U.S. Department of Transportation statistics show that an average of nine people per day are killed and nearly 202 people are injured by semi-trucks. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a large truck is one that weighs more than ten-thousand pounds.  An 18-wheeler can weigh more than eighty-thousand pounds.  Often times, these huge commercial trucks can weigh up to forty times as much as a car.

Injuries and property damage sustained in truck accidents are typically more severe than other vehicle accidents due to the enormous size of semi-trucks and the high speed at which they typically travel.  If you have been hurt in a truck accident, you deserve to be compensated for the high cost of your medical treatment, current and future lost income, and pain and suffering.

Protecting Yourself After a Truck Accident

Being injured is never easy. It’s inconvenient, can disrupt your ability to earn a living and will saddle you with pain and discomfort for weeks, months or longer. Truck accidents frequently result in catastrophic injuries, which may entail a brain injury or spinal injury that results in a disability, the loss of a limb or severe and permanent scarring.

The one silver lining in a truck accident is that commercial drivers are covered by large commercial personal injury liability policies. That means you may have hundreds of thousands of dollars available to pay for your injuries, lost wages and pain and suffering if you and your legal team can prove the truck driver was at fault.

Successfully proving the commercial driver or the company they work for was at fault isn’t always easy. There are Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSA) regulations that require trucking companies to retain certain types of documents for a specific length of time, after which they can be legally destroyed. That means the trucking company can’t dispose of documents or records relevant to your case right away, but at some point in the future they may disappear.

Some trucking companies may also attempt to bend or break the rules and dispose of or delete records that could implicate them or their driver in your accident. Alternatively, they may try to delay or drag out addressing your claim until the deadline for keeping documents passes, at which point they delete the records that would help your case.

You (or in most cases your truck accident lawyer) can prevent this from happening with a legal document known as a spoilation letter. This letter essentially puts the trucking company on notice that you’ve filed a claim and that deleting any evidence after receiving the letter will open them up to additional damages and potentially even criminal prosecution.

Sending a properly worded spoilation letter can be vital in a truck accident injury claim, which is one of the reasons why it may be in your best interest to speak with a lawyer sooner rather than later.