Accidents involving pedestrians can often be far more serious than crashes between two cars. Pedestrians have no vehicle around them – let alone seat belts and airbags – to keep them safe. This often results in broken bones, serious cuts and scrapes, and head, back, and neck injuries, among others.
Our lawyers can help you after you have been hit by a car by filing insurance claims with the driver’s insurance, building a strong case, and even taking your case to court if necessary to get you the compensation you need. We will stand up to insurance companies and transportation companies to advocate for your rights.
For a free review of your accident case, reach out to our Elmhurst pedestrian accident lawyers at The Carrion Law Firm by calling (718) 841-0083.
Getting Damages for a Pedestrian Accident in Elmhurst, Queens
In a car accident, you might have suffered vehicle damage only, and your primary area of compensation is for that property damage. In a pedestrian accident, you might have faced serious injuries that keep you laid up, out of work, and stuck with substantial hospital bills. Getting these bills and lost wages covered will be your primary focus, but damages for pain and suffering might also be available.
Medical Bills
Getting your medical bills covered often involves filing a no-fault insurance claim. In New York, all drivers – whether they drive cars, trucks, buses, or taxis – are required to carry no-fault insurance that will cover them and their passengers for medical bills and lost wages after a crash. However, pedestrians and cyclists are not required to carry insurance. Instead, the driver’s insurance should also cover them in the event of an accident.
That means that there should be an insurance policy available to cover some of your damages. However, that policy is likely to only cover a portion of your damages, and it will have a policy limit that caps compensation. In order to get compensated for the rest of your damages, you might need to file a lawsuit. We will discuss that more below.
Overall, “medical bills” can involve a wide range of care costs. Hospital stays and doctor’s visits should obviously be covered, as should the cost of any medical procedures you need. In addition, medical transportation, imaging, and other costs should be included, too. These damages can also pay for therapy – whether physical, occupational, or mental health therapy.
Lost Wages
Lost wages should also be covered by insurance, but – like medical bills – might not be covered in full. Lost wages are sometimes simple enough to calculate if you had a limited time missed at work and receive a regular wage. In that case, your average wage is simply multiplied by the time missed at work to arrive at the total lost wages.
In other cases, the calculation is more complex. If your injury keeps you out of work for an extended period, if your wages are irregular, or if your injury required you to take a lower-paying position, the calculation is different. In many cases, permanent injuries will cause a permanent reduction in wages or total disability that blocks the pedestrian accident victim from working even at a reduced capacity.
In these cases, it is vital to call our pedestrian accident attorneys. We can help you calculate lost wages to make sure your claim is not missing out on damages. We can also hire financial experts to perform these calculations and account for ongoing lost wages.
Pain and Suffering
Damages for pain and suffering cover the mental, emotional, and physical effects of the injury. While medical bills compensate you for the treatment of injuries, pain and suffering damages compensate you for the injuries themselves. In any case, this means that there are no bills or financial records that will be able to show how much these damages cost, and our pedestrian accident lawyers will have to use other evidence.
A claim for pain and suffering damages is not available in every case. First, these damages are not covered by no-fault insurance, which means you usually need to file a third-party insurance claim against the driver’s liability insurance or file a lawsuit to get these damages covered. Second, those claims and lawsuits are blocked unless your injury meets certain levels of seriousness.
The “serious injury” threshold under New York law permits car accident victims to sue for injuries only when they are permanent, last for 90 of the next 180 days, or involve substantial scarring, broken bones, lost fetus, or death. Many injuries will meet this threshold, especially for injured pedestrians. As such, our pedestrian accident lawyers can often help you seek these damages in court.
Is the Driver or Pedestrian at Fault for a Crash in Elmhurst, NY?
Determining who caused the crash is often a factual matter that courts, attorneys, and insurance companies need to look into on a case-by-case basis. However, there are some general rules that you can use to determine whether the driver was at fault or whether you might have shared fault in your accident case.
Generally, whoever broke the law or did something objectively unsafe is the one at fault for a crash. This means that pedestrians are typically only held liable for crashes where they suddenly stepped out in front of a car, crossed outside a crosswalk, or crossed without a signal. In most other cases – especially when the pedestrian was on the sidewalk or in a crosswalk – the driver will be at fault.
Even if you are held partially at fault for your accident, that might not end your case. Our pedestrian accident lawyers can use New York’s comparative negligence laws to get you damages for the defendant’s share of fault in the crash, even if you are determined to be partially liable. Additionally, no-fault insurance should pay damages regardless of who caused the crash.
Call Our Elmhurst, NY Pedestrian Accident Attorneys
For a free case review with The Carrion Law Firm’s pedestrian accident attorneys, call us at (718) 841-0083.