Oklahoma Truck Accident Wrongful Death Lawyers

Get Legal Help After the Death of a Loved One in an OKC Truck Accident

The average full-sized tractor-trailer may weigh twenty to thirty times more than the average passenger car. Even a smaller truck, like a box truck, may weigh five to ten times more than the average passenger vehicle. As a result, when these vehicles collide, the occupants of the passenger car can suffer serious injuries or even death.

When injuries occur, the injured person has the legal option of pursuing a negligence case against anyone whose negligence or carelessness might have caused the accident. When a person's injuries are so severe that they die as a result, this legal option does not disappear. Instead, the person's family members have the option of pursuing a wrongful death case.

Compensation for Families

In a wrongful death claim, surviving family members of a person who lost his or her life to another's negligence may seek compensation for medical bills as well as funeral and burial expenses. Family members may also seek damages for loss of companionship, loss of consortium, and other non-economic damages. This type of case may be brought in any situation where, if the lost person had not died, he or she could have brought a case for negligence on his or her own behalf.

Proving Fault

When considering a wrongful death action, the first step is to evaluate the best course of action for proving legal responsibility for the accident that took a loved one's life. In a truck crash, there may be many responsible parties. The truck driver may have been distracted, fatigued, or may have taken a dangerous risk that ended in tragedy. The trucker's employer might also be responsible; for instance, the employer may have required the driver to drive even when he or she was too fatigued or in violation of the federal rules for driver rest, licensing, or basic health.

In addition, maintenance may also have been an issue. Because most large trucks are on the road as much as possible, drivers, trucking companies, and/or truck owners often miss or neglect needed routine maintenance. Trucks that have had maintenance or repairs may have had maintenance workers or repair staff who did the work improperly, creating a dangerous condition that triggered an accident. Or the repairs may have been done correctly but the equipment or parts used were defective, and their failure resulted in a crash.

Maintenance of roads can also cause truck accidents, if it is not done properly. Large potholes, blind curves, missing guardrails, and construction sites that are set up too narrowly for trucks to pass can all result in accidents, even if the driver is attempting to drive carefully.

Helping Your Family Obtain Justice

No amount of money can replace a lost loved one. But a truck accident wrongful death claim can get your family the compensation it needs and deserves in order to rebuild your lives after a tragedy. To learn more, call an Oklahoma City truck accident attorney at Maples Harrison Zeaman PLLC today. The number is (405) 705-5050, and your call is free and confidential. We are dedicated to protecting the rights of our clients and helping them hold negligent parties liable.