What Happens If Multiple Vehicles Are Involved in an Oversized Load Crash?
You will have to deal with multiple commercial insurance companies, along with other drivers who will also fight to get their compensation. This can be overwhelming.
To get the compensation you deserve, you need to hire a truck crash lawyer who can conduct a thorough investigation and secure your damages.
What Is an Oversized Load Crash? Why Are Multiple Vehicles Involved in It?
A specialized truck carrying an oversize load (typically cargo) exceeds legal dimensions (width, height, length, or weight), and needs a permit to operate the vehicle.
When this cargo is improperly secured or there are mechanical failures, it can result in oversize load crashes.
Given the vehicle’s massive size, when a crash happens, both the cargo and the truck can fall onto other vehicles and fill up multiple lanes.
What Happens After an Oversized Load Crash Involving Multiple Vehicles
Life-Altering Injuries
When the vehicle loses stability and falls onto a smaller vehicle, the immense force and impact lead to devastating injuries.
The resulting injuries can be life-changing. They can include:
- Spinal cord injuries and paralysis
- Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs)
- Third- and fourth-degree burns
- Crushing injuries and amputations
- Permanent disfigurement
- Multiple broken bones and fractures
- Prolonged psychological trauma
Fault Can Be Shared Across Many Parties
In many cases, the fault isn’t limited to a single driver in oversized load crashes. Due to the complex nature of these accidents, multiple parties may be responsible for the accident.
Besides just the oversize load truck driver, the other parties can be:
- Cargo loaders and shippers, if they failed to load or balance the cargo properly.
- The trucking company is liable for negligent hiring or failure to follow federal regulations (vicarious liability with the driver).
- Logistics and route planners, if they failed to plan the right route for the vehicle.
- Failure of pilot vehicle operators in accompanying and guiding the vehicle properly.
- Manufacturers of the brakes, tires, or the coupling system can be held liable if they were faulty.
When more than one of these parties contributed to the accident, liability will be determined using comparative fault, with each party taking a percentage of blame.
Need for Thorough Investigation
Given how complicated these accidents can get, a thorough investigation is necessary.
Strong evidence includes:
- Event data recorders, like black box data.
- Maintenance records of the trucking company, the cargo loaders, and their drivers’ logs.
- Employment history of cargo and trucking companies or third parties involved.
- Witnesses who can provide an objective account of what happened at the accident.
- Dashcam footage and surveillance cameras, if they were anywhere close to the accident.
- Skid marks and debris on the accident scene.
- Accident reconstructionist and other expert testimonies.
Victims May Suffer Extensive Damages
Victims in these accidents suffer serious damage.
Whether it is economic damages like medical bills and lost wages, non-economic damages like PTSD and trauma that can haunt victims following an accident, or vehicle damage, which can be severe.
Multiple Insurance and Payouts
Trucking companies, cargo securers, logistics companies, and every third party involved in the crash have their own commercial insurance coverage.
Every insurance company will be working to determine what percentage of fault they share, and the party that’s to blame the most for the accident will pay the victims first.
For example, the trucking company can be at 60% of the fault, with cargo securers sharing 25%, and other parties are also responsible, including drivers, in some cases.
Why Should You Hire a Lawyer?
When the accident involves multiple victims, you need to hire a lawyer to calculate your damages and secure fair compensation for you as fast as possible in these types of accidents.
Key Takeaways
- Multi-vehicle involved oversize load crashes can alter victims’ lives with injuries like TBIs, paralysis, and disfigurement.
- Multiple parties’ actions, such as those of cargo securers, pilot vehicle operators, and the trucking company, can be responsible for the accident.
- You need strong evidence and an intense investigation to cross-verify the claims of every party involved.
- Victims suffer a wide range of damages that need to be secured.
- Finally, receiving compensation from multiple parties’ insurance while other drivers are also fighting for their own payouts can be overwhelming. Hire a lawyer to navigate the case.
