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Car Accidents

Recent Posts in Car Accidents Category

  • What Medical Expenses Can I Recover in a Personal Injury Case?

    If you get hurt in a car accident or any other incident because someone else was negligent, you deserve to get compensated for your losses. If they or their insurance company are unwilling to pay the full amount, you can file a personal injury lawsuit . That lawsuit demands compensation for all of your losses associated with the accident. While there are several common types of losses that you can ...
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  • What is the Tort Lottery in Personal Injury Law?

    In our last blog post about car accidents , which covered holding defendants personally liable for a crash , we mentioned the “tort lottery.” This is a very difficult situation for victims to find themselves in, as their recovery depends on the affluence of the person who hurt them. Unfortunately, it can happen in a wide variety of ways in Missouri. The Tort Lottery The word “tort” is the ...
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  • Holding Defendants Personally Liable for a Car Crash

    It is a cliché in personal injury law to say that “you may be entitled to financial compensation.” However, getting the full amount that victims deserve after they have been hurt in a car accident is not always easy. Especially if the injuries will cost over six figures to recover from, the defendant’s insurance coverage may hit its policy limits. When this happens, you may have to hold the ...
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  • Can I Sue a Drunk Driver for a Car Accident?

    A St. Joseph man pled guilty to driving while intoxicated (DWI) and causing a car accident that killed a local woman and her unborn child. The story raises a question that many accident victims ask: Can I recover compensation in a personal injury lawsuit from a drunk driver that hurt me? The answer is yes, sometimes. St. Joseph Man Pleads Guilty to DWI After Fatal Crash The fatal accident happened ...
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  • U.S. Falls Behind in Fatal Car Accidents

    New data about car accidents in the United States paints a bleak picture about roadway safety here compared to abroad: While the U.S. was once among the safest places to travel, it now has a higher rate of fatalities from road accidents than any other rich nation in the world. According to one analysis, America’s car-centric transportation policies are to blame, as the roadway deaths ...
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  • Who is Liable for Car Accidents Caused by Pets?

    In our last blog post about car accidents , we discussed some instances where someone else could be held liable for your single-vehicle crash . While these accidents are more commonly caused by products liability issues, like a defective car part, occasionally a car accident will be caused by a loose pet, like a dog or cat. In these instances, the pet owner can be held liable even if they were not ...
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  • Can Someone Else Be Liable in a Single-Vehicle Car Crash?

    In our last blog post about car accidents , we looked at whether injured passengers could hold their own driver liable for their losses. The specific crash that we discussed, though, was a single-vehicle accident. That raised an important issue in personal injury law: In single-vehicle accidents, is the driver of that vehicle always responsible for the crash? The answer is no. Aside from the ...
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  • Can Injured Passengers Hold Their Driver Liable for a Car Accident?

    A serious single-vehicle car accident west of St. Joseph put five people in the hospital. The crash is a great example of how the injured passengers in a car can recover the compensation they need after an accident from the driver who was responsible for the crash. Single-Vehicle Crash Sends Five to the Hospital According to both the news report and the police report , the accident occurred just ...
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  • Is Drugged Driving Dangerous or Not?

    As more states in the U.S. legalize marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes, the use of the drug has exploded. So too has the number of people with marijuana in their systems at the time of a car accident . But determining whether the marijuana was actually the cause of the accident, or how dangerous it is to drive while under the influence of the drug, is not as easy and simple as that. ...
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  • Parking Lot Accidents Can Be Severe

    In our last couple of blog posts about car accidents , we have looked at who has the right of way in a parking lot and how common parking lot accidents can be . The general conception of these accidents is that they are trivial. However, that is not always the case. Some of them can be quite significant, especially when the victim is elderly or a child. Unfortunately, these victims are likely the ...
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  • How Common are Car Accidents in Parking Lots?

    In a recent blog post, we looked at who has the right of way in a parking lot . This might seem like a trivial topic for personal injury law . However, parking lot car accidents are more common than you might expect, and can be far more devastating than you would think , given the low speeds of the crash. In this post, we will look at how common these accidents are. In our next post about car ...
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  • Car Accident Fatalities Increase 7 Percent

    A new federal study estimates that fatalities from car accidents increased at some of the highest non-lockdown levels in decades earlier this year, with Missouri seeing a higher increase than the national average. The data paints an alarming picture of roadway safety. Study Estimates a 7 Percent Increase in Accident Fatalities This month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) ...
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  • Who Has the Right of Way in a Parking Lot?

    Lots of car accidents happen in parking lots in St. Joseph. Some of them can be surprisingly serious , especially when a pedestrian is involved. Understanding who has the right of way in a parking lot is not always easy, but it can help you avoid making a decision that puts others at risk and let you know when someone else can be held liable if you got hit and hurt. The Three Different Areas of a ...
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  • If a Car Accident Involves a Non-Street-Legal Vehicle, What Happens?

    In our last blog post about car accidents , we looked at two important legal issues raised when a car hit an equipment buggy while trying to pass it . Something that we did not cover in that post was just as important, though: What happens when you crash into a vehicle that is not street legal? What Does it Mean to Be “Street Legal”? A motor vehicle is “street legal” if it: Has all of the legally ...
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  • Car Hits Buggy While Trying to Pass

    A victim was seriously hurt in a car accident involving an SUV and an equipment buggy, also known as a side-by-side all-terrain vehicle. The incident raises two important issues in personal injury law and car crashes: The eggshell skull rule, and Liability for crashes caused while passing other vehicles. Car Hits Buggy While Trying to Pass The incident happened on the evening of July 11, 2022. ...
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  • NHTSA Releases Data on Self-Driving Car Accidents

    Recently, there was a huge development in the regulation of self-driving vehicles: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released information about 392 car accidents involving vehicles with driver-assistance technologies over the span of 10 months. While the information is meant to be used to inform the agency about safety trends, NHTSA officials said that there was not enough ...
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  • Older Motorcycle Accident Victims Protected By the Eggshell Skull Rule

    It is motorcycle season in western Missouri. While it is intuitive and well known that car accidents involving motorcycles are more likely to cause serious injuries to the biker than other types of crashes, one contributing factor is often overlooked: The rising age of the average motorcyclist. Motorcycle Accident Injuries Tend to Be Serious Given the lack of protective equipment that bikers have, ...
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  • What are Loss of Consortium Damages in Missouri?

    Something that many accident victims in Missouri are surprised to learn is that their loved ones may also be entitled to compensation in a personal injury claim. Even though the loved one may not have been hurt in the victim’s car accident , he or she may still suffer from it. Personal injury law aims to compensate everyone for the losses they suffered in the accident. This includes the various ...
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  • NHTSA Releases Fatal Car Accident Data from 2021

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released its preliminary estimates about fatal car accidents across the country in 2021. On paper, the results do not look good, with a 16-year high in the number of roadway fatalities and a staggering increase from the year prior. But the data is misleading in several years – sometimes extremely misleading. While the numbers are still ...
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  • What Compensation is Available in Personal Injury Cases?

    In our personal injury blog posts, we have talked a lot about the need for victims to get the compensation that they deserve. But what does that mean? What types of compensation is a victim entitled to receive after, say, a car accident ? What Compensation Can Victims Recover? The short answer is that victims are entitled to financial compensation for all of their losses – be they financial, ...
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  • Who Can I Sue After an Intentional Car Crash?

    A New Jersey man has been arrested and charged with numerous crimes after he appeared to deliberately run over a woman after a car accident . Leaving the criminal aspects of the case aside, the incident raises an important issue in personal injury law: Will the victim be able to recover any compensation for her injuries because the “accident” was intentional? Man Appears to Intentionally Run Over ...
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  • Direct Victims Versus Bystanders for Emotional Distress Claims

    In a couple of our blog posts about car accidents in Missouri, we have delved into when victims and bystanders can recover compensation for their emotional distress . Most recently, we looked at a baseball player’s serious car crash , which was witnessed by his wife. That accident touched on an important issue in Missouri’s personal injury law : When someone is a bystander or a direct victim. ...
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  • Baseball Player’s Car Accident Shows How Emotional Distress Claims Can Work

    A recent car accident involving a baseball player highlights an important issue in how Missouri’s personal injury law handles claims for emotional distress . Mets First Baseman Involved in Serious Car Accident The accident happened on March 13 . Pete Alonso , the first baseman for the New York Mets, was going to spring training in Florida when another driver ran a red light and t-boned his pickup ...
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  • If a Medical Condition Causes a Car Crash, Who is Liable?

    A woman was seriously hurt when she fell asleep at the wheel and caused a single-vehicle car accident in northern Missouri. While falling asleep at the wheel due to fatigue is a strong sign of negligence, what if a driver becomes incapacitated because of a medical condition, like a seizure? The personal injury lawyers at the Smith Law Office in St. Joseph, Missouri, explain what can happen. Driver ...
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  • Why is Missouri’s Texting and Driving Law Controversial?

    Missouri’s law against texting and driving is drawing controversy. Unlike the law in most other states, Missouri’s texting and driving statute does not cover other uses of a cell phone in the car, and only applies to people under the age of 21 and to commercial drivers. As a result, the law is nearly impossible to enforce, and does very little to reduce the number of car accidents in the state. ...
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