Kendall County Attorneys for Truck Accident Victims

Kendall County is located in Illinois. Between 2000 -2010, it was believed to be the most quickly growing county in the United States. From 2009-2013, there were 9 fatalities and 43 serious injuries related to heavy vehicles in the county. Eight fatalities and 32 serious injuries occurred on state routes, and 1 fatality and 11 serious injuries occurred on local routes. There was an uptick of 6 deaths in 2012. Due to the weight and size of commercial trucks, truck accidents can be traumatic, and it’s not easy to handle a personal injury lawsuit on your own. If you were injured or a loved one died in a truck crash, you should call the seasoned Kendall County truck accident lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. We have more than 60 years of experience fighting for compensation for accident victims.

Liability in a Kendall County Truck Accident

You may not realize how sharply different the investigation of a truck accident is from that of a car accident. Not only are the injuries often far more serious in a truck accident than a car accident, but special rules apply to commercial trucks, which are heavily regulated with the intention of keeping people safe. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations govern the behavior of truck drivers, including speed limits, the hours truck drivers can work, and how frequently inspections of a truck must take place. These regulations apply to truck drivers working in interstate commerce, but the state of Illinois has adopted the FMCSR in its entirety, and so it applies to truck drivers who work only in Kendall County or elsewhere in the state, too.

Some truck accidents are the result of negligence. In order to show a truck driver was negligent, our attorneys will need to prove it’s more likely than not (1) the truck driver owed you a duty of reasonable care, (2) breach of the duty of reasonable care, (3) causation, and (4) actual damages. The duty of reasonable care can be breached by speeding, weaving, tailgating, drunk driving or driving under the influence of drugs, and failing to obey traffic signs and signals. However, it can also be breached if a truck driver fails to abide by the rules set out in the FMCSR such as by working beyond the permissible hours of service and driving while fatigued or failing to conduct required inspections.

Liability of Trucking Accidents

Trucking companies are also required to follow the FMCSR. These regulations require trucking companies to make sure their drivers our qualified. Trucking companies aren’t allowed to coerce a driver to go over the hours of service limits in order to make a timely delivery, and they can’t punish a driver who refuses to operate the truck longer than allowed under the rules.

When trucking companies don’t comply with the FMCSR, they can be held accountable. For example they’re required to supervise their truck drivers and make sure that they follow the hours of service rules and keep a logbook of their hours. A trucking company’s failure to follow the FMCSR may be negligence, and the company can be held liable for negligently hiring, supervising or training a truck driver who causes an accident. For example, if a truck driver causes the truck to jackknife and doesn’t address the situation appropriately because he wasn’t trained adequately, and as a result of that failure, a preventable injury occurs, the trucking company could be held responsible for negligent training.

Other parties that may bear responsibility for a truck accident include a truck manufacturer, repair person or mechanic, and other drivers. In some cases, truck drivers or trucking companies assert that a plaintiff is partially to blame for the accident in order to avoid paying damages or the full amount of damages.

Consult a Kendall County Truck Accident Lawyer

If you were injured in a collision with a big rig or semi, or a loved one died that way, call the seasoned Kendall County truck accident lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca to figure out whether you have grounds to bring a lawsuit. Call us at 312-724-5846 or complete our online form.