While the crash did not happen near St. Joseph, Missouri, a truck accident in Utah has provided a prime example of the types of compensation that accident victims can recover in a successful personal injury lawsuit.
Truck Crashes into Restaurant
The incident happened in Wellington, Utah. Initial reports indicate that a tractor trailer was traveling too fast for difficult weather conditions, lost control, and veered off Route 6. The truck slammed into a Mexican restaurant on the side of the road, causing the building to completely collapse.
The restaurant was open at the time of the crash. Three people were brought to the hospital, though the injuries are reportedly minor.
The area had been hit with the same snowstorm currently plaguing the St. Joseph area. The road at issue had a 40 mile-per-hour speed limit, but was slick with snow and ice.
A Victim’s Legal Damages After an Accident
After a motor vehicle accident, victims can suffer a wide variety of losses. Some of them are physical, like the pain and suffering that they sustain from their injuries. Others are emotional, like the loss of life’s enjoyments from their new disabilities, even if only temporary, and the emotional distress they feel. Finally, there are financial losses, as well, like the costs of medical expenses.
One of these financial losses come in the form of professional repercussions created by the accident. Victims lose wages while they recover, and can struggle to return to work in the same role as before the incident, standing to lose income in the long run, as well.
Lost Business is a Recoverable Damage in Personal Injury Lawsuits
Not everyone is a salaried employee who earns a wage, though. Many people earn a living in alternative or non-traditional ways.
Like the restaurant owners whose building was just flattened by a truck. Without the restaurant, the owners are going to be hard pressed to earn an income, and their plight happened through no fault of their own. They were, in this sense quite literally, minding their own business when a truck knocked their restaurant down.
The personal injury law in Missouri recognizes that business owners should not be left out of luck just because their income did not come in the form of an hourly wage or yearly salary. They deserve to be compensated for the professional losses they have sustained as a result of someone else’s negligence, just like everyone else.
The only thing different between recovering lost business, as opposed to lost wages, is in proving the extent of the damage. While lost wages can be shown by how much time was missed at work and how much a victim made in an hour, proving lost business requires much more. Providing tax returns and bank statements can show how much income one would have expected from the business while it is out of commission. This is just a baseline, though: Expert testimony about the regional and even the local economy can help to show that the business was expected to get stronger in the future and earn even more.
St. Joseph Car Accident Lawyers at the Smith Law Office
Recovering the business you have lost as a result of a car accident can be a huge part of your personal injury lawsuit. The attorneys at the Smith Law Office know this, and can help you recover what you deserve. Contact them online or call their St. Joseph law office at (816) 875-9373.