A big brown UPS delivery truck ran a red light, totaling your car. Now you’re stuck with expensive medical bills and no way to get to work. Is it possible for the average American citizen to win a UPS injury settlement? The answer is yes, but you will need a qualified law firm in your corner.
As Americans increase their online shopping habits, the need for truck drivers to deliver the next day continues to rise. In 2020, there were 256 million online shoppers and that number is expected to increase to 291.2 million by 2025. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, UPS had 127,017 drivers deliver packages over 3.5 billion miles in 2021 throughout the United States. With so many trucks racking up billions of miles to meet increasing demands for delivery, accidents are a matter of when, and not if, they will occur. Over the last 24 months (prior to September 2022), the number of accidents continues to increase year after year with 2,893 crashes and 70 fatalities — that’s one delivery truck accident every three hours.
If you are in an accident involving a delivery truck company, like UPS, what are your legal options against a multi-billion-dollar company? If you’re wondering, “Can I sue UPS for negligence,” there are legal options to help you get the justice you deserve, but to win a case by proving negligence requires an expert law firm like Avrek Law.
A UPS Truck Hit My Car, What Do I Do Next?
If someone you love was in an accident involving a UPS truck, or if a FedEx truck hit my car, it’s important to know what kind of driver was involved before making any UPS vehicle accident claims. UPS, for example, has three different types of drivers that they rely on to get packages out to customers: personal vehicle drivers, tractor trailer drivers and the package delivery drivers you’ll see in the brown trucks. Immediately after the accident, it’s important to get as much information from the delivery driver as possible, including their license and the company they work for.
Can I sue for being hit by a semi truck? The process to make a claim against UPS is the same regardless of the type of vehicle responsible for the accident. And this doesn’t change the type of information you’ll want to try and get from the driver at the scene, which includes:
- Driver error, which could be caused by an increased weight limit requiring the driver to brake longer to avoid hitting the cars in front of them
- Driver fatigue; federal regulation allows drivers up to 11 hours of consecutive driving before requiring a break.
- Pressure to deliver, especially as the demand for overnight delivery increases
Your next step is to contact a law firm, like Avrek Law, with experience in delivery truck accidents to help you navigate the complicated process of dealing with corporations with legal departments that are mandated to pay you as little as possible.
What is the key to maximizing your insurance payout? Prove negligence.
Proving Negligence in a UPS Delivery Truck Accident
If you’re ever in a car accident due to negligence, regardless if it’s a delivery truck or another vehicle, your legal case is based on what can be proven in court. This includes the evidence gathered at the scene, and oftentimes before the accident even happened.
If the accident involves a delivery truck, there are delivery-specific factors that have set a legal precedent that will help you win your case. Some examples include:
- Not setting the parking brake during a delivery
- Failing to yield when merging back into traffic after a delivery
- Backtracking due a missed address
- Poor training and driver fatigue
- Failure to complete repairs or safety checks
In order to prove negligence, it’s important that there is evidence showing the driver owed you a duty of care, and that they breached that duty. There also needs to be an actual or proximate causation, and proof that the damages you are suffering from were a direct result of the driver’s negligence. This means you want to document and keep records of all medical diagnoses and expenses related to the accident.
How Will Vicarious Liability Help Me Win My Case?
If you are suing someone under the employ of a company like UPS, you can try and prove vicarious liability. This legal theory holds an employer liable for its employees’ negligent actions, as long as the employees acted within the scope of their employment.
There are a few ways vicarious liability can be proven to help win your case:
- Negligent hiring, which requires proof that the company failed to perform a proper background and criminal record check
- Negligent training, which means that despite proving a clean driving record, UPS can also be held liable for negligent training if they evaluated a driver and failed to fill gaps in their skills, which includes drivers who have experience with other delivery trucks but did not train on the safe handling of a UPS truck
- Negligent supervision, which indicates that even if the driver is prudently-hired and well trained, UPS is responsible to constantly monitor their employees and take appropriate action if any of their drivers get a DUI, speeding ticket or other moving violations — on or off the job
How to Sue UPS and Win
With over 120,000 cars, vans, tractors and motorcycles, UPS has a $1,000,000 insurance policy for each and every single vehicle in their fleet, and they will do everything in their power to protect their financial interests. This makes the insurance claim process even more complicated for the average American due the company’s structure, amount of insurance policies they have, and the type of contracts they have with their employees.
If you’re left wondering, “Can I sue UPS for negligence?”, stop wondering and contact a delivery truck accident attorney at Avrek Law immediately. They have more than 50 years combined experience representing cases in several states that involved delivery truck accidents due to negligence. The consultation is free and you’ll get advice from a law firm with more than $1 billion recovered in more than 45,000 cases.
