Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Surviving An Auto Accident

In 2006, 150,000 auto accidents occurred resulting in 43,000 deaths and 91,824 injuries.

For persons under 34, auto accidents are the leading cause of death and every 13 minutes another motor vehicle death occurs.

Auto accidents are also among the leading causes of serious injuries like brain damage and 45% of all spinal cord injuries – approximately 5,000 per year-- result from auto accidents.

While often resulting from human error, many accidents are caused or worsened by defective products or inadequate safety mechanisms.

For example, vehicles that are prone to rollovers cause an estimated 24,000 injuries and 10,000 deaths per year.

Airbags also cause severe injuries by deploying when they should not, deploying with too much force or too slowly, or simply by failing to deploy.

Other injury causing devices include older seat belts and defective parking brakes.

Often the vehicle, itself, is the problem. Motorcycles and scooters have increased in popularity and traffic accidents involving two wheelers reached an all-time high in 2007 with 5,154 motorcycle riders killed.

While unable to guarantee your safety, the law allows accident victims to be compensated for vehicle damage, lost wages, medical expenses, pain and suffering, and mental anguish.

However, insurance companies often delay and shortchange accident victims and the law imposes strict claim filing deadlines.

To protect your rights, if you or anyone you know is involved in an auto accident, contact us at schain@schaininjury.com as soon as possible.