Truck Accidents and Serious Personal Injury

The True Tale:

Haven’t we sometimes driven our car on a highway when a huge tractor-trailer truck has barreled past us, to our left or right, raising our anxiety and stress level to an extreme? Add those experiences to the weight and size of the average tractor-trailer and our anxiety level begins to rise. Consider that the size of the average trailer ranges from 48 feet to 53 feet. Add to that, the motorized tractor that pulls the trailer and you now have a total tractor-trailer truck length that can measure in excess of 65 feet. If the tractor-trailer truck were on the ground in a vertical position, it would be equivalent to a six-story building.

As for the truck’s weight when it is empty, it ranges from 25,000 pounds, with some models even doubling that weight, depending upon the number of axles under the trailer. Moreover, with a full load it can, under federal law, weigh up to 100,000 pounds. How is your anxiety level now? When travelling at interstate speed limits, the truck requires hundreds of feet to come to a full stop – much like a speeding train. And if it crashes into a passenger car, the likelihood is that the occupants will suffer catastrophic injuries or even death.

Fatal accidents are caused by truck drivers who fall asleep at the wheel, drive too fast, or make sudden lane changes, causing the truck to jack-knife. Each of these careless acts can result in the tractor-trailer striking and crushing a passenger car. The exercise of ordinary negligence, as when the driver fails to keep the truck under reasonable control under prevailing road, traffic and weather conditions, can also cause serious personal injury and a fatal calamity.

We at Finz & Finz, P.C. have represented and secured hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of our clients who have suffered serious personal injury and death due to the negligent and careless operation of tractor-trailers.

The Message:

• “A TRACTOR-TRAILER TRUCK OPERATED BY A NEGLIGENT DRIVER THAT PLOWS INTO A CAR CAUSING SERIOUS INJURIES OR DEATH IS LIKE A SHERMAN TANK CRASHING THROUGH A SHEETROCK WALL”

Leonard L. Finz, age 95, is a decorated WWII veteran (1^st Lt., Field Artillery, Philippines), a former New York State Supreme Court Justice, Peer-Reviewed as “One of America’s Preeminent Lawyers”, and the Founder of Finz & Finz, P.C.