Trucking Accident Lawyer
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Car accidents are unintentional damaging events involving automobiles. Car accidents can damage one or more autos, people, or structures. Car accidents—also called traffic accidents, auto accidents, road accidents, road traffic accidents (RTA in many police forces' terminology) and motor vehicle accidents—cause thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of disabilities each year.
Worldwide, car accidents kill an estimated one million people each year (a 2002 statistic).
Trends in accident statistics
Road toll figures show that car accident fatalities have declined since 1980, with most countries showing a reduction of roughly 50%. This drop appears to confirm the efficacy of safety measures introduced thereafter, assuming that driver behaviour has not changed significantly. In the United States, fatalities have increased slighty from 40,716 in 1994 to 42,643 in 2003.
Some expected greater improvements. Several explanations have been proposed:
- The number of cars is increasing, leading to more congested traffic. This argument is disputed—for example, the road toll in Australia is only about half that of the UK, despite the latter country's more than threefold size of population in an area 1/30th of the size.
- A safer car increases the perceived safety level, inducing the driver to go at higher speeds—in fact there is strong evidence to suggest that every safety advantage conferred by technology is eroded by modified driver behaviour.
- Some types of cars may be inherently less safe (see for example SUV)
- More in-car tech toys exist today. These can distract the driver from the road. These include: cell phones, TVs, pagers, portable CD and DVD players, laptop computers, electronic games, computer games, GPS navigators, camcorders, radar detectors, and others.
Whatever the reason, it has been noted that road fatality trends closely follow the so-called "Smeed's law" (after RJ Smeed its author), an empirical rule relating injury rates to the inverse square of car ownership levels. The road safety establishment is dismissive of this, preferring to claim the credit for lives saved. An analysis by prof. John Adams can be found [here].
Types of accidents
Car accidents fall into several major categories (whose names are self-explanatory):
Collisions can occur with other automobiles, other vehicles such as bicycles or trucks, with pedestrians, and with stationary structures or objects, such as trees or road signs.
The result of a side collision; most cars are not as structurally sound side-to-side as they are front-to-back and damage can be more severe to the vehicle and the occupant than at the same speed in a rear-end collision.
In a collision between two cars, the occupants of a car with the lower mass will likely suffer the greater consequences. See: crash incompatibility.
Legal consequences
Car accidents often carry legal consequences in proportion to the severity of the accident. Nearly all common law jurisdictions impose some kind of requirement that parties involved in a collision (even with only stationary property) must stop at the scene, and exchange insurance or identification information or summon the police. Failing to obey this requirement is the crime of hit and run. Most car accidents can be settled without using an attorney.
Parties involved in an accident may face criminal liability, civil liability, or both. Usually, the state starts a prosecution only if someone is severely injured or killed, or if one of the drivers involved was clearly intoxicated or otherwise impaired at the time the accident occurred. Charges might include driving under the influence of alcohol, assault with a deadly weapon, manslaughter, or murder; penalties range from fines to jail time to prison time to death.
As for civil liability, automobile accident personal injury lawsuits have become the most common type of tort. Because these cases have been litigated often in the developed First World nations, the legal questions usually have been answered in prior judgments. So, the courts most usually decide solely the factual questions of who is at fault, and how much they (or their insurer) must pay out in damages to the injured plaintiff.
Another element of civil liability involves the administrative fines or license suspension/revocation that may be imposed by a civil authority when a driver has violated the rules of the road and thus the terms of a driver's license. Such complaint may be filed by a police officer or sometimes by other witnesses of an incident. (this article compliments of Wikipedia)
Related Practice Areas
Personal Injury Auto Accident Air Bag Defects Bus Accident Car Fires Class Action Consumer Protection Defective Car Seat Defective Seatbelt Dram Shop Lemon Law Mesothelioma Motorcycle Accident Paraplegia Quadriplegia Personal Injury Railroad Accident Spinal Cord Injury Tire Recalls Traumatic Brain Injury SUV Rollovers Trucking Accident Wrongful Death
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Trucking Accident News
Con's just happy to keep on trucking (Toowoomba Chronicle) CON Theodosis loves his job. He's been a truckie for nearly 50 years and in all that time he's never had an accident. In fact, he's so good at what he does that he's in the running for the 8national Professional Driver of the Year Award. | AequiCap on Track (Centre Daily Times) AequiCap Insurance Company was notified by A.M. Best Company of a one notch downward adjustment of its rating to C++. This one notch adjustment remains within the C++/B- range anticipated by the company as a result of adverse development in the trucking line from the 2002-2005 accident years predominantly relating to reinsurance commutations affecting those years. With those accident years now ... | AequiCap on Track (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance) FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.----AequiCap Insurance Company was notified by A.M. Best Company of a one notch downward adjustment of its rating to C++. This one notch adjustment remains within the C++/B- range anticipated by the company as a result of adverse development in the trucking line from the 2002-2005 accident years predominantly relating to reinsurance commutations affecting those years. | Man killed in construction accident (Billings Gazette) GREAT FALLS - A 48-year-old Great Falls man has died following a construction accident near Geyser. | MTA Offers Forums on Risk Management (TruckingInfo.com) 5/8/2008 The Mid-West Truckers Association will hold forums on "Claim Management and Asset Protection for Trucking Companies" in May and June. The first event is scheduled for May 15 in Willowbrook, Ill. The second will be held June 5 in Collinsville, Ill. |

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