The Number of Truck Accident Judgements Are Increasing

Truck accident

USA- Mhlnews.com writes that a study indicated that the number of judgments against trucking companies is on the rise. Not only are more cases being found in favor of individuals suing truck companies or truckers following crashes, but the amount of the verdicts and settlements are also increasing.

In 2006, researchers looked at 600 cases over a five-year period and found that only 26 of those cases ended in awards above one million dollars. By 2018, a similar five-year analysis determined that there were 300 awards that exceeded one million dollars.

There are numerous factors that impact the size of an award against a trucking company. If the victims were children, regardless of the fault of the driver, the award rose by $1,600 percent. In cases involving spinal cord injuries, the awards were double the average. An increase of about $800,000 over the average occurs in cases where the victim sustained a traumatic brain injury. Spin and roll crashes led to the highest average costs, with awards averaging out to fifteen million dollars.

Plaintiffs also win 89 percent of rear-end crashes involving trucks.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety states that large truck crashes killed 4,136 people in 2018 throughout the United States. The victims in most of those crashes were not the truck drivers, but instead, were people in other cars. In fact, passenger vehicle occupants account for 67 percent of those killed. Another fifteen percent of victims included pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. Truck drivers are only killed in around sixteen-percent of crashes involving trucks. Deadly crashes between trucks and other vehicles end in passenger vehicle occupants dying 96 percent of the time.