When drivers and passengers suffer injuries in car crashes, they can suffer debilitating injuries that leave them incapacitated for a significant period. In some instances, car crash victims may end up with permanent, lifelong complications.
The value of a car accident claim varies from case to case. However, one of the essential steps to maximize monetary damages is to retain an experienced car accident lawyer to represent you as soon as possible.
A lawyer can meet with you to discuss your car crash and how it happened. Your lawyer can also help you determine if you can file a personal injury claim or lawsuit seeking monetary damages. If you qualify to file a claim, your lawyer can assist you with every step of the process and work to recover the maximum amount of damages available to you in your case.
Types of Car Accidents that Frequently Result from Driver Error
When drivers operate their vehicles carelessly and negligently, they significantly increase their chances of causing severe car accidents. The type of car accident that ultimately occurs will depend upon the circumstances. The most common car accident types include rear-end crashes, head-on collisions, sideswipe accidents, and broadside accidents.
A rear-end collision happens when the front of one vehicle strikes the back of another vehicle. In many rear-end crash scenarios, the at-fault driver is not observing the road. The force of a rear-end collision may cause an accident victim’s body to move forward and backward in their seat very rapidly. Consequently, a part of their body might forcefully strike something in their vehicle, like the headrest, steering wheel, dashboard, door frame, or window, causing serious injuries.
On the other hand, a head-on collision happens when the fronts of two vehicles strike one another. Also, in a head-on collision, the vehicles travel opposite directions. These accidents sometimes occur when drivers become distracted and negligently cause their vehicle to veer across the center line or concrete median strip, crashing with an oncoming vehicle. When vehicles are travelling at high rates of speed, severe injuries and fatalities may result.
Sideswipe accidents are another type of car accident that occurs regularly. These accidents happen when the sides of two vehicles strike one another while travelling in the same direction but in different travel lanes. In some instances, the force of a sideswipe collision might push the vehicle on the receiving end out of their travel lane or entirely off the road.
Finally, some car collisions involve broadside, or T-bone, accidents. In this accident, the front of a vehicle hits the side of a vehicle travelling on an adjacent roadway. Sometimes, these accidents are so forceful that the vehicle on the receiving end overturns or spins around rapidly, causing the occupants serious injuries.
If you suffered injuries in one of these car accidents that resulted from driver error, you should speak with a knowledgeable car crash lawyer right away. Your lawyer can investigate the circumstances of your accident and, if necessary, retain an accident reconstructionist to piece together how the accident occurred. An accident reconstructionist can visit the accident scene, review police reports, and speak with eyewitnesses to the crash. Your lawyer can then help you file a personal injury claim seeking the monetary damages you deserve.
Car Accidents Injuries
When one car strikes another car with a significant amount of force, the occupants of the second vehicle may suffer serious injuries. An accident victim’s injuries will depend upon the energy of the collision, how their body moves in the car, and whether or not a part of their body strikes something in the vehicle during the crash.
Typical car accident injuries include traumatic head and brain damage, internal organ injuries, bruises, open lacerations, soft tissue contusions, fractures, spinal cord injuries, and full or partial paralysis injuries.
As soon as possible after a car crash, you should seek medical treatment at a local urgent care center or hospital emergency room. You should seek this treatment even if you are unsure about the extent of your injuries. This is because even minor injuries can become far worse going forward. Moreover, symptoms of some injuries—like traumatic head and brain injuries and soft tissue contusions do not always manifest right away. Instead, those injuries might take days or weeks to become fully apparent.
At a hospital emergency room or urgent care center, the medical provider on duty can physically examine you and order the necessary imaging studies, including CT scans, X-rays, and MRIs, to diagnose your medical condition accurately.
The provider can also make recommendations for future medical treatment, ensuring that you receive the necessary care. Depending upon your injuries, you might need to follow up with a physical therapist, primary care doctor, neurologist, or orthopedist, for ongoing medical care.
While you focus most of your attention on getting the medical treatment you need, a knowledgeable personal injury lawyer can start advocating for your legal interests.
First, your lawyer can gather lost wage documents from your employer, photographs of your injuries, pictures of property damage, police reports, and medical records to date and begin to assemble a settlement demand package on your behalf. Once your medical treatment is complete, your lawyer can forward this demand package to the insurance company handling your claim and pursue favourable settlement compensation on your behalf.
Ways That Car Crashes Happen
In most cases, car accidents happen when people drive negligently. A negligent driver deviates from the standard of care in some way, usually by acting unreasonably under the circumstances. Some of the most prevalent causes of car accidents include road rule violations, road rage, distracted driving, and intoxicated driving.
Laws concerning motor vehicle speeds, rights-of-way, and turn signal use are in place to keep drivers and their passengers as safe as possible. When drivers violate these road regulations, they significantly increase their chances of causing a traffic accident that leads to injuries and property damage.
In addition to road rule violations, some car crashes happen when drivers exhibit road rage. Road rage is a driver’s improper and unwarranted reaction to roadway situations that arise. Many drivers show road rage when they are in a hurry and attempt to get ahead of other traffic quickly.
Common road rage driving maneuvers include:
- Failing to use turn signals at the appropriate times.
- Aggressively weaving in and out of busy highway traffic.
- Tailgating other vehicles.
When drivers exhibit one or more of these aggressive maneuvers, they may inadvertently cause an accident that severely injures others.
Distracted driving, on the other hand, happens when drivers fail to pay sufficient attention to the road. Instead of watching the road, they might be fiddling with a GPS navigation system, using their cell phone to send a text message, roughhousing with vehicle occupants, or listening to loud music in their vehicle. When a driver turns their head away from the road or looks down even if just for a second or two that may be sufficient time to miss seeing another vehicle or a pedestrian in the vicinity, causing severe damage.
Finally, some car crashes happen when drivers are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. A passenger vehicle driver who drives their vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or higher is legally intoxicated. However, minor drivers who are under 21 years old and commercial vehicle drivers, including tractor-trailer drivers, must follow stricter standards of care.
Intoxicated driving is dangerous because alcohol as a depressant significantly slows down a driver’s reaction time. Consequently, a driver may be unable to stop their vehicle in time to avoid a severe crash. Moreover, alcohol can affect a driver’s vision and prevent them from even seeing a vehicle or pedestrian nearby.
If you suffered injuries in a car crash that another driver caused, you have legal options and rights available to you. A knowledgeable car accident lawyer can explain all of your options to you in clear and easy-to-understand terms, helping you make informed and intelligent decisions in your pending personal injury case.
Factors That Affect a Car Accident Claim’s Monetary Value
The monetary damages that a car crash victim may recover in their case depend upon numerous factors, including the type of car accident that occurs and the injuries they suffer. Other potential factors that influence a settlement, jury verdict, or arbitration award include the pain and suffering that the accident victim endured, as well as the permanent or non-permanent nature of the accident victim’s injuries.
In general, a permanent injury usually will not improve over time. To determine that a particular injury is permanent, a medical provider must be willing to state or testify, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, that the injury will have lasting effects for a victim’s lifetime. Car accident victims who suffer permanent injuries often experience pain and suffering and possible disabilities for the rest of their life. Fortunately, they may recover monetary compensation – not only for their past pain and suffering but also for their anticipated pain and suffering.
In addition, car crash victims may be eligible to recover damages for their lost wages if they had to miss time from work to treat their injuries. Moreover, if they had to take a pay cut and switch jobs due to their injuries, they may be eligible to file a claim for loss of earning capacity.
Finally, car accident victims may be eligible to recover damages for their loss of life enjoyment, emotional distress, mental anguish, permanent disfigurement, loss of the ability to use a body part, and loss of spousal companionship and support.
A knowledgeable car accident lawyer can review these potential damages with you and determine which ones you may be eligible to recover in your case. Your lawyer can then help you during every stage of the settlement negotiation and litigation process and help you recover the maximum compensation you deserve.
What Are the Most Common Car Accident Injuries That Victims Suffer?
Like monetary damages, the injuries that a car accident victim suffers will vary from case to case. An accident victim’s injuries will depend on the accident and the force of the impact from the at-fault vehicle. Some collisions are so forceful that they cause a part of the accident victim’s body to strike something in their car, like the door frame, window, steering wheel, dashboard, or headrest, leading to a severe injury.
Typical car accident injuries include:
- Bone fractures
- Soft tissue contusions
- Traumatic head and brain injuries
- Lacerations
- Spinal cord injuries and paralysis
- Internal injuries
The most important thing you can do after a car accident is to seek emergency medical treatment right away for your injuries. In addition to ordering the necessary imaging studies, like X-rays and MRIs, the attending physician can thoroughly examine your body and make the required medical diagnoses. Your doctor might order you to continue your treatment after you leave the hospital. For example, you may need to follow up with your primary care doctor, a medical specialist, or a physical therapist.
Seeking same-day medical treatment after your car accident, along with follow-up treatment, is essential to your case. If you do not seek treatment immediately, or if there are significant gaps in your medical treatment over time, insurance companies and their adjusters will become skeptical.
Specifically, the insurance company will believe that your injuries are not severe and that you did not prioritize your medical treatment following your car crash. In either instance, the insurance company is unlikely to award you favourable monetary compensation when your medical treatment records have lengthy gaps.
Your car accident lawyer can handle all of the legal components of your case while you focus on getting better. Your lawyer can gather up your medical treatment records, lost wage documentation, photographs, and other evidence to forward with a demand package to the appropriate insurance company. After you complete your medical treatment, your lawyer can start the settlement negotiating process and pursue a favourable settlement offer on your behalf.
Filing a Timely Car Accident Claim or Lawsuit
Car crash victims need to act quickly when pursuing the monetary damages they deserve. This is because accident victims only have two years from their accident date to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit for damages. If they file their lawsuit even one day after the statutory deadline expires, they will no longer be eligible to recover monetary damages in their case.
Given this relatively short time frame, you should contact a knowledgeable car accident lawyer as soon as possible in your case. Your lawyer can immediately file a lawsuit if the statute of limitations is running short in your case. Once that happens, your lawyer may continue their settlement negotiations and can litigate your case to a prompt and efficient resolution through the courts.
Call an Experienced Car Accident Lawyer Today for More Information
If you recently suffered injuries in a car accident, you should seek the medical treatment that you need right away. Once your treatment is over, a personal injury lawyer can help you file a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company, seeking the total monetary damages you deserve.
Your lawyer can zealously negotiate on your behalf and, if necessary, file a lawsuit and litigate your case in court. If the insurance company does not offer you the fair damages you deserve, your lawyer can initiate a lawsuit and aggressively represent you in all legal proceedings, including mediation hearings, binding arbitration hearings, or a civil jury trial.
Most lawyers handling personal injury cases work on a contingency fee basis. This means that they collect a fee from a portion of your settlement. Additionally, lawyers often offer free consultations for personal injury cases. This means there is seldom a good reason not to reach out to a lawyer. Your lawyer will do everything they can to highlight the strengths of your case, downplay any weaknesses, and maximize the monetary damages you recover for your car accident injuries.
There is no reason not to reach out for legal help after a car accident and injur
