Car accidents and truck accidents have key differences that can affect your case and its outcome. Collision dynamics, injury severity, liability, insurance, and regulations are major factors that differentiate car and truck accidents. Understanding these differences can better equip you to build a strong case in either type of collision.
At Richmond Vona, we have extensive experience handling crashes involving both passenger vehicles and commercial trucks. Whether you were injured in a car crash or a truck accident, our New York motor vehicle accident lawyers can explain your legal options and help you seek fair compensation.
- Trucks weigh substantially more than cars, affecting stopping distance and increasing the force of impact.
- Truck accidents are more likely to cause catastrophic injuries with longer recovery times and higher medical costs.
- Liability is often spread between multiple parties in truck accident cases, while car accidents likely have one at-fault party.
- Commercial insurance policies usually have higher coverage limits than standard auto insurance. Insurance companies often use stricter negotiation tactics when handling truck accident claims.
- Federal trucking regulations and specialized evidence, such as black box data, can add a layer of complexity to truck accident claims.
How Do Collision Dynamics Differ Between Cars and Trucks?
Truck accidents involve significantly more force than car accidents, and their causes generally differ.
How Does Vehicle Size and Weight Impact a Collision?
The average weight of a car sold in the United States in 2022 was approximately 4,300 pounds. A fully loaded semi-truck can weigh up to 80,000 pounds.
Larger objects have more inertia, requiring additional force to stop. Commercial trucks, therefore, need more time and distance to come to a complete halt than cars. When a truck cannot fully stop in time, the force of the impact is significantly greater than that of a car.
A truck’s greater height can also create unique risks for car drivers. A smaller car can easily fit in the gap between a trailer and the road. A car can become trapped under the larger vehicle in a so-called “underride” collision.
Additionally, trucks have larger blind spots than passenger vehicles. Truck drivers may have a harder time seeing smaller cars driving beside or behind them, which increases their accident risk.
Why Are Truck Accident Injuries More Catastrophic Than Car Accident Injuries?
When a truck and a car collide, all the energy from the larger vehicle is transferred to the smaller one, resulting in a much more forceful impact than when two cars collide. While airbags are designed to protect occupants from this force, they can only do so much when a large truck is involved.
Car accident injuries can be severe, but most victims suffer mild to moderate injuries such as whiplash and minor bone fractures. Catastrophic, life-altering injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries, are much more common among truck accident victims.
These injuries often require extensive medical treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term care. Truck accident victims may also be unable to return to their previous jobs and experience quality of life changes due to permanent disabilities.
What Are the Common Causes of Car and Truck Accidents?
Many of the same factors that cause car accidents can also contribute to truck accidents. These include distracted driving, impaired driving, speeding, and failure to yield.
Some causative factors apply more to truck accidents than car accidents, including:
- Driver fatigue: Truck drivers work long hours and are vulnerable to fatigued or drowsy driving.
- Improper cargo loading: Incorrectly loaded cargo can cause trucks to become unstable.
- Mechanical failures: Trucks are on the road for long periods and require more frequent maintenance than passenger cars. Accidents may occur due to brake failures, tire blowouts, or other mechanical issues.
- Poor visibility: Driving in dark or foggy conditions increases any vehicle’s accident risk, but trucks’ increased blind spots make poor visibility even more dangerous.
How Is Liability Determined Differently in Car and Truck Accidents?
You must prove that someone else is liable for your injuries. This is true for both car and truck accidents, but each type has different liability-related considerations.
How Is Liability Handled in Car Accidents?
One or two drivers are usually at fault for a car accident. Determining fault is often straightforward and involves deciding which driver was negligent. Analyzing each driver’s behavior leading up to the crash can help establish liability.
How Does Multi-Party Liability Work in Truck Accidents?
The commercial trucking industry involves a complex chain of responsibility. Therefore, multiple parties at different levels of the chain are often liable for truck crashes. Depending on your case’s circumstances, you may potentially sue one or more of these parties in a truck accident lawsuit:
- Truck driver
- Another car driver
- Trucking company
- Cargo loader
- Maintenance provider
- Truck manufacturer
Determining who’s liable for a trucking collision requires more extensive investigation compared to a typical car accident.
How Does Comparative Negligence Affect These Cases?
You may be partially at fault for your truck or car accident. Under New York’s pure comparative negligence law, you may still recover compensation if your actions contributed to the accident. You may be up to 99 percent at fault for the accident and still recover compensation, but your compensation will be reduced according to your share of the fault.
Comparative negligence can be particularly complicated in truck accident cases with multiple at-fault parties. Each party may try to shift blame onto another to reduce its own liability.
How Do Insurance Coverage and Settlements Differ Between Car and Truck Accidents?
Passenger vehicle drivers and commercial vehicle owners carry different types of insurance. They often have different policy limits, which can affect settlement amounts and the ease of negotiating with the insurance company.
What Are the Differences in Insurance Policy Limits?
New York State requires most drivers to carry liability insurance of at least $25,000 for bodily injury to one person, $50,000 for two or more injured people, and $10,000 for property damage.
In contrast, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, requires commercial freight carriers to have at least $750,000 in liability insurance. The exact limits depend on the commodities transported, but some commercial vehicles have minimum limits of up to $5 million.
Why Are Truck Accident Settlements Generally Higher?
Truck accidents usually cause more severe injuries than car accidents, prompting higher medical costs. Truck accident settlements reflect this fact. Higher insurance policy limits can also net more compensation for truck accident victims.
What Challenges Do Victims Face When Negotiating Settlements?
Negotiating with trucking insurers can be more challenging than negotiating with standard auto insurers. Because truck accident claims are often worth more than car accident claims, insurance companies are more likely to fight them to avoid paying large sums of money. They may use more aggressive tactics, such as the following:
- Blaming the victim for the accident
- Claiming the injuries resulted from a preexisting condition
- Downplaying injury severity
- Convincing the victim to say something that hurts their case
Because multiple parties are often at fault for truck accidents, the insurance company may also argue that another party bears more responsibility.
How Do Fatality Rates Compare Between Truck and Car Accidents?
Truck accidents are more likely to cause fatalities than car accidents. According to the National Safety Council, 5,936 people died in crashes involving large trucks in 2022. Only 19 percent of the deceased were truck occupants, and the vast majority were occupants of other vehicles.
That same year, 46,027 people died in all types of motor vehicle crashes. Thus, large truck accidents accounted for approximately 13 percent of all motor vehicle fatalities in 2022. Despite this fact, large trucks account for five percent of registered vehicles and 10 percent of vehicle miles traveled.
These statistics show that large truck accidents have a higher fatality rate compared to other types of motor vehicle crashes. They also demonstrate that large vehicles provide more protection to occupants than smaller vehicles in a collision.
How Do Regulations and Evidence Collection Differ in Truck and Car Accidents?
Standard traffic laws apply to both truck and car operators, but additional regulations affect truck accident cases. Certain types of evidence also only factor into truck accidents.
What Federal Regulations Govern Commercial Trucking?
- Hours of Service Regulations: These rules limit the number of consecutive hours a truck driver can operate a vehicle without rest.
- Maintenance Regulations: Federal law requires motor carriers to regularly inspect, repair, and maintain their vehicles.
- CDL Requirements: Truck drivers must have a commercial driver’s license, or CDL, through their home state.
- Cargo Securement Rules: Motor carriers must follow regulations regarding cargo placement and restraint, load limits, and other cargo-related safety measures.
How Is Evidence Collected Differently in Truck Accidents?
Much of the evidence necessary to prove liability in a truck accident comes from the trucking company’s records, including black box data, driver logs, maintenance records, and cargo loading information.
If the trucking company is uncooperative, our New York truck accident lawyers may need to obtain a court order to access these records. Federal regulations only require companies to keep these records for a limited time, so we must act quickly to preserve the evidence.
Filing preservation letters soon after the accident can prevent key evidence from being destroyed. Also known as spoliation letters, these legal documents formally request that the trucking company keep all relevant records.
Let Richmond Vona Fight for Your Truck Accident Compensation Today
Car accidents are different from truck accidents in many ways. From the force of the collision to liability, commercial truck crashes are far more complex than the average car accident.
Achieving fair compensation for truck accident injuries requires in-depth knowledge of federal trucking regulations and experience proving liability to the powerful trucking insurers. That’s exactly what we offer at Richmond Vona. Our New York truck accident lawyers have recovered over $175 million in compensation for injured New Yorkers and their families.
We’re ready to put this experience to work for you while you focus on your health. Contact us online or call 716-500-5678 for a free consultation.
