Louisiana Truck Driver Injury Lawyer
From the largest item to the smallest item, pretty much everything on a retailer’s shelves or in a showroom spent some time on a large truck. Furthermore, at the Port of New Orleans, huge cranes often take cargo containers off ships and place them directly onto flatbed rigs. Unfortunately for these drivers, transportation and shipping companies often don’t pay too much attention to trucker health and safety issues. Some of the injuries these workers sustain are outlined below.
Large companies might only care about their profits. But at Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe, our dedicated Louisiana truck driver injury lawyer only cares about injury victims. So, we work hard to obtain the compensation these injury victims need and deserve. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Because of our reputation as skilled lawyers who always do their homework, we usually settle these claims out of court, and on victim-friendly terms.
Truck Driver Injuries
Most truckers must stick to rigorous schedules. As a result, they must cover as much distance as possible in as short a time as possible. After a single-vehicle wreck, these victims must often deal with injuries like:
- Broken Bones: Since they have such high centers of gravity, during crashes, large trucks often roll over one or more times. As a result, these victims sustain serious broken bones. In many cases, these injuries never fully heal, despite the best efforts of emergency responders, doctors, and physical therapists.
- Head Injuries: The aforementioned violent motion also often causes head injuries. Contrary to popular myth, the brain doesn’t fit snugly in the skull, like a hand in a glove. Instead, the large skull suspends the much-smaller brain in a tank full of cerebrospinal fluid. A sudden impact often damages the brain and severs the nerves that connect it to the spinal column.
- Spine Injuries: Speaking of the spinal column, the spine is not a single bone. Instead, it’s a long chain of vertebrae and nerves. Any unusual force knocks the spine out of alignment. At best, these victims must deal with pinched nerves and other extremely painful injuries. At worst, spine injuries cause permanent paralysis.
Other truck driver injuries aren’t related to unexpected wrecks. Instead, they’re related to the job requirements, such as sitting for long periods of time. Possible adverse health effects include obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol levels.
Available Compensation Options
Generally, truck drivers are independent contractors or owner-operators. Usually, workers’ compensation only applies to legal employees. Therefore, this no-fault compensation system is usually unavailable.
Driver error causes over 98 percent of the vehicle collisions in Louisiana. If the other driver was legally responsible for a wreck, a Louisiana truck driver injury lawyer may be able to file a negligence claim against that driver.
Defective products, such as defective tires, cause most of the rest of the vehicle collisions in Louisiana. Such defects are especially common on large trucks. These vehicles take a pounding. Most semi-truckers cover over 45,000 miles per year. Generally, manufacturers are strictly liable for the injuries their defective products cause.
Many group health insurance companies also cover trucker injuries, at least theoretically. Frequently, if an insurance company denies a claim, an attorney must file a bad faith insurance action in civil court to obtain compensation for the victim.
Reach Out to an Effective Orleans Parish Attorney
Injury victims are entitled to substantial compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced Louisiana truck driver injury lawyer, contact Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe, LLC. You have a limited amount of time to act.
