Toledo Head-on Collision Lawyer 

A head-on-collision occurs when an individual is hit in the front their vehicle. Usually, when there is a head-on collision, the airbags go off and sometimes people are injured by the airbags.  The injuries in a head-on collision are more serious. Injuries include bruising of the chest and bruising of the head. Because the impact of the collision is closer to the individuals in the front seat, even with the airbag, the injuries require a visit to the emergency room. The more serious injuries require the care of specialists.

Working with specialists is necessary but can also be costly, especially as an unanticipated expense. A Toledo head-on-collision lawyer will understand your predicament and can help you pursue damages. If you have been involved in a head-on-collision, contact a capable car accident lawyer who can advocate for you.

Common Fact Patterns

Head-on collisions tend to happen in similar ways. An oncoming vehicle drives right into the front end of another vehicle. The driver and/or the passenger in the front seat are injured as a result of the airbags going off. There are injuries where knees hit dashboards resulting in leg injuries. The passengers sometimes receive burns on their faces from the deployment of the airbags and may be knocked unconscious from the airbags hitting them. Injuries can be severe.

There is usually more property damage from a front-end accident than from a rear-end accident because of the way cars are built. Head-on collisions commonly occur at intersections in the city and they often happen at night in rural traffic situations where people tend to drive much faster because they assume there is less traffic. Head-on collisions can happen in busy and less busy situations for the opposite reasons. Busy road conditions lend themselves to a head-on collision because there is so much more traffic that is bumper-to-bumper. The less-busy situations occur because there is less traffic on the road and drivers are less careful.

Head-on collisions result in more broken bones and knee injuries that require knee surgery than typical accidents. There are more concussions and traumatic brain injuries from the airbags. When the airbags do not deploy, passengers slam into different parts of the interior of the vehicle causing more serious injuries in that situation.

How Insurance Companies Determine Fault

When determining fault in a head-on collision, the authorities look at who had the right of way. They look at stop signs, failure to yield to oncoming traffic, and any red-light, green-light situations, especially in busy locations.

Both parties can argue that they had the green light. In that situation, the authorities obtain the light sequencing to identify the most likely sequence, meaning how long the one party had a green light or a yellow light, versus when one was green, the other would be yellow or red. Witness statements and accident reconstruction can be used to determine the liability for red-light, green-light situations. Witnesses can present conflicting testimonies that make it difficult to prove who is at fault.

There are no particular factors that can impact liability. Punitive damages can be assigned when the accident involved is a stolen vehicle, there was a hit and run accident, or the driver was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Those are the typical scenarios that could result in punitive damages, which are damages to punish the individual and substantially increase the value of the case. A Toledo head-on-collision lawyer can look at the case to help determine and prove fault.

Importance of Following Up With a Doctor

There is a duty to mitigate an individual’s damages when someone is injured in an accident. The doctor may give the person specific instructions to stay off work, follow-up with physical therapy, or see the specialist.If the person does not do any of those things, a good argument can be made by the insurance company that they contributed and helped cause many of their future damages by being uncooperative. The value of their case can be decreased by the person’s lack of cooperation in their medical care.

That client is perceived as someone who is asking for something they do not deserve because they are responsible for a portion of their current health problems. If they do not follow-up on the doctor’s recommendation, it would not make sense for them to approach a jury, asking for monetary damages.

First Steps an Attorney Takes

A Toledo head-on-collision lawyer will initially look at the police report. They look for witnesses and determine if photos or videos are available. The attorney also wants to see any statements given to the police officer. Many police departments have cameras with video in their cars and individual police officers wear body cameras. The attorney requests the video from the police car or body camera to hear the witnesses talking and see if they try to change their statements. The video evidence provides a great deal of information that can preserve the accident scene.

The attorney obtains all the medical records related to the accident as well as prior medical records. They make sure that the injured person is going to the appropriate doctors. That does not necessarily mean the doctor the attorney recommended. It means doctors are cooperative and handle personal injury cases properly. The injured party wants to make sure they have a doctor who is user-friendly, willing to write reports and cooperates with the settlement process. Contact a qualified car accident attorney today and know that you are in good hands.