Americans love to drive their cars, pickup trucks, and motorcycles all across the United States’ vast road and highway system, but the bad news is that sometimes, irresponsible and dangerous drivers will be encountered on the road, and this can lead to a car crash and someone getting injured or even killed on rural or urban roads alike. Sometimes, even the weather will be a serious obstacle, and icy roads or heavy rain can make it difficult to see other cars or stay in control of one’s own car. When a car crash happens and a person becomes injured, they may want to pursue litigation against the at-fault party, and this will often mean enlisting the aid of a car accident attorney, a lawyer who specializes in such cases. Trying to get settlement money on one’s own can prove difficult, which is why lawyers are there to help.
Roads and Accidents
A car crash may never be far away, and many statistics are kept to see how often Americans drive and how often they get into a car wreck. It has been found that nearly six million car crash incidents take place across the nation per year, and about three million people will become injured in these incidents. After all, nearly 218 million American drivers old valid drivers’ licenses, making its roads some of the busiest in all the world. Who is getting hurt or killed in these tragic accidents? Often, victims will be drivers of cars or pickup trucks that get into a collision with another vehicle, but motorcyclists and bicycle riders are often victims as well, and they do not even have the benefit of air bags or seat belts to keep them safe in the event of a collision. For this reason, motorcycle riders are much more likely to be killed in a car crash or other accident than people driving cars or pickup trucks.
What causes these wrecks? Drunk drivers are a common problem, and even just having a blood alcohol content (BAC) at 0.08% is a crime even if no crash occurs, and some drivers incorrectly believe that driving “buzzed” is a safe alternative. A person impaired by alcohol, whether drunk or even just buzzed, will have impaired reflexes, coordination, and judgment, and this makes them deadly. A drunk driver may rapidly drift from one lane to another, often intercepting oncoming traffic, and they may be too slow to react to other careless drivers to avoid a collision. Similarly, distracted driver are an issue, and they are drivers who are preoccupied with a cell phone or the car’s dashboard. They are not even looking at the road, and this means they may drift into oncoming traffic, run red lights, hit pedestrians, or even go off the road. For this reason, cell phone use while driving a car is widely illegal. This can lead to a car crash. What comes next after a victim survives the collision?
After the Crash
If a person was injured in a car crash or other auto accident, that person will have suffered physical injuries and probably serious damage to their property such as a car or motorcycle, and they will want compensation for this. Pursuing this case along can be very difficult, so a victim may reach out to a personal injury law firm and find a lawyer who can help them. A victim may look up local personal injury or car crash law firms and get consultations from the attorneys there (this may or may not incur a fee), and find a lawyer whose skills, experience, personality, and success rate are to the client’s liking, and they can work together to build their case.
A lawyer will have the legal skills and experience to handle a case smoothly and move it to the desired outcome for their client. The victim may be in an emotionally charged state and not think clearly, but a hired lawyer will have the cool and clear head needed to make the case properly. And if there were multiple parties involved in the crash, this can be complex to untangle, so a lawyer can be used to sort out the assignment of blame and distribution of settlement money.