What Should You Do After a Side Impact Collision?

What Should You Do After a Side Impact Collision?

While frontal impacts remain the front-runner in accident fatalities, those numbers are steadily declining. Meanwhile, side-impact fatalities remain more constant and increasing.

When a vehicle is t-boned or broadsided by another car, the result can be catastrophic and even fatal. Accident victims may be impacted by the crumbling vehicle surrounding them, resulting in severe or even fatal injuries. When a car hits the front or back of your car, you have a barrier of steel, your bumper, engine, trunk, and seats protecting you. When a car is t-boned, there’s only a door and a window (and possibly the passenger seat, depending on which side of the vehicle is hit) between you and the other car.

It’s no wonder that side-impact collisions kill between 8,500 and 10,000 Americans a year. If you or a loved one have suffered from the T-bone crash caused by another driver’s negligence, you may receive compensation for your hardships and losses.

Causes of Side Impact Car Accidents

Some of the factors that lead to T-bone collisions include:

  • Drunk drivers carelessly colliding with another vehicle
  • Distracted drivers texting or talking on the phone while driving.
  • Traffic signal failure or malfunctions, causing multiple vehicles to enter the intersection at once
  • Inattentive semi-truck driver sideswipes a car on the highway
  • Reckless driver running red lights

Types of Injuries from T-Bone Accidents

Victims of side impact accidents are often impacted more seriously than those in fender benders or other forms of car crashes. Side impact auto accident attorneys often see the following injuries:

  • Head Injuries
  • Brain Injuries.
  • Neck Injuries
  • Back Injuries.
  • Broken Bones.
  • Soft Tissue Injuries.
  • Whiplash. 
  • Spinal Cord Injuries.

Proving Fault in Side-Impact Accidents

After a car accident, you may be wondering what to do and how to prove the other driver is liable for your injuries. Sometimes driver error and accident liability are pretty obvious based on how the side-impact accident happened. The other driver may even admit fault to the accident at the scene. In the most common t-bone situations, the other driver will often claim that they had the right of way or if you were at fault.

Start At the Scene

The rules for side-impact crashes are primarily the same as for other car accidents. Call the police (who may make preliminary determinations on who was responsible), get contact information from anybody who witnessed the accident, NEVER admit liability to the other driver, and take photos of the scene and damage if possible.

Traffic Signals

If there’s a question regarding the traffic light, take note of the time of the accident. While not a guarantee, it can be possible in some circumstances to compare this time against the traffic light’s automated programming. This is not the perfect solution, but it gives your attorney another tool to prove that you were not at fault.

Vehicle Defects

A common complication in side-impact collision cases comes in the various manifestations of defective parts. In this case, you may want to involve the manufacturer or repair shop that potentially shares some liability for the accident or the severity of the injury.

Contact the Attorneys at Goss Law Firm to Help Get You A Fair Settlement

We understand that in addition to coping with the emotional and physical implications of their injuries or loss, clients are faced with significant financial challenges from dealing with medical bills, time away from work, and confronting the reality of lost income to the family.

If you’ve been involved in a side-impact collision, it’s in your best interest to put your T-bone accident case in the capable hands of an experienced car accident lawyer. Our T-bone collisions attorneys in Kansas City work diligently to investigate accidents, determine causes and contributing factors, and hold responsible parties liable.

To learn more or schedule a FREE consultation, call the Kansas City Car Accident Lawyers at the Goss Law Firm at 816-839-6452 today.