Missouri Truck Accident Lawyer Helping Trucking Accident Victims
A fully-loaded semi-truck can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds. So, when its brakes fail and a truck cannot stop in time, it can cause serious damage to other vehicles on the road — damage including catastrophic personal injury or wrongful death.
At the Carter Law Offices, our Kansas City truck brake failure attorneys represent folks throughout Missouri and Kansas who have been injured in truck accidents. Many of the cases we handle involve a truck's failure to stop in time. When we handle these cases, we conduct a thorough investigation, looking to see whether brake failure or other mechanical problems may have been to blame.
Complete and Partial Truck Brake Failure
Complete brake failures are rare but serious events. More often, poor brake maintenance prevents a truck's brakes from working as well as they could, leading to the truck's failure to stop in time. Our attorneys and support staff obtain maintenance logs to see if regular maintenance was performed on the truck's brake system before the accident. We also interview mechanics who worked on the vehicles, as well as drivers who may have noticed brake problems but failed to report them or have them fixed.
At our Kansas City law firm, we look for both catastrophic failures and small brake deficiencies and often partner with highly-regarded experts who can check the trucks' full air brake systems, including the operation of all valves, gages, warning devices and pressure supply systems that may be involved in brake failure. Our experts may also look for brake imbalance, a condition in which mismatched brake system parts can affect a truck's ability to brake in time. This may lead to instability during braking, a condition known as "brake fade" or even brake fires.
Knowing the true cause of a truck accident can help us maximize the amount of compensation we obtain for personal injury victims by holding the right parties accountable for the harm caused. We often take action against the driver and trucking company. But, if we know that defective brake parts were really to blame, we may also take action against the brake manufacturer as well.
Act Quickly if Brake Failure May be to Blame
It is important to talk with a lawyer as soon as possible after a truck accident so that brake failure evidence can be preserved. When we take your case, we send out a letter to the commercial vehicle operator, telling him or her to preserve all related evidence. If this is not done, important evidence could be destroyed.
If you or a loved one have been hurt, we urge you to contact us. Give us a call at 816-283-3500 or toll free at 877-276-3500 to schedule a free initial consultation. Truck brake failure may be to blame for your truck accident.
