Truck vs. Car Crashes: Key Differences You Should Know

Any accident can potentially cause serious injuries, but a crash with a truck versus a car can be especially dangerous and difficult to navigate. If you’ve been in an accident with a big rig and are considering handling the aftermath yourself, you should understand how damages and injuries, investigative methods, and liability factors make an accident involving a semi-truck or 18-wheeler different than a typical car crash.

North Carolina is a major thoroughfare for trucks and commercial traffic. Anyone living or vacationing here may find themselves in an accident with a big rig and face serious injuries and property loss. Our attorneys understand how car and semi-truck accidents differ and can help you through these complex claims.

A semi’s average weight is 25,000 pounds at its lowest, while the average passenger vehicle weighs about 4,000 pounds, nearly 12 times less. The weight and size difference between a truck and a car often leads to substantial damage and injuries to the passenger vehicle and its occupants. Oftentimes, the commercial driver is left unscathed while the other motorists and passengers can be severely injured or killed, and their property is a total loss.

The severity of a car and semi-truck accident makes calculating the damages for pain and suffering, injuries, and financial repercussions more complex. You may require help from a North Carolina trucking accident attorney to get this right. They can guide you to file a personal injury claim that factors in all economic and non-economic impacts for full and fair compensation.

Drivers with regular Class D licenses are trained to abide by safety protocols so they can spot reckless drivers and those ignoring the laws. But many standard drivers do not understand the requirements of freight carriers with a commercial driver’s license (CDL). That’s why a CDL-licensed attorney can be instrumental in investigating car and semi-truck accidents.

Violating commercial vehicle regulations can be critical evidence of liability and a lawyer with in-depth commercial transport knowledge can investigate for non-compliance. Semi-trucks are also equipped with electronic monitoring systems that detect driving behavior and log hours on the road and other information they are required to track. You might assume this makes investigating a trucking accident easier, but freight companies will go to great lengths to protect potentially damaging information.

Gathering proof requires vehicle inspections and reconstructions plus gaining access to logbooks and electronic data to look for violations. These are tasks most people cannot complete on their own, but a North Carolina trucking accident attorney can help! Our attorneys can file a letter of spoilation to prevent the freight company from altering or destroying critical digital and physical evidence to investigate the crash thoroughly.

It isn’t just the devastation of semi-truck accidents or complicated investigations that set trucking accidents apart from car crashes. When you file a personal injury claim for a car and semi-truck accident, many liability laws come into play.

Car accidents are often straightforward. Faulty drivers, unlike freight carriers, don’t usually have a legal team and insurance carriers on speed dial. Accountability is much more complicated when you file a personal injury claim for a trucking accident. Often, an employer is responsible for any action by its employee, including a vehicle operator’s negligence. But since freight carriers have a lot to lose financially and reputationally from a trucking accident, they fight these claims by trying to muddy liability, blaming a third party or even the injured car driver.

North Carolina observes contributary negligence laws, which generally state that any person who is even partly at fault, even 1%, may be barred from seeking compensation. Commercial vehicle companies try to use this to their advantage to prove you were distracted, speeding, or otherwise breaking the law in a way that contributed to the car and semi-truck accident.

A freight company denying liability isn’t anything new to our North Caroling trucking accident attorneys—we’ve seen it all. Before you try to handle a personal injury claim on your own, consult with our team to see how we can help. When a truck versus car crash isn’t your fault, you shouldn’t compromise your recovery because the trucking company puts up a fight. We have your back. Contact us for a free consultation and let our experience help get you the compensation you deserve.