Walmart Truck Accidents in Florida
Representing Floridians injured by Walmart truck drivers in Miami & throughout Florida
According to Walmart’s website, there are well over 300 Walmart retail locations currently operating across the state of Florida. In order to keep these locations up and running, Walmart’s commercial vehicle fleet must travel thousands of miles every day through some of our state’s busiest corridors. Here in Miami, it’s not unusual to see Walmart trucks navigating up and down I-95, as well as traversing local roadways along distribution routes.
Walmart’s fleet is one of the largest in the nation, and the brand has frequently been recognized for its relative safety on the road. Even with this reputation on its side, Walmart’s fleet isn’t immune to accidents. Because of the relative size of these vehicles, even a seemingly minor accident can have disastrous consequences for other involved parties.
At Hickey Law Firm, our Miami truck accident lawyers represent individuals and families harmed in collisions involving Walmart trucks. We understand the unique challenges involved in any case involving a major corporation, and we are ready and willing to stand up to these companies when they harm members of our community.
If you or someone you love was injured in a Walmart truck accident, contact our team to learn more about your legal options and discover whether you may be entitled to compensation under Florida law.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Walmart’s commercial fleet safe?
- Common causes of Walmart truck accidents
- Determining liability in a Walmart truck accident
- Florida’s comparative fault system
- What compensation is available in a Walmart truck accident case?
- The challenges of taking on a company like Walmart
- Speak with a Miami Walmart truck accident lawyer today
Is Walmart’s commercial fleet safe?
As online shopping and interstate commerce continue to gain momentum within the U.S. economy, lawmakers and community members alike have raised valid questions about how motorists can safely share the road with a growing number of commercial freight vehicles. In light of growing public interest in commercial truck safety, Walmart’s private fleet has been recognized on multiple occasions for its safety efforts.
For example, in 2020, Walmart’s fleet was recognized by the American Trucking Associations (ATA) as number one in both National Truck Safety and National Industrial Safety. Walmart has also been applauded for its emphasis on providing safe and considerate working conditions for its truck drivers. The private fleet offers highly competitive starting salaries for its drivers in addition to other attractive benefits.
These efforts all help to attract well-qualified drivers and may incentivize employees to exercise greater caution and conscientiousness when they’re on the job. Even with these initiatives in place, however, Walmart has not been able to mitigate all possible risks associated with commercial truck accidents.
Over the last 24 months, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has logged almost 800 traffic crashes involving Walmart vehicles. Of these accidents, roughly 242 resulted in physical injuries and 35 involved fatalities. In many of these cases, victims and their loved ones suffered significant losses ranging from hospital bills to funeral costs and many things in between. While some truck accidents are unavoidable, others are the result of someone’s negligence and could have been prevented if reasonable care had been shown by the involved parties.
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Common causes of Walmart truck accidents
Even a relatively safe fleet of trucks can be susceptible to human errors and other factors that increase the likelihood of a crash. At the national level, truck accidents are frequently linked to driver errors, but equipment malfunctions and environmental hazards can also play a role in these accidents.
The FMCSA’s safety regulations provide a clear framework for safety protocols and best practices. Unfortunately, violations of these regulations can still occur – even in a fleet like Walmart’s. This isn't just a question of on-paper compliance. Violations of safety regulations can cause or contribute to accidents in real life.
Some common causes of Walmart truck accidents include:
- Driver fatigue
- Distracted driving
- Driving under the influence
- Speeding
- Aggressive driving and road rage
- Improper lane changes
- Visibility problems
- Roadway hazards like debris or standing water
- Equipment malfunctions like brake failures or steering problems
- Tire blowouts
These are just a few examples of factors that can increase the likelihood of a truck accident. Every crash is different, and most cases require thorough investigations to determine whose actions – if any – likely contributed to the collision. Sometimes, negligence happens at the individual level, such as on the part of the driver. Other times, truck accidents can be traced back to corporate negligence. If an investigation reveals that Walmart was aware of unsafe conditions and failed to remedy them or that the corporation encouraged unsafe behaviors in some way, the company itself could share some level of responsibility for any crash that occurs as a result.
An experienced truck accident lawyer can help you investigate all potential sources of liability in your crash and work with you to determine whether Walmart itself could be considered legally responsible for a portion of your losses.
Determining liability in a Walmart truck accident
As noted above, determining liability for a Walmart truck accident can be complicated because responsibility may fall to more than one party. Your ability to pursue a claim for compensation will likely hinge on a determination of negligence, so you've got to show that the other party involved in your case owed you a legal duty of care and caused you identifiable harm by violating that duty.
In the case of a Walmart truck accident, there may be evidence to suggest that the driver’s negligence caused or contributed to your crash. You may also be able to build a claim against Walmart based on corporate negligence. Walmart operates a large private fleet and employs many of its drivers directly, which can increase the likelihood that the company may be held responsible for employee conduct under certain circumstances.
This is a major distinguishing factor in these cases, as many other corporations outsource certain logistics operations to third parties. Under Walmart’s logistics framework, truck accident victims may be able to draw a clearer path between their injuries and Walmart’s actions, depending on the facts of their case.
Even still, negligence and liability can take several different forms in a Walmart truck crash. Some examples of potentially liable parties include:
- A driver hired by Walmart who causes or contributes to a crash by violating safety regulations or breaking traffic laws
- Walmart itself, if the company’s negligence in hiring, training, or supervising its employees played a role in a crash
- A third-party maintenance professional whose poor service quality contributed to a mechanical failure that led to a crash
- A truck or parts manufacturer whose defective vehicle or component contributed to a truck accident
Again, these cases can be complicated. Working with an experienced truck accident lawyer can help survivors clarify questions about liability and develop more comprehensive strategies for pursuing compensation. An attorney can conduct a thorough investigation to identify and analyze data like driver logs, maintenance records, black box data records and policy documents to determine what factors may have contributed to an accident and who should be subsequently held accountable.
Florida’s comparative fault system
An important caveat to the previous discussion about sources of liability is that Florida follows a modified comparative negligence system. Under this system, every party involved in an accident will have its share of the fault assessed following the crash before any compensation changes hands.
In Florida, you may still be entitled to compensation even if you were partially to blame for your own accident. However, there is a threshold you need to be aware of. You may only recover compensation from another involved party if you were 50% or less to blame for the crash. If you were more than 50% responsible, you’ll be barred from recovering compensation under Florida law.
Another important asterisk: Even if you were less than 50% responsible, your recovery options may be limited. Generally, your damages will be reduced by a percentage commensurate with your level of fault. In practice, that means a driver who was found 25% responsible will have their damage award reduced by 25%.
Insurance companies and top-dollar corporate defense teams like those employed by Walmart often try to use this system to their advantage. They may attempt to shift blame for a crash onto a victim or exaggerate the victim’s share of the fault. Working with experienced legal representation can take some of the guesswork out of this process and can help injured parties feel more confident when going toe-to-toe with a multibillion-dollar company.
What compensation is available in a Walmart truck accident case?
Large truck accidents can result in serious injuries that lead survivors to suffer a variety of primary and secondary losses in the months and years following a crash. Some victims require long-term rehabilitative care or find themselves unable to return to their pre-accident work duties due to their injuries. Over time, the costs of these injuries can pile up and become a major source of distress for survivors and their families.
To help address some of these losses, injured truck accident victims may be able to pursue compensation for certain economic and non-economic damages. Depending on the facts of your case, these can include things like hospital bills and surgery costs, and can even extend to intangible losses like emotional trauma.
Your truck accident lawyer can help you gather the documentation you need to calculate the value of your claim. They may even consult with other experts, like life care planners or medical professionals, to get an even clearer picture of the costs. Florida does not impose a cap on economic or non-economic damages in most cases, so you and your legal team can pursue claims that accurately represent the value of your reasonable losses.
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The challenges of taking on a company like Walmart
Walmart is a major corporation with ample resources at its disposal. When one of their trucks is involved in a traffic accident, the company can and may very well leverage those resources to protect its bottom line.
Walmart has top-tier legal professionals on their payroll, and these teams know what it takes to fight back against claims of liability. What’s more, Walmart may be self-insured for many risks related to a truck crash. That means a truck accident victim may find themselves communicating with in-house or company-affiliated claims representatives rather than standard insurance adjusters.
In-house legal and insurance teams work to preserve the company’s interests, so they may be more likely to leverage claims of comparative negligence or attempt to downplay a survivor’s valuation of their losses. That’s why you need an experienced truck accident lawyer who knows how to negotiate with corporate teams and who can help you access the evidence and resources you need to support your claim and hold your ground.
Speak with a Miami Walmart truck accident lawyer today
If you were injured in a traffic accident involving a Walmart truck, you don’t have to take on their corporate defense or insurance teams alone. These cases are complicated and can easily become heavily disputed, and you deserve to have an experienced legal team on your side.
At Hickey Law Firm, we understand how hard it can be to build a successful claim against a major corporation or its employees. Nevertheless, we are committed to helping members of our South Florida community advocate for their rights after being injured in a preventable truck crash. Walmart has plenty of funds and resources, but the team at Hickey Law Firm has the grit, experience, and confidence it takes to tackle these cases head-on.
If you or a loved one was injured in a Walmart truck accident in Miami, we’d love to learn more about your case. Fill out our online contact form or stop by our Miami office at 12150 SW 128th Ct., Suite 225, to speak with a member of our team, and let’s discuss whether you may have the basis for a claim against Walmart or one of its employees.