Freeway 405 running through western Los Angeles manages to frustrate thousands of local drivers and visitors each day. Adding to the gridlock they see is the steady stream of large trucks, tankers, and delivery vans that seem to form a solid wall in the lanes.
Driving in the lanes next to swaying and slow-moving big rigs can be a pain, but those enormous vehicles also carry added risk when collisions occur.
A mistake by a drowsy truck driver on I-405 can set off a chain reaction accident drawing in your vehicle and several other cars. You or a family member may suffer a traumatic injury and then be left to stress about who should be held responsible for the cost of recovery.
A Free Accident Consultation for Interstate 405 Victims
Don’t let another driver’s insurance company decide what you should receive for your injury after a crash on a Los Angeles freeway. They aren’t required to alert you to every benefit available to you and your family. Your settlement check may only provide enough to cover one night in an emergency room when your actual recovery journey goes on for months.
Schedule a free consultation with Maison Law of Los Angeles to get a sense of what kind of financial support you’ll really need to fully recover. It’s a no-risk way to find out how to keep insurance companies from robbing you and your family of the compensation you will all need to rebuild your lives.
Los Angeles Truck Collision Dangers on Freeway 405
Truck drivers are required to stay at 55 mph or under no matter where they travel in California. This is why lines of slower-moving big rigs tend to form in the lanes of I-405. The reduced speed limit is meant to prevent devastating semi-truck and box-truck accidents. Yet, the enormous weight and size of these trucks make major crashes very common.
Accidents involving a big rig, even at slower speeds, often carry enough force to crumple or crush smaller cars, SUVs, and motorcycles. That means the people inside are subjected to dangerous impacts that can break bones, cause traumatic brain injuries, and damage internal organs.
Victims should be focusing on recovery from these major injuries instead of stressing over the cost of hospital care, surgery, and physical therapy. A Los Angeles Truck Accident Lawyer makes sure victims and their families receive every bit of support needed to recover.
Common Types of Truck Accidents on 405 Freeway
Truck impacts along the 405 can come from any angle at any time. Whether traffic is heavy or surprisingly light, a large truck is always the most dangerous vehicle in the lanes.
These are just a few of the big rig collision types responded to by emergency crews in Los Angeles:
- Truck Overturn Accidents: The height of a big rig and the way a tractor-trailer may be unevenly loaded raises the chances of a truck toppling over on smaller vehicles. Strong winds in Southern California are also a danger to flip a semi-truck. People left in cars underneath are forced to wait for vital care while emergency crews try to work them free from the wreckage.
- Underride Accidents: The height of a big rig leaves room for a car to wind up under a tractor-trailer. Underride guards are placed on the back of semi-trucks to prevent cars that rear-end a truck from sliding underneath, yet vehicles still come to a stop underneath the carriages of tractor-trailers and victims can suffer life-threatening injuries.
- Rear-end Impacts – A fully loaded big rig pulling a loaded tractor-trailer may weigh up to 80,000lbs. Stopping such a vehicle traveling 55mph can take the length of two football fields. This assumes the truck driver is paying attention and sees slowed or stopped traffic ahead and has the reflexes to hit the brakes to avoid ramming cars from behind.
- Sideswipes: A side impact might lead to serious injuries. Strikes with a heavy big rig can send cars out of control to create other collisions. The impact targets driver or passenger doors where the protection is thinnest for occupants.
- On and Off-Ramp Accidents – Interchanges along 405 Freeway become chaotic as big rigs are slowly trying to merge with traffic from busy roads like Interstate 105. A jumpy driver might come over on a line of smaller SUVs or crash into cars while attempting to exit the 405.
- Jackknifed Trucks – A reckless truck driver might lose control of a big rig and slide sideways to block many lanes. This is a dangerous situation for other motorists approaching the accident and not suspecting to find the full length of a big rig walling off the interstate.
Who Can I Sue After a Truck Accident on the 405 Freeway?
After getting hurt in one of these frightening truck impacts, your injury recovery will be the most important challenge to overcome. But you’ll also need to be aware of the battle ahead to secure insurance settlement support from at-fault truck drivers and their insurance providers. Making things more complicated is the possibility that drivers might also need to file claims against a major trucking company.
Truck drivers may work for themselves. They’ll likely carry the minimum coverage provided by commercial truck liability insurance.
Truck drivers could be full-time employees for national trucking or delivery giants. They may also be hauling produce or livestock for California farms and ranches. These businesses will have larger insurance policies to cover their drivers’ mistakes. They’ll also be able to afford corporate lawyers. Their legal teams can question your innocence in an accident and make it very hard for you to win fair compensation.
These insurance policies can also be called upon by families who have lost a loved one in a terrible accident on Interstate 405. Families file a wrongful death claim to request money for a proper burial. This civil claim also seeks to replace the income the deceased can no longer provide the family in the future.
Contact a Los Angeles 405 Freeway Truck Accident Lawyer
After a truck accident on a local freeway, your Los Angeles Big Rig Accident Attorney will become a valuable resource in helping you determine who to file an injury claim against. In some cases, both a truck driver and a trucking company can be forced to provide you with support.
Contact Maison Law for a free case consultation with Martin Gasparian, the founder of Maison Law. It’s a no-risk way to talk to a real Los Angeles lawyer about your options after a truck accident. It’s critical that you are informed of every benefit available to you and your family before you speak with an insurance company.
