If you, or someone you love, has been seriously injured in a crash with a UPS Truck, it’s important to hire experienced UPS truck accident attorneys that can help you collect the very large amount of money you’re entitled to. Call an Orange County UPS truck accident lawyer at The Crockett Law Group at (800) 900-9393 to schedule a free consultation. Our Orange County personal injury lawyers have the necessary experience in handling UPS cases. The volume of UPS Trucks and other delivery vehicles on the streets of Orange County has increased substantially as people’s habits continue to trend from buying in person to ordering online. Commercial drivers have a very high duty to operate their vehicles in a safe manner, but UPS truck drivers are often on tight schedules with quick turnaround times between shifts, making accidents more common. The heavy weight and heft of these vehicles can mean that accident victims sustain severe or even catastrophic injuries when accidents occur. 
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What Type of Compensation Is Available For Injured Victims?
One of the constraints on the ability to collect large amounts of compensation for victims of severe or catastrophic injuries are the applicable policy limits for the responsible party. California only requires a minimum policy of $25,000 per person, per incident for liability insurance to compensate victims of their negligence or recklessness. Commercial vehicles are required to have higher policy limits, with some types of large trucks requiring up to a million dollars in coverage to be on the road, but even that isn’t enough to compensate a quadriplegic. A large company like UPS has deep pockets that can pay out ample compensation for a settlement or verdict for the following types of damages:- Hospital costs, including testing, anesthesiology, and all other hospital-related services;
- Psychiatric services to help a person cope with disability and disfigurement;
- Rehabilitation costs, including physical therapists, pain management, residential and at-home services;
- Appliances including crutches, walkers, prosthetics, and other devices that heal and support;
- Home health aides;
- Transportation to and from medical care;
- Accommodation to home and vehicle to accommodate a disability;
- Lost earnings
- Lost business revenues;
- Cost of replacing your services at your business;
- Lost future earning capacity
- Property damage;
- Pain
- Suffering and
- Mental Anguish.
What Causes UPS Truck Accidents?
UPS is liable for the negligent or reckless actions of their drivers on the road, as well as their own negligence or recklessness in hiring drivers or maintaining their vehicles. These are some common causes of UPS truck accidents:- Drivers are distracted by eating, using mobile devices, listening to loud music, grooming, sun in their eyes, and other factors;
- Drivers use of drugs or alcohol while driving for UPS;
- UPS’s failure to properly screen drivers, hiring drivers with DUI’s and other red flags;
- Driver’s speeding;
- UPS putting drivers on tight schedules that are unrealistic for Orange County traffic;
- Poor judgment of drivers, making tight turns, not leaving enough space between their truck and the vehicle in front of them;
- UPS did not choose drivers with enough experience and/or did not train them properly;
- Brakes failed due to UPS’s poor maintenance of the truck;
- Failure of driver to follow California rules and regulations for truck drivers;
- Accidents caused by packages falling out of vehicles due to driver negligence or poor maintenance of doors.
UPS Trucks and Their Safety Requirements
UPS trucks are much heavier than passenger cars, and some of them are massive in size and weight. They range from 16,000 to 24,000 pounds, compared with the average passenger vehicles and SUVs that weigh from 3,000 to 4,000 pounds. That’s why the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) have passed rigorous safety and maintenance rules and regulations for these heavy commercial vehicles that travel on highways and through neighborhoods in Orange County. These requirements include:- Number of hours and content of driving training regimen;
- Specific requirements for timing and type of maintenance;
- Recordkeeping requirements for driver’s hours of services, including their mandatory breaks;
- Drug and alcohol prevention programs must be in place for drivers.
UPS Truck Accidents Cause Serious Injuries
Due to their heavy weight, truck accidents often cause catastrophic injuries for occupants of passenger vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians. These are some of the types of injuries that UPS truck accident victims sustain: Fractures From UPS Truck Accidents- Open fractures where the bone breaks through the skin or causes a deep wound that exposes the bone. These are also called compound fractures;
- Closed fractures are those that don’t break through the skin;
- Partial fractures are incomplete breaks of the bone;
- Complete fractures cause the bone to be broken into two or more pieces;
- Stable fractures are when the broken ends of the bone are not moved out of place and
- Displaced fractures are when there is a gap between the broken bones.
- Hematomas are bruises to the brain;
- Hemorrhages are uncontrolled bleeding in the space between the skull and the brain;
- Concussions are when the brain hits the sides of the skull. They can be mild or severe and
- Edema is swelling of the brain, causing the brain to press against the skull.
- Complete injuries cause permanent loss of function and sensation from the point of injury down, causing disabilities such as paraplegia and quadriplegia, and
- Incomplete injuries cause loss of function and sensation that can be temporary or permanent.
- First degree burns cause only redness and can heal on their own;
- Second degree burns cause pain, redness, swelling to the epidermis layer of the skin and usually require first aid treatment;
- Third-degree burns, affecting the dermis layer of the skin, and the tissues beneath the skin. These burns can cause severe disfigurement and require skin grafts to repair the damage and
- Fourth-degree burns can cause permanent loss of sensation and life-threatening damage to internal organs.
