One type of truck accident that can cause severe injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), spinal cord injuries, broken bones, and back and neck injuries, is a rollover accident. This type of truck accident is when a truck tips over on its side during a collision, rolling down the road or street and striking other vehicles.
Although any vehicle can experience a rollover, truck rollovers are particularly dangerous because of the size of the vehicle. If a driver loses control of a truck during a rollover accident, they cannot halt its momentum as it rolls into other vehicles. The driver of the truck and people in cars in the way of the rolling truck can all experience blunt-force trauma and crushing impact that can cause life-altering truck accident injuries.
What is a Rollover Truck Accident?
A rollover truck accident involves a large truck, such as an 18-wheeler, semi-truck, or pickup truck, tilting onto its side and rolling over at least once. How many times the truck rolls over depends on the force of the crash that resulted in the truck rolling onto its side. This is one of the more dangerous types of truck accidents because the truck can roll over smaller vehicles and cause crushing impacts.
Some common causes of rollover truck accidents include negligent driving behavior, improperly loaded cargo, partially filled tank, and human error. A rollover truck accident can expose the driver of the truck and drivers and passengers of smaller vehicles in the path of the rolling truck to severe truck accident injuries. The parts of the body most exposed to impact during a rollover truck accident are the head, neck, abdomen, lower extremities, upper limbs, and thorax.
Traumatic Brain Injuries Caused by a Rollover Truck Accident
During the impact of a rollover truck accident, a person’s head can become exposed to impact with hard objects inside the car. Blunt force trauma from a hard object can cause damage to the brain that can result in a traumatic brain injury (TBI). This brain injury can affect your brain cells and result in bleeding, bruising, and torn tissue in the brain.
What type of TBI a truck accident victim can suffer depends on the severity of the blunt force trauma and where the head is impacted during the collision. Some TBIs that rollover truck accident victims can experience include skull fractures, concussions, brain hemorrhages, and coup-contrecoup brain injuries. Victims of rollover truck accidents can experience long-term pain and suffering, as TBIs can cause severe headaches, memory loss, reduced motor functioning, vision problems, slurred speech, loss of coordination, and seizures.
A Rollover Truck Accident Can Cause a Spinal Cord Injury
A rollover truck accident can cause a person to shake violently inside their car, leading to damage to the back. It can cause a spinal cord injury when a traumatic blow causes damage to a nerve or vertebrae in the spinal cord. This type of injury can permanently affect a person’s spine, leading to strength, functioning, and sensation issues.
Some symptoms of a spinal cord injury include loss of movement, permanent or temporary paralysis, loss of bladder and bowel control, muscle spasms, and difficulty breathing. These complications can increase the difficulty of everyday tasks and cause a truck accident victim to experience back pain and pressure in the neck whenever they move.
Broken Bones Caused by a Rollover Truck Accident
The pressure from blunt force trauma caused by a rollover accident can also damage the bones, causing bone fractures. If a driver’s truck rolls multiple times, they can be thrown around the truck, colliding with hard objects inside the truck and causing damage to bones. Truck accident victims in smaller vehicles can also receive bodily damage that can break their bones.
Those that suffer broken bones from rollover truck accidents can experience intense pain in the area of the broken bone, swelling, bleeding, bruising, numbness, and lack of body part functionality. Following a rollover truck accident, victims should go to the hospital so a healthcare professional can assess whether they suffered a broken bone. They can begin to administer treatment to help the victim avoid long-term complications associated with bone fractures.
Rollover Truck Accidents Can Cause Back and Neck Injuries
As mentioned above regarding spinal cord injuries, rollover truck accidents can result in back trauma, leading to back and neck injuries. Rollover truck accident victims can experience direct blows to these areas of the body and whiplash that can cause enough damage to injure their neck and back.
These injuries can lead to sharp pain in the neck and back, reduced mobility, stiffness in the spine, loss of bladder control, shoulder pain, etc. Some back and neck injuries caused by rollover truck accidents include facet injuries, herniated discs, lumbar sprains, and spinal stenosis.
Hiring a Truck Accident Lawyer to Help Pursue Compensatory Damages
Rollover truck accident victims can experience damages, such as medical bills, lost wages, and loss of consortium, that can affect their economic situation, physical health, and quality of life. They should hire truck accident lawyers to help them recover compensation for damages. A truck accident lawyer will know what steps to take and how to handle these steps to increase their chances of recovering fair compensatory damages.
The following are some ways a truck accident lawyer can help you following a rollover truck accident:
- Determine the value of your truck accident claim
- Assess who caused the rollover truck accident
- Explain your rights
- File the necessary paperwork to begin the truck accident claims process
- Gather evidence to prove the at-fault party’s liability
- Speak to eyewitnesses and expert witnesses
- Negotiate a settlement with the at-fault party’s insurer
- Represent you should the case go to court
Contact The Russo Firm for Help With Your Truck Accident Claim
At The Russo Firm, our truck accident lawyers can help you hold liable parties, such as truck drivers, trucking companies, and truck part manufacturers, accountable for damages caused by their negligence. Truck accident victims can suffer severe injuries that can require expensive medical treatment and can cause long-term pain and suffering.
If you were involved in a rollover truck accident, our truck accident lawyers wish to help you recover compensation to pay for these economic and non-economic damages. They can help advise you on the best steps to take based on their experience helping other truck accident victims recover fair compensatory damages. Contact us for a free truck accident consultation today at (561) 270-0913 or leave a message on our online contact page.
