Hollywood Truck Accident Lawyer

A loaded tractor-trailer outweighs a passenger car many times over. A box truck making deliveries on a busy Hollywood street weighs less, but it still hits a car or a person with far more force than another driver would. If a truck hit you in Hollywood, the trucking company's insurer may already have an adjuster on your file. Waiting puts you behind. Moe Abdallah Law, P.C. is a Los Angeles firm that handles motor vehicle injury cases only, including truck crashes. This page covers what sets a Hollywood truck case apart: where trucks meet pedestrians and traffic here, the federal rules that bind the carrier, the records that disappear on a schedule, who can be liable, and the local agencies and deadlines. Your first call is free, Moe takes it himself, and you pay nothing unless he wins.

Where trucks and Hollywood traffic collide

Hollywood is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles, and its main routes are the US-101 Hollywood Freeway plus Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Highland Avenue, Vine Street, Cahuenga Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard, Fountain Avenue, Vermont Avenue and Western Avenue. Stores, restaurants and hotels need deliveries, and construction and service trucks work the blocks behind them. We could not find a published count of truck crashes for Hollywood, so we will not give you a number. The city's own work does tell us something. LADOT started its Hollywood Safety and Mobility Project to cut the high number of people killed or severely injured on Hollywood Boulevard between Gower Street and Lyman Place, and Phase 2 runs along Sunset Boulevard from Lyman Place to Fountain Avenue. A large truck on streets like these needs a long stretch to stop, swings wide on turns, and often blocks a driver's or walker's view. Drivers squeeze past a parked delivery truck, and people step out from behind it. Where your crash happened, and what the truck was doing, will shape who is to blame.

Federal trucking rules that can prove what went wrong

A truck driver follows a different rulebook than you do. Federal regulations set hours of service for drivers of property-carrying trucks: no more than 11 hours of driving inside a 14-hour on-duty window after 10 hours off, a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving, and a cap of 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days (49 CFR 395.3). A driver who broke those limits was likely tired, and the logs can show it. After certain crashes, the employer must also test its driver for alcohol and drugs, with alcohol testing stopping at 8 hours and drug testing at 32 hours (49 CFR 382.303). If a test never happened, Moe asks why. Carriers must also carry minimum insurance. For for-hire interstate carriers of non-hazardous property with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more, the federal floor is $750,000, and it rises for hazardous cargo (49 CFR 387.9). A minimum is not a cap, and a serious crash can cost far more. Moe checks these rules against what the driver and company actually did, and a violation can become the center of your claim.

The black box, dash cam and logs disappear on a schedule

After a truck crash, the strongest proof is not in the street. It sits inside the truck and in the carrier's office. The engine control module can record speed, braking and throttle in the seconds before impact. An electronic logging device records the driver's hours. Many fleets run forward and driver-facing cameras, and GPS and dispatch messages show where the truck was and what the company was pushing the driver to do. Maintenance records show whether anyone ever fixed the brakes. Carriers keep some of this for a limited time and overwrite the rest. If nobody demands that it be kept, it can be gone before anyone asks for it. Moe sends preservation letters quickly and, when needed, asks a court to stop the destruction of evidence. You can help in the first days. Photograph the truck, the plate, the company name and the USDOT number on the door. Photograph skid marks and debris. Ask nearby shops and hotels whether their cameras caught the crash. Hollywood has plenty of cameras, and many systems wipe their recordings within days.

Driver, carrier, broker, or the city: who owes you money

Truck cases often have more than one defendant, and finding all of them is how a case reaches its full value. The driver is the obvious one. The company that employs the driver is often liable for what its employee does on the job, and it can also answer for hiring, training or scheduling decisions. A freight broker, a shipper that loaded the truck badly, or a maintenance contractor can share blame. If the truck belonged to a city, county or state agency, the rules change. A public entity is liable for an employee's negligent driving in the scope of employment (Vehicle Code 17001), but you must present a written claim within six months (Government Code 911.2). For the City of Los Angeles, that claim goes to the Office of the City Clerk, 200 North Spring Street, Room 395, and the city says emailed or faxed claims are not accepted. If the city rejects the claim in writing, you have six months to sue (Government Code 945.6). California also limits non-economic damages to each defendant's share of fault under Proposition 51, so Moe works to name every party who contributed. Pure comparative negligence still lets you recover if you share some blame.

LAPD Hollywood, your crash report and the courthouse

The LAPD Hollywood Community Police Station, 1358 N. Wilcox Avenue, 213-972-2971, covers the neighborhood. Its page says traffic and homicide matters go to West Traffic Division and links to a request for a traffic collision report. If your crash happened on the US-101 itself, a different agency may hold the report, so ask the officer at the scene which agency took it. Get the report number right away. Every driver in a crash with an injury, a death or more than $1,000 in damage must also report to the DMV within 10 days (Vehicle Code 16000), so file your own SR-1. Now the deadlines. You have two years to sue a private party for injury or wrongful death (Code of Civil Procedure 335.1), and three years for damage to your car or other property (Code Civ. Proc. 338). Most lawsuits go to Los Angeles Superior Court. The Stanley Mosk Courthouse is at 111 North Hill Street, but we could not confirm which courthouse hears civil injury cases from Hollywood, and Moe checks the filing location before he files.

Truck injuries, care near Hollywood, and how Moe runs your case

Truck crashes cause injuries that change a life. Think spinal cord damage, brain injuries, crushed or broken legs, internal bleeding and burns. CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center at 1300 N. Vermont Avenue has a 24/7 emergency department, but we could not verify a trauma center designation for it, and paramedics may take a badly hurt patient to another hospital. Go to the ER even if you think you are fine, and follow every treatment order. Gaps in care hand the insurer an argument. Moe handles these cases himself. He calls and texts you with updates, sends the preservation letters, collects your records and bills, and values your claim with future treatment and lost income in mind. His results include $105,000 for an uninsured client with a broken sternum, and $30,000 policy limits on several cases, including a head-on crash with femur and ankle fractures and surgery. Every case is different, and past results do not promise a similar outcome. The firm works on contingency, so you owe nothing unless Moe wins. The office is at 527 W 7th St, Ste 924, Los Angeles, and Se Habla Español.

Talk to a Hollywood truck accident lawyer

Call (323) 716-1992 for a free, no-obligation case review. You pay nothing unless we win, and we'll handle the insurance companies for you. Learn more about our truck accidents representation →

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