[Music] Hello and welcome to the Millennial Lawyer Podcast with personal injury attorney Mark Shirian, I am your host Kevin Rosenquist and today’s episode is going to be about being injured in a delivery truck accident and what you need to know, Mark welcome back,

Happy to be here Kevin. 

What are the most common causes of accidents involving Amazon or other delivery trucks in Nassau

or Suffolk counties? 

Well delivery truck accidents are often caused by a combination of time pressures, driver fatigue, and distracted driving. Many delivery companies, including Amazon, operate under strict deadlines which can

lead to speeding, reckless lane changes, and failure to yield. Additionally, improper vehicle maintenance such as worn out brakes or faulty tires can also be a contributing factor. In Nassau and Suffolk counties where Suburban streets often have blind intersections and heavy

pedestrian traffic these risks are absolutely heightened. 

Yeah you’re talking about the rushing around, I mean you see Amazon drivers particularly, at least in my neighborhood, they get out of the van and they just haul to the door and back they’re just running as fast as they can. I mean yeah you have that kind of energy and that kind of desire to move fast while you’re driving it can lead to some bad stuff. How do delivery truck accidents differ from regular car accidents in terms of the liability and the compensation involved?

Unlike regular car accidents where liability is typically limited to individual drivers, delivery truck accidents often involve multiple layers of responsibility. The driver, the trucking company, even third-party contractors such as Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners may all share liability. So this means compensation claims can involve not just personal auto insurance but also corporate policies, which usually are much larger. 

So however these corporations aggressively defend against claims to limit payouts, how do you determine who is at fault in the accident? Like do you kind of go after, you know, you mentioned, you know, you got the driver, the company, the third party delivery person, like what do you, what process do you use to determine who’s at fault?

So fault is determined by examining multiple factors including driver behavior. Was the driver speeding,

fatigued, using GPS or a handheld device, company policies that they imposed unrealistic delivery quotas that encouraged reckless driving, vehicle maintenance records, was the truck properly maintained employment status, was a driver an employee or an independent contractor, this impacts how

liability is distributed. We also analyzed dashcam footage, blackbox data, and witness statements in order to establish liability. 

How difficult is it for you to obtain some of this evidence? Is there any shady behavior going on? 

They try to claim that either they don’t have logs or blackbox data or things like that or they do. They have

to be kind of more forthcoming with it. The best way to answer that is a lot of times insurance companies will not provide you with any information. If they have surveillance video or dash cam footage or witness statements, they’re not going to provide this information for you before a lawsuit is filed. After a lawsuit’s filed, they’re required to provide you this information but I have rarely seen insurance companies provide

dash cam footage or any sort of surveillance video or witness statements before a case is actually put in suit, so that, you know, if you can subpoena, that’s the thing, it’s hard to subpoena third parties without an actual case in suit because the only way to subpoena anyone is, from my understanding, in New York if it’s related to an underlying case. So it is very difficult to get that information on your own before a lawsuit is filed. Is it impossible? No, but I think it’s important to make sure that you’re preserving as much evidence as you possibly can and you do that, and we do that in our office by sending notices of representation and letters of pre preservation to make sure that this evidence is being preserved because if we file a lawsuit and we find out that it hasn’t been preserved, then at least we may have grounds to bring a motion for sanctions or spoliation of evidence. If that party was aware that they needed

to preserve evidence that we eventually need to prosecute these claims so that adds a different layer to, you know, an accident with, you know, versus just a car just a two car, a regular vehicle accident. 

So how does the process of what, you know, someone should do after an accident change if they’re in an accident with a delivery truck? Are there different steps they should take? That’s maybe a little different

than a typical accident? 

Absolutely, so if someone is in involved in a delivery truck accident, the immediate steps they should take to protect their rights is to call 911, get medical attention, even if the injury is seen minor, document the scene, so take photos of the truck, license plates, insurance information, skid marks, and road conditions, get witness statements. Witness statements can be crucial in proving fault. Avoid speaking to insurance adjusters, they’ll just try to get statements that minimize the claim, and contact an attorney immediately. Corporations like Amazon have teams of lawyers. Victims need strong legal representation from the outset so those are some steps I would take to ensure that they’re protecting their rights after getting involved in a delivery truck accident.

Yeah I’ve heard that they’ll, you know, talking to insurance companies the other insurance company can be, you know, a bad idea, obviously, I think we’ve talked about that on this this podcast as well. Do the adjusters who call on behalf of companies like Amazon or larger delivery companies are they more aggressive? Do they take a different approach than your standard one? 

Yeah so Amazon and other major delivery companies have a legal firewall built around them. They often

claim that their drivers are independent contractors to escape liability. Another tactic is delaying settlements hoping victims give up or accept lowball offers. Insurance companies will also argue comparative negligence, trying to place blame on the victim so successfully overcoming these hurdles requires aggressive litigation, expert testimony, and a clear demonstration of the company’s negligence.

We’ve talked before about how representing yourself is not the best idea. When you get into a car accident, like in any situation, can you talk about how much worse of an idea it is if you’re in an accident with a company like Amazon or a large delivery company? 

Yeah I mean some of the common misconceptions people have when it comes to delivery truck accidents is that they assume Amazon will just take responsibility. Amazon frequently argues that it’s not liable since it uses third-party contractors so, you know, and then the other misconception is if the driver was at fault, I can only sue them. That’s not true, the company may also be liable for unsafe policies, poor training, or

improper vehicle maintenance. The other misconception is I can settle without a lawyer. Big corporations have high powered defense schemes. Without an attorney, victims almost always receive less than they deserve. 

I mean it makes sense, it definitely makes sense. Is there any specific aspect that’s more difficult to prove? Like you said the maintenance logs or the, you know, driver fatigue and all that stuff. What, is there anything that’s easier or more difficult to prove in these cases? 

I would say like I mentioned earlier, the delay layers who’s responsible, makes it a bit more difficult. So it’s not just this individual, this is the owner, this is the insurance company, this is the policy, there are a lot of different layers to this type of delivery truck accident. So understanding who exactly is at fault and how much insurance coverage there is on a case can make it a little bit more difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.

You mentioned that Amazon will try to shift the blame to the third party company saying like oh well we don’t it’s not our driver blah blah blah, does that work for them typically, does it typically not work or what’s what’s the percentage there? 

It typically doesn’t work and I’ll tell you why. If you look at you should look at the UN form of the

driver because if Amazon is giving the perception that they are Amazon employees, even though they later on say that these are third parties employed by somebody else, at least they’re giving the perception that these are Amazon workers. So looking at the uniform, the drivers can tell you, can help you demonstrate that Amazon is the one ultimately, or whoever the company is at front for the in and it’s kind of like they’re just kind of trying to throw the third party per the third party company under the bus to some degree. They try to cast the blame off to somebody else but in New York you can demonstrate that even if it was a third party who employed them, Amazon also does have joint responsibility and is a joint

employer. 

True, Mark what if somebody is involved in a a delivery truck accident, is it more important to retain counsel quickly than in other accidents just from the from the scale and the power of the people

you’re dealing with? 

Absolutely because it’s imperative that you put all of these potential responsible parties on notice of the claim. It’s not as simple as sending a notice of representation to the driver and the insurance company but because there are all these different layers that can determine who’s at fault, it’s important to accurately and quickly send letters of representation putting these potential responsible parties on notice of the plan. 

Do they typically, more often, go to trial less often than a regular vehicle accident or is it about the same?

I would say it depends more on the severity of the injury.

That makes sense.

Whether trial, or not.

Yeah that makes sense. Alright well thank you for tuning in to the Millennial Lawyer Podcast with personal injury attorney Mark Shirian. To connect with Mark, visit shirianpc.com and as always like and subscribe to our channel and leave us a review. Mark, always great having you here. Thanks so much for your time.

Thanks so much man.

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