Hit by a Truck? Call us!

In New Zealand, most lawyers have to have general practices, rather like doctors who are GPs. But in the States, you can specialise to your heart’s content, which is why there are so many truck accident lawyers listed. I guess because the population in the US is so much bigger there are that many more truck accidents, and seemingly it’s not easy to get recompense if you’re hit by a great thundering vehicle roaring along the highway. (Although when you look at the movies, the number of near misses and fatal crashes with trucks is phenomenal. Guess they’re that much more spectacular – and they’ve got to keep the stuntmen in work.)
The other difference between NZ and the States is that we have Accident Compensation. You don’t have to go after some huge firm by yourself: the ACC will do it for you. And though we complain about Accident Compensation Corporation a good deal, it has stopped a lot of unnecessary legal feuds.
Not that I want to be hit by a truck any time soon just to prove it…

Transfer Tank

I’d never heard of a transfer tank until today – or at least, if I have, it’s never registered with me. It appears to be something that you hold gallons of petrol in, if you’re a truckie, and like all such things, they come in various shapes and sizes. Of course you could no doubt hold any kind of liquid in it, but I suspect petrol is the norm.
Of course, it isn’t the sort of thing you cart about with you, even without the 74 gallons some of them hold. I suspect it might be just on the heavy side, even for the average truckdriver. I’m working my way towards this, you realise, but I suspect I’ve seen these things on the sides of those enormous trucks that bear down on us while we’re driving on the English motorways. Of course I haven’t noticed anything while we driving; keeping my eyes firmly fixed on the road has been about all I can do at the time. But when we stop in one of those parking spaces on the side of the road, and an enormous truck pulls in beside us and threatens to crush us in the process, that’s when I’ve seen a transfer tank.