A heavy truck at highway speeds can cause devastating injuries. Finding enough insurance to cover the damages can be a critical component for obtaining full compensation for injuries caused by a truck crash.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations (49 CFR 387.9) require most commercial trucks which travel between states to carry a minimum of $750,000.00 of liability insurance to cover damages. For trucks carrying hazardous cargo, the minimum insurance is either $1 million or $5 million, depending upon the type and amount of hazardous material being transported.

For motorists with catastrophic injuries, the trucking company’s insurance policy may not be sufficient to cover all of the damages caused by a truck crash. In that event, it may be possible to find additional insurance in unexpected places.

For example, in a crash involving a tractor-trailer rig, there may be separate insurance policies – one covering the tractor and the other covering the trailer. The Ohio Supreme Court considered such a situation in Lynch v Yob. In that case, the truck driver caused a crash while driving a tractor rig owned by his employer, Bath Transport. The tractor was covered by $1 million of liability insurance.

At the time of the crash, the truck driver was pulling a trailer owned by another company, GLS. The trailer was covered under a policy purchased by GLS, but neither the truck driver nor his trucking company were considered “insureds” under that policy. In fact, the trailer policy excluded coverage for any “trucker” who was not an employee of GLS. Because the truck driver was not a GLS employee, GLS’s insurance company refused to cover the accident.

Nevertheless, the Ohio Supreme Court, applying federal trucking regulations, determined that GLS’s policy was required to cover the accident. The Court modified the coverage provided by the policy “to insure the availability of insurance for negligently injured members of the public.” As a result, the injured motorist was able to recover much needed additional compensation.

In making a truck accident claim, proving the truck driver’s fault and the damages caused in a truck crash may be only half the battle. The truck accident attorney must also have a deep understanding of the complex insurance relationships unique to the trucking industry and the expertise to fight for the insurance coverage to which the injured motorist is entitled.

If you have questions about truck crash litigation, please contact us through our website at www.ClarkPerdue.com.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Trucking Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.