In order to safeguard your rights, you must immediately contact a lawyer if you were hurt in a car accident in Texas. Texas car accident lawyer – Lindsey McKay is available to assist.
You don’t pay us anything unless we obtain compensation for you in any of the vehicle accident cases we handle at our firm. For a free consultation and to learn how much your case is worth, contact us immediately: (903) INJURED / (903) 465-8733 or (903) ABOGADA / (903) 226-4232.
According to Texas DOT records, over 634,000 car crashes occurred in 2022. That is a car accident every 57 seconds. Driving a car is a requirement of life for the majority of Texans. In our large, wide state, we rely heavily on our cars for transportation for work, play, shopping, and pretty much everything else. Driving, however, carries some risks.
No matter how carefully you drive, you might not be able to escape getting hurt in a car accident, even if you are a skilled and cautious driver who always abides by the law and the regulations of the road. Why? Because you have no influence over how other drivers on the road behave.
As the Texas population grows exponentially, more cars and accidents are inevitable. Last year, Texas highways saw 13% of the entire USA’s fatal truck crashes and the fatality rate of truck crashes increased more than 15%.
Accidents occur in both rural areas and urban areas almost equally. Furthermore, in 2021, 1,550 casualties, or 34.5% of all motor vehicle traffic fatalities, were single-vehicle accidents in which the driver ran off the road and crashed. Another 1,037 people that year died in car crashes that occurred in, around, or relating to intersection accidents and died in head-on collision accidents.
You can’t help but feel angry at being punished for someone else’s negligence if you or a close family member sustained serious injuries in a car accident. Your sense of fairness is offended by it! As a result of someone else’s misconduct, you are suffering physically, emotionally, and financially.
Fortunately, you can take legal action against the person or company responsible for your losses to obtain compensation for your losses in terms of money and quality of life. Even if there is never enough money to make up for the death of a loved one or your health, filing a claim against the party at fault is crucial for a number of reasons:
1. It might give you the resources you need to get the medical care you require.
2. Paying your medical expenditures and making up for missed wages or those of a deceased family member who supported your family, it might lessen your financial load.
3. It might offer a sense of completion.
4. It may make the perpetrator accept responsibility for their actions and perhaps stop them from repeating the actions that caused your losses.
5. It might revive your sense of fairness.
You should hire the best personal injury attorney you can find, preferably a Texas car accident lawyer who has been certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization as a specialist in personal injury trial law, in order to ensure that you recover an amount of money that accurately reflects the full range of damages that you and your family have endured.
At McKay Law, you may discover the knowledgeable, specialized representation required for an accident-related injury or death. Call us or use the form to contact us right now for a free case evaluation.
The qualifications and experience of the attorney you select to represent you can have a significant impact on how it turns out. Here are some recommendations for choosing the best attorney for your automobile accident case:
1. Select a Texas car accident lawyer who is board-certified and whose practice is limited to this area of the law.
2. Select a legal representative with extensive trial expertise and a track record of successfully presenting cases in court. (Insurance companies frequently provide better out-of-court settlements because they know which attorneys would fight tooth and nail for their clients and want to avoid the expense and unpredictability of a trial.)
3. Verify the AVVO rating of the lawyer. Seek a score of 10 out of 10.
4. Choose a Texas Car Accident Lawyer who has experience winning high-stakes cases. A lawyer in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum has won settlements and verdicts worth more than $1 million for specific clients.
5. Make sure the attorney you choose has access to accident reconstruction specialists and traffic safety engineers who can support and expertly testify to help prove your case.
6. Select a legal representative who makes you feel at ease, is attentive to your needs, and is dedicated to keeping you updated on the status of your case.
A car accident can be brought on by a brief moment of inattention from the road. Over 460 highway fatalities in Texas were caused by distracted driving in 2022. The prevalence of cell phones has increased the incidence of accidents involving distracted drivers who are talking on the phone.
Even when using a hands-free device, talking on the phone while driving increases the risk of an accident, but texting while driving is far more dangerous. Driving while sending or reading text messages increases the risk of a collision by 23 times. A driver can be distracted in a variety of other ways besides using a cell phone, like:
It is the duty of every driver to stay focused when operating a motor vehicle. A driver who is inattentive or distracted may be held liable for any harm they cause to others.
The mix of drinking and driving can be fatal. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), alcohol-related collisions claimed 10,076 lives nationwide in 2013. Drugs, both legal and illicit, prescription and over-the-counter, as well as alcohol, can all impair driving.
It is the duty of every driver to avoid driving while under the influence of any substance, regardless of its legality. For injuries caused to other road users, an impaired driver may be held civilly liable. In some circumstances, particularly when blood alcohol levels are over.08, criminal penalties may also be applicable.
1,089 fatalities in Texas were caused by DUI accidents in 2013, accounting for nearly one-third of all roadway fatalities in the state that year. Between 2:00 am and 2:59 am, more accidents involving drunk drivers happened than at any other period of the day.
Excessive speeding can lead to deadly accidents and is frequently accompanied by other aggressive driving practices like weaving in and out of traffic and making risky lane changes. The legal speed limit in Texas, which is the highest in the country at 85 mph on some highways, is the highest in the country. This means that even a small amount of speeding can have a significant impact if the driver hits a cyclist or another vehicle.
Accidents that cause serious injuries can take many different forms, including sideswipes, head-on collisions, T-bone side impacts, rear-end collisions, and vehicle rollovers.
Statistics show that rear-end collisions are the most typical kind of auto accident. The NHTSA estimates that they account for 29.6% of all auto accidents. The usual culprits include distracted driving and tailgating.
Always, the driver of the automobile in the back is at fault. While some accidents are quite mild, painful neck and back injuries including herniated discs, strains, and sprains frequently happen. Fortunately, fatalities are rarer in rear-end collisions than in many other accident types, albeit occasionally occurring.
The least common but deadliest sort of auto accident is a head-on collision. According to the NHSTA, even though they account for only 2% of all collisions, they account for 10% of all traffic fatalities. Usually, there is some kind of driver impairment—be it from alcohol, drugs, weariness, or distraction. The following are some of the most typical causes of head-on collisions:
A T-bone collision is one where a vehicle strikes another broadside, usually at around a 90-degree angle.
T-bone collisions typically occur at intersections when a vehicle fails to stop at a red light or stop sign and slams into the side of a vehicle that is legally in the intersection, or when a vehicle makes a left turn while failing to yield to oncoming traffic and collides with the side of a vehicle that is legally in its proper lane.
T-bone collisions account for roughly 13% of all automobile collisions but 18% of those that result in fatalities. They are the second deadliest accident category, killing about 9000 individuals annually.
A sideswipe is another type of side impact collision that occurs when a car strikes another vehicle moving in the same direction at a glancing angle, often during a lane change or while attempting to pass or merge into traffic from a ramp.
Sideswipes sometimes occur between two cars moving in opposite directions, when one car drifts into the opposite on a two-lane road, glancing off the side of an oncoming vehicle.
Rollover accidents, in which a car flips over and lands on its roof, make up about 2.3 percent of all car accidents. They are very serious and have a high fatality rate. Rollovers are most common in older SUVs and vans with a high center of gravity, which makes them less stable.
Rollovers often occur when rounding a curve or as a result of being hit by another vehicle. SUVs manufactured after 1993 have electronic stability devices and are less likely to roll than the earlier models.
A serious car accident can cause horrific damage to the human body that is all too often fatal or life-changing. These are some of the many types of injuries that often occur in Texas motor vehicle crashes:
Doctors and other healthcare professionals have been encouraging people to walk more, to help maintain a healthy weight and cardiovascular fitness. In Texas, many people have taken up walking for exercise or to get to work, school, or shopping, or other activities. Walking is a healthy way to get around, but it does come with some risks.
Too many drivers fail to take notice of walkers who are sharing the road or crossing at intersections and end up getting into a pedestrian accident. Drivers too frequently run through stop signs and red lights, speed through intersections, work zones, and crosswalks. As traffic fatalities have been decreasing across the nation, pedestrian fatalities have been rising.
On average, in the United States, a pedestrian was killed every 2 hours and injured every 8 minutes in an accident involving a car in 2013, accounting for 14 percent of all traffic fatalities, according to NHTSA data. In that year, Texas reported 485 pedestrian deaths. About 3 percent of traffic accidents injuries were sustained by pedestrians.
A report prepared by the National Complete Streets Coalition at Smart Growth America, a nonprofit safety advocacy group, ranked Texas as the 10th most hazardous state for walkers, with almost 4,200 pedestrian fatalities occurring from 2003 until 2012—about 10 percent of the nation’s total for that period, based on NHTSA statistics.
Pedestrians lack the protection that car passengers have of being enclosed in a metal shell, so they are much more vulnerable. It is every driver’s responsibility to be aware of others sharing the road, including pedestrians. If you’ve been injured by a car while walking, a good Texas Car Accident Lawyer can help you make a case for full compensation for your damages.
Like walking, riding a bicycle is a great way to stay fit and healthy, in addition to being fun. More and more people are choosing to commute to work and school via bicycle, both for their own enjoyment and well-being and to reduce their impact on the environment.
But a bicyclist, like a pedestrian, is exposed and vulnerable when sharing the road with cars and trucks, and may be injured by a driver who is distracted or impatient with the bicycle’s slower speed. Approximately 540,000 bicycling accidents occur every year in the U.S. In 2012, 726 died in bicycle collisions with motor vehicles nationwide, nearly two people every day.
There were 48 cyclist fatalities in Texas in 2013, and countless serious injuries. These are some of the most common causes of cars hitting bicyclists:
Take these steps immediately after an accident to help protect your right to an injury claim for compensation for your damages:
Unfortunately, there are many drivers in Texas and in the state of Texas who flout the state’s insurance law and drive without the required coverage. If you are injured by an uninsured driver or if the driver who injured you has fled the scene and cannot be located, you may need to examine your own insurance policy to determine if you have uninsured motorist coverage.
If you do, you will turn to your insurance carrier to pay for your damages, up to your policy limits, if the other driver is uninsured or underinsured and doesn’t have enough insurance to fully compensate you for your damages. Your UIM coverage may also cover you if you are injured as a pedestrian or bicyclist by a vehicle lacking adequate insurance coverage.
If you are not sure whether you have this important coverage, have your Texas car accident lawyer examine your policy. If your insurance agent failed to offer you UIM protection and did not obtain a statement from you that you declined the coverage, the insurer may have to provide it anyway.
At McKay Law, we offer a complimentary consultation in which we will examine the facts of your case and advise you on how to proceed. With 30 years of combined experience, Texas Bar Certified, a client-centered practice focused exclusively on personal injury law, the highest possible Expertise rating, more than 50 jury verdicts, and membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum.
As a McKay Law client, you will incur no attorney fees, court, or legal expenses unless you receive compensation. Time to file is limited by state law, so call today at (903) INJURED to speak with an experienced car accident lawyer who can protect your rights to monetary recovery.
20+ years of combined experience with of counsel addition.
When You Become a Client of the Firm
Lindsey McKay is a dedicated trial attorney with experience and drives to get the best results for her clients. We handle personal injury cases that involve the following matters: drunk driving accidents, nursing home negligence, uninsured or underinsured motorists, motor vehicle accidents, sexual abuse, product liability, auto defects, animal bites, work-related injuries, medical negligence and fatalities.
