Rear-End Collisions
A rear-end collision often occurs without warning. One moment, you’re sitting patiently at an intersection or in slow traffic. The next, the impact of another vehicle crashing into yours from behind jolts you forward. Although a rear-end collision happens in the blink of an eye, its effects can last for months, years, or even a lifetime. A rear-end accident can inflict significant injuries, cause extreme emotional anguish, and ruin your finances.
In this article, we examine the harm a rear-end accident can cause, your legal right to compensation, and the role an experienced car accident lawyer plays in securing that compensation.
Summary of the Harm a Rear-End Collision Can Cause
A rear-end collision can do more than damage your car. It can affect your physical, emotional, and financial well-being. Here are some ways a rear-end accident can disrupt your life.
Common Rear-End Collision Injuries
The abrupt force of a rear-end accident can unnaturally contort your body, leading to injuries that might not be immediately obvious.
Common rear-end collision injuries include:
- Whiplash: An injury to the soft tissue in your neck, back, and shoulders can leave you with severe, long-term pain and mobility limitations.
- Spinal injuries: Damage to vertebrae and discs in your spinal column can cause chronic pain and immobility. Injuries to your spinal cord can lead to paralysis or loss of bodily function.
- Traumatic brain injuries: Brain injuries can inflict severe and lasting cognitive, emotional, and motor impairments or cause a long-term loss of consciousness.
- Crush injuries: The collapse of a vehicle cabin can result in complex fractures, life-threatening blood loss, nerve damage, or loss of limb.
- Lacerations: Flying glass and twisted metal can cause severe injuries.
- Broken bones: Fractures to ribs, arms, wrists, and faces can result from a rear-end collision.
- Internal injuries: These can cause severe bleeding or damage to vital organs.
- Emotional trauma: Emotional stress can lead to conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, or depression.
This is a few of the many injuries a rear-end crash can cause. These and other traumas can even result in the untimely, tragic death of a rear-end crash victim.
Financial Toll of a Rear-End Accident
A rear-end collision can also be an expensive ordeal.
Depending on the severity of the crash and the injuries it inflicts, the financial toll of a rear-end crash can include:
- Large medical expenses from injuries and related health complications.
- Significant loss of income from missing work while healing or because of a temporary or long-term disability.
- Costs from adapting to or living with injuries, such as modifications to a living space or hiring in-home nursing care or transportation services.
- The cost of repairing or replacing a damaged vehicle or other personal property.
- In the event of a fatal rear-end collision, loss of the victim’s earnings, services, inheritance, or other financial support.
The size of the financial losses from a rear-end accident can depend on numerous factors, particularly the severity and life impact of your injuries. It’s common for them to run into hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
Your Legal Right to Compensation for a Rear-End Accident
As the victim of a rear-end accident, you may have the legal right to receive compensation for your losses. Here’s an overview of the parties who may be liable and the monetary damages you could claim.
Who Is Liable to You?
Anyone (an individual, corporation, government agency, or other entity) whose poor decisions or dangerous actions contributed to the cause of your crash could be liable.
Every rear-end accident differs, but the parties liable for your losses could include:
- The driver of the car that hit yours from behind if they engaged in dangerous conduct behind the wheel such as speeding, texting, or drowsy driving.
- The employer of the driver whose work vehicle hit yours.
- A government agency responsible for creating unreasonably hazardous road conditions that contributed to your crash.
- An automotive manufacturer if a defect in either vehicle contributed to the cause of the accident.
These are just a few examples. Anyone who acted in a careless, reckless, or intentionally harmful manner in connection with your crash could owe you damages.
How Much Can You Get?
You generally have the right to receive compensation for the full scope of your damages in a rear-end collision. You may have the right to payment for all the above financial losses. You may also claim payment for your so-called non-economic damages, such as physical pain, emotional anguish, and loss of quality of life.
If the at-fault party engaged in extreme or malicious conduct in causing your accident, you might also have a claim for punitive damages.
The money you can hope to receive depends on various factors. The severity and impact of your injuries, the availability and strength of the evidence supporting your claim, the skill of the lawyer you choose to represent you, and the identities and financial resources (especially liability insurance coverage and liquid assets) of the parties liable for your losses are all considerations.
Why You Need a Lawyer to Handle Your Rear-End Accident Claim
As a rear-end crash victim, you deserve full, fair compensation for your losses. Having an experienced lawyer handle your damages claim is the most reliable way to do that. A lawyer’s job is to obtain the maximum compensation available from insurance companies and at-fault parties.
- Investigate your accident to determine its causes and who you can blame for it.
- Handle all communications with insurance companies on your behalf.
- Prepare insurance claims and lawsuits seeking payment for your losses.
- Negotiate settlements and advise on whether to accept or reject offers.
- Take your case to court and secure an award for you from a judge or jury.
- Provide you with trusted advice during a difficult time in your life.
You can afford to hire a lawyer to handle your case. Rear-end accident lawyers offer free consultations to crash victims like you. They often handle cases on contingency, meaning you only pay them if they get you results.
Contact an Experienced Car Accident Lawyer Today
Don’t wait to get legal representation after suffering injuries in a rear-end collision. Contact an experienced car accident lawyer today for a free consultation.