Between 2013 and 2017, fatalities from truck accidents in South Carolina rose 32.7 percent. South Carolina Department of Public Safety data collected from that time period shows that across the board, disregarding traffic signs, speeding, not yielding the right of way, and driving under the influence are primary contributing factors in vehicle accidents. That means many of these fatal collisions are completely avoidable.
The weight, size, and limited ability to stop or turn quickly, combined with an inattentive truck driver, make tractor trucks very dangerous on the road, so truck accident injuries are usually far more severe than car accident injuries.
If you’ve been hurt by a careless driver, you deserve fair compensation. You need truck accident legal help if you’ve suffered from one of the injuries below or any other injuries due to your collision.
1. Burns
There are many reasons for a car to burst into flames when it has been involved in a collision, but fire is even more of a hazard when it comes to truck accident injuries. In addition to sparks lighting up leaking gas, many tractor trucks transport dangerous chemicals. If those chemicals leak or spill during the collision, accident victims could suffer burns from fire or chemicals reaching their skin or respiratory system.
2. Airbag Injuries
Airbags save lives, but they must also inflate rapidly to do so. Airbags use a chemical charge to deploy and inflate at speeds of 100–200 mph. Imagine a beach ball filled with nitrogen gas hitting you square in the chest at 200 mph. Even though it saves you from impacting with something more deadly (like the steering column), the fast deployment means everything from severe bruising to broken bones for the driver.
3. Cuts
Auto glass is built with safety features, but a horrific collision, like what you see when a massive tractor truck collides with a car, can shatter the glass. In the resulting collision, glass, objects in the car, and even road debris can cause some pretty serious lacerations.
4. Spinal Injuries
You’ve seen this play out in movies, but it happens in real life too. Frighteningly, spinal cord injuries that can result in paralysis are not immediately apparent. Truck accident injuries that cause damage to the spine are common, but the true extent of the damage could take days or even weeks to fully manifest. Never assume you are okay after a collision. You could have truck accident injuries that only an X-ray can determine in the hours after the crash.
5. Brain Trauma
You know that hitting your head very hard can cause a brain injury, but did you know that an indirect impact can cause a brain injury too? Whiplash, a very common truck injury accident, has been correlated to an increased risk of traumatic brain injury. So, in addition to blunt force trauma to the head being a cause of injury in a collision, drivers must also contend with brain injury brought on by whiplash and other impacts.
6. Whiplash
Speaking of whiplash, it may seem like a small thing to add to a list of catastrophic truck accident injuries, but whiplash can be debilitating.
Pain is never fun, and a persistent nagging pain that radiates down your back, up your neck, and prevents a full range of movement is life-altering. Unlike a broken bone, where the source of your pain and discomfort is immediately apparent, whiplash presents no obvious injury. Sadly, this often leads insurance companies and employers to cry “fraud” when someone suffering from truck accident injuries seeks compensation or time off work.
This “simple” injury can result in extra pain and suffering, financial loss due to not enough compensation, or even job loss if the employer does not believe the employee’s complaints.
Why You Need Truck Accident Legal Help
The list above shows some common truck accident injuries that you may not have considered. Most people think of the big things: broken bones, being ejected from the car, death, and so on. But all injuries are serious and deserve attention and compensation, especially the injuries that seem inconsequential at the time but turn into major or prolonged issues later.
Let’s face it; if you walk away on your own two feet after a truck accident, you’re not thinking about smaller injuries. You’re glad to have survived. But if a fractured rib, whiplash, or a latent spinal cord injury turn up in the days after the accident, you could be in for a long, painful, expensive recovery.
Truck accident legal help should be your priority after a collision, even if it looks like you escaped serious truck accident injuries. The last thing you need is the truck’s insurance company coming at you fast with a settlement amount, only for you to discover later that you had more severe trauma (physically or mentally) than you realized.
There may be even more at stake. Perhaps the truck driver was impaired, ran a stop sign, or didn’t do required maintenance on the vehicle. If those actions go unpunished, he or she could continue to drive irresponsibly, and their next accident could cause a fatality.
We urge you to get a South Carolina truck accident legal help after any collision, major or minor. As experienced personal injury trial lawyers, we have seen how quickly even the simplest accident can get out of hand. With The Clardy Law Firm on your side, you’ll know if you have been offered enough compensation from the insurance company, receive knowledgeable advice if charges are pressed against you or if you pressed charges, and get fair compensation for your injuries. We’ll fight for appropriate punitive damages in cases of driver impairment or negligence.
Truck accident injuries are bad enough. Not having the compensation to carry on with your life adds to the burden. Contact our Greenville, SC personal injury lawyers right away if you have been in a collision with a tractor truck and let us get you the peace of mind and compensation that you deserve.
