Houston Personal Injury Lawyers

April 9, 2011

Serious Injury Lawyers: Eighteen Wheeler, Truck Accidents and Collisions

The John T. Floyd Law Firm, Houston Trial Lawyers, have seen the physical injuries and extreme emotional damage done when a trucking company or individual driver is negligent behind the wheel.  In order to maintain safe highways and prevent future tragedy, our lawyers believe it is vitally important to aggressively and fully litigate all cases involving trucking accidents.  The physical injuries resulting for trucking accidents is often horrific and can lead to a lifetime on physical and emotional pain to the victim and the victim’s family.  It is vital in these serious cases that an injured person have lawyers skilled at litigating injury claims against the negligent drivers, the companies they work for and the insurance companies that fight to prevent a fair and just resolution of these cases.

With a Board Certified Lawyers, led by highly respected “AV Rated-Preeminent” Personal Injury Lawyer Patrick Kirby, the FKS Law Firm provides its clients with the highest level of ethical and professional representation, while assuring its injury cases are properly evaluated for all  possible damages suffered from a catastrophic truck accident.  This is our formula for receiving the highest possible recoveries for our clients.  We are not loud talking, high volume, TV personal injury lawyers.  We believe the cases we accept are legitimate and deserve serious attention.  We are proud of our reputation of aggressively representing our clients while maintaining the highest level of ethical and professional conduct.  This combination winning combination allows our clients to receive the best possible resolution of their case.

Trucking Accidents, Serious Injuries

Vehicle collisions involving eighteen wheelers are almost always devastating.  The maximum legal weight for an eighteen wheeler is 80,000 pounds.  A fully loaded eighteen wheeler traveling at sixty miles per hour has a kinetic energy of approximately 13,000,000 joules.  This is approximately the same energy seen at the muzzle of a 120-mm cannon, the same sort of cannon found on modern armored tanks.  Transferring that energy into a passenger car at rest almost always results in catastrophic injuries or death to occupants of the passenger car.  Eighteen wheelers don’t need to be traveling at high rates of speed to cause terrible injuries, however.  A fully loaded eighteen wheeler traveling at even the relatively sedate speed of 10 miles per hour has a kinetic energy of 364,500 joules, approximately the same energy as a normal passenger car traveling at 60 miles an hour. 

Recognizing that eighteen wheelers can be dangerous, governmental authorities have heavily regulated the trucking industry.  Trucking companies and their drivers are supposed to have programs and schedules in place to: minimize driver fatigue, maintain proper lookouts, secure loads safely, avoid overloading the eighteen wheelers, keep the vehicles in proper maintenance, avoid speeding, and be properly trained and not careless.

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