Goodland Truck Accident Lawyer
Truck Accident Attorneys in Goodland and Western, Kansas Fighting to Win Car Accidents with Tractor-Trailers and Large Trucks
Goodland and Sherman County are home to car accidents with tractor-trailers and cattle haulers. The Kansas Traffic Crash Facts Book, 2021 tells us that Garden City and Sherman County had 104 motor vehicle crashes in 2021 with 31 injuries and 2 deaths from car accidents. Kansas had 3,316 heavy and large truck crashes in 2021 and 81 deaths statewide.
Our Goodland truck accident attorneys with Bull Attorneys help large truck accident victims restore their lives with our experienced law team of trial attorneys, case managers and paralegal-legal assistants. We follow a tractor-trailer crash case development model that has helped Goodland residents and all of Kansas since 1983. Our Goodland large truck crash lawyers’ study federal regulations requiring motor carriers to act safely.
We immediately investigate your car-truck accident with investigators, accident reconstruction experts and request all of the trucking company’s safety records from the DOT and the FMCSA so we can immediately learn the safety record of the trucking company causing your accident. The FMCSA determines the trucking company’s safety performance and compliance measured against other motor carriers.
Our Western Kansas tractor-trailer lawyers evaluate the motor carrier’s crash indicators. The higher the level they are, the better for your case. This helps us bring claims for your injuries against the trucking company in addition to the truck driver. We bring legal claims for negligent hiring, training and supervision to increase the dollar value of your case.
Our experienced Goodland truck accident lawyers understand the federal regulations under the FMCSR as interpreted by the FMCSA through the CSA BASICs.(This helps our truck crash victims to get more financial compensation because of our unique ability to add legal claims against the truck driver’s employer and the motor carrier who hired them.
We assist with back and neck injuries, spinal cord injuries and wrongful death. Large truck wrecks usually cause knee and shoulder injuries, internal organ damage and lower extremity injuries to the hip and pelvis as well as the upper femur where your leg connects to your hip.
We help you get financial compensation for noneconomic injuries like pain and suffering, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life and economic losses like medical bills, wage loss, rehabilitation costs and other damages that are caused by catastrophic truck crashes.
We represent you for free up front and you only pay if we win. You can contact us on our contact page or call us today at 785-708-0800. We answer the cell phone with real lawyers 24/7 and this means holidays, nighttime and every day of the year.
Should I Hire a Truck Accident Lawyer for My Injury to Help with My Car Accident?
Yes, you should only hire an experienced Goodland trucking injury trial lawyer if you want to win. When you are in an automobile crash with a tractor-trailer, large truck or large farm vehicle in Goodland or anywhere across Kansas you can get a free consultation at the scene by calling 785-708-0800.
Truck Accidents Lawyer Group is associated with Bull Attorneys with offices in Western Kansas in Garden City and Wichita. Our experienced trucking attorneys have litigated and settled hundreds of serious semi-truck accident cases. You can see our results and see for yourself that we are true experienced trucking injury lawyers.
You should immediately call us after your wreck with a semi or large truck. The way we help is by doing all the following for you:
- We give you free advice by phone and will immediately come to see you at your home or hospital.
- We file insurance claims with the insurance company for the truck driver and the trucking company they work for.
- We negotiate your case to a settlement and if they are unfair in their offers, we file suit.
- Our Goodland truck accident personal injury attorneys help by giving you immediate free advice to photograph the scene, vehicles and injuries. We advise you to take an ambulance to the nearest large emergency room and report all injuries.
- We help by hiring accident reconstruction experts to prove the negligence and fault of the driver.
- We help by sending out Freedom of Information Act Requests to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to obtain the trucking company’s crash history and safety rating.
- We have relationships with doctors who are specialists that can help medically treat your specific injury.
- If you do not have health insurance, we have doctors and hospitals who will wait for their money until the case is settled.
- We help build negligent hiring, training and supervision claims against the truck driver’s employer to increase the value of your case.
- We pay for all of the expenses for the expensive experts that are necessary to build your case and you only pay us back for the expenses if we win.
Our Goodland and western Kansas truck crash attorneys have studied all of the trucking manuals published for safety and the trucking industry. Our personal injury attorneys will be able to help by taking depositions of the truck driver, safety director, hiring manager, training manager and the manager of maintenance so that we can admit they negligently or recklessly failed to follow the required FMCSR safety plan.
If you hire an ordinary lawyer without trucking knowledge and in depth training your case will likely be worth much less than if you hire a real experienced tractor-trailer lawyer.
Does a Cattle Truck Have to Report How Many Hours They Are Driving?
Cattle haulers are not exempt from hours-of-service rules to prevent accidents. However, if they are making a true short haul agriculturally and do not exceed the 150 air-mile radius they have a limited exemption for the very short hauls. The problem arises with cattle haulers because most of these tractor-trailers are driving through one or two states to get to the delivery or pickup point. When they are on the road that long that cause catastrophic accidents with motorists.
Goodland is located near to Interstate 70 which is a major east-west transportation corridor for cattle haulers. US-24 runs north and south on the east side of Goodland. The route links to major livestock markets in Nebraska. US-83 is another favorite route of cattle haulers traveling to cattle operations south of Goodland.
Goodland has always been home to large cattle feeding industry which requires daily tractor-trailers operations. K-27 runs north-south through Goodland and is a necessary cattle hauling route between cattle ranches, cattle feedlots and packing plants near the area and out of state into other states.
Endpoints or destinations for the cattle haulers traveling across Kansas near Goodland include Denver, CO, Greeley, CO, Dodge City, Garden City and Emporia, Grand Island, NE and Amarillo, TX. These cattle haulers are traveling to Tyson and Cargill meat plants where the cattle are taken for slaughter. All of these long-haul cattle routes make the truck drivers tired and fatigued.
Truck drivers hauling cattle have two different rules to follow. One is the 150 air miles radius rule. However, once the truck driver hauling cattle travels beyond the 150 air-mile radius rule they must begin logging.
The cattle haulers association attempted to get the FMCSA to allow them to abandon following any safety rules or hours-of-service regulations and the FMCSA rejected their request because they could not prove they were safely operating.
The Kansas Livestock Association also applied for an exemption on the hours-of-service rules for truck drivers. The FMCSA denied their request “saying it would not meet an acceptable safety level for drivers.”
The real problem for other drivers and motorists in Goodland and the farmland surrounding Goodland is that many of the trucking companies are sending their drivers from Nebraska, Colorado and Texas which far exceeds the 150 air-mile radius, and they negligently teach their truck drivers no hours-of-service rule apply to them. Excessive driving causes catastrophic injury accidents.
Our Goodland truck accident injury lawyers have had several cases where the truck drivers claim they have an exemption when they do not. Some of these drivers will cross multiple states to get to a meat plant for delivery. They do this regardless of bad weather and high wind conditions which usually end badly for the cars and pickups they crash into.
Ordinary attorneys usually are unaware that the cattle haulers are not exempt once they exceed the 150 air-mile radius point. Our trucking lawyers are on watch for this dangerous practice of excessive driving. We know it leads to severe injuries and fatalities for many Kansas innocent drivers.
What Should You Do When Passing Tractor-trailers and Semi-trucks?
Western Kansas truck crash lawyers understand that many catastrophic car crashes happen when automobiles and other motor vehicles try to pass a semi traveling on a two lane or rural highway or road. According to the FMCSA, one of the most common violations of truck drivers are improper lane changes and improper turns.
The Bureau of Transportation analyzed lane change crashes finding that ten percent of all typical lane change crashes involved large trucks. This study learned that a typical lane change is where two vehicles are traveling side by side and one vehicle intentionally changes lanes and collides with the other vehicle on its side.
This study noted that typical lane change accidents make up 38.4% of all studied crashes. This helps us understand that drivers in Goodland and Sherman County must always be alert for fatigued truck drivers changing lanes, moving into adjacent lanes while passing, and drifting accidents where truck drivers drift from one lane of travel into the next lane.
When this happens to you it is important to call the Truck Accident Lawyers Group and Bull Attorneys immediately if you want to win your case.
How can you avoid a lane change sideswipe accident with a tractor-trailer or large truck?
Truck drivers coming through trucking routes across Kansas traveling east-west or north-south are usually tired and fatigued from driving excessive hours. When a truck driver is tired and overworked, they can make erratic moves swinging from lane to lane due to wind, fatigue, or reckless behavior if they are on a mandatory on time delivery schedule. They have blind spots where they may not see other motor vehicles.
To avoid lane change accidents with truck drivers, follow these safety tips:
- Never drive beside a moving tractor-trailer, especially when the front of your vehicle is even with the back of their tractor because this is a dangerous blind spot.
- Understand that truck drivers have multiple blind spots where they cannot see smaller cars and vehicles which are to both sides and to the front and back. Stay away from blind spot zones.
- If you are on a two-way highway like most highways around Goodland, wait until it is totally safe to pass, then pass quickly and make a wide pass.
- If the highway has a three-lane passing area wait until the semi is at a safe place to pass. Do not drive beside the tractor-trailer in these areas because you are in their blind spot.
- Warn of your intention to pass by honking and flashing lights along with turn signals before making your pass in order to get the truck driver’s attention.
Remember that truck crashes can also happen when a semi is trying to turn at an intersection. If a truck driver is tired, they may fail to give notice of their intention to turn so all drivers need to beware truck drivers if they are following or coming directly at you in the opposite lane. Turning maneuvers by tractor-trailers cause a significant number of motor vehicle accidents.
All drivers in Goodland and Sherman County need to be aware that tractor-trailers and large trucks can be blown into the opposite lanes of travel by high Kansas winds. Even though truck drivers are not supposed to drive in high winds, it is well known that many still do because of the delivery requirements that they be on time.
Our Goodland truck crash attorneys have handled numerous lane change cases where the tractor-trailer made an abrupt lane change without warning. We understand federal regulations requirement that truck drivers must operate safely. If you or a loved one has been involved in a large truck accident with a fatigued truck driver changing lanes, we can help you.
What Steps Should I Take After a Large Truck Accident in Goodland or Western Kansas?
If you have an accident with a large truck or semi in Goodland, Kansas or anywhere across Kansas it is important that you follow very specific steps to protect your rights.
After a trucking accident the steps to take are:
- Quickly call 911 and report your injuries and tell the police what the truck driver did to cause the accident.
- Report all injuries no matter how minor they seem and ask for an ambulance to take you to an emergency room hospital.
- If you can do so, photograph the damage to the vehicles, injuries to people and photograph the roadway. Look for skid marks, gouge marks and other evidence to establish which side of the white line you are on.
- Photograph the name of the logos on the tractor and the trailer as well as take photos of the DOT number on the side of the truck and any other numbers that the truck or trailer has.
- Ask the truck driver why they caused the accident and write down their answer.
- Remember that truck drivers carry Accident Kit books which command them not to make admissions about their fault.
- Call the Truck Accident Lawyers Group/Bull Attorneys at 785-708-0800 for a free consultation.
- Make sure you see an emergency room physician to document your injuries the same day as the accident, even if they are minor injuries. Injuries progress over the first twenty-four hours.
- Never talk to the truck driver’s insurance company adjuster.
How Much Money is My Truck Accident Settlement Worth?
A car accident involving a tractor-trailer or large business truck with catastrophic injuries can be worth one million dollars and up to five million dollars or more when enough insurance exists.
The value of a tractor-trailer accident with a motor vehicle is dependent upon multiple factors including the extent of your injuries, the level of fault of the truck driver, the amount of total liability insurance, the amount of any disability, whether you can return to work and when death is caused, the factors are different.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I find the best truck accident lawyer in Western Kansas?
You should consider trucking lawyers in larger cities like Wichita. Meet with the lawyer and ask about their track record of results on trucking accidents. Find a lawyer who you like, is compassionate and will give you their personal cell phone so you can reach them when you need to.
Should I talk to the insurance company after my car accident?
It is not advisable to speak directly with an insurance company after a car accident without a lawyer because anything you say can be used against you. You may inadvertently make statements that harm your case. Adjusters will pressure you to take an early settlement. The insurance company has its own interests in mind, not yours.
How long does it take to settle a car accident claim with a trucking company?
There is no clear time frame for settling a car accident claim with a trucking company. It is based on complexity of your case for fault, injuries and long-term disability. Simple cases can be a few weeks or months. Moderate cases may take 6 months to a year. Complex cases with severe injury generally take up to two years.
Contact Goodland Office
Locations We Serve
With physical offices in Kansas and Texas, the Truck Accident Lawyers Group is ready to represent injured people who have had a motor vehicle and truck accident anywhere in the United States. Make sure you hire an experienced truck accident lawyer who understands the safety rules under the FMCSR.
