Amputations in Truck Accident Lawsuits
The overwhelming size and weight of a commercial truck can crush a passenger car with which it collides. An occupant of the smaller vehicle may suffer the loss of a limb, known as an amputation. While losing an arm or leg is especially devastating, even the loss of a finger, hand, or foot can affect the personal and professional life of a victim. An amputation sometimes occurs when a victim gets trapped under a vehicle and cannot be freed without removing a limb. More often, an amputation occurs after an accident when doctors remove a limb to prevent life-threatening complications. A doctor generally will need to get informed consent from a patient before performing an amputation, but sometimes this procedure is performed on an unconscious patient to save their life.
After undergoing an amputation, a victim will need follow-up care to avoid infections and other post-surgical complications. They also may need vocational rehabilitation and occupational therapy to help them learn how to perform daily activities, both at work and at home. A victim probably will get a prosthetic device, or potentially more than one prosthetic device if different devices serve different functions. Over time, they may need to replace these devices as they wear out. Amputations also may come with significant psychological effects, which may require treatment long after the physical effects subside. The loss of a limb may limit a victim’s professional prospects and permanently affect their interactions with others.
Claims Based on Amputations in Truck Accidents
A victim who has lost a limb can recover a broad range of economic and non-economic damages from anyone who was at fault. Economic damages account for any financial costs resulting from the accident, while non-economic damages aim to compensate a victim for the intangible harm that they suffered. Some potential types of damages for victims who have undergone an amputation include:
- Hospital bills and other medical costs
- The costs of therapies and prosthetic devices
- Lost income from time missed at work during recovery
- Future lost earning capacity if a victim cannot continue in their job or take a similar job
- Vocational rehabilitation to help a victim relearn how to do their job or prepare them for a new job
- Pain and suffering, which is usually severe when a limb is crushed or destroyed
- Emotional distress, such as depression or anxiety, and any psychological therapies or treatment
- Lost enjoyment of life when a victim cannot participate in the activities that they enjoyed before the accident
Truck accidents may be complex and result from multiple factors. Defendants in these cases may include a truck driver, a trucking company, a truck manufacturer, a company that loaded or maintained the truck, or even an entity responsible for maintaining the road where the accident occurred. Sometimes a victim may have been partly at fault for a collision. Perhaps they were speeding while they tried to pass a trucker on the right, but the trucker failed to check a blind spot when merging or turning.
When a victim was partly at fault, they still may be able to recover some damages in most states. A few states apply a harsh rule known as contributory negligence, which prevents a victim from recovering damages if they were at fault to any degree, but this is the exception rather than the norm. Some states apply a pure comparative negligence rule, which simply reduces damages in proportion to the fault of the victim. In other words, a victim who was 40 percent at fault could recover 60 percent of their damages. Many other states adjust the comparative negligence rule to bar recovery when a victim was at least 50 or 51 percent at fault, depending on the state. If their fault was a lower percentage, damages would be awarded according to the same calculation as in pure comparative negligence states.
