Truck accidents tend to be more severe than regular car accidents mainly due to the weight of trucks. However, if you have been injured in a truck accident, you will only get the compensation you deserve if you have the necessary evidence for your claim. Here are some of the places you should look at in pursuit of this evidence:
The Condition of the Truck
The condition of the truck, which includes different things such as its age and maintenance, is one of the things that will influence your claim. Proving that the truck was poorly maintained may help you portray the company as negligent. Proving that the negligent maintenance caused the accident may even win you the case. For example, if the company had failed to replace its truck's worn brake rotors, and the accident was caused by brake failure, it would be easy to hold the company liable for the accident.
The Company's Accident History
When pursuing a truck accident claim, you should not just focus on the single accident that caused your injury. You need to go over the company's past activities and accident history with the hope of painting it as generally negligent. Establishing a pattern of negligent would help you convince the judge or jury that the company must have been negligent in this current accident too.
The Trucking Company's Accident Policies
Accidents cause trucking companies serious money, which is why many of them have accident policies to eliminate or reduce accident-related losses. Unfortunately, some of these policies are inadequate and do not help much when it comes to stopping accidents. Therefore, scrutinize the company's accident policies and, hopefully, you will identify weaknesses that could have prevented the accident. For example, if the company doesn't review and evaluate past accidents, you can argue that their failure to do that contributed to your accident.
The Driver's History
If the driver is an employee of the company, then you also need to review their driving history because it reflects on the hiring and retention policies of the trucking company. If you find that the driver has checkered accident history, and they were found liable in most of the accidents, then you can argue that the company could have fired, reassigned or reeducated the driver to avoid future accidents. In this case, you will be basing your claim on the legal principle of negligent hiring and retention.
Some of this evidence will be easy to get if an attorney is involved in the process. Therefore, don't forget to consult one as early in your case as possible.