According to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 4,000 people were killed and 116,000 injured in crashes involving large trucks in 2015. This represents a 10% increase in the number of people injured in large truck crashes in a 10-year period.

The report found that, in 2015 alone, 106 Missouri residents lost their lives due to large truck accidents. In Kansas, large trucks were involved in 13.7% of all traffic deaths that year.

While NHTSA considers additional regulations, such as automatic emergency braking system (AEB) mandates, to help curb large truck accidents, the chances of Missouri residents being injured or killed in accidents caused by semi-trucks continues to rise.

At Adler & Manson, we’ve seen the impact of this growing trend first-hand, representing clients who have suffered serious injuries in trucking accidents. Whether caused by distracted driving, fatigue, roadway conditions, truck defects, weather conditions or even drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the outcome can devastate families.

If you or a loved one have been injured in a large truck accident, call us at 816-216- 6214 for a free consultation.

While truck drivers are usually well-trained to deal with most situations, they are also usually facing a deadline. Federal guidelines have been put in place to help keep commercial truck drivers from working too many hours straight. Before these regulations were put in place, many truck drivers would be encouraged to pull all-nighters, relying on coffee and other stimulants to keep awake.

Despite the limits on the amount of time truck drivers can drive, approximately 13% of truck drivers were fatigued at the time of their crash, according to a Large Truck Crash Causation Study (LTCSS). Fatigue is defined as extreme tiredness, usually resulting from mental or physical exertion. During the course of their duty, a truck driver must be on high alert, looking for danger. Further, operating an extremely large and heavy vehicle while confronted with smaller vehicles on the roadway can be quite a challenge. This kind of constant attention is exhausting, even during a shorter shift.

Drowsy driving can be dangerous, even for smaller vehicles. However, because trucks are so enormous and can crash with tremendous force, their collisions tend to have a higher death rate, especially when smaller cars are involved in the collision.

The injuries that result from truck accidents can also be extreme. For example, big rig accidents can often lead to permanent brain damage, severe spinal cord injuries, or even wrongful death. These catastrophic injuries can not only take years of surgery and rehabilitation, but they might result in a permanent disability that could prevent people from holding a regular job. Quadriplegia, for example, can cost the average 25 year old person more than $2 million in medical bills, rehabilitation costs, house remodeling, and lost wages over the course of his or her lifetime.

If you’ve been injured by a drowsy or fatigued truck driver, don’t hesitate to call us. Adler & Manson has more than sixty-five years of collective legal experience in personal injury law to offer your case. We have been assisting the victims of negligence for years and have helped many people obtain the compensation they deserve. Let us put our skills and legal knowledge to work on your behalf. Call our experienced Kansas City truck accident attorneys today.

Contact us at (816) 333-0400 or fill out our online form to schedule a free case consultation with us.

This is important: do not provide authorization.

“Why?” you might ask. “It’s my own insurance company.” That may be true, but there’s nothing certain about car accidents and insurance benefits until all claims are resolved. Technically, the at-fault driver’s insurance will provide compensation for medical treatment and car repairs, but if there’s no clear fault assigned, both drivers’ insurance companies will limit their liability as much as possible.

That’s where your medical records come in. Here’s the key thing to remember about medical authorization releases: unless otherwise stated, they provide total access to your medical history. If you have any part of your medical history that insurance companies could use to argue against you, then your claim may be devalued and you’ll lose your ability to collect all of your benefits.

For example, if you suffered a neck injury in your crash, that could result in substantial compensation for you: physical therapy, chiropractic care, rehabilitative items like neck supports, etc. However, if your insurance company finds that you had a neck sprain a year or two prior to your accident, even if it doesn’t factor into the crash, they may use the information to lower your benefits.

HOW HAVING AN ATTORNEY CAN HELP YOU

It is possible to provide a partial release that only provides adjusters with the records that have to do with your car accident and nothing more. However, doing so requires an understanding of the medical records and insurance systems. Otherwise, you run the risk of opening yourself up to a loss of privacy regarding your medical history.

That’s why turning to a car accident lawyer in Kansas City is so vital for our clients—we protect their rights against insurance companies before a trial case becomes a possibility. By protecting your privacy early in the process, we can keep your claim as strong as possible, whether or not you pursue compensation in court.

If you’ve been in a car accident recently and you want to make sure your rights are protected, contact Adler & Manson today. We have more than 65 years of combined experience fighting for Kansas City residents, and we’ve secured more than $80 million for our injured clients. Call (816) 333-0400 so we can speak in a free legal consultation to discuss your options and begin work on your behalf.

Given these realities, one would think that the trucking industry would want to emphasize its safety record by providing transparency to the public. Unfortunately, one would be wrong.

Don’t Worry. You Can Trust Us. We’re The Trucking Industry!

Instead, the trucking industry, including delivery companies such as FedEx and UPS, would prefer that you not know their safety ratings. To achieve that goal, the industry is currently lobbying for a number of laws that would allow it to conduct its business with relaxed legal requirements. According to the Kansas City Star, one of these relaxed laws would allow the industry to “remove safety ratings of trucking companies from the Internet, where they are now available for public inspection.”

Injured In A Trucking Accident? Your Rights Are At Risk.

The trucking industry’s current lobbying press to avoid safety laws only reminds us of what we remind injured people of every day: the people who have injured you are not here to help you.

If you have been injured in a trucking accident, you want someone in your corner who commits themselves entirely to you and to you alone. To get the answers you need, contact our law firm.

Just such a spike occurred recently. 2013 data shows that fatalities in truck accidents that year were 14 percent higher than they were in 2009, the lowest year for truck accident fatalities since these types of accidents have been tracked.

Samsung recently posed this question to the driving public. They built a semi truck that had a forward-facing video camera on the truck’s grill, and then linked the footage captured by that camera to four televisions that were mounted on the back of the truck, facing out towards cars that were following the truck.

This allowed drivers behind the truck to see what the truck driver was seeing. As a result, they could, in theory, more accurately gauge when it was safe to pass the truck on a two-lane road or have a better idea of what traffic is like in front of the truck.

The truck has since been decommissioned, but it has certainly raised an interesting debate. Would such a vehicle actually improve safety? Or would those televisions only distract drivers even more? And what about the quality of the video? Would the televisions distort a driver’s ability to accurately perceive how much space or time they had before traffic changed up ahead per the video?

It’s a fascinating topic, but one that ultimately boils the issue down to its most basic component: distractions and driving will always be around. We need to be as focused as we can be on the road when we are driving, otherwise, we risk being held liable for an accident.

Source: CBS News, “Could Samsung’s ‘see-through’ safety semi-truck prevent accidents?,” Amy Schupak, June 23, 2015

Many do not understand the numerous causes and factors that may go into determining liability in a truck accident. These elements can be complex, but when understood correctly can allow the victims of the accident to seek justice and receive the compensation they deserve.

In some truck accidents, the truck driver is at the center of the discussion. Was the driver too tired to operate his or her vehicle? How much sleep did the driver get since his or her last shift? What about the training the driver received? Was it enough? Did he or she perform well during the training? Was the driver operating the vehicle in an unsafe way (i.e. speeding or making reckless decisions)?

In other accidents, the truck itself comes into question? Was the truck functioning well prior to the wreck? Was it up to date on maintenance checks? Were there prior technical or mechanical issues? Was the truck overloaded or improperly loaded?

And then, of course, there is the truck company itself. Did the company know about a driver’s unsafe past? Did the company keep up with maintenance records and sleep logs for their trucks and drivers? What about their own safety policies and protocols?

Any of these factors, even multiple factors, could be involved in a truck accident, and the victims of that wreck need experienced legal representation to help them earn the justice they deserve.

Missouri is contemplating allowing truckers to drive their vehicles at speeds of 75 miles per hour. A number of states in the U.S. already allow trucks to drive 80 miles per hour. Unfortunately, many of those officials responsible for setting the speed limit may not be aware of the limitations of tires on these vehicles. Others feel it’s up to those operating the trucks to understand the limitations of the trucks they drive.

Though many truckers and truck companies do a good job of maintaining their vehicles, substantial numbers of trucks on the road still appear poorly maintained. In a Michelin investigation of a small number of trucks, reportedly over half contained overburdened tires due to heavy loads or low air pressure. The drivers also did not appear to know what the proper inflation pressure would be for the tires on their trucks.

Though the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is contemplating requirements listing speeds allowable on the sidewall of truck tires, we will need to wait and see if such legislation ever becomes law. In the meantime, blowouts of tires on trucks lead to serious accidents. There were 14,000 fatal bus or truck crashes between 2009 and 2013 leading to close to 16,000 fatalities.

Without appropriate laws in place to prevent truck accidents from occurring, we have to hold truckers, trucking companies, and their insurers accountable for injuries occurring due to truck accidents. Holding trucking companies liable in court creates incentives for the companies to properly maintain their vehicles and place limitations on how fast truck drivers can operate these trucks.

Source: Epoch Times, “Big Rigs Push Tire Safety Limits,” March 31, 2015

With that in mind, consider an accident that claimed the life of a man from Kansas. The man was driving a truck when another vehicle turned in front of his truck. This caused the man to brake sharply, and that caused the cargo in his truck to shift. This resulted in the unfortunate fatal accident that claimed the truck driver’s life.

To be fair, in this case it seems pretty clear that the cargo shifted as a result of the other vehicle cutting off the cargo-carrying truck. This story has less to do with the cargo directly causing the crash, and more to do with another driver potentially driving recklessly.

However, the fact that the source article pointed out the cargo is important in its own right. It is something anyone would notice, because big, heavy pieces of cargo can dramatically shift a vehicle or cause it to become uncontrollable. If you are unfortunately involved in a truck accident, the cargo of that truck is a massive factor in the crash, and you need to consider its role when you are filing legal action against any liable parties.

Source: Salina Post, “Kansas man dies in truck accident,” Feb. 18, 2015

The wreck involved a truck and another vehicle, and one person was severely injured in the wreck. Thankfully, though, no explosives went off and the surrounding area is okay.

But this wreck brings an important element about truck accidents to the forefront: namely, that the cargo a truck carries can play a huge role in a crash. First of all, the cargo could fall off the back of the truck, causing havoc along a road or highway. In such a case, numerous parties could be held liable for the fallen cargo, such as the driver for failing to ensure it was properly secured, and of course the truck company for being in charge of the operation.

The cargo a truck carries can also cause a truck accident. Allow us to explain how: in many cases, the cargo a truck is carrying is very heavy. If this cargo is too heavy, or if too much of it is put on a truck, or if it is improperly loaded (i.e. unbalanced), then the truck could be uncontrollable and an accident may occur.

Cargo is a hugely important factor in truck accidents, and anyone injured in a truck accident needs to remember about this element if they are considering legal action.

Source: TEXOMA, “Truck Carrying Military Explosives Crashes; Severely Injures One,” Jan. 7, 2015