Truck Accident Lawyers Calgary
Truck drivers who operate large commercial vehicles provide an essential service to countless Canadians. Alberta truck drivers keep communities connected by transporting all manner of goods, supplies, materials, and essential products throughout the province and beyond its borders. But driving a truck can be a demanding job, requiring physical stamina and heightened awareness of the road and is one of the reasons this profession is highly regulated.
Everyone who operates a motor vehicle in the province of Alberta is required to abide by the Traffic Safety Act. People who operate large commercial vehicles like trucks are no exception.
Truck drivers are required to obey the rules of the road and exercise caution behind the wheel at all times. By operating their vehicles with an abundance of caution, they could reduce the risk of serious accidents on the province’s roads and highways.
Even though Alberta truck drivers are required to adhere to Alberta’s Commercial Vehicle Safety Regulations, to meet the rigorous demands of their jobs, some commercial vehicle operators may try cutting corners in certain aspects of their jobs. They may fail to properly inspect their vehicles at required intervals, ignore important mechanical issues, or drive for longer distances than is recommended.
When truck operators bend or break the rules of the road, they could endanger the lives of countless other road-users. By failing to comply with their industry’s safety standards or local traffic laws, a truck driver’s negligent actions could have devastating impacts on other drivers, their passengers, motorcyclists, bicycle riders, and pedestrians. If you have been seriously injured in a trucking accident, our Calgary truck accident lawyers can help you pursue meaningful compensation for your injuries. Similarly, if you have lost a loved one in a fatal trucking accident, there may be legal recourse available for you too. Contact our law firm to learn more on how we can help you get the compensation you deserve.
Common Causes of Truck Accidents in Calgary
Establishing negligence can be tricky in truck accident claims because there are many ways that negligence can cause truck accidents. Common examples of negligence that frequently leads to injury-causing accidents include:
- Fatigued driving
- Driving under the influence of stimulants, amphetamines, and other illicit substances
- Texting while driving
- Eating while the vehicle is in motion
- Improperly changing lanes
- Following too closely
- Exceeding the posted speed limit
- Driving recklessly
- Ignoring traffic signs and signals
- Drunk driving
- Heavy or unsecure loads which result in uneven weight distribution
- Improper road maintenance
- Defective products
- And more
Book a free consultation with our Calgary truck accident lawyers for legal help, if you or a loved one have sustained injuries or been involved in a fatal trucking accident in Alberta.
The Severity of Injuries from Trucking Accidents And How They Can Impact Your Normal Functioning
At Preszler Injury Lawyers, we have been helping Canadians with their truck accident claims since 1959. The unfortunate reality of trucking accidents is that the severity of injuries from these types of accidents, are often catastrophic or fatal. Here are some examples of common injuries from trucking accidents and how they can impact your life:
Brain injuries: These types of injuries are far too common in trucking accidents. Sustaining a traumatic brain injury can have severe impairment on your ability to function on a physical basis as well as cognitive basis. Brain injuries can result in a traumatic loss of life for most people, with injuries that may last a lifetime. In most cases they can impact your ability to work again. Compensation to improve the quality of life for brain injury survivors is an essential part of the recovery and rehabilitation process as in most cases, significant modifications to your surroundings and lifestyle will need to take place.
Musculoskeletal and soft tissue injuries: Musculoskeletal and soft tissue injuries can develop into chronic pain without proper treatment. Chronic pain can also turn into long-term conditions such as complex regional pain syndrome and also impact your ability to do your job properly. It can also make what once seemed painless activities, like taking your dog for a walk or lifting groceries out of a car, into a very painful exercise. Compensation for proper medical care and rehabilitation is important.
Disfigurement and loss of limbs: Losing a limb or dealing with disfigurement following a serious truck accident also comes with serious modifications to your surroundings and lifestyles. We rely on our limbs for many actions that are critical for our existence and livelihood. And for individuals dealing with disfigurement, it can turn into psychiatric or psychological injuries.
Psychiatric and Psychological Injuries: These types of injuries are harder to quantify, but an experienced lawyer can help prove how psychiatric and psychological injuries stemming from the accident have impacted your life. The reality is, many accident victims suffer from trauma, PTSD and sometimes anxiety and depression when their injuries and losses have been signifigant.
Fortunately for accident survivors (and in some cases, the loved ones of those who have perished in a truck accident), compensation may be available to you through legal recourse. Contact our Calgary truck accident lawyers for a free initial consultation.
Compensatory Damages Available for Calgary Truck Accident Victims
If you were injured in a collision caused by a truck driver’s negligence, you should be entitled to Section B benefits which can help you afford the costs of injury-related expenses. However, owing to the large discrepancies in size and weight between large commercial trucks and smaller passenger vehicles, the injuries sustained by the victims of truck accidents are often permanent and severe, requiring ongoing, expensive medical care.
Whereas a negligent truck driver who causes a collision may only sustain minor or moderate injuries, the victims of a truck accident could feel the impacts of their collision for the rest of their lives. Injured truck accident victims frequently sustain permanent physical injuries, develop debilitating mental health issues, and incur substantial financial losses.
For victims of trucking accidents, there are typically 2 types of general heads of damages available for compensation relating to your injuries and losses:
Economic Damages: Economic damages are sometimes also referred to as pecuniary losses or special damages when it comes to truck accident claims. Economic damages are intended to compensate you for losses incurred as a result of the accident for things like medical treatment and lost wages.
Some examples of economic damages include but are not limited to:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Surgical procedures
- Chiropractic treatment
- Massage therapy treatments
- Mobility aids and assistive devices
- Occupational therapy
- Physical therapy
- Dental work
- Hospital accommodations
- Acupuncture
- Professional nursing and ambulance services
- Home and vehicle modifications
Non-economic Damages: Non-economic damages are sometimes referred to as general damages or non-pecuniary losses in the legal world. These types of damages are harder to prove, and we always recommend working with a lawyer to help pursue non-economic damages because sometimes we’ll need to work with experts to help quantify this amount. The courts will look at a variety of factors when trying to determine the amount for general damages including things like age of the individual, their health prior to the accident happening, the nature and severity of injuries insofar as how they impact a person’s ability to function normally again and more.
Some examples of non-economic damages include but are not limited to:
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Emotional suffering
- Loss of companionship
- Physical disfigurement
- Physical impairment
- Mental anguish
If you were injured in a collision caused by a truck driver’s negligence or lost a loved one in a truck accident in Alberta, our Calgary truck accident lawyers may be able to help you pursue a civil claim in order to recover the maximum amount of compensation to which you could be entitled. To learn about options for financial recovery that might be available to you, contact us today.
How Negligence Works In Truck Accident Claims
Anyone injured in an Alberta motor vehicle collision should be entitled to Section B benefits, regardless of which party was at-fault for the accident. That means that all injured survivors of the truck accident should be entitled to certain levels of insurance coverage, no matter who was responsible for causing the collision.
In order for an injured truck accident victim to pursue a civil claim for damages, they must be able to prove that:
- The truck driver owed them a duty of care
- By engaging in wrongful conduct, the truck driver failed to fulfill that duty of care
- As a result of their wrongful actions, a collision occurred
- The collision caused the accident victim to sustain injuries
When collisions between large commercial trucks and smaller passenger vehicles, it is often clear which driver was responsible for the accident occurring. However, when it comes to truck accident claims, other parties could be liable for an injured survivor’s damages, as well.
In the context of a truck accident, both the negligent truck driver who caused the accident and the trucking company that employed them could be considered to be partially at-fault for the accident.
While the truck driver might have engaged in negligent behaviour on the road, their employer might have been negligent in a number of other ways. The trucking company may have failed to properly train or supervise the driver, or may have continued their employment even if they were aware the driver had a history of unsafe driving. The trucking company could have failed to properly maintain the truck, or could have assigned a delivery schedule that their driver could not complete without speeding or foregoing proper rest breaks. If the trucking company’s contributory negligence is found to have contributed to the accident, they may be liable for damages incurred by injured survivors.
In Alberta, the law recognizes the principle of proportionate liability, which means that liability for damages is apportioned based on each party’s degree of fault. This means that the trucking company may be held partially responsible for the damages incurred by the survivors, along with the driver. Trucking companies are also vicariously liable for the negligence of their drivers as a matter of public policy.
Book Your Free Initial Consultation with Our Calgary Truck Accident Lawyers
At Preszler Injury Lawyers, all prospective clients receive a free initial consultation. On top of that, our Calgary truck accident lawyers work on a contingency-fee basis, which means our clients do not pay unless we win their cases. To learn more about how our lawyers may be able to help you get the compensation you deserve, call us today and schedule your free initial consultation with our legal team.
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