Sharing New Mexico’s busy highways with massive, 80,000-pound commercial trucks is an everyday reality, but when a trucker fails to check their extensive blindspot field, the consequences can be catastrophic. Proving them can be a major challenge, as well. A sudden sideswipe, an unexpected wide turn, or a hasty lane merge can leave innocent drivers facing devastating injuries, mounting medical bills, and a confusing legal battle against aggressive corporate trucking insurers.
Securing the compensation you deserve requires more than just knowing you were not at fault—you must legally prove the truck driver’s negligence. If a careless commercial driver has sidelined you or a loved one, you do not have to navigate the complex claims process alone.
In This Article
Our truck accident injury lawyer, Marc A. Grano, discusses how to prove the truck driver caused your blind-spot accident negligently, including the actionability of claims, recovering damages, the unique elements of big-rig accident injury claims, what to expect when filing one, and how legal advice will help you. Grano Law Offices, P.C. wrote this post to help good people injured by negligent truck drivers get the help they want and deserve.
Table of Contents
Blind Spot Truck Accident Injury Claim Viability: The Four Elements
The first step toward filing a truck accident injury claim involves proving that your case meets the four elements of actionability, or the ability to recover a settlement if it were to end up in court. These four elements are confusing to understand for many injury victims. However, a general overview will help you understand what you will have to prove, with physical and direct evidence, to recover an award that you need, want, and deserve under the law.
Here is an explanation of the four elements at a glance and in general:
Element 1. Did the Truck Driver Owe You a Duty of Care?
All motorists on the road, regardless of their vehicle and legality, owe each other a duty of care. A duty of care is the legal term used when describing the level of obligation owed to another party in specific situations. So, while we all owe each other a duty of care when driving on local roads and state and federal highways, certain maneuvers, positions, and conditions bear additional responsibility on individuals.
Regardless of your specific circumstances, it is okay to expect that the truck driver owed you a duty of care and vice versa. A failure or breach of the duty of care by either party can give rise to liability, depending on who caused it.
Element 2: Did the Truck Driver Breach Their Duty of Care?
The next element of a truck accident injury claim is proving that the driver breached their duty of care by acting negligently in some capacity. Negligence can take many forms, but for the purposes of this article, we focus specifically on breaches that often lead to blind-spot accidents.
Common types of truck driver-involved blind-spot accidents include:
- Sideswipes/Lane merges: This type of accident occurs in the “no zone,” or the areas surrounding a truck driver that cannot see another vehicle in its mirrors. Lane merging is the most common cause of this type of collision.
- Wide turns: Licensed drivers should be aware that semis and big rigs make large arcs when making right-hand turns, which causes the truck to swing left at first. If you avoid the risks of a wide turn and the driver hits you anyway, you may have a right to compensation.
- Underride accidents: If a truck driver brakes suddenly and a smaller vehicle is hidden from view, a crash can occur if the passenger vehicle driver swerves to avoid a collision but ends up underneath the trailer anyway.
- Frontal collisions: Truckers sit high up in their big-rig cabs, resulting in a front-end blind spot that can span 10 or 20 feet ahead of the vehicle. If the truck driver followed you too closely and caused an accident, you may have a right to fair compensation.
Truckers must also follow the rules of the road when traveling on New Mexico’s busy highways. For example, NMSA § 66-7-359 requires truck drivers and motorists to remain on the right-hand side of the road as practically possible to ensure the smoothest flow of traffic. Drivers deviating from this standard could be held liable for your accident injuries.
Element 3: Did the Truck Driver’s Breach Cause Your Accident?
A breach of the duty of care alone is insufficient to pursue a claim. You must have the breach of the duty AND the additional element that the breach caused your accident. Simply put, the breach must have caused the accident, giving rise to placing fault on the truck driver and/or company.
Element 4: Damages
The final element of proof relates to the losses you experienced as a result of your injuries. These losses are known as damages and often include:
- Current/future medical bills
- Current/future lost wages
- Pain and suffering damages
- Other recoverable awards
The most important step you can take to prove damages is to seek and obtain medical care, follow your doctor’s orders, and track all of your time and expenses. If you decide to hire a personal injury law firm, like Grano Law Offices, P.C., we will use this information as a jumping-off point to understand your unique circumstances. Our legal team would also use this information to ensure you get paid back for all out-of-pocket expenses to which you may be entitled.
How to Prove the Truck Driver Acted Negligently
Evidence preservation is an essential element of any blind-spot trucking accident injury claim. Physical, direct, and circumstantial materials are admissible during the claims process to assert your right to compensation and the degree to which you may be owed by the negligent party. However, it is essential to preserve all types of evidence as early as possible to prevent degradation when proving truck accident injuries.
A truck accident injury lawyer, like Marc A Grano, can help you build an evidence file for injury compensation that includes:
- Accident reports
- Police reports
- Video and photo evidence
- Blackbox data
- Trucking company reports
- Eyewitness statements
- Driving records
- Training and driving logs
- Federal violations
It is challenging to obtain and analyze this evidence without legal representation. Once preserved, your attorney will also know how and when to use evidence during the negotiation process. This strategy seeks to compensate you fairly under New Mexico statutes to pay for your losses.
Do Not Fight Trucking Companies and Insurers Alone
Being involved in a blind-spot collision with a commercial 18-wheeler is a terrifying experience that can alter the course of your life in seconds. While the path to recovering damages involves navigating complex state and federal regulations, gathering time-sensitive evidence, and battling aggressive corporate insurers, you do not have to walk it alone.
At Grano Law Offices, P.C., our dedicated truck accident injury team has the resources and trial experience required to build a strong claim on your behalf. We will immediately step in to preserve crucial black-box data, analyze driver logs, and negotiate fiercely with the insurance companies so you can focus entirely on your physical recovery.
Get Your Free Case Strategy Session
If you or a loved one were injured by a negligent truck driver in New Mexico, do not wait for the trucking company’s rapid-response team to build a defense against you. Contact our truck accident injury lawyer today at (505) 426-8711 or reach out through our website to schedule your Free Case Strategy Session. Let us fight to get you the justice and financial compensation you need and deserve.
