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Even without any cargo on board, the average tractor-trailer outweighs the average passenger car by thousands of pounds. That gap in total weight gets exponentially bigger once the trailer is filled up with goods to be transported. Like any other machine, though, semi-trucks have maximum amounts of weight they can safely carry, and going over that weight limit can turn an otherwise safe vehicle into a catastrophic accident waiting to happen.
If you were recently injured in an overloaded/overweight truck accident in Harrisburg, there may be more than one party who holds liability for your damages. Without support from a seasoned truck crash attorney, though, you may have substantial trouble getting any compensation at all for those losses, let alone the full amount to which you should be entitled under Pennsylvania civil law.
How Heavy Can Trucks Legally Be on PA Roads?
Under federal law, tractor-trailers traveling on interstate highways or otherwise taking routes that involve them crossing state borders can have a “gross vehicle weight rating”—meaning a total weight across the cab, trailer, and cargo combined—of 80,000 pounds at the absolute most. Additionally, no truck can put:
- More than 20,000 pounds of weight on a single axle
- More than 34,000 pounds on any one tandem axle group, with the underlying assumption being that each of a truck’s axles carries an equal amount of the truck’s gross vehicle weight
Trucks traveling solely within Pennsylvania’s borders are also subject to an 80,000-pound maximum weight limit under most circumstances. However, truckers who apply for and receive special permits can carry oversized loads on pre-approved routes. No matter what type of road they are traveling on, though, any trucker operating a vehicle heavier than 80,000 pounds without a permit is violating the law and breaching the duty of care they owe other people on the road with them. Any such breach that directly leads to that overweight truck getting into a wreck in Harrisburg can serve as grounds for a personal injury lawsuit.
Holding the Right People Accountable for an Overloaded Truck Wreck
One thing that makes litigation over Harrisburg overloaded truck crashes somewhat unique is that individual truck drivers are rarely the ones primarily at fault for them in practical or legal terms. While truck drivers are still expected to know how to operate their vehicles safely even when there are tons of cargo onboard, they typically are not the ones responsible for personally overloading a truck.
Instead, the party most directly liable for this sort of wreck is generally the owner of the truck, who has a legal obligation to abide by legal weight limits and not instruct or allow their drivers to carry unsafe loads. In certain situations, partial fault may also lie with a third-party supplier who inadvertently or intentionally overloaded a particular truck without being instructed to do so by a trucking company or the truck’s driver.
Get Help from a Harrisburg Attorney With an Overloaded/Overweight Truck Accident Lawsuit
Overloaded semi-trucks are harder for their drivers to control, more likely to break down while in motion, and can cause severe damage to anything they come into contact with. Put all that together, and you have an inherently dangerous vehicle that is prohibited by law from operating on public roads. Nevertheless, wrecks involving these vehicles happen every day around the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
A seasoned lawyer from our firm can help you demand fair compensation from the people responsible for causing you harm. Call today to discuss your options for suing over your overloaded/overweight truck accident in Harrisburg.
