Salina Truck Accident Attorney
Salina Truck Accident Lawyer Helping Fight Trucking Companies with Negligent Truck Drivers to Get Financial Compensation.
Salina truck accident lawyer helping fight trucking companies with negligent truck drivers to get financial compensation. We help get pain and suffering, mental anguish, medical bills, wage loss, disability and wrongful death damages.
Salina is home to many dangerous truck driver routes. It is a hazardous area for drivers of cars and smaller motor vehicles. The intersection of I-70 and I-135 brings truck drivers operating tractor-trailers from the east coast and west coast and combines them with north-south long-haul drivers on the I-135 corridor. Fatigued truck drivers consider Salina a half-way point to their destination.
Salina is home to a grain milling industry and the agricultural community growing wheat sends large semi-trucks and farm and grain trucks through Salina on a daily basis making the heavy/large trucks a danger to Salina and all of Saline County.
According to the 2021 Kansas Traffic Crash Facts Book, Salina had 933 car accidents and motor vehicle crashes that year. 328 people were injured in those vehicle collisions. Saline County had 1,296 traffic crashes resulting in 459 injuries and 7 fatalities. Across Salina and Kansas, the number one cause of traffic accidents was driver inattention..
Our Salina Truck Accident Lawyers have worked on trucking accidents in Salina since 1983. The Truck Accident Lawyers Group (TALG) is associated with Bull Attorneys®. We work as a legal team using a team of case managers, legal assistants and investigators to build your case to its highest potential. We have excellent results for truck injury victims.
The reason we win large settlements is because our Salina large truck injury attorneys understand the federal regulations on interstate motor carriers and trucking companies like the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR). We apply the 7 BASICs that the FMCSA uses to rank motor carrier safety with the CSA BASICs.
We help you with everything from start to finish. We will file insurance claims, help settle property damage, negotiate your personal injury settlement and make claims for your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits to start wage loss payments and help pay for your medical treatment.
When the insurance company makes a lowball offer, we file a lawsuit against them. Our proprietary case development method evaluates negligence, investigates the truck driver and motor carrier’s safety history and accident record and find all sources of insurance coverage for every defendant.
We help you get financial compensation for your pain and suffering, mental anguish, medical bills, wage and other economic loss and bring claims against both the truck driver and their trucking company to get compensation for all your damages. In most cases, we will bring claims against the trucking company for negligent hiring, training, and supervision.
In the unfortunate event that you lost a loved one, we will bring wrongful death claims, survival claims for any conscious pain and suffering before they died, and bring legal claims for Wentling damages.
It is free to call our Salina trucking attorneys so get your free consultation today by calling 785-708-0800 24/7. You can write on our contact page. Our Salina truck crash personal injury attorneys always give you their personal cell phone call so you can ask questions whenever you need to.
Can a Truck Accident Lawyer Get More Money for My Injuries?
The answer is always yes. An experienced truck accident lawyer will be able to get a higher amount of compensation for you than a normal personal injury because they are highly skilled in using federal regulations to help prove your case and identify all parties who are liable for your injuries.
- Study the truck driver’s hours-of-service.
We obtain driver’s logs to evaluate the driver’s hours-of-service in order to determine if they are fatigued. Many trucking companies dispatch their drivers when they do not have enough legal hours to drive which causes them to drive while fatigued. - Use FOIA requests.
We send out Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the FMCSA to obtain the full motor carrier file including the monthly safety statistics. - Negligent hiring claims.
We will use the motor carrier file and other investigative evidence to determine if the trucking company negligently hired, negligently trained or negligently supervised their truck driver. In cases where the driver has had FMCSR violations or accidents while working for the company, we add a negligent retention claim for continuing to employ an unsafe driver. - Hiring experts.
Experts are useful to truck accident litigation to inform the insurance carrier and a jury why they should award higher damages. These include accident reconstruction experts, medical experts, trucking safety experts, economists, vocational experts and/or lifecare experts. - Medical treatment.
Many doctors in Salina and Kansas are afraid of testifying in court so they avoid treating truck injury victims. We have a network of the best medical doctors, therapists, rehabilitation providers, hospitals, surgery centers and pain management doctors who will work with our firm to help prove all of your injuries.
Our Salina truck accident attorneys are trained in understanding how trucking companies must create and use a safety plan so their drivers can avoid causing accidents and injuries or deaths by distracted driving. We apply the FMCSR to every aspect of your trucking claim to prove the trucking company did follow the minimum safety standards required.
What Are the Normal Causes of Tractor-Trailer Accidents?
The normal causes of large truck accidents are from:
- Driver Fatigue.
- Driver inattention and distraction.
- Negligent training and supervision of truck drivers.
- Drunk or intoxicated driving.
- Overloaded trailers.
- Poorly maintained brakes and tires.
For a more complete discussion of the 20 common causes click here.
What Are the Different Types of Tractor-Trailer Accidents Causing the Most Injury?
There are different types of large truck and tractor-trailer accidents that are well known.
Some of them are:
- Rear End Collisions.
A rear end tractor-trailer accident is where a much heavier tractor-trailer fails to appropriately stop before colliding into the smaller motor vehicles causing serious damage. Normally, the truck driver has not been appropriately trained in speed, cushion and braking distance or has badly maintained brakes and cannot stop. Fatigue is a common cause of rear end crashes. - Underride Accidents.
Federal regulations require the trailers to have a rear underride guard to prevent vehicles coming from behind the tractor trailer from sliding under the trailer where decapitation is a common injury. This is because trailers sit higher up, and many smaller vehicles will run under them leading to paralysis, decapitation and fatalities. - Jackknife Accidents.
A jackknife tractor-trailer accident is when the tractor and trailer make a sharp folding motion and the trailer swings out across the highway perpendicular to the tractor. This type of crash usually happens from poor steering maneuvers while speeding with heavily loaded or overloaded cargo. These crashes are almost always catastrophic injuring or killing everyone in their path. - Lane Change Accidents.
A lane change trucking accident occurs because semi-trucks have blind spots to the front, sides and rear. When motor vehicles are in the blind spots, the truck drivers fail to use turn signals before changing lanes. This results in contact with side of motor vehicle or forces the cars off the road causing severe injuries. - Head-on Collisions.
Head-on truck crashes occur from fatigued drivers drifting out of lanes, attempting to pass in two lane highways, speeding, driver impairment from alcohol or drugs, aggressive driving, poor visibility in bad wind, weather, dust or smoke conditions and from overloaded trailers and poorly maintained tractor-trailers. Steep grades, sharp curves and lack of median barriers contribute to these crashes. - Rollover Accidents.
Rollover accidents are caused by high-speed turns, load shifting, overloading, improper braking, steep includes, wind gusts, fatigued driving and avoidance maneuvers improperly carried out. Poor maintenance can increase the chance of having rollovers because of bad or blown out tires and improperly maintained brakes. This type of crash results in catastrophic injuries and wrongful death. - Bad Weather Accidents from Storms and Winds.
Truck drivers are supposed to slow down or cease driving operations in bad weather conditions under Part 392.14 of the FMCSR. Crashes occur when truck drivers fail to slow down or stop for bad weather conditions like high winds, poor visibility from rain, smoke, dust and fires, icy road conditions or other serious weather conditions.
What are the Dangerous Roads in Salina?
The most dangerous roads or intersections in Salina are:
- I-70 and the I-135 intersection has large truck traffic coming from four directions.
- I-135 and Magnolia Road.
- I-135 and West Schilling Road.
- US-81 Highway has significant trucking traffic.
- Old Highway 40 is where the Archer Daniels Milling plant is located bringing substantial large truck and semi-truck traffic.
- 9th Street and Broadway.
- 9th Street and Halstead Road.
- Ohio Street and Crawford Road.
- Magnolia Road and Gypsum Valley Road.
Why is Salina a Dangerous Place for Semi-truck Accidents?
Salina, Kansas is in the middle of the windy plains. Wind off the Rockies travels across the plains of Colorado into Kansas and especially down the I-70 corridor. There are many intersecting highways and roads as you approach Salina. 40 mph plus crosswinds can shift the tractor-trailer over center lines and can move the trailer back and forth across the road where horrible car crashes can happen with the commercial motor vehicle (CMV).
Other reasons that Salina and Saline County are a dangerous place for tractor-trailer accidents are:
- Mix of traffic speeds.
The saline county area of Kansas has a large mixture of different traffic speeds from the 75 mph interstate highway speeds down to local Salina roads 30-55 mph. The difference in speeds at intersections creates a hazardous situation for drivers. - Challenging weather.
Kansas has extreme changes in weather rapidly from ice and snow to rain, high winds, dust storms and other adverse weather which all disrupts truck drivers from being safe. - Long, flat stretches of highway.
The roads and highways in this area are long and flat where the truck drivers become tired and fatigued and drift in and out of the proper lane of travel leading to side impact and head-on collisions. - Rural two-lane highways.
Highway 81 is heavily traveled by truckers and regular motorists. The two lanes create hazardous conditions for truckers passing slower moving traffic in order to make their deliveries of cargo on time. - High truck volume.
Kansas is in the middle of the country which makes it prone to having trucking routes running east to west, north to south and diagonally across the state through Salina, Saline County, and other dangerous counties. The larger the trucks are the higher the chances for normal motorists to have a serious accident with the larger dangerous semi-trucks.
Why are Head-on and Side-Swipe Collisions with Tractor-trailers so Dangerous?
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Study on Fatality Facts 2021 – Large Trucks found that large trucks often weigh 20-30 times more than passenger cars and can cause a significant number of large truck crashes resulting in death to occupants in smaller passenger vehicles. They found that 4,717 people died in large truck crashes in 2021. This is 17% higher than in 2020.
68% of the deaths were the occupants of the cars and other motor vehicles involved in a crash with a large truck. 31% of passenger vehicle occupants killed in 2-vehicle crashes with a large truck in 2021 were in frontal head-on crashes. 12% of those people killed were from side impacts with large trucks.
The FMCSA Study entitled Report to Congress on the Large Truck Crash Causation Study from 2006 found that of 4000 fatal large truck crashes, 3 percent were from head-on accidents. Side swipe accidents going the same direction made up 10.3 percent of the total accidents.
This teaches us that the drivers of cars and motor vehicles traveling near tractor-trailers must be observant to stay out of blind spots and never drive adjacent to a large truck where you are in the blind spot. Pass tractor-tractors rapidly when safe to do so and always stay wide to avoid abrupt lane changes. Avoid traveling in high wind conditions near tractor-trailers because they can shift across lanes.
What Steps Should I Take After a Large Truck Accident in Salina?
If you have been in a large truck crash near Salina, KS, you only have a two-year statute of limitations, so it is important to hire a Salina Truck Accident attorney rapidly after your accident. Evidence evaporates or dissipates quickly following an accident.
To win your case from injuries in a truck accident with a large truck in Kansas, you should take the following steps:
- Immediately call 911 and report all your injuries as well as how the accident was caused to emergency operators.
- Be very specific when speaking to 911 and tell them exactly how the truck was at fault and list all injuries for you and any passengers.
- Request an ambulance for any injuries and only ask to go to the nearest large hospital emergency room.
- Call The Truck Accident Lawyers Group (TALG) for a free consultation on 785-708-0800.
- Photograph the tractor and trailer logos, company names, DOT numbers and other identifying information on both the tractor and trailer.
- Ask the truck driver why he/she caused the accident.
- Photograph the scene of the accident and all the injuries.
- Report to EMS and emergency room every single injury no matter how small since injuries worsen with time.
- Refuse to talk to any insurance adjuster without legal advice.
- Realize that the trucking company will have investigators and attorneys at the scene rapidly after the accident so refuse to talk to anyone at the scene other than medical personnel and law enforcement.
TALG and the Bull Attorneys® have the experience, skills, and unique methods to help truck accident victims recover financial compensation and go on through life. Call us today 785-708-0800.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can a truck accident lawyer do for me?
A truck accident lawyer can help you obtain the motor carrier safety profile, audit history, enforcement history, crash history and all other critical evidence so that you a better chance of winning your truck accident case.
Why should I only hire an experienced truck accident lawyer?
You should only hire an experienced truck accident lawyer because the federal regulations are difficult to interpret and many personal injury lawyers are totally unfamiliar with federal trucking regulations under the FMCSR.
How can I get a free consultation with a skilled semi-truck accident attorney?
You can get a free consultation by calling the Truck Accident Lawyers Group at 316-330-9200 or by calling truck accident lawyer, Bradley A. Pistotnik on his cell phone at 316-706-5020.
Contact Salina City 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.
