The car accident attorneys at Peck Law Firm understand the devastating impact being involved in a car accident with a semi truck, commercial vehicle, or work truck can have on your life from a physical, emotional, and financial perspective. Unfortunately, despite the horrific injuries an accident victim can sustain in a semi truck accident, accidents involving commercial vehicles are becoming more and more common. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were 4,761 people killed in car accidents involving a large truck in 2017, which is a 6% increase from the 4,317 fatal accidents involving large trucks that occured in 2016. In fact, fatal car accidents involving large trucks have been rising steadily since 2015 in the United States.
In Florida specifically, there were over 1,000 people injured and approximately 292 people killed in 2017 in car accidents involving a large truck, which both the NHTSA and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles defines as a truck with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of over 10,000 lbs. Of the accidents involving a commercial vehicle in Florida, 200 occurred right here in Hernando County, so the chances of you being involved in an accident with a semi truck or commercial vehicle in Brooksville, Spring Hill, Withlacoochee, or some other location in Hernando County are high. As such, there are few aspects of Florida’s commercial vehicle accident laws that you should be aware of.
How will a Truck Accident Attorney Evaluate my Claim?
When our truck accident attorneys evaluate a claim, they have to consider not just basic legal elements such as evaluating the degree to which a semi truck driver was negligent or the amount of time left before the statute of limitations runs in your truck accident claim, but they also have to consider certain legal elements that apply exclusively to commercial vehicle accidents, the most important of which is whether the semi truck involved in the accident was engaged in intrastate commerce or interstate commerce.
Intrastate vs Interstate Commerce
This legal element is important, because it determines the type of insurance a commercial vehicle owner must carry. Interstate commerce is defined by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) as a company or individual whose traffic, trade, or transportation amounts to one of the following:
- Traveling between a place in a state and a place outside of such state (including a place outside of the United States)
- Traveling between two places in a state through another state or a place outside of the United States
- Traveling between two places in a state as part of trade, traffic, or transportation originating or terminating outside the state or the United States
In contrast, trucks that only operate within their company’s domicile state, which in your case would be Florida, are engaging in intrastate commerce.
Commercial Vehicle Insurance Standards
Whether or not a semi truck or commercial vehicle is engaging in interstate or intrastate commerce will determine whether the vehicle’s owner will have to purchase insurance based on federal or state law. According to the FMCSA, semi trucks and commercial vehicles engaging in interstate commerce that have a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of over 10,000 lbs are required to carry a public liability insurance policy with limits ranging between $750,000 and $5,000,000 depending on the type of commodities being transported, and vehicles engaging in interstate commerce transporting non-hazardous materials with a GVWR under 10,001 lbs are required to carry a $300,000 public liability insurance policy that covers bodily injuries, property damage, and environmental restoration.
In contrast, Florida state law is far more lenient than its federal counterpart. Under F.S.§627.7415, commercial vehicles are required to carry a bodily injury and property damage insurance policy with the following limits based on the vehicle’s gross vehicle weight rating:
- Commercial vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating between 26,000 and 34,999 lbs- $50,000 per occurrence.
- Commercial vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating between 35,000 and 43,999 lbs- $100,000 per occurrence.
- Commercial vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating between 44,000 lbs or more- $300,000 per occurrence.
Common Injuries You Could Sustain in a Commercial Vehicle Accident
Since commercial trucking companies are required to carry large insurance policies on their vehicles, they often have a very large financial incentive to vigorously defend car accident claims in order to reduce the amount of compensation accident victims receive for their injuries, but many car accidents involving a semi truck or commercial vehicle often cause accident victims to sustain serious, life-altering injuries such as:
- Traumatic Brain Injuries
- Spinal Cord Injuries
- Spinal Fractures
- Skull Fractures Causing Brain Damage
- Broken Bones
- Severed Limbs
How Much Compensation will I Receive for my Injuries?
Due to the serious nature of these injuries, an experienced truck accident lawyer can often demonstrate how these injuries will result in you sustaining a large amount of damages over time. Damages in a truck accident claims are often divided into two separate categories, compensatory damages and punitive damages. Compensatory damages are awarded to compensate you for things such as:
- Past and Future Medical Expenses
- Lost Wages
- Pain and Suffering
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life
- Mental Anguish
Punitive damages, however, are awarded to punish a defendant for their actions and deter them from repeating their actions in the future, but in Florida, punitive damages can only be awarded to a plaintiff when the trier of fact, which is a judge or jury, finds that the defendant was personally guilty of intentional misconduct or gross negligence. This requirement sets the bar pretty high for being able to obtain an award for punitive damages, but when some of the prevalent causes of truck accidents in Florida and the United States are the primary reason your truck accident occurred, the likelihood of you being able to successfully seek and be awarded punitive damages increases substantially.
Drunk or Fatigued Truck Drivers in Florida
For example, according to the NHTSA, 3% of all of the fatal car accidents involving a large truck in the United States involved a truck driver with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08% or higher, but in Florida, a commercial truck driver can be arrested for DUI if they have a BAC of .04% or higher under F.S.§322.61. As a result, a commercial truck driver can technically be considered drunk after consuming a relatively small amount of alcohol. In these instances, an experienced truck accident attorney can argue that the truck driver’s actions rose to the level of gross negligence, because the semi truck driver’s actions were so reckless or wanting in care that it constituted a conscious disregard or indifference for the life, safety, or rights of the people exposed to that conduct.
The same could be said for a truck driver that was operating a semi truck while they were fatigued, drowsy, or tired. According to the Center for Disease Control, drowsy driving was responsible for 72,000 car accidents in 2013, and semi truck drivers and commercial vehicle operators are more likely to drive drowsy than non-commercial drivers due to the nature of their jobs. As you can see, there are a number of different factors that could have an impact on your truck accident claim, which is why hiring a truck accident attorney to represent you is such a critical aspect of ensuring that your legal interests are protected.
Truck Accident Lawyers in Spring Hill, FL
At Elkin-Peck PLLC, our truck accident lawyers understand that being involved in a car accident with a semi truck or commercial vehicle can be devastating, but you don’t have to face this difficult time alone. The truck accident attorneys at Elkin-Peck PLLC are dedicated to helping accident victims like you seek the compensation you deserve for their injuries, and we are ready to begin working on your claim immediately. So, if you or a loved one have been injured in a commercial vehicle accident, call our office today for a free, confidential consultation.
