Hart County, KY Truck Accident Lawyers

As a local personal injury lawyer, Flora is out in the Hart County community, helping in the schools, charities, and fundraising events.Most recently, Flora made a donation to the Roy Dickey Reynolds City Park for new playground equipment. Through her partnership with WBKO, Flora awarded Bonnieville Elementary School librarian Tricia Kirkpatrick with the Today’s Leader Award, recognizing her contributions to the Bonnieville community. Flora also presented to Poppy’s Leadership Award to Cub Run Elementary, Munfordville Elementary, and LeGrande Elementary through Poppy’s Field Trip. If you’ve been out and about, you might have seen her firm mascots, Poppy and Pixie along with Flora making a difference in your community.

Flora Templeton Stuart Goes the Extra Mile

Flora Templeton Stuart and her team bring deep experience and knowledge to bear for every client they represent. Our firm focuses on serving clients with compassion and attention to detail. We have a long track record of success in securing recovery for clients who have suffered injuries in Kentucky truck accidents. The results we have achieved include:

• A $2.0 million recovery for a client struck by a semi-truck on the interstate causing permanent brain damage. Flora Templeton Stuart established liability on the part of the semi-truck driver. The lawsuit involved numerous experts testifying on behalf of our client.
• A $1.7 million recovery for clients who suffered severe injuries in a rear-end collision with a commercial truck. The settlement included lifetime income for our clients.
• A $1.65 million settlement for our client who suffered severe fractures after being struck by a semi-truck that ran a traffic light. The settlement included payment of all medical bills and lifetime income.

The above results are representative of past cases handled by Flora Templeton Stuart and her team. While there is no guarantee of recovery in any particular case, Flora Templeton Stuart brings compassion, skill, and persistence to every representation of an injured client. Our firm works with clients to understand their goals and to develop a case strategy that makes sense, all with the goal of securing appropriate recovery for our clients’ injuries.

Truck Accidents in Hart County, KY

While truck accidents are not as common as passenger vehicle accidents, data shows that nearly 450,000 truck crashes involving large trucks happened on U.S. roads in 2017, resulting in approximately 4,000 fatalities and 350,000 injuries.

In Kentucky in 2018, over 10,000 trucks got into accidents. While this only accounts for slightly more than 4% of the vehicles involved in accidents in the Bluegrass State, the 108 fatalities resulting from these crashes accounted for almost 10% of the Commonwealth’s traffic fatalities that year. In other words, truck accidents take a far deadlier toll than other types of crashes.

The most common contributing factors to truck accidents in Kentucky include:

• Inattention or distraction
• Misjudgment of clearance
• Vehicle not under proper control
• Failure to yield the right of way
• Following too close
• Driving too fast for conditions

More generally, truck driver error accounts for a significant percentage of these crashes.

Determining Which Party is At Fault

Victims of Hart County-area truck accidents often come to us wondering who has legal liability for the devastating injuries and tragic losses they have endured. Every truck accident has its own unique circumstances, but generally speaking, anyone whose ill-considered decisions or dangerous actions led to a truck crash can face legal liability to crash victims. For example:

Truck Drivers

Truckers make mistakes behind the wheel. Unfortunately, those mistakes can have catastrophic consequences for innocent motorists and bystanders. As attorneys for injured Hart County-area truck accident victims, we have seen accidents caused, in part, by:

• Lack of training: Semi-truck drivers must carry a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) to operate a big rig. In order to secure a CDL, a driver must submit an application, drive under a CDL permit for six months, and pass a road skills test. However, there is no requirement for minimum trucker training requirements in Kentucky, so a trucker does not necessarily need to prove he has received specific types of education before taking the wheel, so long as he can pass the CDL road test. Unfortunately, that means truckers may take to the road without sufficient familiarity with truck equipment to operate safely.
• Drowsy Driving: Truck drivers spend a lot of time on the road, sometimes too much. Even when truckers follow Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations limiting their hours behind the wheel (and, not all do), truckers frequently suffer from extreme fatigue behind the wheel, which impairs driving ability just as much as driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Far-too-many truck accidents result from trucker fatigue.
• Distracted Driving: Driver inattention and distraction are leading causes of truck accidents in Kentucky. Federal regulations restrict drivers’ use of mobile phones, and ban texting while driving. Drivers are also prohibited from reaching for or holding a mobile phone to conduct a voice communication. Nevertheless, like the rest of us, truckers sometimes struggle to curtail their use of a mobile device behind the wheel, with potentially deadly consequences.

These are just some of the ways a trucker can make a mistake that leads to a catastrophic truck accident, of course. Any truck driver carelessness or recklessness that leads to a crash can saddle that trucker with legal liability for the harm the crash causes.

Truck Driver Employers

Employers of truck drivers whose negligence causes an accident may also face liability to crash victims. Employers generally have a legal obligation to answer for their employees’ conduct. Employers of truckers may also commit acts that, in-and-of-themselves, constitute careless or reckless conduct that contributes to a crash, such as:

• Failure to confirm a driver was appropriately licensed before allowing him behind the wheel of a big rig
• Failure to enforce hours of service regulations and to ensure truckers get adequate rest before driving
• Failure to perform routine safety-related maintenance on the truck involved in the crash

Experienced truck accident attorneys know to look carefully at the facts of any truck crash to determine whether an employer should face liability. Even when truckers claim to operate as “independent contractors” for a trucking business, the business may control their actions enough to be held liable for injuries to innocent crash victims.

Truck Part Manufacturers

Some trucks crash after suffering mechanical breakdowns. It is not always the case, but sometimes those malfunctions result from a defect in a truck part that made it unreasonably dangerous for use. In those cases, lawyers can seek to hold the part manufacturer accountable for the tragic consequences of the crash. Manufacturers owe the public a special duty not to put people in danger by selling defective, dangerous products.

Others

These are just a few of the many parties who could have legal liability to victims of a Hart County truck collision. Flora Templeton Stuart and her experienced, diligent team know well the importance of seeking out every possible party who might owe damages to innocent victims who suffered harm in a preventable truck crash. The more parties with legal liability to an injured victim, the more potential options that victim has for recovering much-needed compensation.

Truck Accidents Result in Serious Injuries

The size and weight of trucks make them extremely dangerous to other vehicles on the road. Any accident can inflict catastrophic and fatal injuries, such as:

• Traumatic brain injuries: A blow or jolt to the head in a violent Munfordville truck accident can inflict significant damage to a vehicle occupant’s brain tissue. These injuries frequently result in debilitating long-lasting impairments to a person’s cognitive, emotional, and motor functions. In the worst cases, brain injuries lead to fatality, coma, or a permanent state of semi-consciousness.
• Neck and back injuries: Truck accidents often cause severe neck and back injuries by throwing vehicle occupants around (or out of) a car cabin. These injuries can cause chronic pain for the rest of the victim’s life, and may require constant physical therapy or medication.
• Spinal cord injuries: Damage to the structure of the spinal column can impact the functioning of the spinal cord, which transmits messages from the brain to the body. A bruise, impingement on, or tear of the cord can lead to permanent paralysis.
• Internal injuries: A violent blow to the body in a truck crash can cause internal damage to vital organs, including the heart, lungs, kidney, and liver. These potentially-fatal injuries sometimes go unnoticed initially, presenting symptoms only hours or days after an accident.
• Broken bones: In the short term, a broken bone may limit a truck accident victim’s ability to accomplish routine tasks. A severe break may require surgery, and may never heal in a manner that restores normal function.
• Cuts, bruises, and soft tissue injuries: Torn ligaments, pulled muscles, and other soft tissue injuries can cause significant disruption to a victim’s day-to-day routines, and may cause lasting, chronic pain

Most victims of an accident with a semi-truck in Hart County need significant medical care, including hospital stays, multiple doctors’ visits, and long-term physical therapy. While some injuries will heal over time, other injuries will persist and cause permanent, tragic disruption to an innocent crash victim’s life.

Money Damages for Hart County Truck Accidents

Victims of Hart County-area truck accidents often suffer immense physical, emotional, and financial harm. As lawyers, we cannot provide direct services that heal the first two of those traumas, but we can – and do – work with truck crash victims to obtain compensation that may help in their recoveries. Every truck accident claim we handle has its own unique circumstances. Still, as a general matter, our clients frequently have rights to recover money damages as compensation for:

• Medical Expenses: Truck accident victims rack-up expenses for hospital stays, doctors’ office visits, and therapy sessions. Many also face the prospect of large, future medical costs to manage long-term health complications caused by their crash injuries.
• Loss of Income and Future Earning Potential: Truck crash injuries often force victims to miss work and to lose a portion of their salary or wages. Some victims also cannot return to work in their former capacity, or at all. The income lost because of an injury forms part of the damages a victim can seek to recover from those who caused the truck crash.
• Property Damage: Most vehicles sustain heavy damage in a crash with a commercial truck. Crash victims can recover the cost of repairing or replacing damaged vehicles and other property.
• Pain and Suffering: An accident with a semi-truck often inflicts devastating physical discomfort and mental anguish. Those harms are no less real than the out-of-pocket costs flowing from a crash injury, and constitute another category of damages crash victims can seek to recover.
• Loss of Life Enjoyment: Similarly, Hart County truck accident victims may face a life permanently transformed by an unexpected, tragic injury. They also deserve compensation for the negative impact of a crash on their lives and closest relationships.

Some Hart County truck accident victims may also have the right to seek “punitive” damages, which seek to punish particularly outrageous conduct that leads to a truck crash. In Kentucky, courts can award punitive damages in cases where someone acts with “fraud, malice, or oppression.” Flora Templeton Stuart advises each of her clients about the suitability of punitive damages in their unique case.

Contact Our Hart County Truck Accident Injury Team Today

Flora Templeton Stuart and her experienced, compassionate team guide injured clients through the stressful, difficult aftermath of Hart County truck accidents. We know how overwhelming a sudden, severe, tragic injury can make life feel. Our mission is to provide personalized, caring service that puts clients in the best possible position to recover the compensation they deserve after a frightening, devastating truck accident.

If a Hart County, Kentucky-area truck crash caused by someone else’s careless conduct has left you or a loved one suffering from a severe injury, contact us today for a free, confidential, no-obligation case review.