Trucks bring goods and products across the nation, making them an integral part of the supply chain. However, due to their size and weight, accidents involving personal passenger vehicles and freight trucks can cause significant injury to victims that have profound, lifelong consequences or even cause death. Oftentimes, victims need to hire a truck accident lawyer in Irvine to recover full damages that come from such collisions.
Debt From Medical Bills
The cost of medical treatment following a serious accident can quickly add up, jeopardizing a victim’s financial situation and potentially forcing the family into bankruptcy. While insurance policies may cover some hospital expenses, accident victims may need legal help to receive full compensation to stay out of debt.
Disfigurement From Injuries
Injuries from roadway collisions can be serious and life-altering. Unfortunately, there are many types of injuries that can leave permanent scars or even inhibit organ function such as crushed limbs, deep lacerations, displaced fractures, and even burns from resulting vehicle fires.
There are times that limbs need to be amputated or organs removed because of damage or secondary infection, and those drastic treatments require proper compensation for physical and emotional consequences that can only be recovered through expert litigation.
Spinal Cord Injuries
Depending on the severity or location of the injury, accident victims with spinal cord damage can be left with partial paralysis that hinders them from performing certain activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing feeding, or toileting themselves. In the most severe cases, the impact from a collision can sever the spinal cord completely, rendering the victim fully paralyzed and in need of around the clock care.
No matter what level of assistance is required, attorneys can seek compensation to hire home health aides or other professionals to assist with basic tasks victims are no longer able to do themselves.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
One of the most serious types of non-fatal consequences involves traumatic brain injury. Any motor vehicle collision can cause blunt force trauma to the head, but because of the difference in size and weight between trucks and most passenger vehicles, the injuries tend to be more severe. Brain injuries can leave a person with neurological impairment, and even relatively mild head injuries can cause mental health issues like depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Death or Loss of a Fetus
While highway fatalities have been decreasing in recent years, motor vehicle deaths still happen and are devastating to families. Besides the emotional impact of losing a loved one, families may also be left without the primary wage earner or the children’s primary caregiver and require financial restitution.
Tragically, the death of an unborn child also sometimes occurs, but distraught parents may be compensated for funeral expenses, medical bills, or even mental anguish associated with the loss depending on state guidelines, although consulting an attorney is the only way to know for sure.
Passenger and commercial vehicles must share the same roadway which means they will occasionally collide, causing injuries. Insurance companies can often handle portions of the loss, but seeking legal counsel can assist victims in recovering fair and adequate compensation for their injuries or death of loved ones.