Decatur Truck Accidents

Decatur Truck Accident Attorneys

With a population of 70,522 as of 2020, Decatur is the largest city in Macon County in Illinois and the 17th largest city in the state. Located along the Sangamon River, it has 71 official neighborhoods and is home to Milliken University, Richland Community College, and Walther Theological Seminary. Roads that serve it are I-72, United States Route 51, United States Route 26, and state routes 48, 105, and 121. If you were injured in a truck crash, you should call the seasoned Decatur truck accident lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. We have more than 60 years of experience advocating for accident victims in court. We also handle SSDI and disability claims.

Truck Accident Attorneys in Decatur

The most common types of truck accidents are rear-end collisions, truck rollovers, head-on collisions, jackknife accidents, T-bone accidents, sideswipe accidents, and wide turn accidents. Often Decatur truck accidents are the result of negligence, sometimes by a truck driver.

In order to establish negligence, our attorneys will need to prove the defendant owed you a duty of reasonable care, breached that duty, and thus caused your injuries and losses. Truck drivers can breach the duty to use reasonable care in much the same ways that drivers of regular cars do:

• inattentive or distracted driving,
• failure to obey traffic signs and signals,
• speeding,
• tailgating
• drunk or drugged driving
• and aggressive driving.

Additionally, a truck that is overweighted may be more accident-prone. A truck driver could be negligent in conducting all the checks needed prior to getting on the road to make sure that the commercial vehicle is at the correct weight and correctly loaded.

Our lawyers examine cases closely to determine if other parties are also to blame for a truck accident. Sometimes negligence by multiple people or entities combines to cause an accident. Other parties that may also be responsible include trucking companies, third party loading companies, mechanics, and other drivers. It can be important to retain an accident reconstruction expert to go out to the scene and examine debris, skid marks, and damage to the vehicle to make a determination about who was at fault and to what extent.

Your damages may be reduced by an amount equal to your degree of fault. Illinois follows the rule of modified comparative negligence. If the defendants can show you were 50% or more at fault for the injuries or damages, you will be barred from recovering any damages. Accordingly, it is imperative to seek legal counsel before speaking to the other side.

Damages

In most cases, damages in Decatur truck accident cases are compensatory. This means that they are damages awarded to make up for losses, whether past, present or future. They can include both economic and noneconomic losses, everything from:

• medical bills,
• lost wages,
• pain and suffering,
• loss of enjoyment of life,
• replacement services,
• emotional distress,
• out-of-pocket costs,
• and loss of consortium.

The nature and severity of your injuries from the truck crash will determine the amount of compensatory damages our lawyers can recover on your behalf. Typically, economic damages are established with documentary proof; often noneconomic damages are shown through testimony, whether your own or a family member’s, about how your life was altered by your injuries. When injuries are catastrophic, meaning that your life was permanently altered by those injuries, such as with paralysis or amputation, a larger damages award is likely.

When a defendant’s conduct is egregious, it may be appropriate to pursue punitive damages, which are damages meant to punish and deter misconduct. For example, if a trucking company repeatedly hired drivers who have had accidents in spite of conducting background checks that showed they were unsafe drivers, it might be appropriate to ask for punitive damages.

Consult a Seasoned Decatur Truck Accident Lawyer

If you were injured or a loved one died in a truck crash, you should call the seasoned Decatur truck accident lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. We have fought for compensation car accident victims for more than 60 years. We also handle SSDI benefits and workers’ compensation claims. Call us at 312-724-5846 or complete our online form.