Trucks weigh as much as 80,000 pounds and transport hazardous material across the country. Safety is imperative to ensure that those trucks do not cause collisions that harm others. Sadly, many trucking companies are focused not on operating trucks in the safest possible way, but instead on maximizing the profits they earn.
This has tragic consequences for crash victims who are involved in deadly accidents or crashes that cause serious injury and change their lives forever.
It’s important to understand some of the many ways that the trucking industry puts profits over safety, because if this desire to maximize profits plays a role in causing your accident, you’ll want to prove this to maximize your chances of recovering full and fair compensation.
Drafahl Law Firm understands the inner workings of the trucking industry and can put our legal knowledge to use in your case to help you get the justice you deserve. Give us a call today to learn more about how a St. Louis truck accident lawyer can help you hold companies accountable if their quest for profits set off a chain of events that caused you harm.
Trucking Companies Prioritize Profits over Safety — and It Comes at a Cost
Both owner/operators and large trucking companies often make choices focused on maximizing the money earned, rather than on ensuring the safest driving experience. Here are some examples of ways that the profit motive may come first:
- Trucking companies may hire drivers with less experience because they can pay less.
- Truck drivers and trucking companies may skimp out on truck maintenance, hiring inexperienced mechanics, using cheaper but less reliable parts, not inspecting vehicles as often as necessary, or deferring repairs
- Truck drivers and trucking companies may choose trucks or equipment with fewer safety features for a greater track record of problems because those vehicles are cheaper.
- Drivers may drive for longer than they are allowed under Federal Motor Carrier safety Regulations related to hours of service. Or, they may continue driving when they are too fatigued to operate their vehicle safely.
- Trucking companies and drivers may overload vehicles, resulting in cargo being improperly stored and increasing the risk of rollover or jackknife accidents
These are just some of the many ways that a desire to earn more money could set up unsafe situations that put innocent passengers at risk.
What can you do if a safety violation occurs?
Missouri and Illinois laws give crash victims the right to recover compensation if they were involved in a truck crash that caused them harm.
Victims must prove that the driver or trucking company was negligent, which they can do by showing a violation of FMCSA rules or by demonstrating the driver and company were unreasonably careless compared to what the average reasonable person or company would do.
If you can prove negligence or a safety rule violation, and you can demonstrate that this is directly linked to your collision, the trucker and trucking company may be responsible for compensating you for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and emotional distress.
Getting Help from a St. Louis Truck Accident Lawyer
Drafahl Law Firm has represented hundreds of clients, including those injured in truck crash cases where companies skirted safety rules. We know how to gather the evidence to prove it, including driver log books, electronic records, GPS data, maintenance records, and more.
Turn to our firm for help as soon as possible after you were harmed so we can get to work on gathering this evidence and building a strong case. To find out how a St. Louis truck accident lawyer can help you, give us a call today to schedule your free consultation.