Condado de Essex / Nutley / Accidentes de Camión

Nutley Truck Accident Lawyer Condado de Essex, New Jersey

If you were hurt in Hackensack, James Vasquez fights to get you every dollar you are owed. He has represented Bergen County's injured since 2004, and he knows this county seat's I-80, Route 4 and Route 17 corridors, its historic Hackensack River bridges, and the streets around Main Street and Hackensack University Medical Center.

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Car Accidents in Hackensack

The turn that traps people against the kerb

$500 Million

Recovered for New Jersey Families

22 Yrs

Serving New Jersey

On a township grid, most serious truck collisions are not high speed. They happen at walking pace, when a long vehicle turns across the space somebody else is occupying.

A tractor and trailer cannot turn tightly. The driver swings left before turning right so the trailer's rear wheels clear the corner, and that manoeuvre opens a gap on the right that a cyclist, a motorcycle or a small car will move into because it looks like the road. The trailer then closes the gap as it comes round. The rear wheels strike or roll over whoever is in it, and because the impact is at the trailer rather than the cab, the driver frequently has no awareness that contact occurred at all. Federal rules address the visibility side of this directly. Every bus, truck and truck tractor must be equipped with two rear vision mirrors, one at each side, firmly attached to the outside of the vehicle, and so located as to reflect to the driver a view of the highway to the rear along both sides of the vehicle. Those mirrors must meet the federal vehicle safety standard in force when the vehicle was built. The regulation names mirrors rather than devices providing a rearward view, which matters. Camera monitoring systems can be used in place of mirrors only under an exemption granted by the federal agency, and several manufacturers hold them. Where such a system is fitted and fails in service, the vehicle should not continue in operation until it is repaired or compliant mirrors are installed. James Vasquez has handled New Jersey injury claims since 2004.

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Injuries we handle

Commercial vehicle claims we handle in Essex County

Low speed manoeuvres cause the injuries a township grid produces.

yes Accident Facts

Where Nutley truck collisions happen

A township grid with two highways at its edges and deliveries throughout.

Centre Street and Washington Avenue

Intersections designed for cars where a long vehicle cannot complete a turn without crossing into space others are using.

What to establish: whether the mirrors gave a view along both sides, which is what the federal requirement demands.

The residential grid

Narrow streets where large vehicles must reverse to position, and where the area directly behind a trailer is invisible from the cab.

What to establish: whether a spotter was used and what the carrier's own procedures required for reversing on residential streets.

The former corporate campus approaches

Larger vehicles serving redevelopment, manoeuvring in and out of sites onto public roads throughout the working day.

What to establish: whether the vehicle should have been on that route at all, which is a separate question from how it was manoeuvred.

Franklin Avenue

The main commercial street, with delivery vehicles turning into side streets and service entrances among pedestrians and parked cars.

What to establish: the geometry of the turn, because a wide swing followed by a closing trailer is a recognised mechanism rather than an unlucky coincidence.

Route 3 and Route 21 approaches

Traffic joining and leaving the highways, where vehicles sit in the long blind spot along a trailer's right side for extended periods.

What to establish: where each vehicle was in the seconds before the manoeuvre, which telematics and camera systems frequently record.

Around the Third River and park approaches

People on foot crossing where a truck's front blind spot, extending some distance ahead of the bumper, puts them below the driver's line of sight.

What to establish: the height and position of the person relative to the cab, since a pedestrian close to the front of a truck can be entirely out of view.

In each of these the mirrors, any camera system and the vehicle's own recordings are the evidence, and all three are on a vehicle that gets repaired.

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What The Rules Require

Four points about mirrors and visibility

Confirm current provisions and any applicable exemption before relying on this.

Two mirrors, both sides

Every bus, truck and truck tractor must have two rear vision mirrors, one at each side, so located as to reflect a view of the highway to the rear along both sides of the vehicle.

They must meet the federal standard

Regulated mirrors and their replacements must meet, as a minimum, the federal vehicle safety standard for mirrors in force at the time the vehicle was manufactured.

Narrow exceptions only

One outside mirror suffices only where the vehicle is constructed so the driver has a rear view by interior mirror, and there are limited allowances for older vehicles and driveaway operations.

Only under an exemption

The regulation names mirrors. Camera monitoring systems replace them only under an exemption from the federal agency, and where such a system fails the vehicle should not continue in operation.

Compliance with the mirror rule is not the end of it. Mirrors do not cover every area around a large vehicle, which is why what the driver did matters as much as what they could see. For how trucking claims work statewide, see the truck accident practice area page.

An Honest Point

Two things about blind spot arguments

One helps the claim and one has to be confronted.

Mirrors alone have not solved this

Denmark required trucks to carry additional mirrors intended to eliminate right side blind spots, and published statistics indicated the requirement did not reduce deaths in right turn collisions. That is worth knowing because it cuts against a simple argument that better mirrors would have prevented everything. What it supports is a different point. Where a hazard is known to persist despite equipment, the burden shifts toward how the manoeuvre was performed, whether a spotter was used, and what the carrier trained and required.

I did not see them is not an answer

Expect the driver's account to be that the person was not visible. In a right turn squeeze that may well be true, and it does not resolve the claim, because the manoeuvre is known to create the trap. A driver executing a turn that closes a gap they cannot see into is responsible for satisfying themselves it is clear before committing, and the carrier is responsible for training and procedures that address a mechanism this well documented.

Know Before You Call

Three rules about visibility and manoeuvring

Federal requirements, applicable wherever the vehicle was operating.

49 C.F.R. 393.80

Rear vision mirrors on both sides

Every bus, truck and truck tractor must be equipped with two rear vision mirrors, one at each side, firmly attached to the outside of the vehicle, and so located as to reflect to the driver a view of the highway to the rear along both sides of the vehicle, meeting the applicable federal vehicle safety standard.

Camera Monitoring Systems

Permitted only by exemption

The regulation names mirrors rather than devices generally, so camera systems may be used in place of them only under an exemption granted by the federal agency. Several manufacturers hold such exemptions, and where a system fails in service the vehicle should not continue in operation until it is repaired or compliant mirrors are fitted.

49 C.F.R. 396.7

Unsafe operation forbidden

A commercial vehicle may not be operated in a condition likely to cause an accident or a breakdown. A vehicle with a missing, broken or misadjusted mirror, or a failed camera system standing in for one, is not merely non compliant on paper.

Maintenance requirements, routing restrictions, hours of service and coverage are covered on the truck accident practice area page and the Nutley personal injury page.

What to secure

The vehicle carries most of it and does not carry it long.

Photograph the mirrors and any cameras

Their presence, condition and adjustment. A missing, cracked or misadjusted mirror is a documented failure and it is fixed within days.

Demand any onboard footage

Forward and side facing cameras are increasingly fitted, and they record exactly the manoeuvre in dispute. Retention cycles are short.

Establish the turn geometry

Where the vehicle began the swing, where it ended, and where you were. Resting positions and scene measurements answer this better than accounts.

Ask what the carrier required

Procedures for reversing, spotters, and manoeuvring on residential streets are the company's own documents and they set the standard it accepted.

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James Vasquez

Antes de que James Vasquez representara a su primera persona lesionada, se sentaba al otro lado de la mesa. Como exfiscal y abogado de defensa de aseguradoras, pasó años aprendiendo exactamente cómo se ganan y se pierden estos casos.

Ahora lo usa a su favor. Cuando los ajustadores y los abogados contrarios se enfrentan a James, se enfrentan a alguien que ha leído su manual, ha litigado en sus tribunales y sabe con precisión dónde se quiebran sus argumentos.

Con sede en Clifton y sirviendo a los condados de Passaic, Morris y Essex, su firma le brinda a cada cliente la atención personal de James, respaldada por un equipo que conoce su expediente a fondo.