Sometimes, the causes and results of a vehicle collision are easy to understand. Take this example:
During coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, many Georgia motorists developed some bad driving habits, including speeding, not wearing a seat belt, and driving while impaired. Before the pandemic, operator impairment accounted for about half of the fatal car crashes in the Peachtree State. There is no telling how high the proportion is now. Impaired driving crashes are usually not “accidents.” People accidentally lose their car keys. They do not accidentally drive drunk and cause wrecks.
So, a Marietta personal injury attorney can usually obtain substantial compensation following an impaired driver wreck. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Generally, these cases do not go to trial. Instead, lawyers are usually able to resolve them out of court and on victim-friendly terms.
Alcohol
If you are injured in an accident while traveling in an Uber, Lyft, or other rideshare service, you may question whose insurance policy applies. Should you attempt to seek coverage from the rideshare company’s insurance or from the driver’s personal car insurance? The answer will depend on the type of insurance the driver possesses and the status of the driver when the accident occurred. The following article will discuss situations where a rideshare company’s car insurance applies to an accident, as well as situations where a rideshare driver will have to use his own auto insurance after an accident.
When Does the Rideshare Company’s Car Insurance Policy Apply?
In order to determine if the rideshare company’s car insurance applies, you must first determine the status of the rideshare driver at the time of the accident. For example, if the rideshare driver’s app is on and that driver is waiting for a customer to request a ride when an accident occurs, Uber and Lyft both provide the following types of liability coverage for the driver:
If you were recently injured in a car accident and plan to sue the other driver, you may consider hiring a personal injury attorney who has experience litigating these kinds of accidents. This article will provide some information regarding the role of car accident attorneys.
What Does a Car Accident Attorney Do?
A car accident attorney is a personal injury attorney who typically engages in some of the following duties:
According to the National Safety Council, there were approximately 1,089 bicycle deaths that occurred in 2019. Furthermore, 712 of these deaths were the result of motor vehicle accidents. The National Safety Council has classified these as preventable deaths, meaning that if motorists and cyclists take the proper precautions, these deaths would be less likely to occur. The following article will provide some helpful tips for both motorists and cyclists to avoid the occurrence of bicycle accidents in the future.
Tips for Motorists
Road rage has been on the rise lately in the state of Georgia. In fact, just this year there have been over a dozen road rage shootings in Atlanta alone. The Georgia State Patrol has indicated that it is working diligently to deal with these road rage issues. Georgia State Patrol Sergeant Jay Trawick has asserted that there are things drivers can do to safely avoid a road rage accident. The following article will address some ways to deal with aggressive drivers and minimize the occurrence of road rage accidents.
What is road rage?
Road rage occurs when a driver commits an assault with a motor vehicle or other dangerous weapon on the driver or passengers of another motor vehicle. This conduct can endanger other people and property. A driver typically engages in road rage when the conduct or actions of another driver enrages him enough to respond with aggressive behavior.
Social media can be a valuable tool in our modern society. It helps keep us connected and updated on what is happening around the world. However, sometimes the use of technology can be dangerous, especially while driving. Can social media companies be held responsible when drivers are injured while using their apps? The following article will discuss two recent cases in which plaintiffs attempted to hold Snapchat (Snap, Inc.) responsible for its alleged role in contributing to car accidents.
Lemmon v. Snapchat
In 2017, three young men in Wisconsin were killed in a car accident while using Snapchat’s “speed filter.” The driver of the vehicle was traveling at speeds of up to 123mph and attempted to document his actions on Snapchat. In the process, he ran the car off the road and crashed into a tree, killing himself and the other passengers.
Unfortunately, car accidents are an inevitable part of life. In Georgia, car accidents are the leading cause of injury deaths and the second-leading cause of hospitalizations and emergency room visits. Even if you are a cautious driver, you may be involved in an accident with another driver. Being in a car accident can be a traumatic experience, and if you have never been in a car accident before, you may not know what steps you are supposed to take afterwards. The following tips will provide you with the necessary steps to take if you are ever involved in an accident.
If your accident is minor and there is no major structural damage to the vehicle, move the vehicle out of traffic, preferably to a well-lit area. This will help minimize the risk of other vehicles colliding with your car while it is sitting in traffic and will ensure that you and your vehicle are safe from oncoming vehicles.
Rear-end accidents happen all the time, and they can be a pain in the neck, often quite literally. Whiplash, a neck injury caused by rapid movement of the neck back and forth, resembling the cracking of a whip, is a common result of being in a vehicle that is struck from behind. Whiplash is bad enough, but rear-end accidents can cause any number of other injuries, as well, particularly at high speeds. Such accidents are, unfortunately, fairly common. In fact, rear-end crashes happen more often than any other kind of traffic collision. Nearly 30% of all traffic accidents involve a rear-end collision, leading to a considerable number of injuries and deaths every year. In fact, reports indicate that there are about 1.7 million rear-end traffic accidents per year, resulting in about 1,700 fatalities and another 500,000 injuries.
Drivers Usually are the Cause of Rear-End Collisions
When one vehicle strikes another vehicle from behind, the odds are pretty good that the driver of the vehicle hitting the vehicle from the rear has messed up and is at fault. It is not always true, but it is a pretty good bet. Tailgating contributes to more than a third of all traffic collisions, making it an obvious cause of the majority of all rear-end collisions. In a more general sense, federal statistics blame 87% of rear-end accidents on drivers simply not paying attention to traffic and what is in front of them. Other sources identify more specific causes, but many seem to be rooted in driver inattention or error, including:
People talk about head-on collisions as being the worst – and with good reason – but head-on crashes are by no means the only kind of car collision that carries with it a high risk of injury or death. Another type of collision that ranks among the most dangers is what is commonly referred to as a “T-bone” accident – the side-impact crash. Named for the popular steak, a T-bone crash is when one vehicle is struck in the side by a second vehicle at a perpendicular angle. Picture a car moving through an intersection when another vehicle enters the intersection on the crossing roadway, entering the intersection from one side or the other of the first car and striking the first vehicle full in the side. Most common at intersections, T-bone crashes can be deadly.
T-Bone Accidents are a Leading Cause of Traffic Fatalities
Traffic accidents can be deadly affairs – they cost more than 36,000 Americans their lives in 2019. More than half of traffic deaths involving passenger vehicle occupants happen in head-on collisions – full frontal impacts, nose to nose. However, more than a quarter of all traffic fatalities in crashes involving passenger vehicles occur in side-impact collisions – in other words, the classic T-bone accident. When a vehicle hits another vehicle from the side, the struck vehicle does not have the crumple zone that provides protection in frontal collisions. Cars are designed to absorb impacts from the front and from the rear, using the trunk for rear-end accidents and the engine compartment, among other features, for front-end accidents to help absorb the force of the collision. When it comes to side-impact collisions, no such crumple zone exists to prevent the exterior of the vehicle from being pushed into the passenger compartment by the force of the collision. One study contends that vehicles struck from the front have five times the energy absorption as vehicles provide in a side impact. The lack of crumple zones on the side of vehicles simply adds to the lethality of side-impact collisions.
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