A commercial truck tire blowout is rarely a random event; it is most often the final, predictable outcome of a series of failures. When a blowout causes your accident, you need someone knowledgeable to determine not just what happened, but why it was allowed to happen.
The process of holding a trucking company accountable is not straightforward; they are protected by sophisticated insurance carriers and legal teams. However, federal and state laws exist to protect motorists, placing a high burden of responsibility on these companies to maintain their vehicles safely.
If a truck tire blowout accident has injured you or a loved one, the team of Arkansas truck accident lawyers at Caddell Reynolds Law Firm is here to help you understand your legal options. Our practice focuses on holding negligent parties accountable and pursuing the compensation you need to rebuild. Call us for a free consultation at (479) 782-5297.
First, Prioritize Your Well-being and Document Everything
After returning home from the scene of an accident, your priorities shift to healing and protecting your future. Instead of minimizing your pain or assuming it will disappear, taking deliberate action to document your injuries and losses creates a clear, factual record that will be invaluable later.
Why Is a Follow-Up Medical Visit So Important?
Some serious injuries do not present symptoms immediately. Conditions like whiplash or even a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) may have delayed onset. Symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, or neck stiffness might seem minor at first but could indicate a more significant problem.
This medical documentation serves a second purpose. Consistent medical records create an undeniable link between the accident and the injuries you sustained. They build a factual timeline that an insurance company cannot easily dismiss. For this reason, following your doctor’s prescribed treatment plan—whether it involves physical therapy, medication, or specialist visits—is just as important as the initial diagnosis.
How Do I Keep Track of My Growing Expenses?
The financial toll of an accident adds another layer of stress to an already difficult situation. Try to create a dedicated folder, either a physical one or a digital one on your computer, to store every piece of paper and every receipt related to the crash.
Here is what you should save:
- Medical Bills: This includes everything from the ambulance ride and emergency room visit to prescription receipts, co-pays for physical therapy, and any medical devices you might need.
- Proof of Lost Income: Collect pay stubs that show the hours or days you missed from work. If you are self-employed, gather records of lost contracts or business opportunities. A letter from your employer confirming your time off is also powerful evidence.
- Vehicle Repair Estimates: Get multiple estimates for the repair of your car. If the vehicle is declared a total loss, keep the valuation report from the insurance company.
- Any other out-of-pocket costs: Did you have to rent a car? Did you pay for parking at a doctor’s office? Save the receipts for these and any other expenses incurred because of the accident.
Should I Talk to the Trucking Company’s Insurer?
Soon after the accident, you will likely receive a call from the trucking company’s insurance adjuster. It is important to remember their role. Their goal is to protect their company’s bottom line by minimizing or denying your claim. They are not on your side.
Anything you say to an adjuster may be used to weaken your case. They are trained to ask questions that might lead you to unintentionally admit partial fault or downplay your injuries.
This is why it is all the more important to get legal assistance immediately. Let a legal representative handle all communications with the trucking company and its insurance carrier. This ensures your rights are protected from the start.
Who Is Responsible? What to Know About the Failures That Led to Your Crash
Truck tire failures are a known hazard in the trucking industry. This is not an “unavoidable accident” problem; it is a maintenance and safety problem. Uncovering who is responsible begins with understanding the physics and the regulations that govern commercial trucking.
The Anatomy of a Tire Failure: It’s More Than Just a Puncture
Commercial truck tires operate under immense stress. They support tens of thousands of pounds of weight while traveling at high speeds, generating tremendous heat. A well-maintained tire is engineered to handle this, but when corners are cut, the system fails.
- Improper Inflation: Both underinflation and overinflation are dangerous. Underinflation causes the tire’s sidewalls to flex excessively, building up heat that degrades the rubber. Overinflation makes the tire rigid, reducing its contact patch with the road and making it more susceptible to damage from road hazards.
- Overloading the Truck: Exceeding legal weight limits places a strain on every component of the truck, especially the tires. This is a direct violation of federal safety rules and a frequent cause of catastrophic blowouts.
- Inadequate Maintenance: This is a major source of negligence. Federal regulations require trucking companies to conduct regular inspections and maintenance, which includes checking tire pressure and tread depth and replacing old or damaged tires.
- Defective Tires: In some cases, the tire itself is flawed from the start. A mistake in the design or manufacturing process can create a weak spot that fails under normal operating conditions. This opens the door to a different type of claim.
- Retread Failures: Many trucking companies use “retread” tires—where a new layer of tread is applied to a used tire casing—to save money. While legal, the retreading process must be perfect. If it’s not, the new tread can separate from the casing at high speed, a scenario that is all too common on our highways.
The Ripple Effect: Who Can Be Held Liable?
Think of legal liability like a chain. The tire blowout is the final, broken link, but the weakness could have started with the manufacturer, the maintenance crew, or the company that demanded a driver stay on the road too long. A thorough investigation examines every single link in that chain.
Here are the potential parties who might be held responsible, explained in simple terms:
- The Trucking Company (Motor Carrier): Under Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations, the company that owns the truck has a legal duty to maintain its fleet in safe operating condition. They must train drivers, keep detailed maintenance records, and ensure their trucks are not overloaded. Because of this high level of responsibility, they are frequently the primary defendant.
- The Truck Driver: Drivers are required to perform pre-trip inspections, which include checking the tires. If a driver knew, or reasonably should have known, that a tire was unsafe but drove on it anyway, they share in the liability.
- The Maintenance Provider: Many trucking companies outsource their vehicle maintenance. If a third-party mechanic performed a faulty repair, conducted a poor inspection, or failed to replace a dangerous tire, that company may be held responsible for its negligence.
- The Tire Manufacturer: If the evidence shows the blowout was caused by a design or manufacturing defect, the tire maker can be named as a defendant in a product liability claim.
- The Cargo Loaders: If a separate company was responsible for loading the trailer and overloaded it beyond its weight capacity, that company could also be at fault for creating the dangerous conditions that led to the tire failure.
Building the Case: How We Investigate a Tire Blowout Accident
To show that a trucking company’s negligence led to your injuries, a detailed and swift investigation is needed. This is not something you should have to do on your own. Our firm takes specific, methodical steps to uncover the facts and preserve the proof needed to hold the responsible parties accountable.
What Evidence Is Used to Prove Negligence?
The goal is to piece together the sequence of events and identify the points of failure. Here are some of the pieces of evidence we pursue:
- The Tire Itself: Preserving the remnants of the blown tire is one of the most important first steps. These fragments can tell a story. We will work to have the tire examined by a forensic tire failure analyst to determine the exact cause of the failure.
- The Truck’s “Black Box”: Much like an airplane, commercial trucks have an Electronic Control Module (ECM) that records critical data, such as the truck’s speed, braking patterns, and engine performance in the moments leading up to the crash.
- Driver Qualification File: We will demand to see the driver’s complete record, including their training history, driving record, employment history, and logbooks to check for any violations of hours-of-service rules.
- Maintenance and Inspection Records: These documents—or sometimes, the lack thereof—are often the smoking gun. We will analyze these logs for evidence of skipped maintenance schedules, recurring problems with a specific tire, or a general failure to comply with federal requirements.
- Cargo and Weight Manifests: These documents can prove whether the truck was overloaded at the time of the accident, placing undue stress on its tires.
- Police and Accident Reports: This is the official starting point of the investigation, providing the initial record of the scene, witness statements, and the investigating officer’s preliminary findings.
What Is Spoliation of Evidence and How Do We Prevent It?
Spoliation is a legal term for the act of destroying, altering, or failing to preserve evidence that is relevant to a lawsuit. It is a serious issue in trucking cases. A trucking company might be tempted to “lose” a driver’s logbook, discard problematic maintenance records, or even have the truck repaired before an independent expert can inspect it.
To prevent this, one of the first actions we take is to send a spoliation letter to the trucking company and its insurer. This is a formal legal notice that demands they preserve all potential evidence related to the crash. This includes the truck itself, all of its components (especially the tires), all electronic data from the “black box,” and all paper records. This letter puts them on notice that we are watching, and that failure to comply will have severe legal consequences.
Understanding Your Potential Compensation
When you have been injured by someone else’s negligence, the law provides a way for you to be compensated for your losses. The goal is to restore you, as much as money can, to the position you were in before the accident. While no outcome can be guaranteed, we will pursue the maximum compensation available under the law for the harms and losses you have suffered.
What Kinds of Damages Can Be Recovered?
The compensation available in a personal injury claim is known as “damages.” These are generally broken down into two main categories:
Economic Damages: These are the tangible financial losses that can be calculated with receipts, bills, and pay stubs. They include:
- All past and future medical expenses, from the initial emergency care to long-term rehabilitation.
- Lost wages from the time you were unable to work.
- Diminished future earning capacity if your injuries prevent you from returning to your previous job or earning the same income.
- Property damage, primarily for the repair or replacement of your vehicle.
Non-Economic Damages: These are losses that do not have a specific price tag but are nonetheless recognized by the law as very real harms. They compensate you for:
- Pain and suffering.
- Emotional distress and mental anguish.
- Loss of enjoyment of life, for the inability to participate in hobbies and activities you once valued.
What Is Comparative Negligence?
Arkansas operates under a “modified comparative negligence” rule. In simple terms, this means that if you are found to be partially at fault for the accident, your total compensation award is reduced by your percentage of fault. For example, if a jury determines you have $100,000 in damages but finds you were 10% at fault, your award would be reduced by 10% to $90,000.
However, under Arkansas law, if you are found to be 50% or more at fault, you are barred from recovering any compensation at all. It is a standard tactic for insurance companies to try to shift as much blame as possible onto the victim to reduce or eliminate what they have to pay. Our role is to use the evidence gathered in our investigation to build a powerful counter-narrative, demonstrating the overwhelming responsibility of the trucking company and protecting you from unfair accusations of fault.
FAQ for Truck Tire Blowout Accident Claims
How long do I have to file a lawsuit in Arkansas?
For most personal injury claims in Arkansas, the statute of limitations is three years from the date of the accident. This means a lawsuit must be filed within that timeframe. However, the process of investigating a complex trucking accident, gathering evidence, and building a strong case takes considerable time. It is important to contact a lawyer much sooner than the deadline to ensure all necessary steps can be taken.
What if the tire that blew out was a “retread”? Does that change my case?
It may strengthen your case. While retreaded tires are legal, they must be manufactured to high standards and properly maintained. A retread failure often points directly to negligence, either by the company that performed the retreading (a manufacturing defect claim) or by the trucking company that failed to inspect it or used it improperly (a maintenance negligence claim).
Can I still have a case if I don’t feel seriously injured?
Yes. First, as mentioned before, some injuries take days or even weeks to fully manifest. Second, even if you are fortunate to have avoided severe physical harm, you are still entitled to compensation for your property damage, such as your totaled vehicle, and any other financial losses you incurred. You may also have experienced emotional distress that merits compensation.
The truck driver said a “road hazard” caused the blowout. What does that mean for my claim?
This is a very common defense used to shift blame away from maintenance issues. While it is possible for debris on the road to damage a tire, a properly inflated and well-maintained commercial tire is designed to be durable. We would investigate to determine if this claim is a legitimate defense or simply an excuse to cover up negligence. The maintenance records, tire condition, and driver’s log can often reveal the true story.
Reclaim Your Future After a Tire Blowout Wreck
At Caddell Reynolds Law Firm, our personal injury attorneys focus on uncovering the facts and holding negligent trucking companies accountable so you can focus on your recovery.
Let us handle the legal work. Call us today at (479) 782-5297 for a free, no-obligation conversation about your case.