If I Have An Accident With An Amazon Truck, Can I Sue The Company?

If you’ve been injured in an Oklahoma accident with an Amazon truck you may be entitled to damages from the company. Almost anywhere you turn on the streets of Tulsa or other Oklahoma cities, you’ll see an Amazon or other types of delivery trucks on the way to drop off packages at homes and businesses all over town. With the increased number of delivery trucks on streets in every city and town, there is an increased risk of getting in a crash with one of them. The big question is, can I sue the company if I get hit by an Amazon truck?

Accident With An Amazon Truck Is About Fault

Before any legal action can come from a car crash or truck accident, it’s critical to know who caused it and what factors contributed to the crash. The basic legal principle that lets you sue anyone for compensation from injuries you got in a crash is called negligence. This means that someone did something they shouldn’t have done or failed to do something they should have done, and that action or lack of action caused the crash.

You Must Not Be At Fault For The Accident

Any lawsuit for compensation following an injury requires that the injured person be able to prove four key elements of the case, which are:

1. Duty: all drivers on the roads owe a duty of reasonable care to everyone else on the road, which means they must follow the rules of the road and use caution to avoid causing an accident;
2. Breach of duty: when a driver gets distracted by a cell phone or breaks driving laws and causes a crash, they have breached their duty of care to others using the road;
3. Cause of damages: not every moment of inattention or driving infraction causes a wreck, but if the driver’s breach of their duty of care caused a crash, that negligence was the legal cause of the incident;
4. Actual injuries: not every car crash causes injury, but when one does, the person responsible for the crash is legally required to pay for the damages.

Company Liability Issues

If the Amazon truck driver was at fault for causing the crash, one of the next questions to answer is whether the driver was an employee or a contractor. Amazon gets many jobs done by independent contractors who aren’t direct employees of the company. These drivers, called Flex drivers, are required to have their own liability insurance on the vehicle they are driving, and they may also have supplemental liability coverage provided by Amazon.

The truck driver’s status with the company is important. Companies big and small are generally responsible for the actions of their employees under a legal principle called respondeat superior, a Latin phrase that roughly means “the employer is responsible.” Independent contractors do not have the same legal relationship with the company, so it may not be possible to sue the company under this legal principle if the driver who caused the injury crash is not an employee but a contractor.

The corporation may still have a financial responsibility for the damages under a different legal idea. A company responsible for ownership or maintenance of the vehicle might have a legal responsibility for a crash caused by a mechanical failure of the truck. A company might still be responsible for the driver’s actions if the company was negligent in selecting or training the driver.

More Personal Injury Articles From Our Tulsa Lawyers Blog

Tulsa Personal Injury Attorneys Near You 

An injury accident with an Amazon truck can lead to complicated legal questions of fault and responsibility. An experienced Tulsa truck accident attorney will help you understand your rights and how to protect your interests in court. Call Kania Law Office or contact us online to schedule an initial consultation.