Trash Truck Accidents Personal Injury and Workers Compensation Claims

By Alexander D. Napolin, Esq. | October 30, 2019

Have you ever looked at a trash truck, and thought it could cause severe injuries to you? You may think these trucks are only there to grab your trash, but they can really harm you if an accident takes place. Trash trucks are huge and heavy, their movement is not easy and have more blind spots than other vehicles. With blind spots, their function requires a lot of backup, so you can only imagine how likely an accident can take place. And because these trucks operate in residential areas, they can cause trash truck accidents to pedestrians, children, and pets roaming around in the neighborhood.

A Short Overview Explaining why Trash Trucks can be Dangerous

In Short, trash trucks can be dangerous because they can cause various injuries to the workers as well as residents. Trash Truck accidents occur to workers (those who operate them and work with them) for many reasons. First, their daily exposure to trash poses sanitation and health risks. This is accumulated with time, so it is a lot more difficult to prove in the context of workers compensation. Second, trash trucks are huge and heavy and they have unpredictable jerky movements. Hence, workers often sustain injuries as a result. This causes workers to be thrown off the truck, into traffic, and dangerous machinery leading to serious injuries and even death.

For residents, they are dangerous because they operate in residential areas. Residential areas often have children playing, seniors walking, pedestrians and pets roaming around. Their stop-and-go nature makes it very hard to predict the movement of the truck.

Statistics Highlighting the Dangers of Trash Truck Accidents

The US Department of Labor lists the reports of employees killed by a trash truck in 2018 and 2019. This year, there were 3 incidents of extremely fatal accidents of trash truck workers. A trash truck killed an employee after it ran over him, and struck another one. In another incident, it crushed an employee causing him to die immediately.

Retain a Personal Injury Attorney or a Workers Compensation Lawyer

If a trash truck hit you, or your loved ones suffered injuries in your residential area, call us today. These types of accidents require the expertise of a personal injury lawyer. If you are an employee and you were injured while working on or with a trash truck, you should file a workers compensation claim. Our team at Napolin Law, is equipped to deal with personal injury and workers compensation claims with years of extensive experience. If you are unsure what type of claim you need, you should call us for a free consultation.