As most areas are becoming more and more populated, it seems that road rage and unsafe driving are becoming issues everyone has to deal with on a near-daily basis. You might not have control over the way other people behave on the road, but you can take steps to increase your safety and make sure you aren’t to blame for an accident.
Safe Driving Is More Important Than You Think
If you are familiar with vehicle accident statistics in the U.S., such as the ones you would find here, you probably already know that driving a vehicle on a public roadway is a very dangerous thing to do. To give you an idea of the kind of risk you are facing when driving a vehicle, you should know there were approximately 6.3 million driving accidents in the year 2015 alone. That number is truly astonishing, and it is a clear indicator of why people need to be made familiar with safe driving habits.
How to Improve Your Safety
Even though the odds of being involved in an automobile accident in the U.S. are pretty high, there are many steps you can take to greatly reduce the chances of you personally being a part of those statistics. Perhaps the most imperative thing anyone can do to decrease their chances of being in an accident is to simply apply all of their focus towards driving. Many accidents are caused by distracted drivers. Whether it be your phone or your children in the back seat, if you need to do something other than drive, you should pull over and stop driving until you are able to focus on driving again.
Another thing you can do to make the road a safer place for everyone is to make sure you are never the person instigating a road rage incident. Aggressive driving will often be met with more aggression, and all of that aggression increases your odds of being in an accident. Lastly, you should make sure that you are prepared for the worst. Even the best drivers can get into an accident due to someone else driving in an unsafe manner. You should make sure you are wearing a seatbelt, and that you have no dangerous items outside of the trunk that would act as a projectile in a crash.
What to Do When You do Get in an Accident
If you do end up being involved in an accident, hopefully, you have managed to keep yourself from experiencing any major injury. Always seek medical attention immediately if there is an injury involved.
If there aren’t any injuries, the first thing you should do is ensure the safety of everyone involved, and then you should exchange insurance information with the other people involved in the accident.
After you have taken care of this, you may be in a situation where you need legal assistance. You can get help from the experts at Schwartzapfel Lawyers P.C., a personal injury law firm NYC residents have been relying on for decades.
If you were hurt in an accident and if you win your personal injury case, you will receive compensation for your injuries. However, if you had to endure very serious injuries, there may come a time where you reach what is referred to as the maximum medical improvement. This means that you will not heal any more than you have already healed.
For some, this point of maximum medical improvement comes when they are fully healed. Their compensation stops and they return back to work and normal activities.
Unfortunately, for serious accidents, this moment of maximum medical improvement doesn’t mean they are fully healed. If you no longer improve in condition, you will then be considered to have permanent impairment. In some cases, this means that person will never regain full range of motion in their shoulders, or it can be even more serious like a person no longer regaining the use of a limb. If this is the case, a doctor will examine your impairment to see if it will be considered partial disability or full disability. This percentage of disability will affect how much you can receive for the impairment.
If you have reached maximum medical improvement, but still are not fully healed, having your injury labeled as permanent impairment will mean you can continue to collect a certain amount of compensation for that impairment. However, you can’t ask for this during your personal injury case.
It is something that must be accessed after the healing is done. If you suspect you may have a permanent impairment, this means you need to communicate that with your lawyer, so the settlement has provisions to provide for permanent compensation just in case permanent impairment does manifest.
If you have been hurt in an accident, you hope you won’t have long-term injuries, but if you do, you want a settlement that can cover it. If you have been hurt and need help with your personal injury case, contact a professional today.
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