Who can be held liable in a truck accident in Pennsylvania? The answer to this question may vary depending on the circumstances of your case.
Ordinarily, when you get involved in an auto accident that was another driver’s fault, that other driver is the party who is legally responsible for the expenses incurred. However, trucks are often commercial vehicles, meaning it may be possible to file suit against the company employing the driver at the time of the accident. Other parties may be liable as well.
There are a number of factors that may affect truck accident liability in Pennsylvania. We break these down in more detail in this blog post.
If a truck driver gets in an accident while working for an employer, that employer may be held liable for the resulting damages. This is known as vicarious liability.
However, liability doesn’t automatically attach to employers in cases like these; various circumstances dictate who ends up taking the blame. For example, if a company was instructing drivers to work for longer consecutive periods than federal law permits, a court would be more likely to find it responsible for an accident.
Despite the doctrine of vicarious liability, truck drivers may be legally responsible for accidents that occur during their work. A few factors must be considered in these cases, namely:
It’s important to note that it’s possible for liability for an accident to be shared among various parties if there were multiple contributors. For example, a truck driver might be considered negligent for operating their vehicle recklessly, but the company employing them might simultaneously be negligent because of its failure to allow for proper rest periods.
In situations like this, courts will weigh all relevant circumstances, assign a percentage of blame to each party involved in your accident, and order defendants to pay damages in line with these percentages.
This will apply even if you share some of the blame for the accident, but only if your portion of the fault is less than 51%. If a court rules that your share is greater than this, you won’t be entitled to any damages. This is known as the modified comparative negligence rule.
Improperly loaded cargo can cause a truck to lose control or tip over. If your accident came about for this reason, you may be entitled to file suit against the party responsible for the packing and loading of the truck.
Whether or not this will be possible will depend on various factors. For example, it may be the case that improperly loaded cargo contributed to an accident, as well as careless driving or improper vehicle maintenance. These situations require in-depth expert analysis to determine which parties should shoulder which percentage of the blame.
In cases like these, a lot can hinge on how good lawyers are at hiring the right experts and using their testimony to build persuasive arguments. For that reason, it’s always a good idea to have a specialist truck accident attorney in your corner when you’re pursuing a claim of this nature.
Truck manufacturers may be held liable for an accident if it arose from some defect in the design or production of their vehicle. Similarly, an individual or organization that carries out shoddy maintenance work on a vehicle may be held liable for accidents resulting from that work.
In some cases, a third party may be partly or wholly responsible for the truck accident that caused your injuries. This might occur if, say, the reckless driving of some other road user caused a collision between you and a truck, even though neither you nor the truck driver was negligent in any way.
So, it’s possible for multiple parties to be at fault for a Pennsylvania truck accident, but what does it actually mean to be “at fault”?
There are four things you need to show in order to establish liability on the part of any party to a road accident dispute: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and real damages.
The duty of care requirement is typically straightforward in road accident cases; anyone who’s responsible for a vehicle on a public road (whether it’s the driver, the owner, or another party) generally owes a duty of care to other road users. This duty dictates that they must follow traffic and vehicle maintenance laws to protect the safety of others.
A driver may breach their duty of care to other road users by driving carelessly or under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Similarly, a trucking company with vehicles on the road may breach its duty of care by failing to meet the legally accepted required standards of vehicle maintenance or to allow for legally mandated driver rest periods.
Liability will attach only in situations where a defendant’s breach of duty actually caused the accident to occur. A truck driver might be on the road while intoxicated (thereby breaching their duty of care to you), but might not do anything to cause you to crash. In such cases, you won’t be entitled to any damages.
The final requirement is that you must suffer actual harm or "damages" as a result of the accident, such as physical injuries, property damage, lost wages, or emotional distress. Without some real, compensable loss, the defendant won’t owe you anything in damages.
So, who is responsible for a truck accident in Pennsylvania? As you can see, there are often no simple answers to this question. If you’ve been in a crash with a commercial vehicle that wasn’t your fault, you’ll need a skilled lawyer to help you untangle the circumstances of your situation and pursue the compensation you need to get your life back on track.
Contact the Cochran Firm in Philadelphia today to schedule a free initial consultation. You can reach us via the contact form on our website or over the phone at 800-969-4400.
