North Carolina Fatal Truck Accident Lawyer
Accidents involving commercial trucks in North Carolina frequently result in catastrophic injuries and fatalities. The weight disparity between a large truck and a passenger vehicle in a truck crash often leads to the smaller vehicle’s occupants experiencing extreme forces, resulting in serious injuries, including spinal cord injuries, crush injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and other injuries that ultimately lead to their deaths.
If your loved one died in a tractor-trailer collision, contact Stewart Law Offices for a free consultation with a compassionate fatal truck accident lawyer about your case. We can review details of the truck wreck, explain your options for seeking compensation, and walk you through what to expect from a wrongful death case.
How Stewart Law Offices’ Compassionate Lawyers Seek Justice After Fatal Accidents
Our truck accident wrongful death lawyers seek justice for families after fatal accidents take their loved ones away. An experienced truck accident lawyer from our law firm can conduct thorough investigations and gather robust evidence. By investigating the accident, our North Carolina truck accident lawyers can identify the at-fault parties, collect the evidence needed to hold them financially liable, and seek maximum compensation for your injuries.
An experienced truck accident attorney can help identify, gather, and collect key evidence in your fatal truck accident case, such as:
- Accident scene photographs depicting the damaged vehicles, skid marks, road conditions, and relevant traffic signs and signals
- Traffic, surveillance, or dashboard camera footage depicting the accident or the events leading up to or directly following it
- Eyewitness statements that provide additional information about the crash
- Expert testimony from medical professionals, crash reconstruction specialists, and trucking industry experts
- Truck maintenance records that identify when and what type of maintenance was provided to help determine whether poor maintenance played a role in the truck collision
- Trucker logbooks detailing the distance the vehicle traveled and when the driver took their legally mandated breaks
- Truck black box recordings that show the speed at which the vehicle was traveling before the crash
When large truck accidents cause the senseless loss of the lives of truck accident victims, our dedicated personal injury lawyers stand with grieving families in the pursuit of justice.
How Liability Is Determined in a Fatal Truck Accident
Determining liability in a fatal truck accident involves proving that someone was negligent or that some vehicle part malfunctioned. Negligence occurs when a party fails to exercise reasonable care to avoid harming others.
For example, if the accident that caused your loved one’s death was due to a trucker speeding in poor-visibility conditions, that would likely count as negligence. A person exercising reasonable care would slow down in a similar situation since they know the risk of an accident is heightened.
Who Can Be Held Liable in NC?
Multiple parties could share liability for your loved one’s death. Potentially liable parties will depend on the circumstances of the case, but some of those most frequently found liable in fatal large truck accidents include the following:
- Commercial truck drivers
- Commercial trucking companies
- Truck maintenance providers
- Truck component manufacturers
- Cargo loaders
- Drivers of other vehicles
- Government entities
There are instances when other parties can be held liable when commercial vehicles are involved in a crash. For example, in brake failure accidents, we can seek to recover compensation from the brake manufacturer. The driver’s employer can be held liable for the actions of a negligent driver or their own forms of negligence, such as using unsafe hiring practices or failing to maintain its fleet.
Available Compensation for Fatal Truck Accident Injuries
Under North Carolina law, grieving family members can seek compensation for the following losses related to the death of their loved one in a truck accident:
- Medical expenses related to the treatment and hospitalization for the injuries that resulted in their loved one’s death
- The pain and suffering their loved one experienced because of the injuries that caused their death
- Reasonable funeral and burial expenses for their loved one
- The loss of their loved one’s income
- The loss of their loved one’s household services, including childcare or home maintenance
- The loss of their loved one’s companionship, comfort, guidance, and society
Our truck accident law firm can leverage North Carolina law to help you seek justice and fair compensation following a fatal accident. Our lawyers have secured significant compensation in truck accident lawsuits like yours, including $3.8 million for family members in a wrongful death case and $3.5 million for the victim of a tractor-trailer accident.*
Causes of Fatal Semi-Truck Accidents in North Carolina
Fatal motor vehicle accidents have various causes, most of which stem from the negligence of one or more parties. Common causes of commercial truck accidents include:
- Distracted, fatigued, or intoxicated driving
- Speeding and driving too fast for the road or weather conditions
- Overloaded or improperly secured cargo
- Vehicle component manufacturing defects
- Poor vehicle maintenance
- Poor road maintenance
- Third-party motorist negligence
- Failure to yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic
- Changing lanes or making wide turns without checking the truck’s blind spots
Types of truck accidents that can occur due to these causes are:
- Jackknife accidents
- Rollover accidents
- Sideswipe accidents
- T-bone collisions
- Rear-end collisions
- Head-on collisions
- Underride accidents
- Falling cargo accidents
Understanding how the accident that took your loved one’s life occurred is a crucial step in seeking the compensation you and your family need.
Time Limits for Filing a Wrongful Death Trucking Accident Claim
Family members seeking compensation for the death of their loved one caused by a truck accident have two years to file their lawsuits under North Carolina’s wrongful death statute of limitations. In most wrongful death cases, the time limit starts on the date of death. However, this deadline may be extended if an at-fault party fraudulently concealed their role in the accident.
While two years may sound like a long time, fatal truck accident cases can be complex, involving several liable parties and victims. It’s best to start working with an experienced attorney as soon as possible so they can gather the necessary evidence and build a strong case before the time limit expires.
Contact Our NC Fatal Truck Accident Attorneys Today
If you lost a loved one in a fatal truck accident in North Carolina, contact Stewart Law Offices for a free consultation with an experienced fatal truck accident attorney. We can send a qualified attorney to personally visit you at your home or another location to discuss your case, and we never charge a fee unless we recover compensation for you.**
Our lawyers are available 24/7 to answer your calls and respond to your messages, and we’re committed to keeping you informed regularly as your case progresses. We treat every client with the respect and compassion they deserve while fighting aggressively for maximum compensation.