There is an understandable tendency on the part of truck crash injury victims in Maryland and elsewhere to assume that such claims will proceed like a more run of the mill car crash injury claim. However, the dynamics at work in truck accidents are far more complex. Truck operators have more licensing requirements that in theory should ensure that they are better equipped to handle their big rigs in a safer manner.
Unfortunately, such advanced licensure is no guarantee of safer driving and obviously being struck by a truck is almost invariably far more damaging than being struck by a car. Maryland's system contemplates that licensed drivers will have one of three types of license, class A, B or C. Without getting too nuanced, Class A drivers can "drive any single combination of vehicles", Class B drivers can drive vehicles of "26,001 pounds or more and tow trailers of "10,000 pounds or less" and Class C drivers motor vehicles "under 26,001 pounds and tow trailers of 10,000 pounds or less."
These are wide ranging categories and Maryland has a subsidiary scheme for " endorsements" that complicate analysis further. The bottom line is that determining whether the truck that just hit and totaled your car in Laurel is being operated by a driver with the correct credentials is complicated. As ordinary citizens it is tricky to evaluate vehicle and trailer weights and while we hope that the police officer investigating a Maryland truck crash will know the rules and have appropriate investigatory resources available, this is not a certainty.
So if you are injured in a truck accident contact lawyers who know the rules and get a better outcome. Call Clark and Steinhorn, LLC at (301) 317-1001, YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID.
