It happens in an instant and often on high-speed roadways. A truck driver loses control of his tractor-trailer, causing the trailer to block three oncoming lanes of traffic. Innocent drivers are caught in the undercarriage, others slam their brakes, and still more rear-end stopped vehicles or crash into the median trying to avoid the pile-up. If you suffered an injury in a multi-car collision, contact a local car accident attorney immediately to preserve your claims. Multiple vehicles often mean multiple victims, and multiple victims mean multiple injured parties vying for limited insurance compensation. Determining liability after mass casualty accidents and filing your injury claims quickly is critical for obtaining needed financial damages.
Common Causes of Multi-Vehicle Accidents
Pile-ups often occur on highways or within busy intersections where traffic congestion prevents drivers from keeping a safe distance from one another. The following common types of multi-vehicle crashes often result in serious injuries and property damage.
Lane Blockages
Jackknifing, often caused by semi-trucks, is an example of a lane-blocking accident that can result in a devastating pile-up crash. When an obstruction blocks multiple lanes of traffic, this leaves drivers with limited options. They can hit the brakes, risking a rear-end collision, or execute sudden lane change maneuvers without checking their blind spots. Drivers often react without thinking when the roadway is suddenly obstructed – turning off the road, cutting off other drivers, or slamming on their brakes without warning. These sudden traffic conditions frequently result in serious pile-up accidents, especially when drivers are traveling at high speeds.
Bad Weather
Wet and icy roadway conditions often cause hydroplaning, especially if the negligent driver was speeding. Hydroplaning occurs when heavy rainfall or ice reduces the friction between the roadway and tires, causing a driver who suddenly turns the wheel to lose control of the vehicle. In such cases, the car or truck will often spin uncontrollably over multiple lanes of traffic. This may result in a direct impact with multiple vehicles, but it also forces other drivers to hit the brakes or suddenly change lanes. Bad weather is one of the leading causes of multi-car pile-ups in the United States.
Driving Under the Influence (DUI)
Driving under the influence or driving while intoxicated (DWI) charges cover more than drunk driving. Drivers under the influence of the following substances may be held liable for triggering multi-vehicle accidents, especially if they drifted between lanes or drove on the wrong side of the road:
- Alcohol
- Marijuana
- Synthetic marijuana (spice/K2)
- Prescription pain medication (opioids)
- Illegal drugs
- Sleeping medication
- Anti-anxieties
Even certain over-the-counter drugs, if taken with alcohol or in an unrecommended dose, can result in drugged driving. Unfortunately, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol often results in unpredictable driving behaviors, frequently causing fatal pile-up accidents.
Racing and Reckless Driving
When a vehicle speeds past you at over 100 mph, you can feel it. Illegal drag racing, where high-speed vehicles weave in and out of traffic, often results in fatal mass casualty accidents. When drivers lose control at those speeds, these lightweight racing vehicles are more prone to flipping. An experienced car accident lawyer can recover both direct damages and punitive damages in cases where intentional reckless driving resulted in a pile-up.
Poor Visibility and Roadway Conditions
The state may share liability after certain mass casualty accidents if poor lighting, dangerous potholes, or negligent construction workers triggered a multi-vehicle collision. If you believe a roadway condition or negligent roadway design, such as an abnormally dangerous curve, contributed to a pile-up accident, contact a personal injury attorney near you immediately. Strict deadlines apply to filing claims against public entities, and state lawyers will fight to deny you high-value compensation.
Overcompensation/Distracted Driving
Distracted driving, often due to texting, remains one of the leading causes of serious motor vehicle accidents in the county. Texting most often results in multi-vehicle accidents when the driver finds himself drifting into another lane and then overcompensates. This overcompensation can suddenly put the driver into your lane of traffic, causing an unavoidable mass casualty accident.
Although multiple drivers may share liability after pile-up accidents, determining the ‘triggering event’ is the first step in holding liable parties accountable for your injuries. A reputable mass casualty accident firm will generally retain an accident reconstruction specialist to determine the initial cause of the pile-up.
Injuries Commonly Sustained in Multi-Vehicle Collisions
High-speed pile-up accidents may result in life-altering, if not fatal, injuries, often due to the vehicle impact angle. Most drivers will instinctually attempt to avoid the pile-up by suddenly turning their wheels, which frequently exposes either the driver or passengers to a deadly T-bone collision. Modern vehicles are designed to partially absorb the impact from head-on or rear-end collisions, and airbags can also reduce the likelihood of fatalities in these accidents. The side of the vehicle seldom offers this level of protection, and in some cases, the impact might strike the gas tank and cause a deadly car fire.
If you or a loved one suffered from one of the following catastrophic injuries in a multi-car pile-up, contact an experienced car accident attorney immediately to demand a substantial share of available insurance compensation:
- Paralysis: The area of the spine damaged determines the severity of your paralysis. If you’re suffering from paraplegia, quadriplegia, or significant spinal cord damage after a mass casualty accident, you may be entitled to financial damages.
- Burns: Third-degree burns often result in months of in-patient hospital treatment, multiple skin grafts and surgeries, permanent scarring, amputations, and infections. A personal injury lawyer can obtain needed medical compensation as well as damages for the physical scarring and resulting emotional trauma.
- Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI): Car accidents are one of the leading causes of TBIs in the United States. High-speed rear-end collisions may result in fatal diffuse axonal injuries, which occur when a rear impact forces the head forward and severs the fibers in the brain stem. Concussions of various degrees and potentially fatal brain bleeds might also occur when the impact causes the brain to impact the skull internally.
- Nerve Damage: Damage to the spinal cord that does not cause paralysis can still result in disabling neck, back, and nerve injuries. Nerve trauma often causes pain, tingling, and numbness in your back and limbs, making it hard to sit, stand, or lay down for long periods.
- Fractures: Pile-up accidents frequently cause traumatic leg, arm, and rib fractures requiring surgery. If you’re unable to work due to broken bones sustained in a mass casualty accident, a car accident attorney can obtain needed lost income compensation.
Unlike many traditional car accidents, multi-vehicle pile-ups often cause unique injuries due to the various impact angles, double impacts, and speed of the oncoming vehicles. Do not hesitate to contact a personal injury law firm near you immediately if you or a loved one suffered from a catastrophic injury in a multi-car crash.
Determining Liability for a Multi-Vehicle Collision
To hold someone financially responsible for injuries sustained in a multi-car accident, you must show that the person or entity was legally negligent. Negligence means that the person acted carelessly by either violating the law or failing to act as a reasonably careful person would have in the same circumstances. To show negligence, the injured party’s lawyer must prove that the driver had a duty to drive safely (assumed in most states), the driver carelessly operated the vehicle, the driver’s careless operation caused or contributed to the accident, and the accident resulted in your injuries.
Correctly determining liability after a multi-vehicle collision is critical, as liability determines which insurance companies are responsible for paying damages and in what percentage. In pile-up accidents, more than one party is typically responsible for your damages. Consider the following example:
A truck driver loses control of the tractor due to misloaded cargo, blocking two lanes of traffic. This sudden blockage causes you to stop short, which in turn causes the driver behind you to rear-end your vehicle. At the same time, two other cars crashed into the truck, and another car attempting to avoid the truck swerved into your lane and struck you again. An experienced multi-vehicle accident lawyer will know that all the following parties may share liability for your injuries, entitling you to claim damages from various insurance companies:
- Truck driver
- Cargo loading company
- Trucking company (driver’s employer)
- Truck owner
- Rear driver and vehicle owner
- Side driver and vehicle owner
However, multiple drivers often mean multiple victims. Retaining legal counsel quickly after pile-up accidents is essential for untangling liability and making a quick claim to ensure your fair share of insurance compensation.
Obtaining Insurance Settlements in Mass Casualty Collision Cases
Nearly all states have minimum vehicle insurance requirements, and most drivers carry minimum coverage. For passenger vehicles, many states require vehicle owners to carry liability insurance of at least $25,000 per person but with a maximum payout of $50,000 per accident. This means if a driver with a small insurance policy triggers a multi-vehicle collision, his insurance company is only required to pay up to $50,000. The insurance is considered ‘exhausted’ after hitting this threshold, and victims with catastrophic injuries must seek compensation from other liable drivers and insurers.
Though insurance limits are much higher for commercial motor vehicles, insurance is still limited. However, adjusters are not required to distribute damages equally. They must consider every victim’s claim and distribute liability coverage based on the timeliness of the claims and severity of the damages. Retaining a qualified personal injury attorney quickly after a multi-vehicle car accident is often the only way of ensuring you receive fair financial compensation for your injuries, especially when there are multiple claimants.
Contacting a Multi-Car Accident Lawyer Immediately Can Prevent Insurance Exhaustion
Retaining an attorney familiar with handling pile-up accident claims has numerous benefits, and these legal services may be available to claimants regardless of their financial circumstances. Reputable personal injury law firms may provide you with the following legal assistance without charging any upfront fees or costs, only getting paid if they recover needed compensation for you.
Hiring Accident Investigators
Determining the triggering event is critical after a pile-up accident. Accident victims will first exhaust the insurance policy of the driver who bears primary responsibility for the crash, so it’s important to make an early claim. Many car crash attorneys work with experienced accident reconstruction specialists who will investigate all available accident evidence, including:
- Videos
- Photographs
- Vehicle damage
- Police reports
- Witness statements
- Black boxes
The expert can then piece together the events resulting in your injuries, identifying all negligent parties. These expert reports hold substantial weight and may be submitted to insurance companies and courts to prove liability.
Making Insurance Claims
A lawyer will fight to ensure that his client receives the bulk of available insurance compensation after a multi-vehicle collision. Personal injury attorneys do this by quickly filing insurance claims with all liable policies and submitting evidence of your medical expenses, lost income, and pain and suffering to adjusters. By submitting a strong settlement package upfront, adjusters might settle your claim while a higher percentage of coverage is still available. The longer you wait to retain legal counsel, the less compensation you will obtain after a mass casualty accident.
Litigation
In many high-value pile-up cases, especially those resulting in multiple fatalities and serious injuries, adjusters may contest liability. They often blame one another and, as a result, refuse to pay out claims to innocent victims. This infighting might mean a litigator must sue all liable parties to force a judge to determine liability. Though litigation often takes longer, it may result in substantial jury verdicts or more favorable insurance settlements.
Do Not Delay: Call a Local Multi-Car Pile-Up Lawyer Immediately
You cannot wait if you were involved in a mass casualty accident. Insurance companies will not pay claims above the policy limits, and compensation is often limited. The sooner you contact a personal injury lawyer, the quicker your attorney can put together a strong settlement package to maximize the available compensation in your case. Don’t delay. Contact legal counsel quickly to prevent insurance exhaustion.