Pedestrian accidents cause some of the most serious injuries, often entitling victims to file lawsuits against negligent drivers despite New York being a no-fault state.
One of the first steps in proving the defendant’s negligence is showing they owed you a duty of care before the accident. Our lawyers can focus on establishing this through incident reports and eyewitness statements and then proceed to prove how the defendant breached that duty of care, hitting and injuring you. To recover non-economic damages and file lawsuits, pedestrian accident victims must certify that they pass the serious injury threshold, which our lawyers can accomplish by organizing medical records proving their injuries. As your case progresses, we will continue to monitor your economic and non-economic losses to ensure a fair recovery, whether from an out-of-court settlement or jury award at trial.
Call The Carrion Law Firm’s pedestrian accident lawyers at (631) 910-7493 for a free case analysis today.
Establishing a Duty of Care in Riverhead, NY Pedestrian Accident Claims
Part of proving liability for pedestrian accident injuries is showing the defendant owed the victim a duty of care, which they ultimately breached. As we build the foundation of your case, our lawyers can focus on proving duty of care and the other essential elements of injury lawsuits.
Drivers owe pedestrians, other drivers, and anyone else sharing the road a duty of care to follow traffic laws and operate their vehicles responsibly. Failing to uphold one’s duty of care might impact pedestrians if drivers speed through stop signs, fail to yield to a pedestrian’s right of way, or drive onto sidewalks due to intoxication, fatigue, or recklessness.
Establishing that the defendant was a driver on the road at the time is necessary, which we can achieve through accident reports, eyewitness statements, and security camera footage. We can also use similar evidence to show how the defendant breached their duty of care by being negligent or reckless. We must identify exactly what the defendant did wrong to cause the accident, such as speeding, driving under the influence, or ignoring a stoplight or stop sign.
When injured as pedestrians, victims might not anticipate accidents or see negligent drivers approaching them and thus might not have clear recollections of an accident’s sequence of events. We can confirm what happened right before, during, and after the incident by interviewing witnesses, reviewing the crash report, and assessing images from the scene. Our attorneys may contact nearby home and business owners with surveillance systems on their properties, as these devices might catch relevant images on tape.
Passing the Serious Injury Threshold for Pedestrian Accident Lawsuits in Riverhead, NY
The personal injury protection (PIP) insurance that covers you as a driver after a car accident also covers your damages after a pedestrian accident. However, if our lawyers determine you pass the serious injury threshold in New York, you can file a lawsuit to recover economic and non-economic damages.
Pedestrians have virtually nothing protecting them from reckless or negligent drivers during accidents. Especially when struck at high speeds, victims might sustain fatal or debilitating injuries, ones that significantly affect their quality of life moving forward. While this is unfortunate, it does mean that pedestrian accident victims are more likely to meet the definition of serious injury in New York under I.S.C. Law § 5102(d), which includes fractures, limb loss, and many permanent injuries.
Our pedestrian accident lawyers can help you gather the appropriate medical records from physicians to show the court you pass New York’s serious injury threshold and may proceed with a claim for all damages, including pain and suffering.
Monitoring Damages from Riverhead, NY Pedestrian Accidents
As we organize evidence of liability following a pedestrian accident, our lawyers will also closely watch all the damages you incur, namely hospital expenses and lost wages. While many victims are most concerned with recovering economic damages, they may also be entitled to significant awards for non-economic damages.
Hospital Expenses
For some victims, most of their hospital expenses will come from their first visit to the emergency room after an accident. That said, many pedestrian victims suffer devastating injuries like traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries that require additional surgeries and other invasive treatments. Fractures may also need surgery, and victims may incur costs from wheelchairs, crutches, or other medical accommodations. From the beginning of your case, our attorneys can record all medical expenses and organize bills from hospitals and providers so we can offer them as proof of damages.
Lost Income
In pedestrian accidents, victims could sustain crushing injuries along the entire sides of their bodies, life-altering traumatic brain injuries, and near-fatal internal injuries. The risk of serious injury increases greatly when victims are hurt as pedestrians, and this, in turn, can worsen victims’ damages from lost wages. If your injuries prevent you from working, inform our lawyers, and we can begin estimating your lost wages based on proof of income from before the accident. Many pedestrian accident victims cannot return to work for months or years after an incident, and our attorneys can calculate future lost wages and fight for those damages as well.
Intangible Damages
Intangible damages are the most challenging to calculate, as they symbolize victims’ pain and suffering due to negligence. When estimating and requesting non-economic damages, our lawyers will consider various factors, such as the victim’s age, the severity of the injury, the likelihood of physical recovery, and the changes to the victim’s quality of life since the accident. If your case goes to court and does not settle, we can support compensation requests for non-economic damages with testimony from medical and mental health experts. Victims may also testify in court so that juries can appreciate their pain and suffering caused by negligence.
Call Our Riverhead, NY Attorneys for Help with Your Pedestrian Accident Case
Call the pedestrian accident lawyers of The Carrion Law Firm for a free case evaluation at (631) 910-7493.