As personal injury law firms know, there are many causes behind personal injury cases in the United States. One of the main causes is the car accident, of which make up more than fifty percent of all personal injury cases. While the vast majority of personal injury cases do not end up going to trial – only around four percent to five percent of them do – it’s important to hire personal injury lawyers from well regarded personal injury law firms to ensure that you have the best representation – and the best outcomes – possible.
Firstly, though, it’s important to know the causes behind most personal injury car accident cases seen by personal injury law firms, as the vast majority of these cases seen by personal injury law firms and skilled personal injury attorneys were highly preventable. After all, avoiding a personal injury case in the first place is one of the best ways to go about it, if not simply the best way, hands down.
The first main reason for car accidents that lead to the need for the involvement of personal injury law firms and a car accident attorney is that of drunk driving, or driving under the influence. Each and every day in the United States, someone is injured as the result of drunk driving for every single two minutes that pass by. And as many as three hundred thousand people will get behind the wheel throughout the span of just one day. Over the course of the year, this adds up to more than one million people in total driving drunk and getting arrested for it (and even more that drive drunk and never face legal retribution and action). Of these people, only around four thousand will be arrested per day, an incredibly small number when we look at the massive scope and scale of the problem. In fact, the typical person who drives drunk in the United States will be able to get away with driving drunk as many as eighty times before finally being pulled over and apprehended and most likely charged with a DUI.
And as personal injury law firms are all too aware of, alcohol is not the only intoxicant that can lead to a motor vehicle accident – and to great and unexpected tragedy. This is actually far from the case, as more than fifteen percent (sixteen percent, to be more exact) of all car accidents stem from someone who was driving under the influence of a substance that was not alcohol. These substances range from the very illegal (drugs such as meth and heroin) to prescription medications to even a common drug such as marijuana, which many people all too falsely think is safe to drive after smoking or ingesting in some other way. Legal and illegal alike, altering substance have the great potential to be dangerous, even if they have been prescribed to you by your medical doctor. It is always to important to exercise a great deal of caution when taking a new prescription medication. This might seem silly and unnecessary, but it can actually save a great deal of lives in the long run.
Aside from driving while under the influence, personal injury law firms also see a large number of personal injury cases resulting from someone driving while they were distracted. Distracted drivers are most typically distracted by a cellular device, and it is considered distracted driving even if you were just looking down to get directions or change the song. After all, when you look down at your lap for a mere five seconds while going at least fifty five miles per hour or more, you aren’t paying attention to the road for the entire length of an average football field. In this time, truly anything could happen. Fortunately, rates of distracted driving are falling, dropping by as much as half of a percentage between the years of 2015 and 2016 and continuing to decline.
Car accidents have the potential to be devastating, and more than six million occur every year. Many car accidents are preventable, and will lead to personal injury cases.