Waste Management, Inc. is the largest waste hauling company in North America. When you’re dealing with a corporation of that scale operating in your backyard, you are not dealing with a local hauler. You are dealing with a company that has a national legal team, seasoned claims adjusters, and extensive experience minimizing what it pays out after its trucks hurt people.
Rosen Injury Law has spent over 20 years fighting for seriously injured people from truck accidents throughout Fort Lauderdale and Broward County, recovering more than $125 million in the process. If you or a family member was hurt in an accident involving a Waste Management truck, we’re ready to go up against their legal team on your behalf.
Call (954) 787-1500 or complete the short form on our contact page and schedule a free consultation to discuss your claim.
What Makes Fort Lauderdale Waste Management Truck Accidents Complex
A garbage truck accident and a car accident may look similar at the scene. Two vehicles, an intersection, and someone who got the worst of it. But the legal case that follows is a different animal entirely.
Waste Management trucks are commercial motor vehicles subject to federal regulation by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), as incorporated into Florida law through Florida Statute § 316.302. That regulatory layer creates a web of obligations that simply doesn’t exist in a typical Fort Lauderdale car crash. When Waste Management or one of its drivers violates any of those federal regulations and an accident results, those violations are evidence of negligence. They change the legal calculus.
There is also the question of who is responsible. Waste Management is a corporate entity, not an individual. In addition to being vicariously liable for its drivers’ negligence under respondeat superior, the company itself can face direct liability for its own institutional failures — inadequate driver training, lax maintenance protocols, unrealistic route schedules that push drivers past safe operating limits, or a failure to act on documented safety complaints. These are institutional failures, not just human ones, and they require a different kind of investigation to surface.
Then there’s the insurance dimension. Waste Management carries substantial commercial liability coverage — far more than a personal auto policy. Reaching that coverage means building a case strong enough to withstand the scrutiny of experienced commercial defense attorneys, and doing it with evidence gathered and preserved before it disappears.
Liability in Fort Lauderdale Waste Management Truck Accidents
In cases involving a company like Waste Management, the most significant liability often lies with the corporation, not with the individual behind the wheel.
Corporate liability in these cases can arise in various ways, including negligent hiring, inadequate training, negligent supervision, and systemic maintenance failures.
Evidence to prove liability against a company often lives in internal records, driver files, maintenance logs, incident reports, and communications that companies fight hard to keep out of the hands of plaintiffs’ attorneys. Getting to it requires the right legal tools and the willingness to use them.
Florida’s Modified Comparative Negligence Law
Florida’s modified comparative negligence standard under Florida Statutes § 768.81 applies to Waste Management truck accident claims just as it does to any personal injury case in the state. If you bear some share of responsibility for the accident, your compensation is reduced proportionally. If that share reaches 51% or more, you recover nothing.
Waste Management’s defense team will look for any angle that shifts fault percentage onto you — the lane you were in, your speed, whether you were in a designated bike lane, and whether you stopped appropriately. The goal is to push your number up and their client’s number down. Our goal is the opposite: to build a factual record that accurately reflects what happened and resists that effort.
Florida’s two-year statute of limitations gives you time, but not unlimited time. Evidence from these accidents — dashcam footage if the vehicle was equipped, driver logs, GPS route data, maintenance records — can be lost, overwritten, or destroyed if no one issues a legal preservation demand quickly enough. The first thing we do when we take a commercial truck accident case is put the company on notice that evidence must be preserved.
What To Do After an Accident Involving a Waste Management Truck
The actions you take after an accident can dramatically impact your health and your ability to recover compensation for your damages. If you are involved in an accident involving a Waste Management truck, you can help protect yourself by taking these steps:
- Call 911 and wait for law enforcement to arrive.
- Get the truck driver’s name, CDL information, and the specific truck number or vehicle identification visible on the exterior.
- Take photographs or video footage of the accident scene, including the positions of the vehicles, road conditions, traffic signs, any visible injuries, and anything else that seems relevant.
- Obtain the names and contact information of any witnesses before they leave the scene.
- Seek medical attention immediately, even if you do not believe your injuries are severe.
- Follow any treatment plan you are provided and keep all future medical appointments.
- Do not give a recorded statement to Waste Management’s insurance carrier without first speaking with an experienced attorney.
- Stay off social media until your claim is resolved.
Call Rosen Injury Law Today
Waste Management is a large company with practiced legal defenses. They know how these cases work and how to make them difficult. We know how to protect your interests and help you secure the compensation you deserve.
The Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers at Rosen Injury Law have recovered over $125 million for injured clients across more than two decades of practice in Fort Lauderdale and Broward County. We handle your case on a contingency basis, meaning you pay nothing unless we win.
If you or a loved one was injured in an accident involving a Waste Management truck in Fort Lauderdale or anywhere in Broward County, call us today at (954) 787-1500 or complete the short form on our contact page to schedule a free consultation. The sooner we start, the stronger the case we can build.