Victorville Car Accident Lawyer

Few incidents will have as profound an impact on a person’s life as a car accident. These events have the potential to inflict severe physical injuries, jeopardize your ability to return to work, and devastate your quality of life. Whenever these accidents are another person’s fault, they must provide appropriate compensation. Still, collecting these payments requires proving fault for an accident and demonstrating how an incident has affected your life.

A Victorville car accident lawyer could help you with this process. A dedicated personal injury attorney is prepared to take the lead on your case so that you can focus on making your best recovery.

What Steps Should I Take After a Car Accident?

While there are some general steps a person should take after a car accident in Victorville, it is critical to keep in mind that every accident is different. Victims have different levels of injuries, which can impact their ability to follow these steps, as well as how urgent or even necessary the steps may be. If a step does not apply, move on to the next step. 

The most important thing is to do your best to ensure the safety of everyone in the accident. State law requires people to move wrecks out of the flow of traffic if the car is drivable and there are no severe injuries. If someone has been killed or severely injured, you should leave the car for law enforcement. However, if people are in the flow of traffic or at risk, it is important to get them out of the road, if possible, to keep a second accident or impact from occurring.  

The next step is to check to see if anyone has injuries. The aftermath of a wreck can be confusing. The driver should check themselves for injuries, then check on the people in their car and render any aid that is immediately required. If no one in the vehicle is in need of immediate aid, the driver should check on the people in any other vehicles involved in the wreck. 

Contact First Responders

At the same time, the driver can call 911 and request the appropriate first responders. You want to ask for EMTs to come to the vehicle if it seems like anyone has an injury that may need care at the ER.

EMTs will generally assess victims at the scene, checking vital signs and looking for observable injuries, and then make suggestions about whether they should transport you to the hospital for additional treatment or diagnostics. They do so to identify hidden injuries, prevent further injury, stabilize people with injuries, or transport severely injured people to trauma centers quickly. Following EMT recommendations can help increase survival rates and overall outcomes for injured people.

Unfortunately, there can be some stigma associated with ambulance rides. Many people fear the cost, which can easily exceed $2,000. It is impossible to know beforehand whether insurance will cover it, so people can feel like they are being irresponsible to take an ambulance if they do not think their injuries are life-threatening. However, since adrenaline can mask pain and keep people from recognizing that they have injuries, if the EMTs recommend you go to the ER, you should allow them to transport you there.

Collect Evidence

If it is safe to do so, you should try to collect evidence at the scene. You need to get information from any other drivers involved in the accident, including their name, insurance information, driver’s license number, and phone number. If police come to the scene, get their names and the report number. You should also take photos of the vehicles, the road conditions, and any relevant details.

Of course, the worse the accident and the injuries, the less likely it is that you will be able to collect this evidence at the scene. Fortunately, the officers on the scene should get most of that information for you. If you were unable to get any of the above evidence at the scene, contact law enforcement in the area where the accident occurred. Even without a report number, they should be able to help connect you with the correct information. While their evidence may not be as thorough as what you would have collected, a Victorville car accident attorney can help.

Should I Contact My Insurer?

Just about every personal injury attorney will warn you about talking to your insurance company or the other party’s insurer without talking to a lawyer. While you should not give them a statement, you do need to contact your insurer as soon as possible after an accident. Failing to report it in a timely manner can impact your ability to recover.

However, you can (and should) still consult a car crash attorney in Victorville before giving a statement to the police.

Demonstrating Fault Following a Car Crash

While it is true that a driver owes a duty of protection to all other people on the road, the law will never presume fault for an accident. Instead, the burden lies on a crash victim to demonstrate how another driver’s actions were the cause of a wreck.

The state’s pure comparative negligence law makes proving another driver’s carelessness critical. According to Pfeifer v. John Crane, Inc. (2013) 220 Cal.App.4th 1270, courts hearing these cases must examine the actions of all people involved in car collisions and assign blame as they see fit. A knowledgeable car accident lawyer in Victorville could further explain the concept of comparative negligence and how it affects demands for compensation following car crashes.

Seeking Fair Compensation from At-Fault Drivers

The law says that an at-fault motorist must provide full compensation to all people who suffer injuries because of their actions. It is as essential to show how a car accident has affected a person’s life as it is to assign blame for a collision. Accordingly, most damages following a vehicle wreck fall into one of three categories.

Reimbursement for Medical Bills

Almost every car crash case will revolve around physical harm. These could be incidents requiring only one trip to the ER or those resulting in permanent disabilities. After every accident, an at-fault driver or their insurance company must provide reimbursement for all treatment that a victim’s insurance does not cover. This could include:

• An ambulance ride
• Emergency room treatment
• Surgery
• Medications
• Physical rehabilitation
• Chiropractic care

A legal representative will help victims gather relevant medical bills and records to prove the extent of their physical injuries and the related costs.

Lost Quality of Life

The effects on an individual’s emotional well-being are as significant as physical injuries from a car collision. It is not uncommon for injured people to experience flashbacks, nightmares, and other forms of trauma that reduce their quality of life. While placing a dollar value on these experiences can be challenging, a car wreck lawyer in Victorville could help individuals demand appropriate compensation.

Missing Income

In many situations, a vehicle crash results in an injury that jeopardizes a person’s ability to return to work. This could take the form of an injury that temporarily keeps a person off the job or situations where an incident caused a permanent disability. In either event, an at-fault driver is responsible for compensating victims for this lost income.

Contact a Victorville Car Accident Attorney Now

The law indicates that every driver must take appropriate actions to protect others. This includes following local traffic laws and keeping their attention on the road. When they fail to do this and an injury happens, they are liable for all resulting losses.

A Victorville car accident lawyer could explain relevant laws, gather necessary evidence, assist in measuring your losses, and demand compensation in and out of court. Speak with a legal representative now to start your claim.