Pascagoula Truck Accidents Involving Bad Weather

Hazardous weather is known to cause severe accidents in Pascagoula. Pascagoula is in a hurricane and tornado zone, so bad weather is very frequent, making roads susceptible to their effects. Pascagoula is a very tropical climate where it frequently rains, so bad weather is a factor in many accidents. Sometimes trucks can maneuver during bad weather better than passenger vehicles, but they cannot slow down as fast as other lighter vehicles depending on how heavy or how much cargo they are carrying. Also, when a truck is not loaded down, it becomes harder to control.

It is always important to check the weather and use equipment appropriate for the condition that they are driving in, although it is not always possible to predict what weather you will encounter. If you or a loved one were injured in a tractor-trailer collision, it is best to seek help from a skilled truck accident attorney. An experienced attorney could advise you and help you seek compensation for damages if you were involved in a Pascagoula truck accident involving bad weather.

Warning Signs That A Driver May Have Before A Weather-Related Accident Occurs

Some warning signs a truck driver may have before a weather-related accident could be hydroplaning, skidding, sliding, bad visibility, and loss of control. Torrential downpours can affect visibility, and hydroplaning makes it difficult to control the vehicle. Hydroplaning occurs when water pools on the roadway, causing the tires to lose grip with the road surface and making the driver unable to control the direction of the vehicle.

Who Could be Held Liable for Damages?

During inclement weather, automobile should take every precaution necessary to avoid an accident, including following the speed limit. If the injured party were not traveling at safe speed according to the weather condition, fault could be attributed to them and their inability to avoid an accident.

If Another Vehicle Was Not Involved

To prove that weather conditions was the cause of the tractor-trailer accident, a lawyer usually would have an expert such as an accident reconstructionist come in and use all kinds of data about road conditions. They will also use weather-mapping products to determine what the conditions were at the time of the accident and then how they had an impact on the wreck.

Governmental Entities

There are limited cases in which the entities that maintain roadways can be sued because their work was a factor at the time of the accident. They would be municipalities, counties, state, and federal agencies that maintain the roadways, plus the construction companies that worked on them. It is difficult to sue those entities and recover from them, but negligence and recklessness can be recoverable from them entities in certain types of cases.

The only types of cases in Mississippi in which the governmental entities were sued for acting with reckless disregard to the safety of others involved inappropriate signage and failure to repair roadways when there had been extreme notice of a defect. The final one means that numerous people had contacted the governmental entity to notify it of the dangerous defective roadway.

Recovering Compensation Following a Tractor-Trailer Collision

The recoverable damages that may be sought for a dangerous-weather truck accident are the same as any other accident, and they include:

  • Medical bills
  • Pain and suffering
  • Lost wages
  • Mental anguish
  • Loss of consortium
  • Property damage

Additionally, household services may also be recovered. Household services are damages resulting from an inability to maintain a household such as cooking and cleaning and caring for children.

How An Attorney Could Help With Pascagoula Truck Accidents Involving Bad Weather

A lawyer can help a person involved in a truck accident caused by poor weather conditions by getting them to the appropriate medical care and then documenting the accident scene as it existed at the time of the accident. The lawyer may hire other experts such as accident reconstructionists and gather data from the time of the accident from different weather sources, and generally try to get pictures of the accident scene if that is possible. It is important to document the case appropriately and prepare for what defenses might be dealt with. Call today to learn about how an attorney could help your Pascagoula truck accident involving bad weather case.