What is an Underride Crash and Who Can Seek Compensation?
Any type of auto accident can result in serious and life-threatening injuries, yet some types of crashes are routinely associated with severe and deadly injuries. According to a Frontline report from PBS, underride accidents involving trucks and smaller passenger vehicles are some of the most devastating collisions that occur on roads and highways in Texas. The report discusses a joint documentary from Frontline and ProPublica titled America’s Dangerous Trucks that focuses on underride crashes, how they occur, and how they can be prevented.
What should you know about underride crashes and seeking compensation after one of these collisions? Our Texas personal injury attorney can explain in more detail.
What is an Underride Crash?
As the Frontline report explains, “an underride crash happens when a car slides underneath the body of a large truck in the gaps between the wheels,” which can occur at the rear of a large truck or at one of its sides. Large trucks have significantly greater ground clearance than passenger cars, which means that, when a passenger car collides with a large truck from behind or from one of the sides, the car can travel underneath the trailer of the truck.
These collisions are so dangerous because the points on the passenger car that are typically affected most severely by the collision include the windshield and hood, which can result in severe and deadly head injuries for passengers inside the vehicle.
Preventing Underride Crashes
Annually, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that more than 400 fatalities result from underride accidents. Most if not all of them could be prevented.
Large trucks are supposed to have a rear safety bar designed to prevent underride crashes. However, safety advocates suggest that these safety bars could be significantly improved, and that safety bars could also be required on the sides of large trucks since underride crashes also happen frequently along the right or left side of a large truck.
Liability for an Underride Collision
Liability will depend on the circumstances of the crash. In many instances, the driver of the large truck may be liable, along with the truck driver’s employer. In other cases, another motorist on the road who behaved negligently and caused the crash could be liable, or the designer or manufacturer of a defective vehicle part that played a causal role in the collision could be responsible in full or in part for your injuries.
A personal injury and wrongful death lawyer in Texas can help you to determine liability based on causation, and to file a claim for compensation.
Contact a Car Accident Attorney in Texas for Help Filing a Personal Injury or Wrongful Death Claim
If you were seriously injured in an underride crash, or if you lost someone in this devastating type of accident, you should seek legal advice about filing a claim. As we discussed above, underride accidents are among the most dangerous types of collisions that can occur, and they often result in debilitating and life-threatening injuries. One of the experienced Texas personal injury lawyers at John Reed, Attorney at Law can help you to determine who may be liable for the collision, and we can help you with your civil lawsuit against the liable party or parties to seek financial compensation. Contact us today for more information about how we can assist you.
Source:
pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/underride-crash-truck-dangerous/
