There are two people that negligent injury victims see, that they never thought they would see when they woke up that day. One is a medical doctor of some sort, who will deal with the physical affects of the accident. The other is a lawyer, who will attend to the legal rights and financial rights that may have stemmed out of a negligent accident. Bottom line is that no one ever wakes up and says, “today I’m going to get into an accident”.
Along those same lines, sometimes drivers get into small accidents – fender benders in a parking lot, 5 MPH accidents at a stop light, etc. – and they wind up thinking nothing of it. They get into a seemingly inconsequential accident, review their own vehicles, find no damage to speak of, don’t feel any pain, and go on with their day, really not even thinking that they got into an accident in the first place.
This is one of the things that medical professionals and legal professionals are constantly trying to impart on all motor vehicle operator – “if you get into an accident, any accident, make sure that you treat it, the accident, your body and your property, as if you had gotten into a major accident. How are we, how is anyone, to know whether or not they are hurt immediately after an accident,. It really doesn’t matter how much impact or damage is done, there is always the chance that something
There have been a lot of research, analysis and published studies that dispel our common belief that small accidents cause no damage. One such study found that lack of damage to the vehicle itself does not mean that there will be no physical damage to the occupants. Just because a car hits another at 5-10MPH does not mean that there is not internal body damage that the driver just does not feel, or even worse, internal damage that may show up in a few days after the accident itself. If this is the case, and the driver does not follow the proper steps to protect themselves – by seeing a doctor and talking to a lawyer – there may be very little legal or financial justice to be had, if opportunities to protect the driver/passenger are not taken immediately after the accident.
INSURANCE COMPANIES LOVE SMALL ACCIDENTS
They do. Why? Because they usually don’t pay very much, if anything at all, if there is minimal damage to the vehicle itself. Imagine if you got into an accident that did $1000 worth of damage to your car, but cost you $60,000 in medical bills. An insurance company will most likely want to settle as quickly as possible for the $1000, and have you sign a document waiving their responsibility for your medical bills. The best way to protect yourself against that possibility is to speak to an attorney prior to signing anything, regardless of the size of the accident,.
