Riders of all kinds, whether on motorcycles cruising down Highway 45 or on bicycles navigating the Oak Leaf Trail through Milwaukee County, share the road with delivery vehicles every single day. When something goes wrong, it often leads to very serious injuries. Whether you were riding a motorcycle on I-94 near the Marquette Interchange or pedaling your bicycle through the Third Ward, the injuries from a collision with a large commercial vehicle can be life-altering.
Who is responsible for the biker’s injuries? The answer is rarely as simple as “the truck driver.” Wisconsin law allows injured riders to pursue claims against multiple parties at once, which matters a lot when you’re facing serious medical bills and lost time from work. Let the experienced accident attorneys at Warshafsky Law Firm help you understand your rights. We will help you navigate through the personal injury claim process whether you were on a motorcycle or a bicycle. The law is designed to protect you, not penalize you for being on two wheels.
What Is an Accident Claim Worth?
Medical costs after a serious bike or motorcycle accident can run into tens of thousands of dollars quickly. Add lost wages, long-term rehabilitation, and the pain and disruption to your daily life, and the numbers climb fast. In our experience, cases involving delivery truck collisions often involve more potential compensation than a standard two-car accident, largely because of who may be liable.
Wisconsin law allows injured riders to seek compensation for medical treatment, lost income, future care needs, property damage, and pain and suffering. The actual value of any individual case depends on the specific facts, including how serious the injuries are, how clear the fault is, and how many parties are involved. We’ve seen clients with significant recoveries in situations like these. We’ve also seen cases where the injured rider’s own actions complicated things. That’s why the details matter so much.
Who Is Responsible When a Delivery Truck Caused My Crash?
The driver is only the starting point. If the driver ran a red light on Water Street, failed to check mirrors for bikers before opening a door, or made a wide right turn across a bicycle lane on North Avenue without looking, that driver’s negligence may be the primary cause of the crash. But the driver alone may not be the only person you can hold accountable.
The delivery company itself can often be brought into the picture. Under a legal principle called respondeat superior, which roughly translates to “let the employer answer,” a company may be responsible for the negligent actions its employees take while doing their jobs. A driver making deliveries is acting within the scope of their employment. That means the company behind the truck, which often carries far more insurance coverage than an individual driver, may share liability for what happened to you.
If the truck had a mechanical problem, like faulty brakes or a defective mirror system, the vehicle manufacturer or a maintenance contractor could potentially be brought in as well. And if a poorly designed intersection, missing signage, or a road defect on a Milwaukee County or Waukesha County road contributed to the crash, there may be a claim against a government entity, although those cases have their own procedural requirements and shorter filing deadlines.
How Does Wisconsin’s Fault System Affect Your Claim?
Wisconsin follows what’s called modified comparative negligence. The practical effect is that your negligence is compared separately with each person at fault, and your compensation is reduced by the percentage of fault assigned to you. So, if a jury finds you were 20 percent responsible for the collision, you’d recover 80 percent of your total damages.
There’s a cutoff, though. You cannot recover from a person whose negligence is less than yours. That threshold matters enormously, and it’s something insurance companies know very well. In our experience, adjusters often try to push the fault percentage assigned to riders upward, sometimes by pointing to speed, lane positioning, or whether a motorcyclist was wearing a helmet. On that last point: Wisconsin law generally does not require riders over 18 to wear a helmet, and not wearing one does not automatically bar a recovery. The law is more nuanced than insurers sometimes imply.
The timing here is CRITICAL. Evidence in these cases disappears fast. Dashcam footage from the delivery truck gets overwritten. Skid marks fade. Witnesses move on. The sooner an investigation gets started, the better positioned you are to push back against an inflated fault percentage.
What Should You Do After a Delivery Truck Collision in Wisconsin?
Get medical attention, even if you feel okay at the scene. Adrenaline masks a lot. Injuries that seem minor on Miller Park Way at 2 p.m. can turn out to be serious by evening. A medical record created immediately following the accident is important evidence for your claim.
Avoid making statements to the delivery company’s insurance agent before speaking with your own lawyer. Insurance adjusters are trained to gather information that can be used to reduce what they pay out. That’s not cynicism. That’s just how the process works. You have the right to consult with counsel before giving any recorded statement.
Wisconsin law generally gives injured riders three years from the date of the accident to bring a personal injury claim. That window sounds long, but the practical reality is that cases built on strong, early evidence tend to do better than cases assembled from memory months later. We encourage people to reach out early, not because of pressure, but because early consultation genuinely prevents problems down the road.
If you or someone you care about was hit by a delivery truck in Milwaukee, Waukesha, or anywhere in southeastern Wisconsin, the legal team at Warshafsky Law Firm is here to help you understand your options. We handle these cases on a contingency basis, meaning you pay nothing unless we recover for you. Contact us today.
