A collision with an 80,000-pound commercial truck dents metal, but it shatters bones. The massive force involved creates fractures that differ fundamentally from typical car accident injuries, requiring extensive medical treatment and months of recovery.
Bone injuries ripple through victims' lives, physically, financially, and emotionally. At Mottley Law Firm, our Richmond truck accident attorneys focus on securing full compensation that addresses both immediate medical needs and long-term recovery challenges.
What Types of Bone Fractures Result From Truck Accidents?
Crashes involving commercial trucks often exceed anything most people experience in daily life. A fully loaded semi traveling at highway speed carries kinetic energy that overwhelms the human skeletal system.
Partial Fractures
Partial bone fractures might sound minor, but these hairline cracks or incomplete breaks create substantial problems and prolonged disability.
- Stress fractures from impact forces. The violent jarring of a collision sends shockwaves through your skeletal system, creating fissures in weight-bearing bones. These injuries worsen with movement, turning everyday activities into painful ordeals that often require months of limited mobility and restricted work capacity.
- Greenstick fractures in younger victims. When children or teenagers suffer truck accident injuries, their developing bones sometimes bend and crack rather than breaking completely.
Complete Fractures
Complete fractures involve bones breaking entirely through, demanding immediate medical care and often surgical reconstruction.
- Simple fractures with clean breaks. The bone snaps in two pieces but doesn't pierce the skin. Treatment usually involves realignment and casting, though healing takes months and may require surgery for proper alignment.
- Comminuted fractures with multiple fragments. High-impact collisions shatter bones into three or more pieces. Surgeons must reassemble the fragments using plates, screws, or rods. Medical expenses for these complex injuries can easily exceed $100,000.
- Open fractures breaking through skin. These devastating injuries carry serious infection risks and require emergency surgery, multiple procedures, IV antibiotics, and potential permanent disability.
How Does a Richmond Truck Accident Lawyer Help Bone Injury Victims?
Bone fracture cases involve different challenges than soft tissue injuries. Medical documentation becomes critical, and insurance companies aggressively dispute treatment necessity and compensation amounts. Strong legal representation can help protect your legal rights to fair compensation.
Virginia follows a harsh contributory negligence rule wherein if you're found even slightly at fault, you can be barred from recovery entirely. In some cases, doctrines like "last clear chance" can overcome contributory negligence if the truck driver had the final clear opportunity to avoid hitting you.
Build Strong Cases Through Federal Regulation Evidence
Proving liability requires examining multiple evidence sources that disappear quickly after accidents. Electronic Logging Device (ELD) data reveals hours-of-service violations when drivers exceed legal driving limits. Maintenance records expose safety violations. Black box data from event data recorders (EDRs) captures speed, braking, and operational details in the seconds before impact.
Your Richmond truck accident lawyer acts immediately to preserve this evidence through spoliation letters, accident reconstruction, and witness interviews while memories remain fresh. This rapid response also helps defend against insurance company attempts to shift partial blame onto you, protecting your right to compensation under Virginia's harsh contributory negligence standard.
Identify Multiple Liable Parties and Insurance Coverage
Truck accident cases often involve several potentially responsible parties, each with their own insurance coverage. Virginia recognizes joint and several liability principles, meaning you can pursue any combination of liable defendants to achieve full recovery.
- The trucking company can be held vicariously liable under Virginia's respondeat superior doctrine for the driver's negligence in the scope of employment, plus directly liable for inadequate training, unsafe policies, or maintenance failures.
- Cargo loading companies may share responsibility when improperly secured loads contribute to accidents.
- Maintenance contractors face liability for negligent repairs.
- Leasing companies that own trucks but lease them to carriers may bear responsibility.
- Manufacturers may be liable when defective components cause crashes.
Identifying all liable parties and their respective insurance policies maximizes available compensation and increases the likelihood of full recovery for your bone injuries.
What Compensation Can Victims Recover?
Virginia law generally allows full compensation for truck accident injuries in negligence cases. Economic and non-economic damages face no statutory caps for compensatory recovery.
- Economic damages cover tangible losses, like current medical expenses, future medical costs, lost wages for missed work, and reduced lifetime earnings
- Non-economic damages compensate intangible losses, like pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and disfigurement from surgical scars or limb deformities.
- Punitive damages when the trucking company or driver's conduct goes beyond negligence and shows willful or wanton disregard for safety, capped at $350,000 in most civil cases
Take Action to Protect Your Rights
Virginia's two-year statute of limitations under Virginia Code § 8.01-243 means you have a limited amount of time to file bone injury claims. Different deadlines and damage limits may apply if the truck was owned by a government entity, which makes early legal advice even more important.
Evidence disappears quickly. Trucking companies often dispose of maintenance records after federal retention requirements expire, and witness memories fade. Don't let insurance companies minimize your injuries or use contributory negligence arguments to deny the compensation you deserve for your recovery.