What can I do after a truck accident in the Bronx?

 Bronx Truck Accidents Require Constant Vigilance to Remain Safe

Although it’s one of New York City’s smaller boroughs, the Bronx still sees far too many tragic truck accidents. Delivery trucks, often turning too quickly near intersections, and poorly maintained tractor-trailers cause more than their share of collisions. Just recently, in May of 2022, a young Bronx teenager who attended Cascades High School lost her life when a beverage delivery truck hit her as she walked to catch a bus to school one morning.

Contact our team at (212) 222-1111 for your free case evaluation.

The deep sorrow caused by all serious and often fatal truck accidents

Reports indicate that the 46-year-old truck driver turned left onto Paulding Avenue when he allegedly caused this death. Although the young girl was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, she could not be saved. These types of careless events wreak havoc on far too many families. Other accident survivors are badly hurt while riding in passenger cars – or on bicycles or motorcycles.

Our Bronx truck accident lawyers are fully trained to handle even the most complex vehicle collisions. Once we accept your case, we immediately begin investigating all the facts, looking for potential witnesses, and reviewing your medical records. We want all our clients to receive the maximum settlement amounts (or jury verdicts) available for their losses.

Here’s a closer look at some key factors that often affect many Bronx truck accident survivors and wrongful death victims. As you read along, you’re likely to see all that you have in common with many of these clients. There are also reminders about the key steps you should take to fully protect your rights immediately after being hurt in a serious truck accident.

Bronx truck accidents often occur on or near these streets, intersections, and freeways

• Multiple sections of the Bronx River Parkway
• The Bruckner Expressway
• The intersection of Clifford Place and Jerome Avenue
• Various parts of East Gun Hill Road, especially close to the Bronx River Parkway
• The Cross Bronx Expressway

Be especially careful when walking on foot or otherwise traveling during weekday rush hours in these areas. Far too often, delivery trucks double park and fail to keep an eye out for others sharing the streets with them.

Types of Bronx truck accident injuries most often reported by our clients

1. Traumatic brain and head injuries. While some survivors may only suffer minor concussions, most Bronx truck accident victims develop serious brain injuries — largely due to the weight of the trucks that hit them. In some cases, patients develop seizures that may turn out to be either temporary or permanent. Others may suffer a stroke. After these events, lengthy rehabilitative care may be required to overcome all the physical and cognitive damage. As might be expected, recovery times vary greatly, depending on the facts of each case.
2. Bone fractures. Doctors normally classify these as closed, open, or compound fractures.

Treatment usually depends on whether there are any open wounds located near the fractured bones. Women’s pelvic bones – as well as the sacrum, the tailbone (coccyx), and the hip bones – are often badly damaged. If infections develop around these fractures, recovery periods can extend much longer.

3. Spinal cord injuries. Since most trucks are heavy, they often inflict serious and painful spinal cord injuries (SCIs). Paralysis can sometimes set in rather quickly. When paraplegia or tetraplegia are diagnosed, patients often become anxious to learn whether

these conditions can be healed – or will become permanent.

• Internal injuries. In addition to some accidents causing either dull or intense pain, many patients develop impaired kidney or liver functioning. And if brain bleeds have occurred, immediate surgery is often required to help these patients survive.
• Lacerations and deep cuts. Corrective surgery is sometimes required when basic sutures fail to close these types of injuries fully.
• Wrongful death. Although many Bronx truck accident victims survive their ordeals, others are less fortunate. When a loved one passes away before you hire us – or after we have been retained, we can readily (re)file your case as a wrongful death lawsuit.

Some of the different types of trucks that regularly cause Bronx accidents

• Delivery box trucks. Amazon, UPS, and many local businesses use these vehicles.
• Garbage trucks. These may be NYC trucks or part of a privately owned, commercial fleet.
• Semi-trucks and tractor-trailers
• Basic commercial trucks

What can I do after a truck accident in the Bronx?

Keep in mind, it’s always best to hire a lawyer as early as possible, right after obtaining medical care for your injuries.

1. Contact law enforcement. After obtaining care for any of your own serious injuries– and calling an ambulance for anyone else who was badly hurt — be sure to notify the police or other law enforcement. This will help protect your rights, especially if you remember to ask the police to come out and create an accident report. Be sure to give them your home contact information if you must leave right away to obtain emergency care. Always remember to check out even minor injuries in an ER since people are often in shock after an accident. They often don’t realize all the internal harm they may have just sustained.
2. Contact your Bronx truck accident law firm as soon as possible. Once we accept your case, we can visit the accident site, begin searching for witnesses, and taking crucial steps to protect all your legal rights. Although we always make every effort to settle cases, we must still prepare your case for trial, in case the defendant’s attorneys refuse to settle.
3. Be prepared to help us contact any witnesses you know or may have seen. Besides contacting all your vehicle passengers to get their statements, let us know if you were able to write down the license plates or other ID information of other possible witnesses.
4. You may want to create an accident journal. In addition to recording your private thoughts about what you believe took place (possibly keeping what you record rather general), this is also a great way to keep track of all recommended medical treatments suggested by your doctors. Always try to follow up with all treatments since this will not only help you begin healing sooner – these efforts help demonstrate the seriousness of your injuries. We may ask to see this journal at some point to make sure we’ve kept fully updated information about all your healthcare providers.
5. You may need to speak with the defendant’s insurance adjustor. Don’t worry – we always meet with clients first before this type of event takes place. We will remind you to be fully truthful, yet without volunteering any private thoughts about who caused the accident since that’s a matter of opinion – and might be used against you.
6. Should you have difficulty keeping any medical appointments, always reschedule. This is important for all the reasons listed above. If a healthcare provider suggests a specific type of treatment, you don’t feel comfortable pursuing, always ask for alternative suggestions. It’s also wise to obtain psychotherapy from a psychologist — since many accident victims are greatly traumatized by all they go through.
7. Always feel free to contact our office with any questions about your case. There will normally be a paralegal and other support staff who can help you when your attorney appears in court on behalf of another client. We pride ourselves in keeping our clients fully informed. However, we realize that some unexpected questions may still arise.

Range of possible settlement amounts

As we probably noted upon first meeting with you, settlement amounts tend to vary greatly, depending on the facts of each case. If you did not play a key role in causing the accident, and if you had to undergo one or more surgeries (or extensive rehabilitation therapies), your recovery amount may be somewhat high. At least that may be true in comparison to someone who didn’t require any invasive treatments. Be sure to tell us when we first speak with you if you may have run a yellow or red light, as such facts will eventually be discovered. Courts will normally rule on these matters and assign fault as the law requires.

If you were hurt while on the job, you will still need to file a worker’s compensation claim. However, if we believe one or more other parties may be liable for some of your injuries, we will likely file a negligence lawsuit against them. If your injuries were relatively minor, we might only be able to recover an amount under $50,000, in addition to your worker’s compensation settlement amount. However, if unsafe work conditions indicate that your employer violated federal OSHA safety standards (and we can prove that), you might receive a settlement amount between $100,000 and $500,000. Clients who are so seriously injured that they may never be able to work again can receive over $1,000,000 – if all the evidence heavily supports your view of all that occurred. We will be able to discuss all this in greater detail with you once your main treating physician can give us a final prognosis, indicating what type of long-term care, if any, you may require.

Always be sure to take advantage of all occupational and physical therapies offered since they can often work wonders, even if you must consider training for a new part- or full-time position. Of course, some clients may need considerable support therapy – perhaps for most of their lives. When that occurs, we will hire the best expert witnesses to help us document all your future medical expenses, in addition to all the recent ones.

If you have suffered serious injuries after a Bronx truck accident caused by someone else’s negligence, you need to contact our Bronx truck accident law firm. We will carefully investigate all the facts of your case, review all your medical records, and then fight hard to win the maximum compensation available to you. We want every client to fully recover for all lost wages, pain and suffering, medical expenses, and other losses.

Contact our team at (212) 222-1111 for your free case evaluation.