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©2006, Lee Tarte Wallace
If you have serious injuries from a car wreck, you need a serious lawyer. |
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Sure, you could just pick a lawyer who advertises on late-night TV. But the insurance company you are up against will hire the best lawyers it can find. Why should you settle for less?
Lee Wallace is an honors graduate of Harvard Law School, and was first in her undergraduate class at Vanderbilt. She clerked for a federal appellate judge, and has 19 years of litigation experience. Her peers have named her a Georgia SuperLawyer and one of the Top 50 Female Lawyers in Georgia. Georgia Trend Magazine named her one of Georgia’s Legal Elite.
Lee Wallace is one of the best. She can be trusted to guard your legal interests, clearly explain each step and maximize your compensation.
Motor Vehicle Accidents
Motor vehicle crashes can be extremely serious. They are, in fact, the leading cause of death for Americans 1 to 34 years old (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety). In the year 2000 alone, 41,821 people died in crashes. See FARS database, maintained by the United States Department of Transportation.
If you have a serious injury because of a car accident:
Tractor-trailer accidents
Unsafe drivers
Driver fatigue
Unsafe trucks
In a tangle with a large truck, a car usually comes out the loser. Tractor-trailer trucks often weigh 20-30 times what cars do, and they take longer to come to a stop. It is no surprise, then, that 85% of the people who die in crashes involving a large truck were not riding in the truck. Furthermore, 23% of all truck crashes result in at least one fatality. According to SafeStat, a U.S. government database, in 2004, 5,190 people were killed and 91,502 were injured in collisions involving a large truck.
Truck drivers can break the rules of the road, just as car drivers can. And sometimes their companies have encouraged them to break the rules:
Unsafe drivers
The trucking company should have carefully checked the driver’s background before they let him get behind the wheel of their truck. Sometimes trucking companies skip the evaluation, and end up hiring people who are unfit to drive a potentially dangerous vehicle such as a large truck.
Driver fatigue
Truck drivers often make mistakes because they have pushed -- or been pushed – beyond their capacities. SafeStat looked at accidents where a truck had caused a wreck. The government found that 7% of the time the truck driver who caused the wreck was actually asleep. Laws limit the amount of time a truck driver can spend behind the wheel, but some trucking companies permit their drivers to falsify their log books so that they can drive more hours than are legally allowed.
Unsafe trucks
Obviously trucks should be carefully maintained.
SafeStat found that in a full 10% of all wrecks, however, the vehicle was the critical reason for the wreck. In a full 4% of the wrecks, the truck’s brakes were not working properly. See the SafeStat’s Large Truck Crash Causation Study.
According to a 1996 study done for the Department of Transportation, 32% of all trucks that were inspected had safety violations that were serious enough to take them out of service, and of those violations, 49% were brake-related. You can see this study and more at:
Learn more about trucking companies and trucking accidents .
U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fatality Analysis Reporting System, Traffic Safety Facts
Insurance Institute For Highway Safety, Fatality Facts for Large Trucks
SafeStat’s search module
Safer, “Safety and Fitness Electronic Records System,” by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (free profiles on federally licensed motor carriers, including insurance information)
SafeStat, overall industry statistics plus statistics on particular motor carriers. (This site used to have much more detailed analysis of the various carriers. The government recently pulled much of the information, saying it was concerned the information it had been using was not accurate).
 
What are my damages?
The damages you can recover vary from state to state. In addition to medical bills, many states allow lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and in very limited circumstances, pain and suffering. To find out more about what damages you can legally claim, you will need to contact a lawyer.
If you have medical insurance, your medical insurance company may ask you to reimburse them for the money they laid out on your behalf. Depending on the circumstances, the insurance company may or may not be entitled to be paid back. Contact a lawyer to find out more about the rules that apply to your situation.
If you have a serious injury because of a car accident:
How do I get the insurance company to pay what my car is worth?
If the accident totaled your car, the insurance company may offer you substantially less than the car was worth. The best way to get a fair and full value for your car is to arm yourself with facts and statistics about how much your car would have been worth had it not been for the wreck.
The Internet has been a tremendous boon for people who have been in wrecks. You can find out what your car would have been worth had it not been for the wreck, and use that information as you talk to the insurance company.
Kelley Blue Book
Trade-in, private party, and suggested retail values for most makes and models
Edmunds
Used car appraiser
How safe is my car?
Links to sites that will help you find out.
Some cars do better than others in crashes. How can you find out whether your car is one of the safer ones? Check out these websites:
Car crash tests, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Injury, collision and theft losses by make and model, 1999-2001 models, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
Cars.com’s vehicle recall search, based on NHTSA information
© 2007, Lee Tarte Wallace
The contents of this article: (a) should not be considered or relied upon as legal, financial or other professional advice in any manner whatsoever, and (b) may be considered advertising under some state’s Bar Rules. Unless otherwise stated, no article or text at this Internet site is, has been, or will be updated or revised for accuracy as statutory or case law changes following the date of first publication. Always consult with your lawyer and/or your other professional advisors before acting.
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