What Are the Common Injuries Resulting From St. Louis Truck Accidents with Multiple Liable Parties?

In truck accidents, the injuries are usually most severe for those not in the truck. It is a common case of physics – when 80,000 pounds hits 4,000 pounds, the smaller vehicle will lose. Some of the common injuries sustained in a St. Louis truck accident include:

• Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and concussions – According to the CDC, in 2020 there were 64,000 traumatic brain injury deaths, and truck and car accidents are one of the leading causes of fatal TBI. Traumatic brain injuries are caused by sudden trauma, either by impact or penetration, to the brain. While mild and moderate cases generally heal successfully, severe TBI can result in coma or death. Severe traumatic brain injuries are the leading cause of death and disability for individuals under the age of 44.
• Neck and back or spinal cord injuries - Spinal Injuries are serious injuries that can affect your mobility and the motor function of your limbs. The spinal cord is the main avenue that your brain uses to send commands throughout your body. According to the World Health Organization, 90 percent of spinal cord injury cases are caused by trauma, and motor vehicle accidents are the leading source. Any damage to your spine can often result in serious injuries throughout other areas of the body.
• Lacerations from broken glass – A powerful truck accident can break glass in your vehicle and those of others. It happens more often than you would think, and the current weak standards of automotive glass lead to more splintering. With all that glass potentially flying around, you can get severe lacerations and resulting scarring or nerve damage.
• Internal injuries and internal bleeding – Internal bleeding can be dangerous anywhere in the body and one of the most common causes of internal bleeding is trauma from truck and car accidents, including impact and penetrating injuries as well as deceleration injuries, when the sudden stop of a vehicle causes internal organs or vessels to break or rupture. Internal bleeding can cause fatal organ failure when untreated.
• Broken or crushed bones – Trauma from truck accidents and other vehicular accidents is the most common cause of broken bones. Extreme breaks like displaced fractures or comminuted fractures when the bone is shattered into several pieces can be particularly dangerous.
• Burns and scars – While burns and scars may not seem as serious as some of the other injuries arising from truck accidents, they are among the most common. Fast-spreading, high-temperature fires may develop in truck accidents, especially when gas tanks are punctured or sparks spread from severed electrical wires.

What Are the Damages I Can Receive From These Liable Parties Following a St. Louis Truck Accident?

Damages from St. Louis truck accidents can be devastating and can include economic damages, non-economic damages or possibly punitive damages. Some examples are:

• Current and future accident-related medical expenses and rehabilitation
• Any property damage to your vehicle or other possessions
• Lost wages and the loss of future earning potential
• Pain and suffering due to long-term physical and emotional damages
• General damages such as loss of consortium, pain and suffering and loss of companionship
• The severity and implications of your injuries

The amount of compensation you can recover from liable parties involved in your truck accident varies. It depends on general and specific damages. As always, feel free to contact a St. Louis truck accident attorney at Burger Law with any questions. Call us today at (314) 500-HURT or complete our online contact form.

What Does a St. Louis Truck Accident Lawyer Do For Me Once We Establish the Liable Parties?

To effectively present and prove your case, particularly one with multiple liable parties involved, your truck accident lawyer's first task is to develop a detailed understanding of the situation. Our St. Louis truck accident lawyer will investigate your claims and meticulously collect all evidence and documentation surrounding the accident and your resulting damages. We then use that evidence to determine the liable parties and prove how their actions have negatively affected your life and well-being.

Our experienced St. Louis truck accident lawyers are masters at building a truck accident case. Whether we are able to settle the case quickly out of court or have to go through a contentious trial process, your St. Louis-based truck accident lawyers may use the following valuable sources of evidence to prove that the defendant is indeed responsible for harming you.

• The truck's black box: The black box holds valuable information about the operation of the truck including speed, braking activity and other behavior.
• Truck cameras: Some commercial trucks have cameras recording the inside of the cab, the road ahead or both. Cameras may have captured the traffic events or the driver's actions leading up to the accident.
• Witness statements: Witnesses may have valuable perspective on how the truck accident unfolded. They can help your case by confirming facts or offering a new observation about the events.
• Police reports and citations: When police are called to the scene of the accident, they gather information and file a report. If they find that a driver did something wrong or broke a law, they may issue a formal citation or written violation.
• Surveillance footage: Your St. Louis truck accident lawyer can obtain relevant surveillance footage if a traffic camera or a building's outdoor camera recorded any information relevant to the crash.
• The scene of the accident: Road conditions, visibility, skid mark and the position of vehicles and vehicle parts immediately after the collision can tell us a lot about what happened, and how.
• Employer files: When a driver makes a mistake, the trucking company can be at fault as well if they failed to properly train the driver, did not drug test the driver as often as called for, hired the driver despite a history of traffic violations or have incomplete or missing records to such effect.
• Maintenance records: Commercial trucks must be regularly inspected and maintained. As your St. Louis truck accident injury lawyer on the lookout for all the liable parties involved, we will obtain maintenance records to verify that they followed the rules and that the truck was cleared for road use when the accident took place.