Auto accidents are more common than any other type of accident. A personal injury claim can help to pay the bills if you need medical treatment or cannot return to work quickly, but proof of who was at fault is essential if the claim is to have any chance of success.
Don’t try and get compensation all on your own. You are much more likely to be successful if you use an experienced personal injury attorney.
Side-Impact Auto Accidents
Side-impact auto accidents may not be as common as rear ended accidents, but they are certainly likely to lead to much more serious injuries.
Fatalities are not unusual when a vehicle is hit on the side by a vehicle, especially a truck, at speed.
Side-impact auto accidents are most common when vehicles are crossing over or turning at an intersection.
They happen because one, both or more than two vehicles fail to yield the right of way, obey a stop sign, run a red light or forget or fail to follow uncontrolled intersection rules.
The severity of the collision depends on which side of the vehicle the impact is and the relative speeds of the colliding vehicles.
The other factor which can affect the severity of any injuries is the relative size of the two colliding vehicles.
Side-Impact Accidents: Who’s at Fault?
It will be important to determine exactly what happened to cause a side-impact auto accident as there are various possibilities. Most of these sorts of accidents happen at intersections. There are two main possibilities:
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One of the vehicles was proceeding legitimately; the other failed to obey the correct procedure at the intersection. This is the most likely scenario. For example, you are waiting at an intersection controlled by traffic lights.
You proceed across the intersection on green, but are hit by a truck or another vehicle on the passenger side as you are crossing; on investigation, it is shown that the other driver was trying to beat the red light, but actually went through on red.
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Both vehicles are to blame as neither follows the correct procedure. This is most likely at an uncontrolled intersection. It may still be proven that one of the two drivers involved was more to blame than the other.
Much more rarely is a scenario in which a driver fails to stop at an intersection because of a defect in the vehicle, such as brakes or steering that fails.
Any personal injury claim would have to involve a detailed investigation into a driver’s claim that there was something wrong with the vehicle.
Seeking Compensation For a Side-Impact Crash
Side-impact accidents can be very serious. It may be vital to obtain compensation if injuries are serious or life threatening. Side-impact accidents may be relatively straightforward if it can be proven that the victim was hit by a vehicle driving in a dangerous manner.
However, the accident may involve working out the percentage blame if both drivers share at least some of the blame. This is not the time to try and negotiate with another driver or that driver’s insurer all by yourself.
Make sure you get legal help form an experienced attorney.
