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Common Car Accident Scenarios — Causes & Determining Fault
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Car accidents often fall into a few basic patterns. These scenarios help experts reconstruct what happened in a crash. They can also tell the police and insurers who bears liability for the accident.
Interestingly, similar accidents also cause similar injuries. The type of car accident can tell you the likelihood that an accident will cause severe or fatal injuries.
Read on to learn some common car accident scenarios, what causes them, and who bears fault for them.
The Law Offices of Jay S. Knispel Personal Injury Lawyers can help you fight for the compensation you deserve. Contact or call us today at (212) 564 2800 for a free consultation.
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The lead attorney at the Law Offices of Jay S. Knispel Personal Injury Lawyers has over 25 years of experience handling injury cases. As a New York car accident lawyer, he has recovered tens of millions of dollars in injury compensation for his clients.
When you hire us, you can count on us to:
Injuries from a car accident can require expensive medical treatment and physical therapy. Contact the Law Offices of Jay S. Knispel Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation to learn about the compensation to which you may be entitled.
Across New York, 2021 saw 110,541 car accidents, according to the City of New York’s Open Data Portal. These crashes included:
These numbers seem staggering. But NYC had over 8.4 million residents in 2021. When you account for its population, NYC does not crack the ten most dangerous cities for drivers.
New York uses a no-fault car insurance system. In this system, vehicle owners must buy auto insurance with personal injury protection (PIP) coverage. After a minor accident, each driver’s PIP coverage pays for any injuries to the occupants of that driver’s car.
Suppose an SUV hits your car in a parking lot. The SUV’s PIP coverage covers injuries to the occupants in that vehicle. Your PIP coverage pays for any injuries to you and the passengers in your car. These benefits get paid regardless of who caused the accident, hence the no-fault name.
When accident victims suffer a serious injury like a chest injury or airbag injury, they can opt out of the no-fault system and file an injury claim against the at-fault driver. To recover injury compensation, the accident victims must prove the at-fault driver acted negligently in causing the crash.
Negligence happens when a driver fails to exercise reasonable care. Usually, this means the driver violated a traffic law. It can also happen when a driver does something dangerous, even if it is legal.
For example, New York allows drivers to talk and drive as long as they use a hands-free device. A driver having an argument over the speakerphone might get distracted and cause a crash. The driver’s failure to pull over instead of arguing and driving might constitute negligence even though no traffic laws were broken.
You can apply these principles to some of the most common car accident scenarios to determine their causes and fault, including:
A rear-end collision is one of the most common types of car accidents. These accidents happen when a car plows into the back of another car.
Rear-end collision causes include:
Liability for rear-end crashes usually falls on the driver of the trailing car. That driver must follow at a safe distance from the car in front of them. Occasionally, the driver of the leading car may bear liability, particularly if they cut off the other driver and leave them no room to stop.
Lane departures happen when one car sideswipes the car in the adjacent lane. Causes of lane departure crashes include:
Liability for these crashes will fall on the driver who failed to remain in their lane.
Intersections are very dangerous, particularly in heavy traffic congestion. Side-impact crashes can cause some of the most serious injuries, particularly when a car hits the driver’s door of another car.
Causes of intersection accidents include:
Liability for intersection accidents usually lies with the driver who entered the intersection out of turn or before it was clear.
A car accident can cause disabling injuries that prevent you from working or participating in the activities you enjoy. To discuss whether you can pursue an injury claim after your car accident, contact the Law Offices of Jay S. Knispel Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation.
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