Miami Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Laws and etiquette dictate that, immediately after a car accident, you should pull off to the side of the road and talk to the other driver. The first thing you are supposed to say is, “Is anyone injured?” If someone is injured, you should call an ambulance immediately. If no one is injured, you should exchange contact information with the other driver and then give your explanation of how the accident happened to a police officer or to the insurance company. Except in the case of accidents that involve injuries severe enough to require emergency medical treatment, the biggest thing on your mind is probably whether the insurance company will find you at fault for the accident because the insurance companies’ decisions about fault affect how financially damaging the accident will be to you. The best way to get the money you need to cover your accident-related financial losses is to contact a Miami car accident lawyer.
The Worst Kinds of Collisions Are Not the Most Common
High speeds increase the risk of death or serious injury in a car accident; the slower the vehicles are moving at the time of impact, the more likely it is that no one will be seriously injured. Even at the same speed, some angles of impact carry a greater risk of severe injury. For example, striking another vehicle or a stationary object head-on is dangerous. Frontal collisions have the highest rate of fatality among collisions where the vehicles were traveling within the speed limit. They are also disproportionately represented among single-vehicle collisions. As with all car accidents, seatbelts and airbags reduce the risk of death or catastrophic injury in head-on collisions.
T-bone accidents, in which the front of one vehicle strikes the side of another, are also very destructive. Usually, the people in the struck vehicle get worse injuries than the ones in the striking vehicle because the side of a car cannot absorb the impact nearly as well as a front fender can.
Can Insurance Companies Always Tell Who is at Fault Just By Looking at Pictures of the Vehicle Damage?
The majority of claims that car insurance companies receive are about garden variety car accidents such as rear-end collisions and sideswipe incidents. Sideswipe accidents happen when the side of one car strikes the side of another. The most common scenario for this type of accident is an improper lane change. In these accidents, the fault usually, but not always, rests with the driver who was trying to merge. Likewise, rear-end collisions usually, but not always, result in the insurance companies finding the rear driver at fault. These types of accidents do not usually cause serious injuries because they usually occur in low-speed city traffic, but they can result in burdensome expenses.
Contact Gerson & Schwartz About Car Accident Cases
A car accident lawyer can help you if you are struggling financially after a car accident that the insurance company says was partially your fault. Contact Gerson & Schwartz in Miami, Florida, to discuss your case.
