The León Law Firm has published a guide breaking down what typically causes a truck to jackknife, from braking technique to trailer maintenance, and who can end up legally responsible when one causes a crash.
-- SUGAR LAND, Texas. The León Law Firm has published a guide explaining what typically causes a jackknife accident and who can end up responsible when one happens on a Texas highway.
A jackknife occurs when a truck's trailer swings out and folds against the cab, a motion that usually starts with hard braking. Wet pavement makes the problem worse, and so does an empty or lightly loaded trailer, since there's less weight pressing the tires into the road. Worn brakes and mismatched braking power between the tractor and trailer can push a routine stop into something the driver can no longer control.
According to the firm, insurance adjusters sometimes frame these crashes as unavoidable, blaming bad weather or a sudden hazard in the road. Whether that explanation holds up usually comes down to the paper trail a truck leaves behind. A device required on most commercial trucks logs speed and braking in enough detail to settle the question of how fast a driver was really going. Whether the brakes had been properly maintained shows up in the carrier's own inspection files, assuming those files get requested before they're gone. If a dash camera happened to be running, its footage can say more about the seconds before a crash than any bystander ever could.
The driver isn't necessarily the only one who ends up answering for a jackknife crash. If that driver was on duty and running a dispatched route, Texas law generally lets the trucking company share the blame too. Sometimes the company's own choices are the real issue, like putting an unqualified driver behind the wheel or letting required maintenance slide. And if cargo wasn't properly secured before the trip started, whoever loaded that trailer can end up pulled into the case as well, separate from the trucking company itself.
The guide also notes that Texas follows a modified comparative fault rule, meaning a person's own recovery shrinks by their share of the blame and disappears entirely if they're found more than half responsible.
The full guide is available at https://theleonlawfirm.com/jackknife-accident-causes-and-liability-texas/, and more on the firm's truck accident practice, including its broader vehicle accident work, is available at https://theleonlawfirm.com/18-wheeler-accident-lawyer/ and https://theleonlawfirm.com/vehicle-accident-lawyers/.
About The León Law Firm: The León Law Firm, P.C. is a Sugar Land, Texas personal injury firm representing accident and injury victims statewide, with bilingual representation in English and Spanish. More information is available at https://theleonlawfirm.com/about-law-firm/.
Contact Info:
Name: Carlos Leon
Email: Send Email
Organization: The León Law Firm, P.C.
Address: 1 Sugar Creek Center Boulevard, Sugar Land, TX 77478, United States
Website: https://theleonlawfirm.com
Source: NewsNetwork
Release ID: 89201498
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