Car Accidents
Automobile accidents are one of the leading causes of accidental injury in this country. Each year, thousands of people are killed in motor vehicle crashes and millions are injured. These crashes are frequently caused by the negligence of other drivers, leading to their own death or injury as well as those of innocent victims. Motor vehicle accidents can have many causes, but they can usually be divided into negligence, intentional misconduct, or product liability. While it is true that accidents can be caused by a so-called “act of nature” such as earthquakes, these are rare.
Negligence is one of the primary causes of automobile accidents. Negligent acts occur when a driver causing an accident does not exercise reasonable care. For example, he was driving too fast or too slowly for the conditions. Perhaps he allowed himself to be distracted. Perhaps he carelessly ignored traffic signals or conditions. There are many areas in which negligence can occur but negligence is a failure to be careful rather than an act intended to cause harm. A person who is distracted and rear-ends another vehicle at a red light is negligent.
Intentional misconduct, on the other hand, is an action committed when the person knew that his actions could cause harm and did not care, or actively desired to harm others. A driver who drives at a high rate of speed, cutting in and out of traffic, may be intentionally putting himself and others at risk.
The law of strict liability could apply in some circumstances and neither negligence nor intent would need to be shown. Another cause of auto accidents is product failure. The Firestone tire litigation is a prime example of product failure. In that case, a defect in the tire caused accidents beyond the control of drivers. The defects were not intentional but in law the manufacturer was responsible. A similar situation could exist if a repair to the car was done improperly and resulted in a crash. In some states, in the case of auto accidents caused by drunk drivers, the business or host who supplied the alcohol and allowed the driver to drive in an intoxicated condition could be found to have a liability in addition to the drunk driver.
Although it may not seem fair, the actions you take immediately after a car accident and in the following days and weeks can determine whether or not you receive compensation for your injuries and property damage. In fact, the wrong actions can leave you holding the bag for someone else’s negligence or even going to jail. In the wake of an accident most drivers are frightened and confused, and it is easy to make mistakes without thinking. By learning and memorizing the proper steps, you have a better chance of taking the right action and avoiding the wrong ones.
Immediate Action
- Do not leave the scene of the accident. Wait for law enforcement to arrive.
- Do get yourself, any other crash victims, and your vehicle out of the flow of traffic if at all possible.
- Call for help. Request medical assistance if anyone is hurt. If no one is hurt, you will still need to wait for law enforcement to arrive.
- Do not admit fault, even if you think you may have been at fault. There may have been factors contributing to your accident that you do not know about. If you admit fault it can hurt your case.
- Exchange insurance information with the other driver or drivers involved. Get the names, addresses, phone numbers, and license plate numbers for all other drivers involved.
- Get the names and contact information of the passengers and any witnesses.
- If possible, take pictures. Take pictures of everything – injuries, vehicle damage, any objects or structures that were damaged, skid marks, the area surrounding the scene of the accident, and anything that may be relevant such as damaged or obscured road signs, pothole, etc.
When You Leave
After you leave the scene of the accident there are still some things that you need to do:
- Seek medical attention, even if you do not think you are injured.
- Contact your insurance company and report the accident.
- Contact an experienced auto accident attorney.
- Write down everything you remember about the accident while it is still fresh in your memory.
- Do not sign anything, including any checks from the insurance company, without showing it you’re your attorney first. You could be signing away your rights to compensation.
Why do I need an attorney if I was not to blame for my auto accident?
Proving fault in an auto accident can be very difficult, even if it seems very clear and obvious to you. Insurance companies will work very hard to deny your claim, delay your claim, or pay you far less than you are entitled to. As an individual you have very little chance of beating the insurance company without representation by an experienced auto accident attorney.
What should I do if I think I was at fault or partly to blame for my accident?
Do not admit fault. Contact an experienced auto accident attorney right away. Auto accidents are sudden, frightening, and confusing. The underlying cause of your accident may have been a defect in your vehicle, a roadway defect, such as a malfunctioning traffic signal, or some other cause that you are not aware of. An experienced auto accident lawyer knows how to thoroughly investigate your accident and determine the true cause.
In some states you may still be entitled to compensation if you were partly to blame for your accident.
What are some common auto accident injuries?
Auto accident injuries can range from minor to fatal. Some common auto accident injuries include:
- Soft tissue injuries
- Brain injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
- Back and neck injuries
- Broken bones and fractures
- Lacerations
- Amputations
- Severe burns
- Disfigurement
What are some common causes of auto accidents and auto accident injuries?
Auto accidents are often the result of the negligence of another driver. However, they can also be caused by a defective vehicle or defective roadway.
Auto accident injuries may be caused or made worse by vehicle defects such as a defective seat belt or child restraint.
Who can be held responsible for auto accident injuries?
To determine who was responsible for your accident, you must first determine the cause. In some accident there can be more than one responsible party. Responsible parties in auto accidents can include:
- Other drivers
- Employers of other drivers
- Auto makers or dealerships
- Repair shops
- Rental companies
- Those responsible for designing, building, and maintaining roadways – typically a government entity
You pay your premiums every month in the hopes that you never need to make a claim. Hopefully the other driver has insurance, too. Whether you are trying to collect on your own policy or the policy of the other driver who caused your accident, you may face many hurdles when dealing with the insurance company. An experienced auto accident attorney can help you collect the compensation that you need and deserve.
Why Insurance Companies Try Not To Pay
Insurance companies cannot profit if they have to pay out for everyone who purchases a policy. Insurance is a gamble on your part and the insurance company’s part. The insurance company will do everything they can to minimize how much they have to pay out in claims.
Denying Your Claim
One way that the insurance company may try not to pay is by outright denial of your claim. This is especially common in low impact accidents causing soft tissue injuries. When there is little or no damage to the vehicles involved in the crash, it is easier to persuade a jury that your injuries could not be severe.
Delaying Your Claim
Another tactic that the insurance company may use is to delay your claim. By delaying your claim the odds that your injuries will improve before the case goes to court increase, meaning that you will appear less sympathetic to the jury.
Delaying your claim can also wear you down. You need the money they owe you in order to get on with your life, repair your vehicle, pay medical bills, and often to pay other bills that accumulate while you are injured and out of work.
Underpaying Your Claim
The insurance company may offer you far less than you deserve. It may do this very early in the process, knowing that you do not yet realize how much the accident will actually cost and hoping that you will just take the money and let them off the hook.
It may wait until after it has delayed your claim to the point that you are desperate for any kind of payment and fear that turning down even a pittance will result in getting no compensation at all.
Defective Equipment
Seat belts, airbags, and child restraints are supposed to prevent injuries and death in auto accidents. Most people use them because they are required by law, even if they do not believe that they will actually protect them. Unfortunately, when these safety devices are defective they not only fail to offer protection, they can cause serious and fatal injuries in accidents where injuries would not have occurred at all.
Defective Seat Belts
Seat belts can be defective or malfunction in many ways including:
- Excess slack caused by retractor failure or window shade device
- Unintentional unlatching caused by faulty internal mechanism in the buckle or a protruding release button
- Automatic shoulder straps resulting in all of the force going to the neck and head
- Door mounted seat belts causing ejection injuries
- When a seat belt fails it can make it appear as if you were not wearing your seat belt at all, potentially hurting your case.
Defective Airbags
Defective airbags can cause very serious injuries, including:
- Eye injuries
- Eye socket injuries
- Brain injury
- Chemical burns
- Death
When an airbag deploys unnecessarily it can cause an accident. Airbag malfunctions can include:
- Failure to deploy
- Deploying when there is no accident
- Deploying with too much force
- Improperly filtered gases
- Defective Child Safety Seats
A defective car seat or child safety seat can injure or kill your child even if you are not involved in a crash. Some common car seat defects include:
- Inadequate or confusing instructions leading to improper installation
- Separation of seat from base causing the seat to launch
- Area where seat belt attaches to car seat bending or breaking causing seat to launch
- Shoulder straps that come loose or unclip during an accident
- Inadequate padding
- Poor shell design
- Inadequate support allowing the child to slide down too far in the seat
- Buckle failure
- Harness failure
- Handle failure injuring child when car seat is used as a carrier
When a defective roadway causes an auto accident, it can appear that you or the other driver was at fault. Determining the cause of your accident is very important so that you can receive the compensation that you deserve, and in some cases to absolve you from blame for the accident. Unfortunately, you cannot rely on the investigation conducted by law enforcement or insurance companies to reveal an underlying cause such as a roadway defect. An experienced auto accident lawyer recognizes the signs of this type of accident and will conduct a thorough investigation.
Common Roadway Defects
Some examples of roadway defects that can cause an accident include:
- Malfunctioning traffic signal
- Lack of traffic signal or stop sign
- Inadequate or malfunctioning warning signs for potentially dangerous conditions such as construction zones or merging traffic
- Shoulder drop-off
- Inadequate notification of shoulder drop-off or soft shoulder
- Debris or object in road that have not been removed in a timely fashion
- Potholes and other road damage
- Excessive oil and/or gravel
- Poor road design
- Inadequate line striping and other lane division problems
- Known dangerous intersection that has not been modified
- Defective street light
Investigating and Proving Roadway Defects
Sometimes, when you have been involved in an accident caused by a defective roadway, you know what happened. In other cases, it only becomes apparent due to conflicting witness statements, and other less direct evidence.
Even if you and others were aware of the defect when the accident occurred, investigation must be conducted quickly, before the evidence is removed or covered up.
Although you would think that the official in charge of maintaining the roads would promptly correct hazards, some defects have a long recorded history of causing accidents that can be used to support your case. This is common with dangerous intersections, and poorly designed roadways.
In the long run, proving that your accident was caused by a defective roadway may do more than help you and your case. It can save lives.
Vehicle defects cause auto accident injuries in two ways. A defect can cause an accident, or it can cause injuries to be more severe in the event of an accident. Auto manufacturers, dealerships, parts manufacturers, and repair shops are typically the responsible parties when a defective vehicle is a factor in your auto accident. Other drivers may still be found partly responsible for your injuries, depending on the cause of the accident.
Defects That Can Cause Accidents
There many types of defects that can cause a car wreck. They may cause a single vehicle accident, a collision involving two or more vehicles, or even a pedestrian accident. Defects that can cause an accident include:
- Faulty tires
- Defective brake systems
- Defective suspension
- Faulty acceleration systems
- Defective design causing rollover
- Sensor defects causing the vehicle to respond and behave inappropriately
- A recent example of a defect that can cause an accident is the Toyota recall in which a problem with the floor mat and the gas pedal resulted in spontaneous or unwanted acceleration.
Crashworthiness Defects
Crashworthiness refers to a vehicles ability to protect occupants from injury in the event of an accident. A crashworthiness defect does not cause an accident, but it can cause injuries or make injuries more severe in the event of an accident. Examples include:
- Defective seat belts or airbags
- Poor roof crush resistance
- Faulty or poorly designed fuel delivery systems causing fuel-fed fires
- Defective door latches
Of course, some defects have the potential to cause an accident or make injuries worse in the event of an accident. For instance, some fuel system problems can cause a fire that leads to an accident or cause a fire in the event of an accident.
When a defective vehicle causes and accident, it is not always obvious and it can make it appear as though the accident was actually your fault. An experienced auto accident lawyer can determine if a defective vehicle was to blame or partly to blame for your accident, so that you can get the compensation that you need and deserve.
Seat belts, airbags, and child restraints are supposed to prevent injuries and death in auto accidents. Most people use them because they are required by law, even if they do not believe that they will actually protect them. Unfortunately, when these safety devices are defective they not only fail to offer protection, they can cause serious and fatal injuries in accidents where injuries would not have occurred at all.
Defective Seat Belts
Seat belts can be defective or malfunction in many ways including:
Excess slack caused by retractor failure or window shade device
Unintentional unlatching caused by faulty internal mechanism in the buckle or a protruding release button
Automatic shoulder straps resulting in all of the force going to the neck and head
Door mounted seat belts causing ejection injuries
When a seat belt fails it can make it appear as if you were not wearing your seat belt at all, potentially hurting your case.
Defective Airbags
Defective airbags can cause very serious injuries, including:
- Eye injuries
- Eye socket injuries
- Brain injury
- Chemical burns
- Death
When an airbag deploys unnecessarily it can cause an accident. Airbag malfunctions can include:
- Failure to deploy
- Deploying when there is no accident
- Deploying with too much force
- Improperly filtered gases
Defective Child Safety Seats
A defective car seat or child safety seat can injure or kill your child even if you are not involved in a crash. Some common car seat defects include:
- Inadequate or confusing instructions leading to improper installation
- Separation of seat from base causing the seat to launch
- Area where seat belt attaches to car seat bending or breaking causing seat to launch
- Shoulder straps that come loose or unclip during an accident
- Inadequate padding
- Poor shell design
- Inadequate support allowing the child to slide down too far in the seat
- Buckle failure
- Harness failure
- Handle failure injuring child when car seat is used as a carrier
If you or a loved one is in need of legal assistance, call The Shamy Law Firm at 732-800-1090 or submit an online questionnaire. The initial consultation is free of charge, and if we agree to handle your case, in most cases we will work on a contingency fee basis, which means we get paid for our services only if there is a monetary recovery of funds. In many cases, a lawsuit must be filed before an applicable expiration date, known as a statute of limitations. Please call right away to ensure that you do not waive your right to possible compensation.
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