Suffering injuries due to another driver's negligence means navigating a difficult path. You may see a stream of neverending medical bills and a decrease in earnings—all aggravated by your pain and suffering. It is a lot, but an experienced Mesquite car accident attorney at Trust Guss Injury Lawyers is on your side and here to help.
We are a national law firm based in Texas with multiple offices around the country. We also work with affiliate law firms in most states that share our focus and dedication to excellence. No matter where you are located, we may be able to help you, so call or contact us now. We are open, for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 800-898-4877, or you may contact us now by clicking here to submit your case for review.
Car Accidents in Mesquite
Mesquite has earned the title of Rodeo Capital of Texas, and it is far more than just a suburb of Dallas. Mesquite presents unique traffic concerns, including the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway (running from Jupiter Road to the I-30 interchange), which, during two years, averaged 2.5 traffic fatalities per mile. If a negligence-based car accident leaves you or someone you love injured, turn to the dedicated Mesquite car accident lawyers at Trust Guss Injury Lawyers for the professional legal guidance you need.
Filing Your Claim
You're in the difficult position of having been harmed by someone else's negligence in a car accident, and it is not unusual to feel at an utter loss. To obtain fair compensation that covers all of your physical, financial, and emotional losses, you need to file your car accident claim with the at-fault driver's insurance provider.
The tricky part is that the insurance company is in the business of turning massive profits and is very good at what it does. The insurance company may employ numerous tactics to keep your settlement lower than the amount you deserve.
Working closely with an experienced car accident lawyer is the surest way to protect your legal rights—in pursuit of your rightful compensation.
The insurance company has many tools at the ready when it comes to bolstering its profits, including:
- Denying your claim right from the beginning—in the hope that you will walk away
- Offering you a woefully low settlement offer early on—in the hope that you will accept out of desperation
- Attempting to shift the matter of fault toward you (and away from the company’s policyholder)
- Artificially complicating or prolonging the claims process—in the hope you’ll give up hope
With skilled legal counsel on your side, you’ll be far better prepared to cut through the insurance company’s antics—in defense of your legal rights.
Car Accidents
While car accidents come in limitless forms, most fall into these categories:
- Sideswipe accidents in which one car swipes the side of another (often sending the vehicle out of its lane)
- T-bone accidents in which one car barrels headlong into the side of another vehicle (typically at an intersection)
- Rear-end accidents are some of the most common car accidents on our roads
- Head-on accidents that severe impairment often causes
- Rollover accidents are among the deadliest, most terrifying car accidents
Car Accidents Begin With Negligence
Your car accident claim stems from the at-fault driver’s negligence, which can take on a wide range of forms.
Excess Speed
We have all been in a rush a time or two, and driving a bit faster may seem like a great way to make up for it. Speeding, however, is so closely related to an increase in serious car accidents that it is considered one of the most dangerous driving practices. To make matters more challenging, a motorist does not need to exceed the speed limit to drive too fast.
Lawmakers set speed limits for ideal driving conditions, and drivers must adjust their traveling speed downward in response to any adverse conditions on the road, including the effects of bad weather.
The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that, in 2020, 11,258 people lost their lives in accidents involving excess speed. In the last 20 years, speed has played a critical role in 29 percent of all deadly traffic accidents.
Motorists who drive too fast make our roadways riskier in all the following ways:
- They require longer stopping distances (when unexpected stops are necessary).
- They are more likely to lose control of their vehicles.
- The occupant protection equipment in their cars is rendered less effective.
- The safety devices on our roads, such as guardrails and concrete barriers, are rendered less effective.
- They increase the severity of any car accidents they cause.
Immense speed is the hallmark of aggressive driving, which is the pinnacle of driver negligence.
Aggression
Aggressive drivers often go beyond mere negligence—veering into recklessness.
We can typically define aggressive driving as engaging in more than one dangerous driving tactic on any given outing, and—in addition to speeding—these can include:
- Sticking to the rear of another driver’s vehicle (tailgating)
- Cutting off other drivers
- Attempting to engage other drivers via hand gestures, taunts, incessant honking, and more
- Zigzagging in and out of traffic
- Ignoring the rules of the road
- Refusing to yield the right-of-way
- Passing illegally
- Going so far as physically tapping other vehicles on the road
Aggressive drivers are far more likely to cause dangerous accidents, and reporting them to the authorities (when it is safe to do so) is generally the best option.
Distraction
We all get distracted by our phones, but doing so behind the wheel can prove deadly. While there are infinite driver distractions out there, texting is considered the most alarming (according to NHTSA).
Texting is unique for its ability to combine all three categories of distraction, including:
- One’s thoughts
- One’s sight
- One’s hands
The only way to drive safely is to train one's full attention on that primary task. When a motorist drives at highway speeds and tears their attention off the road for the five seconds it typically takes to type out a text, they travel about the length of a football field—and that is a terrifying distance to drive blind. In 2020 alone, 3,142 people died in fatal distracted driving accidents.
Fatigue
Many motorists fail to recognize the danger associated with drowsy driving, but it is all too real.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that drowsy driving combines the immense responsibility of driving with the dangerous element of fatigue. The fact is that no one knows precisely when sleep will take them over, and the monotony of driving can push some groggy drivers over the edge. When it comes to drowsy driving, however, falling asleep—while it is an immense risk—is not the only risk.
Drowsy driving comes with all the following risk factors:
- The driver’s attention span is less.
- The driver’s reaction times are shorter.
- The driver’s ability to make safe decisions behind the wheel is adversely affected.
Consider the drowsy driving statistics forwarded by the NHTSA from one recent year:
- There were 91,000 accidents related to drowsy driving.
- In these accidents, 800 people lost their lives.
- In these accidents, 50,000 people suffered injuries.
The sad truth is that many experts consider these numbers under-estimations of the actual danger associated with exhaustion behind the wheel.
Impairment
No one needs to explain to you how dangerous drunk drivers are, but drunk drivers themselves are slow to get the message. The fact is that drunk driving remains a serious problem throughout the country and in Texas.
Drunk drivers experience impairments that interfere with their ability to make safe driving decisions and decrease their inhibitions—leaving them seriously ill-prepared to deal with the physical, cognitive, and sensory impairments they also suffer. The higher a driver's blood alcohol concentration (BAC), the more dangerous their driving becomes.
Common Car Accident Injuries
While you can sustain nearly any kind of injury in a car accident, some of the severe injuries that are most common in these dangerous accidents include:
- Concussions and other forms of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Broken bones
- Spinal cord injuries
- Soft tissue injuries, such as whiplash
- Severe burns, cuts, and abrasions
- Internal injuries
Not every severe injury announces itself with attention-grabbing symptoms, which makes seeking medical attention as soon after a car accident as possible paramount—even if you don’t believe you suffered a severe injury in the accident.
Collecting on Your Losses
Your car accident claim will address the covered losses you experience, and you must list every loss as clearly as possible. The compensation you receive will pay to regain your health and well-being to the fullest extent possible.
Property Damage to Your Car
A car accident almost certainly will damage your car. The same may be true of any contents of value you have inside the vehicle.
Your Medical Bills
The medical bills you face in the aftermath of a car accident can be exceptionally high, but from here, things can get even more severe. Your injuries may require ongoing healthcare needs, can experience complications, and might lead to secondary medical concerns. In other words, you need to view the medical costs associated with your car accident through the lens of your attendant long-term healthcare requirements. If you fail to take the long view, you can be on the hook for considerable expenses that your claim does not cover.
Your Lost Earnings
An essential aspect of your car accident claim is addressing your lost hours on the job and your attendant decrease in earnings. This immediate loss is difficult enough, but if you cannot earn an income, your financial losses can escalate. Further, if the trajectory of your chosen career is affected, you can face both financial and emotional loss.
Your Pain and Suffering
We cannot overstate the physical and psychological pain and suffering you can endure after a car accident. This emotional loss can prove especially difficult to overcome and can make your other categories of loss more challenging to address effectively.
Each category of loss that you experience should receive the attention it deserves in your car accident claim.
Your Car Accident Lawyer
Successfully navigating the car accident claims process can be arduous without the professional legal guidance of an experienced car accident lawyer.
You can count on our lawyers ably:
- Building your most substantial claim by compiling all the available evidence, including eyewitness testimony, physical evidence at the scene of the accident, the police report, and more
- Hiring the expert witnesses and accident recreation models necessary to effectively support your claim
- Providing the insurance company with the statements and information it needs (bypassing the need for you to give a statement, which amounts to an excellent opportunity for the insurance company to trip you up)
- Helping to ensure that you understand what you are up against and that you make the well-informed decisions that are right for you along the way
- Knowledgeably negotiating with the insurance company for a settlement that accurately reflects the losses you’ve experienced.
- Preparing to take your case to trial—in response to bad faith efforts on the part of the insurance company
When you’re at your most vulnerable, it helps to know that you have skilled legal guidance in your corner.
Turn to an Experienced Mesquite Car Accident Lawyer for the Help You Need
Victims represented by an attorney overwhelmingly receive more compensation than those who are not. Additionally, most reputable law firms will offer a case evaluation at no charge. So if you are in the unfortunate situation of suffering from a car accident injury, there is no good reason not to call a lawyer.
The veteran Mesquite car accident lawyers at Trust Guss Injury Lawyers take great pride in their 20-year track record of successfully guiding claims like yours toward advantageous outcomes and are here for you, too.
The legal team of Trust Guss Injury Lawyers, is nationally recognized for protecting the rights of injured victims. If a Mesquite car accident injured you, call our office right now for a free consultation! Because we take all of our car accident cases on a contingency fee basis, you will not owe us a dime unless we win your case. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so call us today at 800-898-4877 or contact us now by clicking here.