A fully loaded semi-truck and trailer can weigh up to 80,000 pounds in California. This massive weight can destroy your car and crush your body.
Truck accidents can damage the brain in many ways. When you suffer a brain injury, you might need expensive treatment to save your life. You may suffer temporary physical, cognitive, and emotional disabilities. You might even need a caretaker for the rest of your life.
A Los Angeles truck accident attorney at M&Y Personal Injury Lawyers can help you seek compensation for your brain injuries and other damages. Contact our Los Angeles, CA law office today for a free initial consultation at (877) 300-4535.
How M&Y Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help After a Truck Accident in Los Angeles, California
Experience matters when pursuing a personal injury claim. The Los Angeles truck accident lawyers at M&Y Personal Injury Lawyers have over 100 years of combined experience. Our lawyers have recovered over $400 million in compensation for Los Angeles accident victims.
If you hire our attorneys for help after a truck accident, we’ll:
- Investigate what happened and who could be liable for your losses
- Calculate the full value of your truck accident claim, including future medical treatment you may require for your brain injury
- Consult experts as we work to build and prove your case
- Handle your case from start to finish, including litigating the case at trial if necessary
Truck accidents can cause catastrophic injuries to your brain and spinal cord. Contact M&Y Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation to discuss your brain injury and the compensation to which you may be entitled.
How Common Are Brain Injuries from Truck Accidents?
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires trucking companies to report all accidents that cause injuries or deaths. In 2020, the FMCSA reported 4,444 fatal truck crashes and 101,000 truck crashes that caused non-fatal injuries.
Los Angeles had 35,549 traffic accidents in 2019 that caused injury or death, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. Of these accidents, about 7.3% involved a commercial motor vehicle. This means about 2,500 people in Los Angeles were injured or killed in truck accidents that year.
Neither California nor the federal government tracks the exact injuries caused by truck accidents. But they do track injury severity from truck crashes.
According to the FMCSA, about 10% of the people injured in truck accidents suffered an incapacitating injury to the brain, spinal cord, back, or another major body system. Using this number, you can estimate that about 250 people in Los Angeles suffered a fatal or incapacitating injury that possibly injured the brain.
Overview of Brain Injuries from Truck Accidents
The body provides two main forms of protection for the brain: the skull and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The skull is a strong, hard shell to protect it from direct impacts. The CSF sits between the brain and the skull and provides fluid padding around the brain. This fluid slows the brain’s motion so that it doesn’t hit the inside of the skull.
How Do Truck Accidents Cause Brain Injuries?
When a truck hits your car, the total energies of the truck and car damage both vehicles and injure their occupants. But since your vehicle weighs only a fraction of the truck’s weight, it takes the bulk of the damage.
Some of the truck accident energy goes into crushing your vehicle. Some of it also gets transferred into your body. The force of the impact whips your body around, damaging your bones, soft tissue, and organs.
The sheer amount of energy involved in a truck accident can overcome the brain’s protective structures. As a result, these forces can damage and destroy brain tissue, causing brain injury.
Brain Injury Types
Brain injuries can take a few different forms, including:
Concussion
A concussion happens when your brain sloshes in the CSF. The pressure of the CSF on your brain as it sloshes around can injure or kill brain cells. In response, your brain suffers minor swelling.
A concussion can cause:
- Headache
- Loss of consciousness
- Blurry vision
- Tinnitus
- Drowsiness
- Clumsiness
- Slurred speech
- Confusion
- Amnesia
- Depression
- Anxiety
Symptoms of a concussion will usually clear up in about two months.
Contusion
A contusion happens when powerful forces from a truck accident overcome the CSF and cause the brain to slam into the inside of your skull. The impact causes a bruise to form by rupturing some of the brain’s blood vessels.
Bleeding in the brain deprives the brain of blood and squeezes the brain. Brain cells die from the lack of blood flow, leading to permanent brain damage, coma, or death.
Diffuse Axonal Injury (DAI)
DAIs happen when the whipping motion of a truck accident tears the tissue in the brain. The physical destruction of the brain cells permanently damages the brain.
Liability for a Brain Injury from a Los Angeles Truck Accident
Liability for a brain injury often falls on the trucking company. The company is liable for the negligence of its employees, including truck drivers.
It is also liable for its own acts when it:
- Hires drivers
- Administers drug and alcohol tests
- Loads and secures cargo
- Inspects vehicles and cargo
- Maintains and repairs its trucks and trailers
To prove negligence, you must show that the company failed to exercise reasonable care in running its trucking business.
Other parties may share liability, including the truck driver, manufacturers of defective parts, shipping companies, maintenance companies, and more.
Schedule a Free Consultation With Our Los Angeles Truck Accident Lawyers After Sustaining a Brain Injury
A brain injury can affect almost every aspect of your life. Contact M&Y Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation to discuss how you can recover compensation for your brain injury after a truck accident.
