In order to try to get as much money as possible if your car is hit by a truck in Florida, there are many steps to take so that you can try to get a good settlement.
Similar to most car accidents, you can should a claim through your personal injury protection (P.I.P.) to get your medical bills paid. If you are unsure as to how personal injury protection applies to your claim, you should should understand how to get your medical bills paid after car an accident in Florida.
You should give your car insurance and health insurance information to the hospital and all of your medical providers. Make sure that you understand the 4 reasons why you should give your auto and health insurance to the hospital and your doctors after the accident.
When someone is killed or hurt as a result of a car or truck accident, the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) or police department will first create a report that usually lists the names of the drivers, passengers and truck driver and the name of their insurance companies.
This report may also say who received a ticket for causing the accident. When there is a death the homicide officer prepares a much longer report that lists every witness and includes witness statements and describes how the officer believes the accident happened.
You can get the prior accident record of a truck driving company by going to Safersys.org. You can also find out the trucker’s insurance company and the amount of insurance through Safersys.
Truck accidents may involve serious injuries and you may want to get a professional expert to the accident scene that can take pictures and make measurements of the crash scene and possibly take witness statements.
The expert who reconstructs how the accident happened will ask to inspect the truck and any recording devices that may have recorded the accident.
The expert who recreates the accident will also want to inspect the car and take pictures of it. Pictures will show where the impact was at the time of the accident and can help when trying to recreate the accident.
An accident reconstruction expert may require a retainer of $2,500 or so to begin investigating the accident. A personal injury lawyer will generally pay the expert and get paid back this money only if they win the truck accident case.
If the truck driver or trucking company – that caused your accident – was uninsured or underinsured, you should make an uninsured/undersinsured motorist insurance claim.