What You Need to Know About Box Truck Accidents in NYC

by Arye, Lustig & Sassower | Aug 7, 2023 | Truck Accidents

Box trucks are a common sight here in NYC. They’ve been the cause of many accidents, even some surprising ones.

For example, an MTA bus crashed into an illegally parked truck on the Upper East Side last month.

Here are a few things you should know if you’re injured in a box truck accident.

Box Truck Injuries Can Be Just as Severe as 18-Wheeler Injuries

A box truck weighs 8,600 to 26,000 pounds when it’s full. An empty 26-foot box truck weighs 16,000 pounds.

The results of an accident with any vehicle this heavy can be absolutely disastrous. Box truck injuries can lead to catastrophic results that leave victims without the use of their arms or legs, severely disfigured, or suffering from TBIs that forever impact their ability to work, go to school, or socialize.

The Severe Injury Threshold Still Applies

New York remains a no-fault state even when you’re in an accident with a box truck, so you can only sue if you meet the following criteria:

You’ve suffered over $50,000 in economic losses.
You’ve been dismembered or significantly disfigured.
You’ve suffered a fracture.
You’ve suffered the loss of a fetus.
You’ve permanently lost the use of a body organ, member, function, or system or have permanent consequential limitations to a body organ, member, function, or system.
You have a non-permanent injury or impairment that keeps you from performing your usual and customary daily activities for 90 of the 180 days following an accident.

If a spouse, child, or parent dies in a box truck accident, you’re also eligible for a wrongful death lawsuit in most cases.

You May Have a Tough Fight on Your Hands

Big box trucks are run by big companies that don’t want to pay higher insurance premiums and don’t want the PR of losing big personal injury cases. Often, they’ll try to shift responsibility. They’ll claim the driver was an independent contractor, for example. Or the truck was a rental, and the renter was driving it.

You’ll need a lawyer’s help to hold the appropriate insurance company accountable and ensure you’re paid and compensated. These companies will look right at someone with a crushed spine and essentially try to tell them, “Too bad, it’s not on us.”

In addition, they’ll try to make heavy use of New York’s comparative negligence laws to pin as much blame on you as possible so that they can reduce your payout by a significant margin.

An experienced personal injury team will thoroughly investigate every truck accident case to counter these dirty tricks.