Car Crashes

Facts About Car Crash Injuries

Passenger cars and light trucks such as sport utility vehicles, vans, and pick-up trucks are involved in 3 out of 4 motor vehicle crashes. About 40% of the crashes will involve an injury and 57% will involve some form of property damage.

There are several important things you should know in order to protect your health and your rights if you have been involved in a car crash.

Getting Medical Care

After a car crash, it is important that you get any medical care that you need. This is most important. This medical care may include the following:

Emergency Care

You may need to be taken by ambulance because your injury is immediate, obvious, and potentially life-threatening.

Urgent Care

After leaving the place where the accident happened, you may start feeling symptoms that bother you, but are not serious enough to scare you or seem life threatening. For example, your neck or back may begin to spasm, your hands may begin to tingle, or you develop a moderate headache. You feel you need medical attention and you are not comfortable waiting to see your primary care doctor.

Primary Care

You may be able to cope with symptoms described above and wish to see your own doctor because that doctor knows you best.

Accident Report

Even if the accident seems minor, you should make sure a police officer comes to the scene to make a report. While at the scene of the accident, you should make sure the police officer speaks to you and not only the other driver. You should share information with the police officer. It is important to speak to the facts of the accident and not to admit fault. Sometimes you do not know who caused the crash and you will not know this until there is further investigation. After your crash, you will have access to the police accident report on the New York State DMV website. You are going to need this for your insurance company and your lawyer.

2 Types of Damages

There are two kinds of damages after a car crash.

1. Bodily Injury

Includes pain and suffering, medical expenses, future pain and suffering, loss of ability to work, etc.

2. Property Damage

Includes damage to the vehicles involved, the contents of the vehicles, and damage to other physical property such as buildings, guardrails, and telephone poles.

3 Types of Claims

There are three types of claims involved in a car crash.

1. Property Damage

This involves your insurance company and the insurance company of the other vehicle(s).

2. Personal injury or Bodily Injury

This involves the insurance company of the other vehicle(s).

3. No Fault Claims

No Fault claims include medical bills, lost wages, and mileage to and from doctors appointments. No Fault is handled by your insurance company and does not involve the insurance company of the other people involved in the crash.

Costs Associated With Car Crashes

These costs can become overwhelming. The law allows you to recover for the harm that someone else causes you after a crash.

Loss of Wages
General Loss of Productivity
Emergency Care
Medical Bills
Property Damages
Insurance Costs

7 Things You Should Do After a Car Crash

Get medical care that you need. Keep records and receipts from these visits.
Take photos of the accident scene. Include stop signs or traffic lights.
Take photos of your vehicle to show any damage.
Get the names and contact information for any witnesses.
Call the police so they can prepare an accident report.
Speak to the facts at the scene. Avoid admitting any fault.
Notify your insurance company about the crash.

The Kuehner Law Firm Approach

Help Our Client, Help The Community

Our office can help you to keep all of these issues straight. The Kuehner Law Firm will give you information you need to understand what is happening after a crash. We have been handling car crash cases where there is a serious injury for many years and have helped other families through the confusing process after a crash. When someone has a serious injury after a car crash, we can help you get the medical bills paid. We can help you understand which insurance people to talk with so that your medical bills get paid right away. We can help you by proving who caused the crash. If the cause of the crash is not immediately clear from the limited police investigation that is usually done, we will call in the right expert, called an accident reconstructionist, to figure out exactly what happened and who caused it.

In New York you can only sue for an injury caused in a car crash if you have suffered a serious injury. In New York that is defined and covers injuries that are medically verifiable, life changing or very expensive. Broken bones are always considered a serious injury. Loss of a limb or loss of a fetus are also always considered serious in New York. If however, your injury is one that causes you pain and even a lot of time lost from work, some judges and insurance companies do not consider that a serious injury. Here at the Kuehner Law Firm, we know how to organize your medical evidence and get opinions from experts in the field of orthopedics, rehabilitation, chiropractic, physical therapy and even psychology to prove that car crash injuries are often very serious and should almost never be thrown out of court when handled properly.

The thing to remember when you or a family member has been seriously injured in car crash is that we have been through this before and you don’t need to go through it alone. We are here to help.

3 Simple Safety Rules For Dealing With a Snowstorm

It is not safe to be driving during a major snow event. Roads will be slick, visibility will be lower and vehicles can be unpredictable. Common sense safety rules tell us that if we have a choice to do something dangerous or something safe…