Cargo that falls off a tractor-trailer or a truck bed can cause serious accidents and injuries to other drivers and their passengers. If you have been seriously injured or disabled due to a vehicle such as a pickup truck or semi truck that has lost a load on the highway or from someone dropping something on the highway from an overpass, you need to contact the experienced Houston truck collision attorneys at the Stewart Guss law firm.
Lost or Unsecured Houston Loads
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Driver’s Handbook on Cargo Securement[1] provides:
“Cargo being transported on the highway must remain secured on or within the transporting vehicle. The cargo must remain secured on or in the transporting vehicle: Under all conditions that could reasonably be expected to occur in normal driving. When a driver is responding in all emergency situations, EXCEPT when there is a crash”.
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety[2] estimates that 25,000 accidents a year nationwide, resulting in 100 deaths, occur as a result of unsecured cargo.
Houston Unsecured Load Lawyer
A Houston unsecured load attorney can help you bring a claim for any type of cargo or trailers that are improperly secured including:
- Scrap metal
- Construction materials
- Appliances
- Furniture
- Truck tire recaps
- Camper shells
- Gravel
- Landscaping or lawn mowing equipment
- Trailers carrying boats
- Any load that was haphazardly thrown into the back of a pickup truck.
Liability for Unsecured Cargo Trucking Accidents in Houston
Truck drivers are obliged to follow cargo-loading rules set by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and truckers and their employers can be held responsible when unsecured or unbalanced cargo causes a car crash to happen. These professional drivers, however, are not the only ones with safety obligations when it comes to securing cargo. If you can prove negligence led to the debris that caused your crash, you should be entitled to compensation for all resulting economic and non-financial losses.
Unsecured or loose loads can cause catastrophic accidents as other vehicles try to avoid the falling debris. Drivers who successfully maneuver their cars to miss an item that fell off of a truck may lose control or strike another vehicle while other drivers simply cannot get out of the way fast enough. Loose freight can also drop from trucks and smash through a car’s windshield, injuring or killing the people inside. In addition to loads that are not properly secured, loads inside trucks can shift, resulting in an unbalanced trailer. If the center of gravity is even slightly off, the truck driver can lose control and the whole rig can topple over. This makes trucks with weight violations a danger not only to truck drivers but also to anyone in their path on the road.
Contact an Experienced Houston Truck Crash Attorney
Fortunately, most truck drivers and transporters are well-trained and well-versed with the regulations and knowledge that it takes to properly operate a vehicle of that magnitude and an engine of that caliber. There are, as always, some things, such as the improper loading or securing of cargo that even an experienced truck driver can overlook which could potentially cause a collision or present an accident-causing situation whether or not the driver is aware of the hazard that is being presented.
If that should occur, the skilled truck accident lawyers at the Stewart Guss law firm can review the specifics of your situation and recover the compensation you deserve for your injuries and related losses. To protect your rights to recovery, it is critical to have an experienced truck accident attorney handling your case. Please call our office today at 800-898-4877.
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