Jackson, TN Truck Accidents Involving Bad Weather

Madison County is a busy area of West Tennessee, and commercial trucks drive on Interstate 40 throughout all hours of the day. After any truck accident, you will need to establish negligence to succeed on a claim brought against the truck driver or the trucking company. Sometimes, negligence may be established against both. To satisfy your legal burden against a trucker, you will need to show that the truck driver breached a duty of care owed to you and that this breach caused your injuries and losses. If you can do this, you will be able to seek compensation for damages, including your medical and prescription expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life caused by the collision.

How can you prove negligence in a truck accident when ice, sleet, snow, rain, fog, or wind is involved? Perhaps the simplest way is to show that the trucker violated one of the federal safety regulations that govern all interstate truck drivers. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires that truckers use “extreme caution” when driving in hazardous weather or road conditions, especially where “snow, ice, sleet, fog, mist, rain, dust or smoke adversely affect visibility or traction.” The federal regulations go on to state that big rig drivers should pull over and stop driving the vehicle if the driving conditions are extremely dangerous. For example, bad weather is a common cause of jackknifing. It is the trucker’s responsibility to drive safely if he chooses to drive during hazardous weather.

In many cases, a commercial driver will continue driving when he should pull over or drive faster than he should in dangerous road conditions so that he can reach his destination on time. Often this is due to pressure from the employer who may value company profits over the safety of its employees and other vehicles on the road. Sometimes the employer can be vicariously liable for its driver’s negligent driving. Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, an employer may be vicariously liable for acts committed by employees performed within the course and scope of their employment. If a big rig driver does not properly slow down during bad weather conditions due to orders from his employer, then the employer could be responsible for encouraging the violation of a federal trucking regulation.

Obtaining a proper settlement or verdict against the trucking company on your own may prove to be difficult or even impossible due to the complexity of truck accident cases and commercial insurance policies. For these reasons, it is important that you contact an attorney who is experienced in trucking litigation in the Jackson area. It is critical to begin investigating a truck wreck immediately, which could involve retaining accident reconstruction experts.