Wheels of Justice

Major accident, what do you do?

In my last article I wrote about small property damage accidents and what drivers should do if they are involved in one. In this article, I would like to ad-dress what a driver should do when involved in a major accident, one that has severe personal injury, even one with a fatality.

The first thing a driver should always do when involved in a major accident with personal injury, besides rendering assistance to any injured party, is to call his or her employer. All action after an accident is consequential, both by you and the other driver involved in the accident. In order to protect yourself, you need to be the one taking immediate action, both to protect yourself and even gain advantage over the other driver. Call at any time, day or night, and let your employer know what has happened. DO NOT speak with law enforcement until you have been advised by your employer on how you should address speaking with them.

Make sure you have access to a trial attorney who knows about truck accidents. The attorney may even need to be present at the accident scene if it is bad enough. The attorney can provide attorney-client privilege, an “absolute” privilege. This means that any information exchanged between the attorney and his client—or a representative of the client—cannot be disclosed to anyone without the client’s consent. Neither the attorney nor the client can be compelled to give up the contents of a confidential communication as long as the purpose of the communication is

to provide legal services to the client.

As much as you might want to say, “I’m sorry” or “It was my fault,” you’ll live to regret that statement. Talk to your company about the difference between an apology and sympathy to the others involved in the accident, as well as how to assist the police with their investigation without saying something that could be used against you later. Be aware that law enforcement and the plaintiff attorney will try to use anything that you say or do against you when it is their turn to prosecute you for the crime of personal or property damage or sue you for the pain, loss of income, damages and just about anything else the plaintiff attorney can think of.

Remember that the first steps you need to take after being involved in any major accident are to call your company, provide any assistance to injured parties, report the accident, and, perhaps most importantly, consider getting legal protection for yourself.

Jim C. Klepper is president of Interstate Trucker Ltd., an organization that provides legal defense protection to commercial drivers. Jim is a lawyer who focuses on transportation law and the trucking industry in particular. He works to answer your legal questions about trucking, and he holds his Commercial Drivers License.