Delivery Truck Accidents
Every day, delivery trucks for companies like UPS, FedEx, and Amazon transport consumer goods and materials across the nation. Often, delivery trucks complete the final leg of a product’s journey from the manufacturer or warehouse to a retailer or consumer. As a result, delivery trucks don’t travel exclusively on highways and interstates. Instead, they hit the main roads and back roads in busy cities like Chicago and its suburbs, sharing the road with smaller passenger vehicles.
Unfortunately, delivery trucks can contribute to or cause auto accidents, especially when delivery truck drivers are underqualified or pressured by their employers to meet strict delivery schedules.
Are Delivery Trucks Regulated Like Other Commercial Vehicles?
Delivery trucks can include large 18-wheelers and tractor-trailers, as well as smaller box trucks and vans. Regardless of a truck’s size, they tend to be more difficult to navigate than other vehicles. As a result, drivers have to demonstrate specialized knowledge and experience to operate delivery vehicles safely.
In fact, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has imposed critical safety guidelines to ensure that delivery trucks and other commercially operated vehicles don’t threaten road safety. These regulations address how cargo is to be loaded and secured, minimum delivery truck hiring qualifications, hours of service limitations, and vehicle inspections.
It’s incumbent upon delivery truck drivers and the companies they work for to embrace these safety regulations. Any deviation from safe trucking operations can result in serious, often life-changing motor vehicle accidents.
What Causes Delivery Truck Accidents?
Delivery truck accidents tend to happen when:
- Drivers speed, tailgate other vehicles, or engage in other aggressive behavior
- Cargo and packages aren’t properly distributed throughout the vehicle and/or aren’t secured properly to avoid shifting when the delivery truck decelerates or accelerates
- Delivery trucks are parked illegally or negligently, such as just beyond a blind curve or blocking a consumer’s driveway
- Delivery truck drivers text while driving or engage in other distractions at the wheel
- Truck drivers are unfamiliar with local delivery routes and slam on their brakes, make sharp turns, or change lanes unsafely without a turning signal to get to their destination
- Shipping companies ignore vehicle inspection and maintenance requirements, which can leave dangerous delivery trucks in service
Delivery truck drivers often feel a lot of pressure to meet or beat delivery schedules. In fact, some trucking companies prioritize profits over safety by offering financial incentives to delivery drivers who can complete their routes faster than is reasonably safe.
Who’s Liable For Damages Caused By a Delivery Truck?
Under Illinois state law, liability for a delivery truck accident can be shared by anyone who directly or indirectly contributed to the crash.
This could include a/an:
- Independently contracted delivery service or driver
- Driver employed by a delivery service or truck company
- Truck company
- Company shipping and/or receiving consumer goods or products
- Vehicle manufacturer
- Property owner
- Third party motorist, including motorcyclists, bus drivers, or drivers of passenger vehicles
If you contributed to a delivery truck accident in which you were injured, your shared fault could put you in hot water, too. Under Illinois’ comparative negligence statute, you can only receive compensation if you’re not primarily responsible for the delivery truck accident. Even then, your damages will be limited based on your degree of blame.
Don’t stress out about how to get compensation, from whom, or how much your truck accident case might be worth after a crash with a delivery truck in Chicago. Call Taxman, Pollock, Murray & Bekkerman, LLC. Our Chicago truck accident lawyers, whose collective experience spans decades, have a proven ability to take on powerful corporations for crash victims and win life-changing results.
Contact our Chicago law office for a free consultation and discuss your delivery truck accident case today.