Bad Car Accidents

Automobiles can cause grave accidents leading to serious injuries. A large percentage of bad car accidents are caused by negligence and recklessness of drivers. Some are due to intoxication or drug influenced drivers. A number are caused by poorly designed roads and improper traffic signals. It can also be caused by a defective vehicle or tire.

Thousands of people are injured or killed every year in bad car accidents, and accident figures have reached such numbers that they are thought to become the main cause of preventable death over the next fifteen years. Road accidents are the most popular cause of personal injury claims, and whether you were the driver or passenger in a bad car accident, or even if you are a pedestrian involved in a bad car accident, you could be entitled to compensation for pain, suffering and injury caused by a road traffic accident that was not your fault.

At some point in your life, you will probably be involved in an accident. It may simply be a bump in the parking lot, or you could end up in a more serious accident where people are injured. In any case, knowing how to react to an accident will improve the outcome for everyone involved. If you or someone you love was involved in an accident, fill out this simple form for a free case evaluation.

If you are in a moving vehicle when an accident occurs, immediately and safely pull over to the side of the road, turn off your car, and turn on your hazard lights. Check to see if anyone is hurt.

Despite efforts to improve driver safety, including graduated licenses for young adults, driver error plays a leading role in the cause of accidents.

Most bad car accident litigation revolves around claims of negligence. That is, the defendant driver is not accused of intentionally causing the accident, but is accuses of errors or omissions in driving conduct which created an undue danger of an accidental collision. Even when an accident is arguably intentional, due to insurance coverage issues the accident will often be characterized in litigation as resulting from negligent conduct.

The failure to yield at a traffic control device - usually a stop sign, yield sign, or traffic light - can pose a significant risk to vehicles which have the right-of-way. As such accidents often involve cars striking each other in a perpendicular manner, such as in a "T-Bone Collision" where one driver crashes into the doors of the other driver's car, the risk of injury is particularly great. Even with side-wall airbags, the fact remains that most car safety devices are designed to prevent injury from a front-end collision. Seat belts do not do much to prevent sideways movement. Dashboard airbags are also not of much use, and may not even deploy from a side impact.

Beyond traffic lights, yield and stop signs, accidents relating to failure to yield often occur at unmarked intersections, entry ramps, traffic circles, and points where lanes of traffic merge. Not everybody respects the rules of right of way, or pays attention to merging traffic. It is important to exercise additional care at such points of potential danger.

In most jurisdictions, a driver who rear-ends another car is presumed to have caused the accident. In most cases, that presumption is correct: The driver at the rear follows too closely, or doesn't pay attention to what is going on in the roaday in front of his car, and doesn't take notice that another car has stopped or slowed in front of him until it is too late to avoid collision. In higher speed rear-end collisions involving a line of cars, such as cars stopped at a traffic light, you may see the initial collision propel the stopped cars into each other, such that three, four, or even more cars become involved.

The most common defense to a charge of negligence arising from a rear-end collision is the sudden emergency - that is, a claim that the car that was hit stopped suddenly and unexpectedly, or that something sudden and unexpected (e.g., a truck losing its load) caused that car to come to a sudden stop, rendering the collision unavoidable. Where one or more cars are able to stop in reaction to a claimed sudden emergency, it is more difficult to make this claim - "If they could stop, why couldn't you?"