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Truck Accident Legal Help for Norfolk and Virginia Beach

Breit, Drescher and Imprevento is a Virginia injury law firm based in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. As an injury law firm in one of the busiest port cities in Virginia, we represent more than our fair share of people who have been injured due to the negligence or incompetence of truck drivers. Accidents caused by commercial trucks or tractor trailers are almost guaranteed to cause serious injuries to the victims. If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident with a commercial truck in Norfolk, Virginia Beach or Tidewater, contact Breit, Drescher and Imprevento for a free legal consultation today.

The numbers for workplace fatalities in Virginia dropped in 2007.

This came from the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, who claim that the number of work related fatalities dropped fifteen percent. However, we couldn’t help but notice that the number one cause of work related fatalities in the state were drivers of commercial trucks.

This doesn’t really come as much of a surprise, as commercial trucking is the only sort of job where freight is being moved in large amounts from one place to another while sharing the roads with other, non commercial drivers.

Freight shipped by plane, boat or train very rarely comes into contact with pedestrians or regular drivers on a daily basis, but trucks have the dangerous distinction of delivering their freight by using the same roads as the rest of us. Because of this, trucks and their drivers are supposed to be under strict supervision not only by the state of Virginia, but also by the companies that send the trucks out.

This means that not only should the trucks be inspected regularly and the weight of the freight should be strictly kept below a certain level, but the drivers should also be inspected and tested on a regular basis. This means being tested for drugs and health issues. Nobody in their right minds would want a truck driver on the road with either a heart condition or a drug habit. Rules about sleep requirements should also be strictly enforced. Drivers might have a financial incentive to get their freight in faster, but they should not do so at the expense of being safe. Operating a multi-ton vehicle that is over twenty feet long is not something that should be done with the dulled reaction times of a half awake driver.

The reality of trucks and tractor trailers is that these are enormous, cumbersome vehicles that carry such a huge amount of momentum that they can hit other vehicles with such force that serious injuries or deaths are almost guaranteed.

It is tragic enough when an accident involving a truck or a tractor trailer causes deaths or serious injuries, but what compounds the tragedy is the fact that the insurance companies that cover the commercial trucks make it incredibly difficult for the victims to receive compensation that is fair. There are multiple insurance policies on any given commercial truck or tractor trailer; The driver might have one, the trailer might have another, the freight inside might have one, and the commercial company that owns the truck should have one as well. What this usually means is that each insurance company spends a great deal of time pointing its fingers at the other insurance policies, which can make it incredibly difficult to sort out the claims.

It should also be considered that trucks are commercial enterprises, and to that end, their main concern is making money. This means that they will do everything they can to minimize any payments made on damages, whether they have reason to or not.

Most insurance companies consider a fair payment to be whatever is convenient to them. This means that they usually try to avoid paying the full amount of the medical bills. They also have no interest in paying for the wages that the victims lost when they had to miss work, or compensation for the pain and suffering or emotional trauma that the victim goes through. They avoid paying for this by usually offering a settlement to the victim before he or she knows what the injuries will cost. If the victim doesn’t settle, they take the case to court and attempt to drag out the proceedings as long as possible. They do this because they know that the injury victim will have expenses that will soon become impossible to manage, and will then probably settle for even less than the initial offer.

At Breit, Drescher and Imprevento, we help Virginia truck accident victims get past all that. We know exactly how truck insurers work, and we have the experience to help our clients get compensation that is commensurate with the ordeal that they have gone through.

If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident involving a truck or a tractor trailer, contact Breit, Drescher and Imprevento for a free legal consultation today.

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