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What Are the Most Common Serious Injuries In Car Accidents?

car accidents

A car accident is always stressful and upsetting, but sometimes, there are serious injuries that can turn your life upside down. If someone hits you and you are injured, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses.

Some of the most serious auto accident injuries are described below. If you need legal assistance after an accident, please contact the Glendale personal injury lawyers at Ourfalian & Ourfalian today.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Traumatic brain injuries are often challenging to diagnose. Any impact to the head in a crash can be life-altering and even fatal. Because passengers and drivers are usually not ready for a crash, it is difficult to protect your head in a split second.

A mild TBI may cause headaches, dizziness, slurred speech, etc. traumatic head injury can cause long-term cognitive and motor problems. If you injure your head in an accident, you may need hundreds of thousands in compensation. A Glendale personal injury attorney may be able to help.

Internal Bleeding

Lacerations and bruising are relatively easy to see after an accident. However, internal bleeding can be challenging to detect. If you think you are ‘fine, you may have a life-threatening internal injury.

Internal bleeding may start slowly after a severe accident. You might not notice anything until it is too late. Internal bleeding after car accidents often occurs in the spleen, liver, pancreas, and intestines. You need to have this type of injury addressed immediately or your life could be a risk.

Broken Bones

Broken arms, legs, hips, ribs, hands, and feet are common car accident injuries. Fortunately, many broken bones heal well after a car accident. But some can take months to recover, such as with a fractured hip.

Broken bones are easy to prove, so your attorney may have an easier time with this injury to compensate you for your losses.

Burns

Serious burns are another common car accident injury that can change or even threaten your life. Third and fourth-degree burns may happen if there is a car fire. These are burns deep enough to damage bones and muscles. Even a first-degree burn can be fatal if it affects more than 50% of your body.

Spinal Cord Injury

A severe, sudden impact can cause significant damage to the spine and nerves. The resulting injuries are some of the most severe auto accident injuries. In addition, damage to the spinal cord may lead to partial or complete paralysis. If you are paralyzed, you will need costly life-long medical care.

Some estimate lifetime care expenses for spinal cord injury victims are millions of dollars. If you have a spinal cord injury, you should work with the best personal injury attorney in southern California you can find. They will work to obtain every dime they can for your needs, pain, and suffering.

Loss Of Limb

Some car accident victims lose an arm, leg, or hand during the collision. Others lose limbs during medical procedures related to an auto accident. For example, your leg could be crushed in a crash. The surgeon will try to save the limb, but amputation may be the only option if they cannot.

How Much Compensation Can You Get?

When you have a severe car accident injury, a common question is how much money you can get for it in a claim or lawsuit. This depends on many factors, for example:

Whether You Were At Fault

California has a comparative negligence system for determining fault. This means your compensation is reduced according to your level of responsibility. For example, if you have $100,000 in losses for your broken hip and leg and were 10% responsible, your award is reduced by $10,000.

Your attorney will try to prove the other party was at fault as much as possible. However, if you were partially to blame, you would receive less compensation. If you were mostly at fault for the crash, your attorney will probably tell you there is no case.

How Strong The Case Is

It is not enough to say the other driver caused the accident. To receive compensation, you need to prove it. Your attorney’s job is to gather evidence to prove the driver’s liability.

Whether You Settle Or Go To Court

The choice of whether to settle or file a lawsuit or not is one of your most important decisions. Most car accident cases end in a settlement because it is advantageous for both sides to avoid a lawsuit.

However, if you take a settlement, you agree to take less money than you could receive in a lawsuit. While you could get more money in court, nothing is certain, and lawsuits take months or even years.

Most injured parties settle to avoid legal expenses and long court battles. But if the insurance company does not offer a fair settlement, your attorney may recommend going to court.

Your attorney will lay out the advantages and disadvantages of going to court or settling. In the end, it is up to you, though.

California Has A Two-Year Statute Of Limitations

As you decide on legal steps after an accident, remember that California has a two-year statute of limitations. This means you have only two years to file a personal injury lawsuit from the accident date. Therefore, you should contact a Glendale personal injury attorney as soon as possible, so there is plenty of time to build a case.

Contact Glendale Personal Injury Lawyers

Most people need to drive to live their lives in Glendale. Whether you are at Brand Park, Glendale, Galleria, or The Americana At Brand, a car accident can happen at any time. You may be entitled to compensation when it does, and someone else caused it.

Glendale personal injury lawyers Ourfalian & Ourfalian have the experience and skill to safeguard your rights after a car accident. Our attorneys handle cases in Encino, Alhambra, Arcadia, Burbank, Glendale, El Monte, Granada Hills, Los Angeles, Monterey Park, North Hollywood, Pasadena, Van Nuys, and other communities in Southern California and the San Fernando Valley. Please contact our attorneys for a complimentary consultation at: (818) 550-7777.

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Are Car Accidents More Common in the Summer?

car accidents

It does not take long to notice the increase in sirens and flashing lights as of late. But why does there seem to be an increase in collisions this summer? Has it always been like this, and if so, why? The fact is that there are more car accidents in the summer than in any other season. Cross country road trips, weekend hikes to the mountains, and backyard barbecues and gatherings all put more people on the road, resulting in congestion. Where there is congestion there are drivers cutting each other off, impatient speeding, red-light running, and tailgating.

Summer Crash Statistics

According to an analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highways Safety, the summer is the most dangerous time to drive. Drunk drivers, distracted out-of-towners, people hauling boats and trailers, and overall larger traffic volume are some of the leading reasons why there are considerably more car accidents in the summer.

  • July and August are the two highest fatality months, followed by June, October, and September.
  • The most dangerous holiday to drive on is July 4th, Independence Day.

More Drivers are on the Road in Summertime

More drivers on the road mean more crashes. It is as simple as that. And summer is the season in which the average American spends the most miles on the road. According to AAA, Americans drive the least in the winter, averaging 25.7 miles per day, while summer is the busiest season, during which drivers average 30.6 miles per day.

Other Factors That Lead to More Crashes in Summer

  • Breakdowns Caused by Hot Weather—Vehicles are more likely to overheat, blow out a tire, or otherwise break down on the side of the road when it is hot out. Rubbernecking and too-late-lane changes can occur when stalled vehicles are parked on the shoulder of the road. In these types of collisions, it is usually the fault of the moving vehicles, though in some cases liability may fall on the shoulders of the driver whose vehicle broke down if they did an improper job of pulling to the side or failed to use flares or other warning devices.
  • Drunk Driving—Weddings, barbecues, sports events, boating, and nightclub hopping are all at their peak in the summer. And, along with those activities, so is drinking. Drunk driving skyrockets in the summer, starting with Memorial Day. Other holidays such as the 4th of July and Labor Day also see traffic deaths that, throughout the country, tally well into the hundreds. Yet, normal weekdays and weekends are also more hazardous in the summer than in the winter, fall, or spring months due to drunk drivers.
  • Construction Zone Crashes—Construction projects often get delayed throughout the rest of the year due to rain and other inclement weather issues that make road repairs impossible. As such, summer tends to be the biggest time of the year for road construction. Distracted driving (particularly cell phone use), speeding, unsafe passing, and failure to yield the right of way are common causes of collisions in construction zones.
  • Teenage and Young Adult Drivers—Because school is out during the summer, kids and young adults between the ages of 16 and 23 spend more time driving than they do in the fall, winter, and spring, when they would normally be attending high school or college classes. Young drivers—young males specifically—are the most dangerous people on the roads. They are the least experienced behind the wheel, and at the same time are the greatest risk-takers. Cell phone use and drinking and driving are also common among teen drivers, which no one can do safely, let alone a 17-year-old.

Recent Traffic Collision Trends During the Pandemic

Traffic collision deaths, per capita, rose by 17.5% from the summer of 2019 to the summer of 2021, according to the New York Times, which was the largest two-year increase since World War II. There are a number of contributing factors to the increase in injury-causing and fatal traffic collisions, but the main problem is aggressive driving and speeding. The pandemic has created a general feeling of frustration, anger, and isolation.

Getting behind the wheel of a car is empowering, for some people, and because of the pent-up anger, fear, and anxiety that the pandemic has caused, many drivers are choosing to take their anger out on other road users. In addition to road rage, speeding (another form of aggressive driving) is on the rise, which is contributing to more crashes and more serious injuries when crashes do occur. Drivers are less patient than they were two years ago before COVID, and speeding is one way in which this

Other pandemic factors:

  • Crumbling Infrastructure—Some communities have been able to gather the funds to fix roads during the pandemic. Others, particularly communities of color, have not. Dilapidated roads and other traffic infrastructure are creating hazardous conditions for pedestrians and drivers. While traffic deaths have increased by 7.2 percent among all road users, deaths increased by 23 percent for Black Americans in the last two years.
  • Rising drug abuse—The opioid painkiller epidemic, which the COVID pandemic exacerbated due to job losses and anxiety, does not just affect those who are addicted. When high drivers get behind the wheel, they are as likely to cause collisions as drunk drivers. Marijuana use has also greatly increased, and more people are driving with high THC levels than in the past.

Call a Glendale Auto Collision Attorney Today

As a recent crash victim, it is in your best interest to talk to a Glendale traffic collision attorney as soon as possible. We can help you procure compensation to pay for your medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, property damage to your car, and more. No car crash is cheap, and yours is likely much more expensive than you realize. Do not accept an offer from the at-fault party before discussing your case with a qualified personal injury attorney. Call a Glendale car accident attorney at Ourfalian & Ourfalian today at (818) 550–7777 to schedule a free consultation.