VIRGINIA GARBAGE TRUCK ACCIDENT LAWYER
Photo - courtesy of the Clark County Sheriff's Office
Garbage Truck Accidents
A garbage truck accident attorney is going to be essential in helping you get the compensation you deserve, if you or a family member have been hurt or killed in an accident involving a garbage truck. We have all seen garbage trucks moving around town, and mostly they are slow and somewhat ponderous, because they stop every few feet to pick something up. However, despite this slow appearance, the truck accidents they cause can be severe, especially when a small vehicle is involved. Sometimes, these accidents can involve pedestrians or bicyclists, and injuries sustained in these accidents can be horrific. You need an experienced truck accident lawyer to help you understand your rights, and get the most out of your claim.
How a Garbage Truck Accident Lawyer Can Help You
There are two main kinds of trash trucks on the road today. Some are municipal, that is owned and operated by the government. Others are private, in that they are owned by individual people or companies/corporations. All of them are engaged in getting refuse and trash from collection points to transfer centers and eventually to dumps or other facilities.
After you have been involved in an accident, the first thing that we have to determine is the nature of the truck and the driver whose negligence caused your injuries. A dedicated garbage truck accident lawyer in Virginia will be able to help track this information down, to make your claim. It is vital to understand who is involved, because a vehicle owned and operated by the government, any government entity, may be subject to sovereign immunity. Sovereign immunity is a legal doctrine that limits a claim and your ability to sue government workers for things done in the scope of their employment. However, sometimes, it is possible to file a claim against the government agency itself, under variations of the local, state, and federal tort claims acts.
A garbage truck accident lawyer is also going to help oversee all of the other aspects relating to your personal injury claim. Our investigation is going to help develop the evidence that we need to meet our burden of proof to carry the day, either with a claims adjuster or in court.
After your medical treatment is done, and all investigation is complete, we prepare a settlement package that we send the insurance company or government agency responsible. If negotiations do not get you the compensation that you deserve, we will then advise you of your rights and how to push forward, potentially into litigation.
How a Garbage Truck Crash Claims Work
Sometimes, garbage truck drivers are involved in accidents that are not their faults, either. In the event that a garbage truck driver is involved in an accident, and is injured, that driver will have a claim against the negligent driver who caused the accident! This is known as a third party liability claim. This is what we do.
In addition to the third party liability claim, the trash truck driver also has a claim for workman's compensation benefits, as an employee in the course of his duty. Workman's compensation coverage will usually handle all of the injured person's medical treatment as well as lump sum awards, all of which are separate from the personal injury case. Read our blog post about how workman's comp cases and the third party cases interact.
If you have been injured as the result of the negligence of a garbage truck itself, then you have the same rights that you have in any motor vehicle accident in Virginia. You have the ability to file a claim for your damages, which includes:
Pain and suffering
Inconvenience
Lost wages
Future lost wages
Future medical expenses
Permanent injuries
Scarring
Disfigurement
and more.
Different Kinds of Garbage Trucks
Very few people know about the cycle of refuse, but it's important to know when exploring these kinds of accidents. Depending on where you live, when you put your trash out on the curb to be picked up, it is sometimes picked up by a municipal trash truck. This means it is owned by the town or city or county that you live in. A claim against this truck would be governed by the applicable tort claims act.
Once these trash trucks are filled they generally go over to what is called a transfer center. Here, they dump out all of their garbage, and it is compacted and smashed and put into other trucks, often semi trailers, to then be sent to garbage dumps and other processing centers. These trucks are almost always owned and operated by private companies, sometimes large corporations.
Depending on the facts of the accident, your claim may be against one or more of the entities involved at various levels. If for example, a driver was following orders that were negligently given by his dispatcher or company, the claim for your accident might not only be against the driver and the company that employs him, but also the dispatching company, and perhaps the overseeing refuse or waste authority.
Because claims against the city or other municipality and county have to be given within a specific time frame (6 months from the date of the accident), you need to call a lawyer immediately after the crash. Waiting can bar your claim!
All of these levels have to be properly investigated to make sure there is enough coverage in the event you are involved in a serious accident. When you hire an attorney, make sure that you hire one who knows all of these intricacies, like Blaszkow Legal.
Call a Virginia Garbage Truck Collision Lawyer Today
A Virginia trash truck accident attorney is going to be able to help you maximize your claim, and get you the justice you deserve. However, because of how complicated some of the legal issues are, you need to hire that attorney right away. There are a lot of timelines that to begin to run, especially if the trash truck involved belong to some aspect of the government. Call Blaszkow Legal today for a free consultation, so we can get started now on fighting for your rights, and getting you to compensation you deserve.
Call 703-879-5910 now!
Virginia Tort Claims Act: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title8.01/chapter3/article18.1/
Notice to Cities, Towns, Counties in Virginia (the 6 month rule): https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title15.2/chapter2/section15.2-209/