Being rear ended is a very dangerous type of car wreck. Any good auto accident lawyer has probably argued a lot of these claims during their careers. There are ways that drivers bring a rear end accident on themselves but, in many cases, there are circumstances where the driver that hit the car that was rear ended was negligent, and this is when people sue.
The Danger
When you’re hit from behind, there’s a good chance that you had no idea you were about to be involved in a wreck. If you’re in a head on wreck that you see coming, you’ll usually be ready for the impact and will be sitting back fully in your seat. When you’re rear ended, you’re generally taken completely by surprise, which means that you could be hurt much worse.
In some cases, the injuries from these accidents take a while to manifest. Whiplash is the classic example of this injury. The rear end accident causes the victim’s head to whip forward and back, causing a painful and debilitating injury. This sometimes takes a while to start hurting because of the adrenaline of the accident. It’s also possible to end up being bounced off of the dash or otherwise hurt and to suffer great injury as a result of it.
The Vehicle
Your vehicle will also take heavy damage in one of these accidents, depending upon the circumstances and the speed of the cars involved. A rear end accident usually happens when one car is stopped and the car that is hit takes the full force of the impact. This usually crumples the trunk, at least, and may do even more damage. A driver that is in a car when it is hit this hard, obviously, stands a significant chance of being injured.
A car wreck attorney can help with these cases. They can sometimes get a good settlement out of them, particularly if the other driver was obviously negligent in how they came to hit the attorney’s client’s car. If you’ve been rear ended and it wasn’t any fault of your own, contact an attorney. They may be able to help you. If they cannot, they will generally just turn down your case. These attorneys work under an arrangement where they don’t get paid anything if they cannot win money for their client through a jury award or a settlement, so there’s no motivation for them to take a losing case.
