How A San Antonio Truck Accident Lawyer Can Help You With Your Claim

The San Antonio truck accident lawyers at The Patel Firm specialize in supporting victims of truck accidents caused by others’ negligence. These committed lawyers work tirelessly to ensure victims obtain the compensation they rightfully deserve for their injuries.

San Antonio Truck Accident Attorney

According to the Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts report from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), there were 415,000 police-reported crashes involving large trucks in 2020 that included 4,444 fatal crashes and 101,000 injury crashes, with 33,226 crashes causing one fatality, 2,154 crashes causing two fatalities, 289 crashes causing three fatalities, 71 crashes causing four fatalities, 20 crashes causing five fatalities, four crashes causing six fatalities, one crash causing seven fatalities, and one crash causing eight fatalities. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also reported that 5,005 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks the year before with 71 percent of the people killed in large-truck crashes being occupants of other vehicles and 2 percent of drivers of large trucks involved in fatal crashes having blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) of 0.08 or higher.

A commercial truck accident often has the potential to cause not only significant damage to other motor vehicles, but these crashes often result in severe injuries for all people who are involved. It will be incredibly important for any person who is involved in a truck accident in the greater San Antonio area to quickly seek the help of an experienced truck accident lawyer so they can be sure that they are identifying the proper liable parties and working to recover all of the compensation a person may be entitled to.

What to Do After a Truck Accident in San Antonio

After a truck accident when a person has received the necessary medical care, there will still be many important steps for a person to take. When it comes to a person’s own motor vehicle involved in a truck accident, it will be important to ensure that the person’s insurance company is involved in the repair process.

Insurance companies can have different requirements when it comes to reporting accidents, and a person will certainly want to contact their own insurer to file a claim and determine the next appropriate steps to take. Even when a car still appears to be safe to drive, a person should still take their vehicle to a body shop to have an assessment performed.

While people can feel free to contact their own insurance companies after an accident, they should stay clear of the insurers for the truck that their crash involved. Many insurance companies will be quick to reach out to people and offer them lump-sum settlements, but you need to know that whatever you are being offered is presumably far less than what you are actually entitled to.

Insurance companies also have another trick in which they claim that they need recorded statements from people involved in accidents, but you should never voluntarily provide any statement to an insurer without legal representation. The idea of recorded statements is to essentially let agents for insurance companies trick people into unknowingly saying things that ultimately hurt their injury claims.

Another thing that people need to remember after a truck accident is that it is generally recommended that all people avoid using social media following a truck accident. While many people are inclined to share everything that is going on in their lives on websites such as Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites, the truth is that people can accidentally say things that harm their claims.

You need to be aware that as soon as you file an injury claim, your social media profiles will very likely be the first things that an insurance company looks at. An insurer could use statements you make on social media against you.

The most important thing a person can do after a truck accident is to get in touch with an experienced truck accident lawyer. A person will want to get an attorney involved in their case as soon as possible because they will immediately be able to commence an independent investigation into a crash to determine the actual cause and also preserve all evidence relating to the case.

Truck Accidents Can Cause Serious Injuries

Make no mistake, a commercial truck accident usually involves vehicles that are several tons so it is not surprising that people involved in these accidents can often suffer catastrophic injuries. Some of the more common kinds of serious injuries in these cases can include, but are not limited to:

• Traumatic Brain Injuries — A TBI is a kind of acquired brain injury that occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. A TBI may be the result of the head suddenly and violently hitting an object, or an object piercing a skull and entering brain tissue. Symptoms of a TBI may be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the extent of any damage to the brain. A person with a mild TBI could remain conscious or experience a loss of consciousness for only a few seconds or minutes, but other symptoms of mild TBI can include headaches, lightheadedness, confusion, blurred vision or tired eyes, dizziness, bad taste in the mouth, ringing in the ears, fatigue or lethargy, behavioral or mood changes, changes in sleep patterns, and trouble with memory, concentration, attention, or thinking. An individual with a moderate or severe TBI could show the same symptoms, but could also have a headache which gets worse or does not go away, suffer from repeated vomiting or nausea, convulsions or seizures, have an inability to awaken from sleep, suffer dilation of one or both pupils in the eyes, weakness or numbness in the extremities, slurred speech, loss of coordination, and increased confusion, restlessness, or agitation. Roughly half of severely head-injured TBI patients require surgery to remove or repair any hematomas (ruptured blood vessels) or contusions (bruised brain tissue). Common disabilities associated with a TBI may include problems with sensory processing (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell), cognition (thinking, memory, and reasoning), behavioral or mental health (anxiety, depression, aggression, personality changes, acting out, and social inappropriateness), and communication (expression and understanding). Some cases may involve intracranial hematoma (ICH), which involves several types of blood clots in or around the brain. The different types of ICH are classified based on their location in the brain, and the types can range from mild head injuries to very serious and potentially life-threatening injuries. Different types of ICH include epidural hematoma, which occurs when a blood clot forms underneath a skull but on top of a dura, the covering that surrounds the brain; subdural hematoma, which occurs when a blood clot forms underneath a skull and underneath a dura, but outside of a brain; contusions or intracerebral hematoma, which is a bruise to the brain itself causing bleeding and swelling inside of a brain around the area where the head was struck; and diffuse axonal injuries (DAIs), which are usually caused by shaking of the brain back and forth.
• Broken Bones — Some people may suffer broken bones and multiple-fracture injuries. Certain fractures will not need too much time to heal, but many other types of fractures could require surgeries or lead to long-term disabilities. Fractures are bone breaks resulting from forces exceeding the strength of the osseous tissue in the bone. Many fractures stemming from excessive external forces will be traumatic fractures. Serious fractures will require reconstructive surgery as well as the insertion of pins, plates, and screws that also require longer hospital stays, rehabilitation, and sometimes additional surgeries. Fractures may range in severity from minor inconveniences requiring very little medical intervention to severe and life-threatening injuries that can take months to years for a person to reach complete recovery. Bone fractures generally include simple fractures and compound fractures. Simple fractures or closed fractures are broken bones remaining within the body and do not penetrate the skin. Compound fractures or open fractures, on the other hand, are broken bones that do penetrate through the skin and may expose the bone and deep tissues to the exterior environment. Needless to say, compound fractures are much more serious than simple fractures because they could involve complications with deep infections caused by open wounds. Simple and compound fractures also involve other specific types of fractures, such as comminuted fractures involve bones broken in at least two places; transverse fractures happen when a bone breaks perpendicular to its length, meaning the fracture pattern is a straight line running in the opposite direction of the bone; oblique fractures involve bones breaking at angles; spiral fractures happen when a bone is broken with a twisting motion, creating a fracture line wrapping around the bone and looking like a corkscrew; and avulsion fractures involve small pieces of bones tearing off from the main bones because of application of extreme force to ligaments or tendons. In many construction accidents, injured workers suffer more than just a single broken bone, and fractures can prevent them from returning to work for months or even years. Severe fractures can lead to a recovery period that may be a very long and painful process requiring physical therapy, rehabilitation, and additional surgeries. In some cases, these injuries can be so severe that a victim is unable to return to work in any capacity, leading to immense financial hardship.
• Spinal Cord Injuries — A spinal cord injury involves damage to the bundle of cells and nerves sending and receiving signals from the brain to and from the rest of the body. A spinal cord injury may be the result of a direct injury to the spinal cord itself or from damage to the tissue and bones (vertebrae) surrounding the spinal cord. Damage may result in temporary or permanent changes in sensation, movement, strength, and body functions below the site of an injury. An incomplete spinal cord injury refers to a spinal cord still being able to transmit messages to and from the brain to the rest of the body, but a complete spinal cord injury involves no nerve communication and motor function (voluntary movement) below the site where the trauma occurred. A spinal cord injury can cause such symptoms as numbness, tingling, or a loss of or changes in sensation in the hands and feet, paralysis, weakness or inability to move any part of the body, pain or pressure in the head, neck, or back, loss of movement, loss of bladder and bowel control, unnatural positions of the spine or head, difficulty breathing, problems walking, and changes in sexual function.
• Burn Injuries — Minor burns may usually be treated at home and will heal within a matter of weeks. More serious burns require appropriate first aid and wound assessment, and treatment could involve medications, wound dressings, therapy, and surgery. Some people with severe burns could also require treatment at specialized burn centers for skin grafts to cover large wounds. Medical care could include medications and products such as water-based treatments to clean and stimulate the wound tissue, intravenous (IV) fluids to prevent dehydration, pain and anxiety medications such as morphine, burn creams and ointments such as bacitracin and silver sulfadiazine (Silvadene) for wound healing, specialty wound dressings to prepare a wound to heal, drugs intended to fight infection, and tetanus shots.

Other common kinds of injuries could include concussions, crush injuries, closed head injuries, back injuries, knee injuries, leg injuries, neck injuries, arm injuries, internal organ injuries, skull fractures, permanent nerve injuries, amputations, paralysis, and wrongful death.

How to Choose the Best Truck Accident Attorney in San Antonio

The Patel Firm PLLC has been handling commercial truck accident cases all over Texas for decades. Our firm understands the most effective ways to represent people involved in these types of cases, and we know how to negotiate settlements that actually provide people with the financial compensation they need to cover all of their bills.

Our firm has a record of success that includes several millions of dollars recovered for our clients. Our client testimonials demonstrate how happy people have been to work with us because we work very closely with every client and keep people constantly updated on their case status.

The Benefits of Hiring a Truck Accident Attorney in San Antonio

The first major benefit of working with a truck accident lawyer is that they can immediately step in and deal with an insurance company on your behalf so you will not have to worry about saying anything that could jeopardize your case. The Patel Firm PLLC will know how to get an insurance company to begin negotiating a possible settlement to your case, and settlements are common outcomes to these types of cases because most insurers will not want to take the risk nor bear the considerable expenses involved with going to trial.

Another reason it is important to get an attorney involved in your case concerns liability, as many commercial truck accidents have the potential to involve several liable parties. While many people properly assume that truck drivers who were at fault for crashes are responsible, the truth is that a trucking company, truck owner, cargo loading company, parts manufacturer, or even another driver could all be liable as well.

Call Us Today to Speak with a Truck Accident Lawyer in San Antonio

Did you suffer severe injuries or was your loved one killed in a truck accident in the greater San Antonio area? Do not wait to get in touch with The Patel Firm PLLC.

Our firm has handled scores of truck accident cases, so we know what steps need to be taken in these cases. You can call 210-325-9990 or contact us online to receive a free consultation with our San Antonio truck accident attorney.

The Patel Firm Injury Accident Lawyers
210-325-9990
4883 Fredericksburg Rd
San Antonio, TX 78229

Client Testimonial

“Mr. Patel and his staff helped me the whole way through everything. They are awesome! They work hard to get you what you deserve. I highly recommend them.”

Rating: 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
James B.
March 2020
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