A claim for seatback failure in personal injury cases typically involves an allegation that the seatback of a vehicle failed to perform its intended function during a collision or accident, resulting in injuries to the occupants. Seatback failure can occur when the backrest of a seat collapses or fails to withstand the forces exerted during a crash, leading to the occupant being thrown backward or sustaining injuries.
To prove a seatback failure case in court, you generally need to establish several key elements:
It's important to consult with a personal injury attorney who specializes in product liability and automotive defects to navigate the complexities of a seatback failure case. They can help gather the necessary evidence, work with experts, and build a strong case to pursue compensation for the injuries suffered due to the alleged defect. Tread separation in tires occurs when the tread (the outer layer of the tire that makes contact with the road) separates from the underlying layers of the tire. Tread separation can be caused by many different factors, including:
Tread separation is dangerous because it can result in a loss of control over the vehicle, especially if it occurs on a high-speed road. When the tread separates, it can cause a sudden and unexpected blowout, leading to a loss of tire pressure. This can result in the driver losing control of the vehicle, especially if it happens on a highway or during a turn. Other tire defects that might cause car accidents include:
Regular tire maintenance, proper inflation, avoiding overloading, and timely replacement of worn-out tires are essential measures to reduce the risk of tire-related accidents. Drivers should also be attentive to unusual vibrations, noises, or handling changes, as these may indicate potential tire issues. Regular inspections and addressing any signs of tire defects promptly can contribute to safer driving. In the context of personal injury, a rollover defect refers to a flaw or issue in a vehicle that makes it more prone to rolling over during a crash or other events. Rollover accidents occur when a vehicle tips onto its side or roof. These incidents can be particularly dangerous and result in severe injuries or fatalities.
Injuries that can result from a rollover accident include:
To reduce the risk of rollovers, car manufacturers can take several measures:
It's essential for manufacturers to adhere to safety standards and regulations, conduct thorough testing, and address any identified design flaws to enhance the overall safety of vehicles and reduce the occurrence and severity of rollover accidents. Airbags are designed to deploy rapidly in the event of a car crash to protect occupants by preventing or reducing injuries. However, in some cases, airbag deployment can cause injuries, including eye injuries. Here are some potential eye injuries and other facial injuries that can occur from airbag deployment:
As for how an airbag could cause someone to lose their eye, it's essential to note that such severe injuries are relatively uncommon. However, extreme forces generated during a high-speed collision, coupled with specific circumstances, could potentially lead to severe facial injuries, including damage to the eyes. It's crucial to keep in mind that airbags, despite the potential for injuries, have significantly contributed to reducing overall injury and fatality rates in car accidents. The benefits of airbags in preventing more severe injuries often outweigh the risks associated with their deployment. Modern airbags are also designed with various sensors and technologies to minimize injury risk while providing protection during a crash. A roof crush injury in a car accident refers to injuries sustained when the roof of a vehicle collapses or deforms during a crash. Modern cars are designed with safety features, including reinforced roofs, to protect occupants in the event of a rollover or other severe impact. However, in some cases, the roof may fail to withstand the forces of the collision, leading to roof crush injuries.
The injuries resulting from a roof collapse in a car accident can vary widely, depending on factors such as the severity of the crash, the speed of the vehicles involved, and the type of collision. Common injuries associated with roof crush incidents include:
Roof crush injuries can occur in various ways during a car accident:
To mitigate the risk of roof crush injuries, automotive manufacturers are continuously improving vehicle designs and incorporating safety features such as reinforced pillars, side-impact airbags, and stronger materials in the construction of roofs. It's crucial for occupants to use seat belts properly, as they play a significant role in preventing ejection and reducing the risk of injury in the event of a roof collapse. No one expects to wake up in the morning and that day and be in an auto accident. However, California roadways are more congested than ever (although the pandemic has temporarily made roadways more tolerable). As such, more people on the road equals more traffic accidents. You don't plan on getting into an accident. By definition, an accident is an unexpected event.
Imagine you are driving down the street and suddenly, out of the corner of your eye, you see something moving towards you. Next thing you know, someone has t-boned your vehicle. You are shocked, and your adrenaline started pumping. What do you do? Here is an acronym that might help: SAFE S – Safety First First, check and assess injuries - yours and any passengers. If you feel you are too injured to move, don’t! Call 911 and wait for emergency personnel. If you get out of your vehicle, be careful. Other vehicles may still be driving around you. Turn on your hazard lights and if you are able to move to the sidewalk or out of traffic, remember to do it safely. A – Alert Authorities If you think anyone might be badly injured, call 911. They will ask if anyone is injured. If so, they will send emergency personnel. This is not the time to get out of your car and start yelling at other people, blaming them for this and that. Now is the time to make sure those who are injured are attended to as quickly as possible. F – Fact Collection Try to stay calm. Emotions can run high and these days, you certainly don't want to get caught on cell phone video losing your composure. If you do see someone taking videos of the accident, get their information and see if they will share it with you. Take photos of your own, as many as you can of your vehicle, the other person’s car, the street scene and intersection and anything that might help for later. E – Exchange Info When the time is right, try to collect information from all the parties and any witnesses. Sometimes the police will assist you with that. Just stay clear and let them do their job. The exchange of information is essential to work through any sort of claim or legal process that could result from a car accident. Get names, addresses, phone numbers, license plate numbers, driver’s license numbers, insurance providers, policy numbers. Use your cell phone to take pictures as writing things down can take too much time. At the end of the day, you cannot rewind the clock. Just make sure you tend to your injuries. If you are hurt, make sure to get medical attention. Report the accident to your insurance company. Talk to an injury attorney to get advice if you have questions. Auto accidents can result in various types of injuries, including those that lead to paralysis. The severity and type of paralysis depend on the nature and impact of the accident. Here are some types of auto accidents that can potentially cause paralysis and the corresponding types of paralysis:
After a severe auto accident, your vehicle will definitely need to be repaired. In California, you have the right to take your vehicle to any body shop of your choice. While that sounds like a great idea, you have to be very careful. Whether you proceed through your own insurance company to fix your vehicle or you proceed through the responsible party's insurance company, you should try to choose one of the body shops that's on their "preferred provider" list. It's kind of like going to a doctor that is in your health insurance network. If you go "out of network," or off the "preferred provider" list, that can cause problems.
Body shops that are within and insurance company network already have arrangements with that particular insurance company regarding fees they can charge, whether they be storage fees or tear-down fees (these are fees charged when the body shop expends time and effort tearing down your vehicle to look for additional damage that might be hard to see). They have a trusted relationship and you are less likely to run into problems. While you can indeed use a body shop of your choice, said body shop may not have those same agreements with the insurance company. Therefore, It is very likely the insurance company will squabble with your chosen body shop over charges the insurance company deems unfair or unreasonable. For example, many body shops will not charge you "storage fee" (a huge profit center for many body shops and tow yards) while the vehicle is waiting to be repaired. Others will charge of storage fee ranging from $50 a day to well over $100 a day. As such, if you choose a body shop that is not within the network, your vehicle might be held hostage as it sits there while the insurance company and the shop squabble over this fee or the other fee. Therefore, ask the insurance company (whether it be your insurance company or the other insurance company), which local body shops are within their network (i.e., preferred shops). Jot down the 3 or 4 shops they provide. Then research those shops online and decide which shop you're going to pick. In most cases, the shop you choose will be a reputable shop as insurance companies don't like to do work with questionable body shops. They want to work with body shops that will do a good job and will follow through on their work. As such, it is usually preferable in my opinion to choose a body shop that is on the insurance company's preferred provider list. Perhaps one of the most annoying and persistent problems after a car accident can be tinnitus (often known as "ringing in the ears"). While tinnitus may not be physically painful, life threatening, or require surgery, it can certainly affect an individual and their daily life. It's a persistent and pervasive problem that may never go away.
The condition is basically characterized by the feeling a "constant sound" for which there is no external source. In short, people with tinnitus perceive a constant sound and hear it all the time. Sometimes, it's more prevalent when the surroundings are silent (like when going to sleep). The sound victims of tinnitus hear is often described as a persistent buzzing or "ringing" in the ear. Sometimes it is very high pitch, like a buzz saw. Many people have experienced tinnitus during their lifetime, even without being involved in a car accident or without having some type of underlying disease or medical condition. In most cases, it is difficult to identify the cause. Sometimes taking certain medications like aspirin can cause temporary tinnitus. However, when tinnitus persists, there are times when people simply have to learn to live with it. Some people use devices that create "white noise" to reduce their perception of the sound. Tinnitus can be the result of an abnormality in the ear. It is commonly reported by people who suffered a head injury. In many cases, victims will seek the help of an Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialist who will often refer them for audiological testing to confirm the diagnosis and the severity of the problem. Sometimes the sound is in one ear more that the other. In some cases, tinnitus can be brought about the loud sound of a car accident crash or the loud sound of airbags deploying. If the tinnitus is from a head or neck injury, it most often affects one ear more than another. In many cases, the condition will improve over time. Many times, victims of car accident report the tinnitus to their health care providers only to be reassured that the problem is likely temporary and will soon subside. However, if it doesn't subside, the accident victim should seek a specialist's care. Of course, since tinnitus is only perceived by the individual, proving it to an insurance company (or a judge/jury) can be quite difficult. That is why any symptoms should be documented as quickly as possible after a car accident. Make sure you tell all your health care providers about the problem as soon as possible. Reporting ringing in the ears six months after an auto accident will cause others to doubt your claim. You can imagine the insurance company will argue it's not related. Your credibility along with proper medical documentation is the key to your case. If the tinnitus doesn't subside, some ENT doctors will recommend "tinnitus retraining therapy" (TRT). This is to help people who have tinnitus retrain themselves to cope with the sound. Retraining therapy has been around for years. It's a way of helping victims of tinnitus cope with the condition and hopefully find it less bothersome. Training generally involves educational counseling and sound therapy. Victims of tinnitus are taught about the physiological mechanisms of their condition and how new habits can help break the effects of that condition. If you have tinnitus after an accident, make sure all your health care providers document your condition to the extent possible. If the condition doesn't subside after a few weeks, see professional help from an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist and/or an audiologist. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, this is Robert Mansour. Today's video is about how to document your case if you have a significant injury from a car accident. The important thing to keep in mind is that you've got to go get medical care right away, or as soon as you can, if you have a significant injury from a car accident. Because if you don't do that and you wait too long, the insurance company for the responsible party might argue that you weren't all that hurt after all. In other words, if you were really hurt, you would have gone to seek medical care. Now, a few things to keep in mind. If your injuries are severe, and if you had problems before the accident, but they were not as severe, or perhaps your problems were dormant for a period of time ... two or three years you were doing fine ... one of the most effective things you can do is go back to the same doctor who treated you before. Because that doctor, he or she will very familiar with your care. They will know how you were before the accident, and how you are after the accident. In fact, when that doctor comes to testify in court, if it comes to that, that doctor's testimony will be that much more believable, because the jury will be sitting there and saying, "Well, wait a minute. This doctor knows this person from before the accident. They've been their doctor for years. They would be the best person to articulate how the person was before, and how the person was after." You see, if you go to a doctor that your lawyer refers you to, which is fine in some cases. But if you do that, then a jury or an insurance company or other person might look at that suspiciously, and say, "Well, wait a minute. Why aren't you going to the same doctor who helped you before?" I had a client who had a very bad knee injury from the case, and needed knee surgery. The best doctor that we could use was his knee surgeon from before. He'd actually had a prior knee surgery on the same knee, but the accident made his knee much worse, and required another knee surgery. So who better to go to than the previous knee surgeon? That was our best bet. In fact, that doctor's credibility is going to be much higher than any other doctor's credibility. Also, if the defense or the insurance company hires their own expert, that expert is arguably a hired gun. They've been paid for their testimony. Versus your doctor, who is your doctor from before, who's known you for several years. Your doctor's going to carry much more credibility than their hired gun is going to carry. Now, that's not always the case. But it's something to strategically keep in mind when dealing with severe injuries from auto accidents. My name is Robert Mansour, and I hope you found this video to be helpful. Thanks for watching. |
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November 2023
by Robert MansourRobert Mansour is a personal injury lawyer serving Santa Clarita, Valencia, Saugus, Canyon Country, Newhall, Stevenson Ranch, Castaic and surrounding communities. |