Loading Dock Accidents

Many businesses use loading docks for their essential operations. Unfortunately, loading docks are frequently dangerous places to be located. Without appropriate training and equipment and maintenance, these sites can be challenging places to work. Around a quarter of industrial accidents occur at a loading dock. There are many near misses, as well as catastrophic injuries and deaths. These types of truck accidents can be serious. If you were injured in a loading dock accident or a loved one was killed in one, you may be able to recover damages. For the best available outcome, it is necessary to contact plaintiff’s attorneys who may be able to represent you. You should give the Syracuse truck accident lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano a call. We have a record of success and have obtained more than $100 million in verdicts.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has recommended that workers remain highly conscious of their surroundings when they are walking around a loading dock area or operating a forklift. Syracuse loading dock accidents may involve crushing injuries, amputations, cogs that fit together, defective machinery, toppling or falling forklifts, defective machinery, and falling debris or objects. In some cases, toxic chemicals are spilled or emitted around loading docks. Areas of a warehouse used to load and unload these chemicals can become flooded with poisonous gases. It is critical for companies to install carbon monoxide alarms and ventilation for the protection of both employees and nonemployees such as visitors to the site or contractors. However, often, loading dock accidents involve blunt force trauma injuries involving truck collisions or spills.

Sometimes truck drivers at a loading dock are not careful in moving forward or backing up. Someone walking behind a truck could be struck. In other cases, a truck driver may collide with another vehicle or misjudge the distance between his truck and the loading dock, pinning a person in place and causing crushing injuries or amputations. If you were injured at a loading dock due to a fault of another, you may be able to recover damages.

There are different theories under which liability for a truck accident may be established. However, in most cases, damages are pursued under a theory of negligence. If you were injured through the fault of another in a loading dock accident, you may be able to recover damages by proving it's more likely than not: (1) you were owed a duty of reasonable care, (2) breach of the duty of care, (3) causation, and (4) damages. It may be important to retain an expert to determine whose fault the accident was.

Your damages can be reduced under a theory of comparative negligence when you are partially to blame for a truck accident. For instance, if you intentionally walked behind a truck when it was backing up into a loading dock, assuming the driver would see you and stop, and as a result of getting pinned, your legs were crushed, you may bear some responsibility for what happened to you. It is likely that the truck driver, its employer and the company’s insurer would try to pin the blame on you for your own injuries. Under a theory of pure comparative negligence, your damages can be reduced by an amount proportionate to your fault.

If we’re able to show a defendant is responsible for injuries arising out of a loading dock accident, we may be able to recover compensatory damages on your behalf. These are damages intended to put you back in the position you would have found yourself had you not been involved in the accident. Depending on the circumstances and the nature of the injuries, damages in a truck accident at a loading dock may include:

• Medical bills
• Rehabilitation bills
• Therapy
• Emotional distress
• Loss of enjoyment
• Pain and suffering.

We may need to retain experts to establish items of loss. For example, when proving lost earning capacity in connection with a loading dock accident that results in spinal cord injuries, we may need to retain an economist to provide an expert opinion. The economist may be able to opine on how many years you had left to earn and what improvements to your income are likely to have occurred during that time.

The Syracuse attorneys of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano may be able to represent you if you were injured in a loading dock accident. We have years of experience representing truck accident victims and understand the tactics that defense counsel and insurers are likely to use. We represent accident victims in Rochester, Auburn, Watertown, Oswego, Lowville, Wampsville, Canandaigua, Lyons, Ithaca, Cooperstown, Oneida, Utica, Herkimer, Binghamton, and Elmira. Complete our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.