Who is Responsible for a Texas Truck Accident?

A crash involving a big truck can be catastrophic. If you’ve been in a collision with a commercial vehicle, you may have been seriously injured. Your vehicle is likely seriously damaged or even totally destroyed. You may have injured family members who were passengers in your car, or may even have lost a family member. 

That’s a lot of loss, and leaves you with a lot of rebuilding to do. It’s only fair that the person or business responsible pays for the harm they’ve caused. 

Most Truck Accident Cases are Negligence Cases

The most common type of truck accident claim–or any motor vehicle accident claim–is a negligence claim. Under Texas law, you may have a negligence claim against someone if: 

• They owed you a duty of care
• The didn’t live up to that duty
• You got hurt because of their failure to live up to the duty

For example, a truck driver operating on Texas roads has a duty to obey traffic safety laws. One reason they have that duty is to make sure they don’t hurt someone like you. If they decide to speed, ignore traffic signals, drive under the influence, or break other traffic safety laws, they may put a lot of people at risk: other drivers, passengers in their own vehicle, passengers in other vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists. That’s negligent.

Examples of truck driver negligence include speeding, following too close, driving under the influence, distracted driving, driving too fast for conditions, and driving while fatigued.

Liability Complications in Truck Crash Cases

Usually, in a motor vehicle accident, the negligent driver is responsible. Sometimes that’s true in a truck accident case, too. But, when a commercial vehicle causes a collision, there are a lot of possibilities. For example:

• If the negligent truck driver is an employee on the job, the trucking company is likely responsible for his negligent acts
• If the truck driver is an independent contractor, the trucking company may still be responsible (or partly responsible), but it depends on the circumstances

There are also many other parties that may be responsible or partly responsible for a truck wreck. 

Other Possible Responsible Parties

Other Types of Truck Accident Liability

Most truck accidents happen because someone was negligent. But, your truck accident lawyer may identify other types of claims. For example, if the truck hit you because the brakes were defective, you may also have a product liability claim against the manufacturer of the brakes. 

Leaving Out Claims Can Hurt Your Case

You may think it’s not necessary to identify every single person who may be partly responsible for your truck wreck. For example, if you know the truck driver who hit you was intoxicated and speeding, you might think they are clearly to blame so you don’t need to worry about other factors. 

If someone else is partly responsible and you leave them out of your lawsuit, the defendant can identify them as a responsible third party. That means even if you haven’t sued them, the jury will hear about their role from the defendant. If the jury decides the third party was responsible for 25% of your damages, you won’t be able to collect that 25% from the defendant. But, if you didn’t sue the third party and the statute of limitations has passed, you can’t collect from them either. That’s one reason it’s so important to work with an experienced truck accident attorney from the beginning.

You May Be Partly Responsible for Your Own Accident

Just as a third party may be partly to blame, sometimes the injured driver shares responsibility. In Texas, someone who is partly responsible for their own accident can still recover damages. But you can’t recover damages if you were more than half responsible. And, your compensation will be reduced to account for your own fault. For instance, if the jury says you were 20% responsible, you’ll only be able to recover 80% of your damages. 

If this seems like a lot to figure out, don’t worry. You don’t have to do it alone. When you connect with an I Just Got Hit (Godsey Martin, PC) truck accident lawyer, we do the heavy lifting. You can focus on recovering while we build your case. Call us today, or fill out our contact form to learn more.