Phoenix Car Accident Lawyer

When a driver is heading the wrong way or swerves out of their lane, they may cause a head-on collision. Since the impact is at the front of both vehicles where the drivers are located, they can sustain severe injuries. Traumatic brain injuries, internal organ damage, and severe lacerations are all possibilities.

Rear-End Collisions

If a driver collides with the back of another vehicle, the impact can cause whiplash. Rear-end collisions are common when a driver is distracted and doesn’t realize that traffic has stopped.

T-Bone Accidents

These are also called broadside collisions and commonly occur at intersections. The front of one vehicle strikes the side of another. The driver or passenger can both sustain serious injuries like spinal cord injuries or broken bones if they’re on the side of the impact.

Sideswipe

When vehicles are traveling side by side, and one exits their lane, the cars can collide. This could happen when a driver doesn’t check their blind spot when changing lanes or merging.

Single Vehicle Accidents

In some cases, a negligent driver can cause an auto wreck but not be involved in the car crash. If a negligent driver swerves in front of another vehicle, the other driver may try to maneuver their car to avoid a collision. While they may avoid a car crash with the negligent driver, they can lose control and crash into something else.

All the auto accidents above can cause injuries. As your Phoenix car accident lawyer investigates your case, we’ll know the details of what type of crash you were in and what injuries resulted from it. Our Phoenix auto accident attorneys make sure to have the full scope of your injuries and damages so we can fight for maximum compensation.

What Are the Primary Causes of Phoenix Car Accidents?

As your personal injury attorney is building your Phoenix car accident case, we’ll review the evidence from the auto accident to find out what the other driver did to cause the crash. Negligent actions behind the wheel can cause dangerous motor vehicle accidents in seconds. It’s possible they did one of the following common causes of car accidents such as:

Driver Inexperience

Driving is, in many ways, like a game of chance. Understanding the value of scanning the road for potential hazards, anticipating when a motorist is going to make certain choices, knowing how far of a distance to maintain between oneself and the vehicle in front of them, and how long it takes to reach a full stop in certain conditions all take experience that newly licensed drivers simply don’t have. This lack of foresight or insight leaves these motorists vulnerable to causing crashes.

Speeding

When drivers are going above the posted speed limit, they’re putting themselves and others at risk.

Inclement weather, such as wet, icy, or leaf-strewn roads, affects how quickly motorists can brake, depending on how fast they are traveling when they attempt to slow down. Navigating blind turns at a fast rate of speed puts motorists at risk of losing control over their vehicles and also gives them less time to avoid other drivers, pedestrians, and others, thus resulting in a crash.

The combination of alcohol intoxication with speeding is particularly dangerous. It has the potential of causing particularly catastrophic crashes that result in the loss of life.

Drunk Driving

Intoxicated drivers are not able to safely operate a car because their judgment, senses, and alertness are all impaired. They could easily veer out of their lane into oncoming traffic, run up into a curb or sidewalk, or may not notice that traffic is slowing down or stopping.

Poor Maintenance

Perhaps you wouldn’t envision taking a vehicle out on the road if you didn’t believe it was performing optimally, but that’s not how other motorists may operate. Countless motorists take their vehicles to work or on errands despite knowing that their different components, including the following, are failing:

• Brakes
• Tires
• Timing belts or chains
• Batteries
• Radiators
• Engines
• Transmissions

The obvious danger associated with doing this is that the car could cease to operate in the middle of traffic, causing a hazardous situation and resulting in a wreck. Additionally, vehicle owners could lose control of their poorly maintained vehicles if a tire were to blow out or could catch on fire, which could spread to other vehicles if it were to overheat. These are only a few examples of what could happen due to poor maintenance, all resulting in preventable crashes.

Texting and Driving

Phones are a major distraction to drivers. When drivers are more focused on sending a text, they may take one or both hands off the wheel. The driver will also look at the phone and take their eyes off the road. When a driver is distracted, they may not notice that they’re exiting their lane, changing their speed, and they may not notice if a car has changed lanes in front of them.

Defective Auto Parts

While we trust that the cars we drive are thoroughly tested before they’re released on the market, that’s not necessarily the case. Cars have many different components, many of which are manufactured by various third-party vendors.

Unless a manufacturer is cautious to perform thorough safety and crash testing on the parts it fabricates and also on the third-party ones it uses, then there’s a strong possibility for cars or aftermarket parts to get released on the market that are defective or dangerous, meaning they might easily cause a car accident.

Sometimes the dangers associated with certain vehicles or third-party parts isn’t known until sometime down the road after multiple personal injury claims have been levied against auto manufacturers or an insurance company representing them. By then, countless motorists may have been seriously harmed, both inside the vehicle as well as motorists in nearby vehicles.

Road Rage

Drivers may get angry behind the wheel and allow that anger to influence their driving behaviors. If someone cuts them off, they may feel the need to get back at that driver. When a driver is more focused on the other driver, they may speed, forget to use their signal, or lose control of their steering and cause an auto accident.

It’s possible that the negligent driver was exhibiting a combination of dangerous driving behaviors. For example, if they were looking at their phone, they may not realize they were speeding up at the same time. These combinations can contribute to a Phoenix car accident that has a higher severity of injuries.

When your car accident lawyers know what caused your crash, they’ll assess the damages done to you and the vehicle. Our Phoenix car accident attorneys will use this evidence to seek fair compensation for your losses stemming from the auto accident.

Injuries Commonly Resulting From a Phoenix Car Accident

As you noted in the discussion of Arizona car accident statistics above, while, sadly, many of these crashes result in fatalities, thus warranting surviving family members to file wrongful death claims, many car accident victims, thankfully, survive their crashes. Just because auto accident victims survive their crash doesn’t mean that their life isn’t forever changed because of their collision.

Some of the more common injuries a car accident victim is likely to suffer in a crash include:

Broken Bones

Bone fractures often result when the passenger compartment of the vehicle becomes compromised in some way. This may occur:

• During a T-bone accident whereby the side impact causes the door to make an impact with a vehicle occupant, fracturing their rib, hip, or arm
• When the air bag deploys while the driver’s hands are on the wheel, causing wrist fractures
• If the force of a rear-end crash is so significant that it jolts the neck back and forth so much that it breaks a motorist’s neck

Internal Organ Damage

Another type of injury that often results in a car accident that can coincide with broken bones is internal organ damage. This type of injury often affects vital organs such as the:

• Spleen
• Liver
• Lungs

This type of injury can either be passive (meaning it was merely caused by impact) or penetrative. The former can cause internal bleeding, which a vehicle occupant may not realize is happening until they’ve suffered irreversible harm. The latter may cause a quick and significant loss of blood or render an individual unable to breathe, leaving them vulnerable to losing their life before paramedics can be summoned to help them or before they arrive at a hospital emergency room.

Head Trauma and Traumatic Brain Injuries

There are many different ways in which a motorist may suffer head trauma which causes a permanent brain injury in a crash. Some of the more common ways this happens is when a motorist strikes their head on the steering wheel, a dashboard, a side or front window, or even the headliner of the vehicle violently enough in a car accident.

Brain injuries are one of the more life-altering injuries that a person can suffer in a car accident. While no one would want to suffer injuries in a crash, the problem with brain injuries is that they often rob individuals of their essence in one way or another. These types of injuries can cause the following deficits to emerge:

• Cognitive (thinking)
• Memory issues
• Emotional and behavioral issues, like mood swings, becoming easily angered, and depression

Individuals who suffer traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) often incur significant medical expenses in the immediate aftermath of their accidents as doctors try to identify the extent of their injuries. Future surgeries, occupational and physical therapy, and around-the-clock care that’s needed to care for or monitor patients with TBIs can quickly add up, causing significant financial stress.

TBI victims and their families often file insurance claims to recover the compensation necessary to ensure they (or their loved ones) can continue to receive top-notch care.

Spinal Cord Injuries

A spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the worst types of injuries that can happen to someone involved in a car accident because it can leave behind lasting mobility issues, thus impacting their ability to live life like they did pre-crash.

Individuals who suffer SCIs often require the assistance of others for their basic needs, depending on the type of paralysis they have. They also often have to attend regular doctors’ visits, undergo surgeries, and require special equipment beyond wheelchairs to offer them some degree of mobility and autonomy.

The medical expenses a car accident victim who’s suffered an SCI may amass across their lifetime if they get hurt in their 20s or 30s, for example, may easily equate to millions of dollars. In addition to medical expenses, there’s also a potential loss of income if an SCI patient is unable to return to the job they held before their car accident.

Working with a Phoenix car accident attorney from Buckingham & Vega Law Firm to file an Arizona injury claim or personal injury lawsuit can help you recover the compensation you need to cover medical expenses, lost wages, and other damages you have suffered from your involvement in a crash.

Our Phoenix Car Accident Lawyers Will Stand Up for Your Rights

Our law firm protects an injured person or their loved ones whose lives have been upturned because of a Phoenix, AZ car accident. We can help you secure a fair settlement to protect your financial future, too.

It all starts with a phone call for a free car accident case evaluation. You’ll meet with an experienced Phoenix car accident lawyer who will review any police reports regarding what happened, review your medical records as the injured party, and ask you additional questions about any interactions you may have had with the other driver’s insurance company.

Our attorneys then go over your options, such as filing car accident claims with a negligent driver’s insurance company. Should you decide to move forward in filing an injury claim, your lawyer will likely advise you that they’ll handle future communication with an insurance company on your behalf to protect the integrity of your car accident lawsuit. Continuing to communicate with an insurance company on your own could jeopardize your case.

While the time after a motor vehicle accident in Phoenix, AZ can be confusing, it’s important to act quickly in filing a claim with the other party’s insurance company so you can get the recovery you deserve. Accident victims who wait too long to file a car accident lawsuit with the other party’s insurance company may not be able to come forward with a car accident claim because the statute of limitations has passed.

Your Phoenix personal injury lawyer will be able to tell you how much time you have to file your car accident claim and ensure you take legal action within that deadline. Buckingham & Vega Law Firm is here to help individuals like you move forward in filing car accident claims after an auto accident. 

Reach out to us to schedule a free case evaluation to get the claims process started right away.