The answer to that question is “often.” Indiana is in the middle of the country. National and local trucking companies send their trucks across Indiana’s highways every day. And every day (or almost every day), there are truck accidents in Indiana.

Indiana law requires truck drivers to drive their truck safely. If a trucker was speeding, ignoring traffic signals or driving impaired, and such conduct caused an accident that left you injured, you may recover money damages from the truck driver and his company. Indiana has a “modified comparative negligence” rule. That means that if you were also negligent in driving your car, the judge hearing your case would reduce the jury award by the percentage of your negligence, as found by the jury. Therefore, if the jury awarded you $100,000 in damages, but found that you were 30% negligent, the judge would reduce the award by $30,000.

If you have been injured in an accident involving a truck, call an Indiana truck accident attorney immediately. Indiana has a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims. That means you have to sue within two years of the accident if you can’t settle with the insurance company for the truck driver.

However, you may need an experienced Indiana truck accident lawyer to immediately investigate the accident. If the truck driver hit your car after running through a stop sign, it will not be too difficult to prove the truck driver’s negligence. But if mechanical failure caused the accident, experts will have to be hired to inspect the truck. If driver fatigue was a cause of the accident, the driver’s log will have to be obtained and examined.

If there were witnesses to the accident, those witnesses will have to be located and interviewed.

If there were multiple vehicles involved in the accident, the actions of each of the other drivers will have to be examined to determine their degree of fault, if any.

If road conditions contributed to the accident, experts may have to be retained to examine the accident scene to determine if the lack of a shoulder, the placement of road barriers or defective traffic lights played a role in the cause of the accident.

Lastly, most commercial trucks have “black boxes” similar to an airplane. If you are in an accident with a commercial truck, your attorney can get the data on the black box downloaded. The data on the box will show what the speed of the truck was before the accident, whether and when the brakes were applied and if the truck was on cruise control at the time of the accident, among other information.

Given the large number of trucks on Indiana roadways, there are many types of truck accidents that happen in Indiana:

Rollovers
Rear-end collisions
Multi-Truck accidents
T-Bone
Hit-and-run
Jackknife-semi
Backing-up collisions
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reports that there were 13.5 fatal large truck crashes per million people in the United States in 2018, a 27 percent increase from 10.6 in 2010. Furthermore, in 2018, on average, there were 1.12 fatalities in fatal crashes involving large trucks. In 90 percent of those crashes, there was only one fatality. The majority, 82 percent, of fatalities were not occupants of the large truck.

Commercial vehicles are defined as large trucks, combination vehicles, pickup trucks over 10,000 pounds, buses with a passenger occupancy exceeding 15, school buses, or vehicles with a hazardous material placard. In 2017, there were 16,910 accidents involving commercial vehicles, with 14,877 of those involving large trucks.

Of those 14,877 accidents involving a large truck, 125 were fatal, 1,860 resulted in injuries, and 12,892 resulted in property damage. This constituted a 9.6% increase in fatal truck accidents over the previous year.

There are several large types of trucks on Indiana highways that get into accidents. Among them are:

• Semi-trucks (a/k/a 18-wheelers a/k/a big rigs)
• Tractor trailers
• Commercial trucks
• Garbage trucks
• Dump trucks
• Fuel Trucks

As with other motor vehicles, truck accidents happen in Indiana for many reasons, including:

• Adverse weather conditions
• Mechanical failure
• Truck driver fatigue
• Hazardous road conditions
• Defectively designed roads
• Speeding
• Tire blow outs
• Unsecured loads
• Tow hitch defects
• Headlight defects
• Brake failure
• Drunk/impaired driving

Remember, fully loaded semi-trucks or cement trucks carrying a load of cement weigh thousands of pounds and cannot stop as quickly as passenger cars and lighter vehicles on the road. Truck drivers who are driving their truck properly have no control over other drivers who may drive negligently near the truck, drive in the truck driver’s blind spot or pass on both sides.

Multiple parties can be held liable for injuries you receive in an Indiana truck accident:

• The truck driver
• The owner of the truck
• The person or company who leased or rented the truck from the truck owner
• The manufacturer of the vehicle, tires, or other parts that were defective
• The loader or shipper who put an overweight load in the truck or who did not properly secure the load
• Other motorists who operated their vehicle negligently, causing the truck to roll over, jackknife, etc.
• The government agency /construction company who defectively designed the roadway or failed to properly maintain the road
• Every truck accident is unique. An experienced Indiana truck accident attorney will know how to investigate the accident, preserve evidence and when to hire an expert to examine the truck or reconstruct the accident itself to determine where fault lies.

• Soft tissue
• Bone fracture
• Concussions
• Shoulder, back and neck sprains/strains
• Burns
• Internal organs
• Traumatic brain injury
• Amputations
• Spinal cord/paralysis
• Wrongful death

Since commercial trucks, 18-wheelers, and dump trucks are large and carry significant loads, accidents involving trucks can lead to major injuries, leading up to death. Serious injuries in a truck accident can mean hospitalization and multiple follow-up visits to a doctor. Treatment for some injuries above will also require a course of physical therapy or chiropractic treatment.

Under Indiana law, there are has several types of damage claims you can make if you are injured in a truck accident caused by one or more negligent parties:

• Medical expenses-You may recover all of your medical expenses (even those insurance may have covered);
• Damages to your car;
• Lost wages-If you have to miss work because of your injuries, you may recover those lost wages;
• Pain and suffering-This type of damage is subjective but is widely recognized in Indiana personal injury law. You can tell the jury how badly your broken leg hurt after the accident, how you had to go through physical therapy for weeks, it hurt for months and you cannot run on it today. That is pain and suffering;
• Disability-If there are lingering symptoms from your injury (and there often are) you can tell the jury about them. Perhaps you have trouble concentrating at work, or you get headaches reading, because of the concussion you suffered in the truck accident. The jury will hear that and compensate you for those damages;
• Future medical needs-If you suffered a traumatic brain injury or partial paralysis, you may need medical and physical therapy treatment for the foreseeable future. The jury may compensate you for that;
• Loss of consortium-If your spouse was killed in a truck accident, or severely injured, the jury can compensate you for the loss of consortium-the loss of the affection, advice and companionship spouses show each other; and
• Punitive damages-Punitive damages are a distinct type of damage and are not usually available in a negligence case. Punitive damages punish the defendant for bad conduct. Cases in which defendants cause a truck accident because of negligence do not involve punitive damages. Punitive damages might be available against a drunk truck driver who had several prior drunk driving convictions or a trucking company that was found to have destroyed evidence that showed they failed to properly maintain the truck involved in the accident. There would have to be serious misconduct on the defendant’s part to justify an award for punitive damages.
• But if we feel you deserve to get punitive damages because of the defendant’s misconduct, we will make every effort to get an award of punitive damages for you.

Every truck accident personal injury case in Indiana is different. The settlement value is determined by many factors. Those factors include the driving record of the truck driver, the type and severity of your injuries and was there any negligence on your part in driving your car.

A recent study shows that in Indiana, the average settlement for 18-wheeler truck accidents involving back injuries was $1, 527, 215. The median settlement was $720,008.

For all back-injury cases, the average settlement was $451, 467. The median settlement was $250,000.

An experienced Indiana truck accident lawyer can evaluate your case with you to determine a fair and just settlement value for your case.

If you, a close friend or a loved one have been injured in a truck accident in Indiana, you need an experienced Indiana truck accident attorney. As you can see from the above, an accident involving a semi-truck hauling a huge cargo load is probably more complicated that an accident involving passenger cars. We will investigate the accident, determine who caused the accident and fight to get you the compensation you deserve. Contact us at our Hammond office at (219) 200-2000 or online at alexmendozalaw.com for a free consultation.