Truck Accident Lawyers for DuPage County

DuPage County is one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. The county is served by five interstate highways: I-55, I-88, I-290, I-294, and I-355. Its three United States highways include U.S. 20, U.S. 34, and U.S. 66. Illinois routes 19, 38, 53, 56, 59, 64, 83, 110, and 390. It’s also served by Army Trail Road and Stearns Road. You will likely find it tremendously destabilizing to be injured in a commercial truck accident. It isn’t easy to navigate the process of seeking out or recovering damages from a truck driver or other responsible parties. In many cases, they have substantially more resources than accident victims do. If you were injured or a loved one died in a truck crash, you should call the trustworthy DuPage truck accident lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. We have more than 60 years of experience fighting for compensation for accident victims.

Proving Liability for DuPage County Truck Crashes

Truck accidents can be more terrifying than a car accident, and they cause more catastrophic injuries and fatalities, too. To prove that a truck driver should be held accountable, our lawyers will need to prove by a preponderance of the evidence: (1) the truck driver owed you a duty to use reasonable care, (2) breach of the duty to use reasonable care, (3) actual and proximate causation, and (4) actual damages. A truck driver may breach the duty to use reasonable care in many of the same ways a driver of cars breaches the duty to use reasonable care. A truck driver could breach his duty by speeding, drunk driving, operating the vehicle under the influence of drugs, weaving, tailgating, failure to yield, or not abiding by traffic signs such as stop signs or stop lights.

In order to protect the public, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has enacted regulations that strictly govern the behavior of truck driver and trucking companies in connection with commercial trucks. While these are federal regulations, they have been adopted by the state of Illinois. Therefore, these regulations apply not only to drivers in interstate commerce, but also drivers who deliver only in DuPage County or across the state. When these regulations are violated, the violation constitutes a breach of duty. For example, if a truck driver drives more than the hours of service allow on U.S. 20, he or she may be driving fatigued and cause an accident; it’s likely a jury would find he was negligent in breaking the hours of service rules. For another example, if a truck driver operates the vehicle under the influence of prescription medication and therefore rear-ended your car at high speeds on I-55, a jury would probably find he was negligent.

Trucking Company Accidents

The FMCSR applies to trucking companies as well. Under these regulations, companies are expected to properly supervise and train their drivers. They have various specific affirmative duties to the public, including making sure that the truck driver keeps an accurate logbook. If, for example, a trucking company looked the other way even though it knew that the truck driver had falsified entries in the mandatory logbook, our lawyers could likely establish liability based on the trucking company’s negligent supervision. For another example, if a trucking company hired a truck driver without conducting a background check, and therefore didn’t see that the truck driver had had multiple DUI convictions, and then the driver caused a crash on Stearns Road while under the influence, our attorneys may be able to hold the trucking company accountable under a theory of negligent hiring.

Consult a DuPage County Truck Accident Lawyer

You shouldn’t have to go through the process of recovering compensation on your own. If you were injured in a crash or a loved one died in a crash, call the trustworthy DuPage County truck accident attorneys of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. Call us at 312-724-5846 or fill out our online form.