues: Passenger car operators may put themselves at risk of being struck by trucks if they linger too long in their blind zones instead of passing, and crashes can also occur because when they do pass, they cut in too tight that the trucker doesn’t have ample time or space to slow their vehicle to avoid the collision

Whether you believe that one of the factors above contributed to causing the big rig crash that left you or a close family member injured or something else did, be sure to get in touch with a truck accident attorney in our Charleston law office to discuss what rights you may have to hold all responsible parties accountable for their actions.

Injuries Caused by Semi-Truck Crashes

Since there are so many different types of trucks and wrecks they cause, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the injuries that may result from them can be significantly different as well.

Unfortunately, it is quite common for us to represent clients who’ve received:

• Neck injuries: These can range from relatively minor whiplash and concussions to a broken neck and severed spinal cord
• Head and traumatic brain injuries: Blunt force trauma injuries, such as a motorist’s head striking the car’s dashboard, can cause a traumatic brain injury and permanent brain damage, as can impaling injuries whereby a sharp object like glass, for example, penetrates the skull and brain
• Internal organ damage: The force of a crash can put tremendous pressure on the body’s internal organs, like the liver or spleen, leading them to become severed or rupture, and the bleeding or release of toxic substances that occurs when this happens can cause rapid deterioration of a person’s health
• Lower extremity injuries: The force of the crash can significantly impact whether or not the passenger compartment of a vehicle gets compromised, potentially fracturing ankles or feet and compressing the nerves and muscles in a person’s legs in the process
• Spinal cord injuries: These can occur with almost any type of impact, such as a rear-end crash, and often leave someone with, at the very least, temporary, if not permanent, paralysis and associated functional impairments

As hinted at above, wrongful death is also an all-too-common result that stems from someone suffering cumulative injuries, whether multiple serious lacerations or a combination of the concerns listed above.

Compensation for Truck Accidents in Charleston

If you’ve begun receiving treatment for your injuries or are grieving the death of a close family member, the financial losses caused by being hurt and not being able to work or not having the regular income from your lost relative can make it hard to make ends meet.

This is why West Virginia law allows those affected by truck accidents to recover monetary compensation for both economic and noneconomic losses, including the following:

• Economic losses: These types of damages are ones associated with tangible or documentable harm you suffered, such as medical expenses, lost wages, vehicle damage, or funeral and burial costs.
• Noneconomic losses: Damages like these include pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of consortium, loss of enjoyment of life, and others.

In the case of noneconomic damages, there is a cap that applies to how much you can recover in these cases. It currently sits at around $250,000 for most cases (W. Va. Code § 55-7B-8).

However, it increases to approximately $500,000 in ones involving catastrophic injuries or wrongful death. Just to be clear, we use the terms “around” and “approximately” to describe those recoverable amounts because they’re subject to annual adjustments for inflation.

Who’s Liable for Damages After a Tractor-Trailer Crash?

Truck accidents are unique in that there are many more potentially responsible parties you can sue for damages you have after one of these wrecks, including:

• Trucker drivers
• Trucking companies
• Truck manufacturers
• Cargo loaders
• Mechanics
• Auto parts manufacturers

How Your Charleston Truck Accident Lawyer Proves Liability in Your 18-Wheeler Wreck Case

Plaintiffs must prove the following elements of negligence if they want to be able to put up a strong claim that commands compensation for injuries, lost wages, and other accident-related losses.

As far as those elements are concerned, you must be able to show:

• The trucker or other potentially liable party owed you a duty of care to keep you safe
• That person or entity breached their obligation to you
• You suffered harm because they violated that duty they owed you
• That harm you suffered has an associated monetary value, which you can document

Provided you or your Charleston truck accident attorney can establish these elements of negligence, you likely have a viable claim.

However, since our state has a comparative negligence rule in place, if evidence shows that your actions contributed 50% or more to causing the crash, West Virginia law may prohibit you from recovering compensation — even if you can prove the elements above.

This is why it’s helpful to have an experienced truck crash lawyer review the various aspects of your case to ensure you have one worth pursuing.

Evidence That Impacts Liability Determinations After West Virginia Trucking Collisions

The elements above clarify whether negligence occurred and, thus, if a defendant is liable.

Charleston truck accident lawyers like ours often painstakingly review countless pieces of evidence, including the following, to make liability determinations:

• Police reports
• Trucker driving records
• Witness statements
• Records showing regular truck maintenance occurred
• Event data recorder (EDR) records (which is the data contained on a tractor-trailer’s “black box”)
• Carrier operation records
• Actual physical evidence, like potentially defective auto parts
• Truck inspection checklists
• Trucker cell phone data
• Electronic logging device (ELD) data
• Packing manifests, commonly known as bills of lading
• Photos and videos
• Medical records

Having to compile all of the evidence listed above may sound daunting to you; however, it isn’t to a seasoned litigator. You can count on your legal team’s experience in gathering all of the critical pieces of data to do the same in your case.

Hendrickson & Long, PLLC Can Help You Hold Responsible Parties Accountable After Your WV Truck Crash

A crash with an 18-wheeler or another type of truck in Charleston may have caused you to suffer life-altering injuries or taken a family member from you far too soon.

West Virginia law sees the ability to file a civil lawsuit after preventable accidents such as truck wrecks as the ideal means of seeking justice. A plaintiff who is successful in filing suit is entitled to recover a monetary settlement for their losses, which our legal system sees as “making one whole” once again.

Our fighting aggressively for your rights can hopefully ensure you receive optimal medical care in the future or replace some of the financial means that you and your family have lost.

Taking action can also deter others from repeating similar negligent actions in the future.

Get in contact with us today to discuss your case with a Charleston truck accident lawyer.

We don’t charge anything to represent you unless we recover a settlement on your behalf.