Automobile Accident

If you have been in a car accident, there are potential injuries you might feel right away, such as bone and skull fractures, bruises, and torn ligaments. But there are also many common car accident injuries that people often don’t feel right away.

Not All Symptoms Occur Immediately

In the aftermath of a car accident, you might feel shaken up, but not as if you have an injury. Fear and the desire to move out of a crash scene can make you ignore minor symptoms.

Some injuries, especially those to soft tissue, may actually not be felt for a long period of time after an accident — even for several weeks.

The fact that you don’t feel the injuries, though, doesn’t mean they are minor. Some can affect you physically for the rest of your life, and impact your quality of life as well. Some can even be fatal.

Here’s a brief overview of injuries you can sustain in a car accident, but not may feel right away.

Traumatic Brain Injury and Related Injuries

Your brain can be affected seriously in even a minor accident. If you’re rear-ended, for example, it can cause you to move suddenly forward and then back. That jostles the brain. It can result in a traumatic brain injury (TBI), concussion, or other head injury. These can occur without the head looking or feeling especially hurt.

If you have hit your head or had your head severely jostled, be sure to see a physician immediately after the accident. They can check for signs of concussion.

Other symptoms of brain injuries include headaches 48 to 72 hours post accident. These can result from neck injuries, brain movement, a concussion, or bleeding or blood clots in your brain. The latter two can be fatal if not treated.

Neck or Shoulder Pain or Stiffness

You might feel fine after a car crash, but then begin to feel pain or stiffness in the neck or shoulder. This is one of the most frequent symptoms to occur in the aftermath of an accident.

These symptoms are part of whiplash. The term whiplash derives from the way a body moves when a car is rear-ended. It moves abruptly back and forth, like a whip being cracked. This type of movement can result in soft tissue damage, which your doctor will not see on an X-ray. Whiplash can result in long-term or even permanent mobility issues.

Back Pain

If you’ve injured your muscles, nerves, ligaments, or vertebrae, you can develop back pain days or weeks after the accident. Back pain is particularly frequent in rear-end or hit-from-the-side accidents.

Experienced Car Accident Lawyers in New York

Friedman, Levy, Goldfarb & Green are experienced car accident lawyers. Please call us today at (212) 307-5800 for a free consultation about your case.

Additional Resources:

1. Konet, Kyle. Arrowhead Clinic. “Delayed Car Accident Injury Symptoms To Pay Attention To.” https://www.arrowheadclinic.com/category/blog/delayed-car-accident-injury-symptoms
2. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths. https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/motor-vehicle-safety/index.html

Smartphones make it easier than ever for us to stay connected, but that enhanced connectivity can pose serious risks. In fact, cell phones have become one of the most common distractions for drivers. Drivers text messaging on their cell phones are 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash or near crash event compared with non-distracted drivers.

Teenagers are particularly prone to being distracted by cell phones while driving. In the United States, 35% of teenagers admit to texting while driving and 21% of teen drivers involved in fatal accidents are distracted by their cell phones. Smartphone applications fuel distracted driving. Two apps targeted at teenage audiences are particularly problematic: “Pokémon Go” and “Snapchat”.

Pokémon Go is an augmented reality game that allows players to “capture” digital creatures at real locations using their smartphones. Since its release last week, a number of car accidents caused by drivers using the smartphone app have been reported. The app has also been blamed with creating risk of personal injury because users become engrossed in the game and unaware of their surroundings; there are reports of distracted users slipping and falling, walking into traffic, and even falling off of a cliff.

A number of car accidents have also been caused by “Snapchat,” an app that allows users to share photos and videos with friends. Snapchat has a speed “filter” that enables users to share how fast they are traveling while they take photos and videos. This feature has been blamed for encouraging speeding. In Atlanta, a teen recently caused a serious car accident driving over 100 mph while using this feature. The driver of the car she crashed into suffered permanent brain trauma and has brought a lawsuit against both the teen driver and Snapchat.

It is harrowing enough to watch your child get behind the wheel of a car and drive down the street and out of sight for the first time. You worry about other careless drivers, drunk drivers and bad weather. You hope friends in the passenger seat won’t distract your child or encourage them to speed. You implore your child not to text and drive or drink and drive. Now you have a new worry – your child catching Pokémon while driving – or Snapchatting while driving. Also remember that if your child is out catching Pokémon in a car owned by you and gets into an accident and injures someone, under New York law, your liability is the same as if you were the one actually driving the car and catching Pokémon. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t there. As the vehicle owner, the law puts you in the driver’s seat and puts your child’s iPhone in your hands. Please talk to your child and make sure they understand the dangers of playing on apps while driving.

As cell phone use while driving becomes increasingly common, the chances of being involved in a car accident with a distracted driver escalate. If you or a loved one has been injured by the carelessness of another driver, please contact Friedman, Levy, Goldfarb, Green & Bagley, P.C. for a free consultation, and visit our our website at friedmanlevy.com for more information.

When the courts are asked to determine liability in a personal injury case involving a traffic accident, one of the first things a jury is asked to consider is who is at fault for the accident. There are several factors that are taken into consideration when making that determination.

First and foremost, if any of the drivers involved in the accident were guilty of any traffic violation related to the accident, there is a good chance that the court will assign fault the driver guilty of the infraction. Common traffic violations related to traffic accidents include running red lights or stop signs, speeding, making improper turns, and texting while driving. Similarly, if any of the drivers is guilty of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, he or she is likely to be found at fault for the accident.

A police officer’s account of the accident is also important in determining which party is at fault. The police officer will interview witnesses, including the parties to the accident, and weigh conflicting stories to determine what actually happened to cause the accident. Tire marks on the road and the positioning of vehicles can help an officer come to a conclusion. Sometimes, video footage exists to eliminate any doubt as to what happened, either from someone’s dash cam or from a security camera. Police officers have experience and training to help them recreate accident scenes from the evidence available, but their reports are not perfect.

When an accident is the result of a rear end collision or a left hand turn, the officer is usually quick to assign blame to the car in the rear or the car turning left. The rule of thumb while driving is that the driver making a turn must wait for oncoming traffic to pass before turning. A driver must always cede the right of way to the traffic in front.

The role that the determination of fault plays depends largely on the laws of the state in which the accident occurs. Some states follow a doctrine of contributory negligence while some have a more lenient policy of comparative negligence. States that use contributory negligence may preclude a plaintiff from collecting any damages if his or her own negligence contributed to the accident at all. States, like New York, that use a model of comparative negligence will reduce a jury’s award by the percentage of fault found to be the plaintiff’s. Even if you are more than 50% at fault for causing an accident, you can still sue for your injuries in New York. If you have been injured in an automobile accident, call Friedman, Levy, Goldfarb & Green for a free consultation.

I recently witnessed an automobile accident in the New York City suburb in which I live where no one was hurt, but plenty of damage was done to one of the vehicles involved. I was stopped at a red light directly behind the car that caused the accident. Ahead of that car was an SUV that was already backing into a parallel parking space when we both approached the red light and stopped. When the SUV was halfway into the parking space, the driver ahead of me tried to squeeze her car through the gap between the parking SUV and a truck waiting to turn left at the red light. I watched in amazement as the corner of the car’s bumper scratched its way up half the length of the parking SUV. The vehicles stopped where they were, and the at-fault driver immediately hopped out of her car and started screaming at her innocent victim that she had backed into her car while “speeding backwards into the parking space”. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

After 26 years as a personal injury attorney, I know that what gets reported on a police report by each of the drivers becomes the gospel for each of their insurance companies. If the driver of the car reported that the SUV had backed into her, the car’s insurance company would not only have refused to pay for the SUV’s damage, but would also likely have tried to recoup the car’s damages from the SUV’s insurance company. I was determined not to let that happen (and fortunately I happened not to be in a rush to get anywhere).

I parked my car up the street and came back to accident location where the drivers were waiting for the police to arrive. I introduced myself to the SUV driver and told her that I had witnessed the car accident from just 20 feet away and saw everything. I assured her that the accident was entirely the car’s fault, and that I intended to put my statement on the police accident report. I know from experience that insurance companies take non-party witness statements very seriously if they are contained on the police accident report.

This is when I learned how misinformed the police and most people are about what “No-Fault” means in New York State. A friendly suburban police officer arrived within minutes, looked at the cars, listened to the drivers tell their stories – one truthful, and the other full of lies – scribbled down their names in his memo book, and then told the drivers that he was not going to make a report because “this is a no-fault accident, so they don’t need an accident report”. “Excuse me officer,” I said politely, “but no fault has nothing to do with this”. “Who are you,” he asked to which I responded, “a witness”. He then told me that I could give the drivers my name if wanted to as he headed back to his car and drove away. I told the SUV driver to take lots of pictures of the vehicles where they were, exchange information with the other driver, and gave her my card, and said call me if and when you need me to give a statement.

The officer was wrong on two counts. This was NOT a “no-fault accident”, whatever that even means, and the drivers DID need a police report. Without getting too detailed, the Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Insurance Reparations Act, more commonly known as the New York No-Fault Law, became effective on February 1, 1974. The law was enacted to provide prompt payment of health related expenses and wage loss of those parties injured as a result of an auto accident. Under the No-Fault law, the insurance company for the vehicle an injured person is in when an accident occurs, pays that injured person’s medical bills and lost wages regardless of whose fault the accident is – ergo, “No-Fault”.

No-Fault, however, has nothing whatsoever to do with damage to cars involved in accidents, and fault has everything to do with who pays for collision damage. Simply put, if it’s another driver’s fault that a collision occurs, you are entitled to get your property damages from them, and to do so you must prove the accident was their fault. While No-Fault’s serious injury threshold does play some part in whether you can sue for personal injuries arising out of a car accident, again fault has everything to do with whether you can recover from the other driver for your pain and suffering.

If you sustain a serious injury in a car accident, you must prove that the accident was the other driver’s fault in order for you to recover from them. The statements made by the parties and witnesses on the police accident report is the first piece of evidence the insurance company looks at in determining fault for the happening of the accident. By not knowing what “No-Fault” was, the police officer deprived the drivers of the opportunity to make a report with a non-party witness statement included, which would have gone a long way to getting the insurance claims settled quickly. Instead the police officer’s ignorance will likely result in the SUV driver having to pay for her own damages, while the guilty careless car driver walks away without any consequences.

Again, “No-Fault” only applies to medical bills and lost wages, and you do not have the right to seek those from the other driver. You do, however, absolutely have the right to recover all other damages to your car, property and injury to your body from the driver and owner of the other vehicle, but to do so requires that you prove that the accident was their “yes-fault”. And, of course, remember to demand that the police fill out an accident report, even if the officer doesn’t know the law; because now you do.

Distracted driving has emerged as a disturbing trend that poses a serious threat not only to preoccupied drivers, but to other motorists on the roadways. Accidents caused by this unsafe practice have seen a major uptick in recent years due to the widespread use of smart phones to text and post to social media platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter, while driving. Although drivers of all ages may be guilty of driving while distracted, studies have found that teenage drivers are especially tempted to use their phone to snap photos or text from the driver’s seat.

Personal injury lawsuits on the basis of distracted driving are becoming more prevalent. A wrongful-death suit against taxi-alternative company Uber cites distracted driving as the cause of a collision that killed a 6-year-old girl and injured her mother and brother while they were crossing the street on New Year’s Eve in California. Allegedly, the Uber driver was logged into the company’s smart phone app, waiting to receive and accept a ride request, when his SUV collided with the girl and her family. Although this case doesn’t involve a teenage driver, it demonstrates how (alleged) smart phone use while driving can have horrifying consequences.

More than 3,300 fatalities occur each year as a result of distracted driving, according to the Department of Transportation and Distraction.gov, the official US website dedicated to distracted driving. Drivers are twice as likely to crash if they’re texting while driving than if they were paying attention.

Car crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers, with cell phone use being reported in 18 percent of all distraction-related fatalities in America. These scary statistics have led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to create an campaign against distracted driving aimed at young adults.

If you have teenage children or you just happen to be up on current trends, you’ll know that many young people use their cell phones to take “selfies”, a nickname for self-portraits. It’s come to the attention of law enforcement and safety advocates that teens are taking selfies and posting to social media while behind the wheel, some of them even use the hashtag #Ihopeidontcrash with their photos. Expressing that fear, even though it’s disguised with a supposedly amusing hashtag, shows that these young drivers have an inkling as to how dangerous this practice could be.

On average, texting takes your eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds. Distraction.gov says that at 55 mph, 4.6 seconds with your eyes on your cell phone is like driving an entire football field blindfolded.

Distracted driving falls into three main categories:

• manual: taking your hands off of the wheel
• visual: taking your eyes on the road
• cognitive: not being mentally present while driving.
  
  

Distracted driving laws vary by state, but many have a law in place that bans drivers from using handheld phones. In addition, most states ban bus drivers and beginner drivers from all cell phone use (handheld and hands-free), and enforce a ban on texting for all drivers.