Understanding Wrongful Deaths in California Truck Accidents

The Injury Law Office of Jimmie Kang has an entire team ready to help victims. Truck accident victims and their families need help! Many die each year from truck accidents. These incidents can be completely life-altering, even if no one dies. If someone dies in a truck crash, then it is even more devastating. More must be done to right the wrong if someone dies. However, our experienced truck accident lawyers can come in and assist you. We will protect your legal rights. We will preserve your claim and maximize its value. To understand truck accident lawsuits, review the next few sections. Give us a call to learn more. We can show where and just how much you can recover.

How Fatalities Happen in Truck Accidents

The trucking business is a fundamental part of our economy. We get used to and acquiescent to the crashes that they produce. They crash into trucks, cars, motorcycles, pedestrians, and bicyclists. When they do, the consequences can be severe. Peoples’ whole lives can be irreparably altered. In fact, many people die every year because of truck accidents.

How do people die in truck accidents across California? The Department of Transportation has conducted a wide-ranging study with the trucking industry. It looked to find to out how accidents occur. It wanted to know why they leave so many people injured or killed. The results surprised people. Most truck accidents that cause fatalities do not happen because of driver error. They generally come about through external forces such as distractions. It is normally from overreactions (like oversteering) or fatigue rather than irresponsibility. Here are some causes of fatalities in California truck accidents.

  • Rollovers
  • Drivers falling asleep
  • Bad road conditions
  • Inclement weather
  • Cargo spill
  • Tire blowouts
  • Truck malfunction
  • Intervening vehicle
  • Stopped car
  • Lane changing

Trucks get into accidents thousands of times every year. These take many lives and cost millions of dollars. It is important to get the facts on truck crashes. This will help you better prepare yourself on the road. Make sure you don’t get into a similar incident!

Fatality Statistics in Truck Accidents

What are the facts on truck accidents? People want info after tragedies like this happen. This helps them understand how a horror like this could have happened. It also gives them bit of context. Here are some facts and figures that touch upon truck accidents and wrongful deaths:

  • Almost 4,102 people died in 2017 from a large truck crash.
  • Passengers in cars die almost six times more than those in large trucks when the two get into an accident.
  • Over the last forty years, truck fatalities have decreased by almost twenty percent.
  • In truck accidents, the vast number of fatalities are actually people travelling in cars. Their deaths outnumber the deaths of people in trucks involved in these incidents by a factor of four or five.
  • Tractor-trailer trucks are three times more responsible for fatalities in accidents than single-unit trucks.
  • More than half of the time that someone dies in a truck accident, more than one truck is involved in the collision.
  • Over the last forty years, the rate of fatalities for truck accidents have decreased per mile driven by almost a factor of four.
  • Most deaths from truck accidents occur on major roads, freeways, or interstates.
  • Nearly half of all deaths from truck accidents occur during 3 pm and midnight.
  • The day of the week is normally not an indicator of a potential truck accident fatality because they are pretty evenly split from Sunday to Saturday.

Hopefully, this information gives you some more insight. Truck accidents pose grave dangers. To get a better understanding, call our offices. Speak to someone from the Injury Law Office of Jimmie Kang. We can show what you can do to recover. We can show you how much you can recover. Contact us today!

Claims and Defenses in Wrongful Death Lawsuits After a Truck Accident

People bring wrongful death claims for truck crash fatalities. Plaintiffs allege that the defendants caused someone’s death. They blame it on unreasonable or inappropriate behavior. The plaintiffs must have some type of special relationship with the decedent. Otherwise, they cannot bring a claim in California. Siblings, parents, and spouses qualify as persons entitled to bring actions. Different people might be allowed to as well. Here are the boilerplate elements to truck accident wrongful death claims.

  1. Someone died.
  2. Due to the intentional or negligent conduct of the defendant.
  3. The plaintiffs suffered economic or non-economic damages.

How do most defendants respond to these allegations. They use certain tactic to defeat wrongful claims in California truck accident lawsuits. First, they might say the driver was an independent contractor. Thus, the driver and not the company should be held responsible. Second, they might say it was the decedent’s fault. Third, they say the death was the result of an act of God. Intervening forces remove them from fault. Intervening forces might be another driver or lightning. They might use other means to show that they are blameless.

The Injury Law Office of Jimmie Kang builds and protects successful claims. Wrongful death claims are no exception. We help plaintiffs dismiss the defenses noted above. We can help you craft a solid legal case. It will preserve every ounce of recovery allowed in California. Call us today to find out more. If a truck crash took your loved one, you can do something! We can show you how!

Wrongful Death Settlement Factors

How do you put a monetary value on the life of a human being? This is difficult, but there are several factors that are considered to arrive at a rough settlement figure:

  • How old the deceased was: A younger person would typically see a higher settlement amount because of their longer expected life.
  • The earning capacity of the deceased: A person who was an attorney earning $200,000 per year may see a higher settlement amount than a truck driver earning $45,000 per year.
  • The health of the deceased: A person in good health would be expected to live longer than a person with cancer.
  • The income of the person at their time of death.
  • Age and circumstances of dependents: A person who has left behind young children could realize a larger settlement than a single person with no dependents.
  • Education and training of the deceased: Higher trained and paid professionals usually see higher wrongful death settlements than a person with only a high school education.
  • Medical bills incurred
  • Funeral costs
  • Value of the deceased’s lost benefits, such as health insurance or pension.

The damages you have incurred cannot just be a rough guess. To succeed in a wrongful death accident settlement, the damages must be supported by strong evidence. Your personal injury attorney will have access to economists and financial professionals who can look at the situation and help to determine an appropriate settlement amount.

Wrongful death settlements in car accidents and other accidents are usually paid out by insurance companies who gave liability coverage to the entity or person who was negligent. It is important to remember that insurance policies nearly always have a limit to what they will pay out.

Even if you win a verdict or settlement for $1 million, you only would collect up to the limit of the policy in effect. If the person or entity does not have enough insurance coverage, they are personally responsible for any settlement or judgement amount. However, collecting the remaining amount can be difficult when the defendant has few assets.

Wrongful Death Average Settlements

Most wrongful death settlements go to the spouse or family of the person who died. One of the biggest factors is to determine how much the person was adding to the household financially at their time of death. Another major factor in the size of the award is the degree of negligence. This can drastically affect the amount of the settlement or verdict, especially when the negligence is found to be by a company as well as a person.

Truck Accident Lawyers That can Fight for You in Southern California!

Hopefully this information shows you that you have options if your loved one is taken in a truck accident tragedy. Remember, we can fight for you to make sure that you successfully achieve every option available under the law. Our lawyers work on contingency so that you don’t need to worry about anything upfront. Just contact our offices and tell us what happened so that we can tell you what you can do!

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