Miami Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
What are the most dangerous vehicles on the road? Most people would choose 18-wheeler trucks since they are notorious for causing multi-vehicle pile-ups that close down long stretches of I-95 for hours on end. Others would choose motorcycles since they go so fast, playing into their riders’ cravings for adventure, and because, when a motorcycle crashes, there is very little between you and the road.
Most people do not think of garbage trucks as especially dangerous. Sure, they are annoying, lumbering down your street as the sun is rising on days when you would sleep late if it were up to you. Garbage trucks stop so frequently that they do not have time to build up much speed, and while that means that they are unlikely to cause the kind of devastation you would expect from a truck barreling down the highway at 70 miles per hour, it also means that their movements are harder to predict, even when you can clearly see which garbage cans they still have to empty. If you have been injured in a garbage truck accident, contact a Miami truck accident lawyer.
A Garbage Truck in Traffic is Just as Dangerous as Any Other Truck
Garbage trucks making their trash pickup rounds in residential neighborhoods tend not to encounter much vehicular traffic. They time their routes so that they can avoid the morning rush hour. You will sometimes see garbage trucks on the road, though, as they drive to shopping centers and apartment complexes, which are located near major city streets and generate so much trash that it is necessary to empty their dumpsters more than once per day.
A garbage truck in city traffic poses the same hazards as any other truck in city traffic. The causes of collisions are the same, and a collision with a garbage truck is worse than a collision with a car because the garbage truck is bigger. In December 2023, a Toyota Corolla in Tampa made a left turn across a lane where a garbage truck was driving. The front of the garbage truck collided with the passenger side of the Corolla, fatally injuring the person in the passenger seat. The drivers of the garbage truck and the Crolla suffered minor injuries.
Your rights after suffering injuries in a garbage truck accident are the same as any personal injury claim. You have the right to receive compensation for your accident-related financial losses, including but not limited to medical bills, from the party responsible for the accident. Under Florida’s rule of modified comparative negligence, you can still get compensation if the accident was partially your fault, as long as your share of fault was less than 50 percent, and the amount of compensation you can get is less than if you did not bear any fault for the accident.
Contact Gerson & Schwartz About Personal Injury Cases
A truck accident lawyer can help you file an insurance claim or lawsuit related to a garbage truck accident. Contact Gerson & Schwartz in Miami, Florida, to discuss your case.
