New Mexico Commercial Trucking Accident Lawyers

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Any sort of vehicular accident is, in the best-case scenario, a major headache to deal with. At worst, though, accidents can leave victims and their families with piled-up medical bills, a totaled car, and severe or potentially fatal injuries. These risks are enhanced even further when an accident involves a commercial truck. Due to their size, accidents with a truck can quickly turn into a devastating situation. After your commercial trucking accident, you may be left wondering about commercial trucking personal injury laws in New Mexico, which is where an attorney may be able to help.

If you or a loved one has been involved in a commercial trucking accident in New Mexico, call (800) 863-5312 today for a free consultation with Zinda Law Group.

WHAT SHOULD I DO AFTER A TRUCK ACCIDENT IN NEW MEXICO?

Victims of trucking accidents are likely to be hurt, confused, or disoriented in the immediate aftermath of a wreck. Understanding ahead of time what to do in the event that you are involved in a trucking accident may help preserve not only your health and well-being but also the safety of others, and finally, your legal rights. Listed below are several steps that you should take following a trucking accident.

1. Seek Immediate Medical Attention

Given the sheer size of eighteen wheelers and semi-trucks, it should come as no surprise that trucking accidents have the potential to lead to serious injury. Examples of such consequences include traumatic brain injury, permanent spinal cord injuries, broken bones, and even death.

If any of these injuries arise after a wreck, the need for immediate medical attention is apparent. However, it is important to remember that medical attention should be sought even after accidents that seem minor. This is because the effects of an automobile accident may take hours or even days to manifest. Seeking prompt medical attention will help increase your chances of recovering as quickly and efficiently as possible.

2. Report the Accident

Another step you should take following a trucking accident is to report the accident to local law enforcement as soon as possible. You can report the accident immediately after it happens if you are feeling well enough to do so, or you can wait until after you have received medical attention.

Reporting the accident is important because it will create an official record of the accident which may later be used as evidence to support your claim. Reporting the accident may also put the truck driver or his or her employer on notice of unsafe driving and may cause them to implement safer driving practices immediately.

When filling out the report, be sure to include as many details as you can remember, such as the date, time, and location of the accident, how the collision occurred, the injuries and vehicular damage sustained as a result of the crash, and whether there were any witnesses to the accident.

3. Document the Accident

One of the most important but overlooked steps to take following a trucking accident is to document the accident by keeping all paperwork, records, and other materials relating to the accident. Examples of items that should be held on to include copies of the police report, witness statements, medical bills, photographs of your injuries, and photographs of your damaged vehicle.

Keeping these documents in an organized folder at your home, office, or other safe location may make it easier for you to recall the details of your accident and can expedite the claims process. More importantly, these documents may also serve as evidence to substantiate the value of your claim.

4. Call an 18-wheeler accident attorney

Before speaking with insurance companies or agreeing to a claim settlement, contact a truck accident lawyer for a brief consultation regarding your accident. A lawyer may engage in a comprehensive review of the facts of your case and provide legal advice regarding what rights and remedies may be available to you. If necessary, an attorney may also negotiate with insurance companies on your behalf to ensure that you receive the full value of your claim. If a settlement agreement cannot be reached, an attorney may file a lawsuit against the necessary parties.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CAUSES OF TRUCK ACCIDENTS?

Some of the main causes of truck accidents are similar to those of car accidents. Here are a few of the main causes of truck accidents:

Fatigue

Fatigue can be a very real and present danger when it comes to truck drivers. Most people in the car do not spend hours on end driving on New Mexico’s interstates. However, the freeways are essentially the office space of the truck driver. This means that long hours on the road can wear down the alertness of drivers and put them at risk for causing accidents. There may also be demands from the company to meet deadlines, keeping them on the road for even longer stretches of time.

Driver Error

Truck drivers need to go through special training and receive special licensing to be able to take 18-wheelers out on the road. That being said, they are still prone to driver error. Trucks can present more risks than a typical passenger vehicle might, such as an increased distance to come to a complete stop due to their sheer size and a larger blind spot because of their length.

Poor Vehicle Maintenance

Another problem that can crop up due to the massive size of trucks and the amount of time that truck drivers spend on the road is maintenance issues. Trucks require lots of moving parts working together in a very efficient way and they can wear out quickly. If truck drivers or their employers do not keep up with the regular maintenance of the vehicle, it can lead to accidents and cause harm to the other people on the road.

ELEMENTS OF A NEW MEXICO TRUCK ACCIDENT CLAIM

Typically, when an accident victim is looking to recover for their losses from a truck driver or trucking company, they will attempt to recover under a theory of negligence. Simply put, negligence occurs when someone has an obligation to act reasonably and fails to do so. Negligence has four basic components:

Duty

The first step in trying to establish negligence is to establish that the person or entity you are attempting to recover from had a duty to act in a certain way. If there was no obligation to act reasonably in the first place, then you can’t be held responsible for not conforming to that standard. Truck drivers have the general obligation to drive safely when they are on the road, and they also have the additional obligation of conforming to federal and commercial trucking personal injury laws in New Mexico, as well as company policy if they are employed by a trucking company

Breach

Once you have established a duty, you must then establish that the other party breached that duty. For example, if you can establish that the speed limit on the section of the road where your accident occurred was 65 mph and that the truck driver was driving at 85 mph, then this may establish that they breached their duty to drive safely. Further, if you can establish that there is a federal law limiting how many hours per day truck drivers are allowed to drive and that the truck driver in your case had driven more than that amount when the accident occurred, this could also be good evidence of a breach of their duty.

Causation

After establishing a duty and a breach, you must establish a link between the two. In other words, it is necessary to prove that the breach of duty is what ended up causing your injuries. If the driver of the truck in your accident was somehow driving illegally but it was another car swerving in front of you that caused your accident, then it might not be possible to recover damages from the truck driver.

Damages

To be able to recover in a lawsuit, you have to be able to prove that you sustained some sort of loss or suffering, whether it be physical, emotional, or financial. If you were in a minor accident where you walked away unscathed and your vehicle dint suffer from any damage, then you likely do not have a compensable claim. However, if you suffered large amounts of trauma and have had to pay lots of costly bills, then it is possible that you are entitled to compensation.

WHO IS LIABLE?

The liable party is simply the person who is at fault for your accident, i.e., the person who caused it and is on the hook to make it right. It might seem like a straightforward process to figure out who, exactly, is liable for a car accident. However, there are always more complications than appear at first glance, in particular when trucks are involved. Below are a few of the parties who could potentially be liable for your injuries.

The Truck Driver

For most vehicle accidents, the starting point for attempting to determine liability is with the driver. The driver is the person in control of the vehicle, and thus there is a good chance that they might share in the liability when an accident happens. A truck driver might be liable when they are breaking New Mexico law by driving over the speed limit or driving while intoxicated, or when they are breaking federal regulations by driving past the amount of time in a day that they have been approved to do.

The Trucking Company

Trucking companies can add a whole new level of complication to an accident. In an accident involving only passenger vehicles, the responsibility to keep a vehicle in good working order and to drive responsibly lies solely with the driver. However, trucking companies add a new level of complexity and potential liability. If a trucking company employs the truck driver who was involved in your accident, then they could potentially be liable if they did not do enough to keep the truck in good working order or if they negligently hired the driver in the first place.

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The Town or Municipality

Rarely, the town or municipality where your accident took place could share in the liability for the accident. This can happen if the roads were in unsafe condition and should have been noticed and repaired. For example, if a streetlight in the location where the accident took place had been faulty for a long period of time and the town had done nothing to try fixing it or prevent a dangerous situation, then they may be at least partially liable.

Read More: New Mexico 18-Wheeler Accident Laws

WHAT IS MY CASE WORTH?

One of the most pressing questions that many accident victims have when researching commercial trucking personal injury laws in New Mexico is, “What, exactly, could my case be worth?” There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, but the potential number depends on a few different factors.

You can begin to get an estimate of the value of your case by adding up your economic damages. Economic damages are tangible losses that can be calculated to a fairly exact degree of certainty. They include things like medical bills, damage to your vehicle, and lost wages from being unable to work. Next, you may be eligible to receive non-economic damages as well. Non-economic damages are more difficult to put an exact dollar figure on, but they include the pain and suffering that you experience as a result of your injuries.

LEGAL TIME LIMITS

Every type of personal injury case has an associated time limit for when it can be brought, also known as a statute of limitations. The statute of limitations is set by New Mexico law, and for most vehicle accidents, it is three years. This means that you have three years from the date of your accident within which to bring a claim based on that accident. Certain exceptions to this general statute of limitations might exist, such as if you do not discover your injuries until after the accident or if the accident victim is a minor, but it is generally advisable to seek the advice of a qualified New Mexico truck accident attorney as soon as possible to avoid running into any sort of problems with timeliness.

CONTACT ZINDA LAW GROUP TODAY

Zinda Law Group believes that no accident victim should go through this process without legal representation. We also believe that money shouldn’t be a barrier to quality legal representation, which is why you don’t pay us anything until we win your case for you. That’s our No Win, No Fee Guarantee.

If you or a loved one has been involved in a commercial trucking accident in New Mexico, call (800) 863-5312 today for a free consultation with a New Mexico personal injury lawyer.

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