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When I meet with new clients that have been injured by a truck accident here in the Tampa Bay area, I get asked, “What are the steps that are necessary and important for us to be able to establish our case and prove it?” First and foremost, you need to be getting your medical care and treatment to get well and try to recover from your injuries, damages, and losses. That is the most important thing for you to do to make sure that you’re getting better.

Sometimes we have clients that say they’re tough. They say, “I can heal on my own. I don’t need to see doctors.”. Generally speaking, that’s not a good idea. You need to get medical care and treatment, and you need to follow the recommendations and advice of your doctors. They’re your trusted healthcare providers and they want to help you, so don’t try to tough it out alone. Get that medical care and treatment. That’s step number one, and we’re going to be making sure that you’re doing that.

Step two, we’re going to be doing our investigation about how the accident occurred. We’re going to make sure that the vehicles are photographed. We’re going to make sure that the scene is preserved and photographed. We’re going to be making sure that witness statements are obtained. We’re going to be looking to GPS information that’s available from the truck company. Many commercial truck carriers have GPS information on their vehicles, and we’re going to be obtaining the vehicle black box information. That’s the event data recorder that you probably have in your vehicle and don’t even know it and is likely also in the truck vehicle as well. We’re going to be using our trusted investigators to obtain that information because that’s very critical.

The third step is we put this all together once we know the full extent of your injuries and damages. That’s when we’re going to be pursuing your rightful claim to injuries and losses for what you have sustained to make sure that you, indeed, are fully and fairly compensated for what you have gone through. Those are the steps that we take when we pursue a trucking accident here in the Tampa Bay area.

I’ve been asked, “What are the best things to do after an accident with a commercial truck, here in Florida?” Number one, anyone who’s been injured in a truck accident needs to get medical treatment. Number two, contact an attorney with experience in truck accident cases. Sometimes, the insurance companies that represent these trucking companies will send somebody to the scene within minutes of it occurring, and so it’s important that you get a hold of an attorney who understands the urgency of investigating the scene. They will be getting statements from witnesses, taking photographs of the vehicles involved and tire marks, making sure that the truck complied with all of the requirements under the law, that the driver was properly disposed to driving the vehicle, and that they weren’t intoxicated.

You may be wondering what the difference between a car and a truck accident claim is. A truck accident claim is actually much different than a simple auto accident or car accident claim. In Florida, there are specific rules and regulations that apply to the truck driver. Number one, they have to have a special license to be driving that truck. There are special rules and regulations that apply to the company that owns that vehicle. There have to be safety inspections on that vehicle. It has to be roadworthy, for example. The driver can’t have been driving that vehicle for a prolonged period of time. There are special regulations that apply to prohibit the driver from using a cell phone while that truck is being operated.

These claims are indeed different than a car accident claim because you’re dealing with a whole host of new and different regulations that apply to that truck accident claim. When we undertake representation on a truck accident claim, we’re going to be in this evidence gathering state very early on in the case to be able to document the accident and the vehicles involved. We’re going to be sending out our investigators to try to inspect the vehicle to obtain the event data recorder or the black box, if at all possible. Those are the things that we’re going to be doing because there are those specific rules and regulations that do apply to truck accident claims in the state of Florida. Allow us to start working on your case right away because time is of the essence and you don’t want to lose that valuable information.