The idea that something as big as a tractor-trailer can possibly be carrying too much cargo might seem ridiculous to some. Semi-trucks are made of the same metal and other materials as most other vehicles, and those materials are only strong enough to handle so much weight. If a truck is loaded up with more weight than it’s designed to safely carry, it increases the risk of a mechanical failure and makes that truck harder for its driver to safely keep under control.
Overweight trucks can also cause even more damage to vehicles they come into contact with than a properly loaded truck could, even if the speeds of the two impacts were exactly the same. Overloaded/overweight truck accidents in Pennsauken are dangerous every way you look at them, and if you’ve been hurt in one, you may have grounds to file suit over your injuries with an experienced truck accident lawyer’s help.
Weight Limits for Trucks
Regulations established by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) prohibit commercial trucks traveling on interstate highways or otherwise crossing state lines from having a gross vehicle weight rating—meaning total weight including the cab, the trailer, and all cargo and people onboard—of more than 80,000 pounds. Additionally, no truck can put more than 20,000 pounds of weight on a single axle or more than 34,000 pounds of weight on any one tandem axle group, assuming the truck’s total weight is distributed equally across all its axles and axle groups.
New Jersey law imposes more or less the same limits on trucks traveling solely within the state’s borders, although trucks here are allowed to carry slightly more weight per single axle than what’s allowed by federal regulations. If a truck driver applies for and receives a special permit, they’re allowed to carry oversized loads weighing more than 80,000 pounds along a pre-approved route. Determining whether a particular overweight truck had a permit issued for it is one of many things your attorney can help figure out after a truck crash in Pennsauken.
Proving a Truck Was Overweight Before a Wreck
Along similar lines, your truck accident lawyer can also help you collect and make good use of evidence showing that the truck that struck and injured you was illegally overweight. You might think this is as simple as weighing the truck and all its cargo after a wreck happens, but given how violent and damaging truck wrecks can be, that often isn’t practically possible.
On top of that, trucking companies that put overloaded trucks on the roads around Pennsauken usually know that what they’re doing is illegal, and if their illegal behavior ends up causing a truck accident, they’re not above breaking the law again by hiding, altering, or destroying evidence like shipping manifests and driver logbooks. Rooting out underhanded tactics like these and building a strong civil claim in spite of them can be next to impossible to accomplish without support from seasoned legal counsel.
Get Help from a Pennsauken Attorney with an Overloaded/Overweight Truck Accident Lawsuit
Overweight trucks are hard to drive, harder to stop once they get going, and unsafe for everyone on the road with them. Unfortunately, they’re also a lot more common than many people might like to think. When one ends up involved in a traffic accident, filing suit against the people responsible for that truck crash can be much more difficult in practice than it might seem on paper.
Taking effective legal action over an overloaded/overweight truck accident in Pennsauken is not something you want to try handling by yourself. Call today to learn how a skilled lawyer can help you get paid what you deserve.
