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Truck accidents are one of the most damaging types of motor vehicle accidents you can experience. Unfortunately, they’re also one of the most complicated when it comes to recovering the injury compensation you need.

If you’ve recently been involved in a truck accident, it’s important to understand your options and know what steps you can take to protect yourself.

Understanding Truck Accident Injuries

Anyone who’s ever been near a semitruck knows that they are powerful, heavy machines. When a commercial truck causes a crash, the outcome is never good.

If you’re unlucky enough to end up in a truck accident, there’s a strong chance you’ll experience serious injuries.

Some of the most common serious injuries after a truck crash include spinal injuries, brain injuries, and amputations. These injuries often result in the need for long-term assistive care. They can permanently limit the injured person’s mobility and cognitive function, which goes on to impact their ability to earn an income and afford living expenses.

Truck accident injury costs are often steep, so it’s important to know what to do to protect your finances after a truck crash.

Steps to Take After a Truck Accident

There are three people you should always call after a truck accident — and one you shouldn’t. The police, a doctor, and a truck accident lawyer all help protect your interests after a truck crash. However, speaking with an insurance agent can harm your chances of recovering compensation.

Call the Police

You should always call the police after a truck accident. When a truck accident is serious, it’s probably guaranteed that the police will show up at the scene. However, you should always make sure the police document the accident.

If you were lucky enough to be in a minor truck crash, it’s still important to ask the police to come to the scene and take an accident report. Otherwise, it’s your word against the truck driver’s. A police report prevents the other driver from trying to claim later on that you caused the crash.

See a Doctor

Serious truck accident injuries typically mean being rushed to a hospital by ambulance. If this was the case with your crash, seeing a doctor doesn’t end there. It’s important to follow medical instructions carefully. That includes showing up to any follow-up appointments.

Your actions after a truck crash can impact your injury compensation. If you skip follow-up appointments or don’t follow your instructions closely, an insurance company can claim you’re partially responsible for your injuries because you failed to follow medical advice.

It’s also important to see a doctor even if you think you weren’t injured badly. Some truck accident injuries can have delayed symptoms. Being checked by a medical professional after a crash establishes documentation and helps identify injuries quickly.

Contact a Lawyer

You should always take the time to attend a free consultation with a truck accident attorney, even if your injuries are minor. If you suffered serious accident injuries, it’s essential to get a lawyer involved as soon as possible.

A truck accident lawyer serves as your representative through the entire process of obtaining injury compensation. When you involve a lawyer from the start of the case, it’s much easier to ensure that evidence is preserved and mistakes are avoided.

Avoiding Insurance Tactics After a Truck Accident

If insurance companies were straightforward and honest, recovering truck accident injury compensation would be easy. Unfortunately, that’s not how things work in the real world. Insurance agents work hard to use your words against you to minimize your compensation.

Insurance companies rely on several well-known tactics that are designed to reduce injury compensation. For example, even a simple, “How are you?” at the start of a phone call can be used against you. If you conversationally respond that you’re fine, the insurance company can later claim that your injuries weren’t so bad when its agent spoke with you.

You should always take the time to consult a lawyer before filing a claim. If a truck accident lawyer thinks they can help to increase the compensation you recover, they’ll take your case. Then, your lawyer communicates with the insurance agents so you don’t have to worry about your words being used against you.

Why You Need a Truck Accident Lawyer

Truck accident lawyers know that trucking accidents cause serious injuries. They also know that the injured victims often walk away with a fraction of the injury compensation they were eligible to recover. When you hire an experienced truck accident attorney to handle your case, you know your finances are being protected by a skilled professional.

A truck accident attorney needs to prove fault before you can recover compensation. Since there are many causes of truck accidents, exactly how they do this depends on the case. Once your lawyer has completed the necessary investigation, they’ll file a claim for you and negotiate a settlement on your behalf.

Call Our Truck Accident Attorneys Today

Seay Felton LLC is an Atlanta personal injury firm with over 50 years of combined legal experience. We charge no fees unless we recover truck accident compensation for you, and we have a strong track record of recovering multi-million-dollar compensation.

Contact Seay Felton LLC today to schedule a consultation with our experienced truck accident attorneys.