Christopher

Most Common Traffic Violations That Cause Car Crashes & May Result in Fines

December 5, 2019 by Christopher

Traffic violations in Missouri are covered under section 302 of the Missouri Revisor of Statutes. The penalty system includes a point system, which makes you pay fines and/or gets your license suspended temporarily or permanently when losing them. Each traffic law violation has certain penalties and a number of points, and some will result in jail time if you fail to show up in court or if the offense was serious (like, harming another person or putting someone in danger).

Here are the most common traffic laws violations in Missouri.

Speeding

Speeding is one of the most common traffic law violations all across the country, not only in Missouri. Drivers show a failure to operate a vehicle responsibly and negligence when choosing to go over the speed limit. Every time you cross that line, you or someone else might be in danger. The associated penalties depend on how much you went above the speed limit.

Running a Red Light

Another common traffic law violation is running a red light, which is just as serious and reckless as speeding. Often, these two violations come together, making the driver liable for negligence. Stop sign and red light violations are class C misdemeanors in Missouri, which means that the driver will generally pay a fine of about $100 and will lose a point from their license.

Driving Without a Valid License

Whether you don’t have a license at all, or it has expired, driving without a valid license is a class D misdemeanor and it will get you a fine of up to $500. This happens when you violate the law for the first time, but the seriousness of your offense grows exponentially if you are found doing that again. A second offense will be considered a class A misdemeanor ($2,000 fine and/or jail time), while a third offense is already a class E felony (up to $10,000 fine and/or 4 years in jail).

Driving with No Insurance

Each state requires minimum insurance coverage for any driver, by law. You must carry your insurance papers at all times when driving. If you don’t have your papers with you, you get a “no insurance” fine, even if you were insured at that time. These fines can never be removed from your record, and the penalties they bring are exponentially bigger if you repeat the violation. You can get your license suspended for up to 1 year, pay a maximum of $400 fine and face up to 15 days in jail if you are caught with no insurance more than three times.

These are the most common traffic law violations in Missouri. These violations often cause car crashes or result in fines. If you have been involved in an accident with someone who was driving recklessly, you have a right to compensation. Get in touch with an experienced St. Louis car accident attorney 24/7 at (314) 361-4242.

Why You Should Always Have an Injury Lawyer Before You Accept a Car Accident Settlement

December 4, 2019 by Christopher

When you think about holding a person who’s caused you harm accountable, you most likely picture being in a court, presenting your case in front of a judge and jury. However, some statistics show that as many as 95% of car accident cases end in a settlement.

Here are a few reasons:

Most Car Accident Cases Go Through Insurance Companies

You can technically sue the driver who caused the car accident in civil court, but your St. Louis auto accident attorney may advise against it. In Missouri, it’s mandatory to have auto insurance, so when you are asking for damages from a driver, that compensation won’t come from their own pockets, but from the insurance company.

Missouri courts prefer this option as well, as it’s a way to make sure they don’t get overcrowded. The judge may hear your case, but it most likely won’t make it to trial.

You Can Sue the Insurance Company as a Strategy

It’s possible not to sue the driver directly, but the insurance company if they are not being reasonable with your claim. However, this is most often a strategy used by lawyers to show you are serious and get the company to agree to terms.

In fact, it’s in the best interest of the insurance company to settle, because they can somewhat control how much they get to pay a victim. In a trial, they cannot negotiate the settlement and will be forced to pay the amount decided by the judge.

Trials Are Unpredictable

If you do manage to get in front of a jury, then you’ll constantly have to prove you are in the right, as the plaintiff has the burden of proof, while the defendant just has to, well, defend themselves.

But juries can be unpredictable. They are not experts, so they can often rely on their feelings rather than the evidence presented. If they feel or think the other side was more convincing, you may lose the case, even if you have the evidence to prove your side of the story.

Trials Can Take Longer

It’s not to say that insurance claims get resolved quickly, but you can potentially reach a settlement a lot faster. In a trial, both sides will present their evidence, and there is a lot of back and forth, which can drag on the process a lot. Additionally, there’s no way to know how long it will take a jury to reach a decision.

Trial or Insurance Claim?

Make no mistake, in some cases, it may be better to go to trial. For instance, if the other driver intentionally caused you harm, but they have not been arrested for whatever reason. To know what you should do, get in touch with a St. Louis car injury lawyer to see what your best legal options are. Give us a call 24/7 at (314) 361-4242 for a FREE consultation.

What Is My Car Accident Claim Worth?

December 2, 2019 by Christopher

One of the most common questions our St. Louis car accident lawyers get even before taking a case is “how much is my accident worth?”. This is totally understandable considering that people want to know if the hassle of suing someone and fighting a battle in court is worth their time and effort, which are already reduced from suffering injuries in an accident.

st. louis woman and man after car accident

“It is important to keep in mind that a more reliable way to calculate what your accident claim is worth is to personally speak with an experienced attorney. “

While no one will really be able to guarantee an exact sum, law firms can commit to bringing your settlement in a certain financial range, based on facts and evidence. There is a way of calculating a final settlement, and it takes several variables into account. Some law firms have included a “pain and suffering calculator” on their website so that you can immediately get an estimate closer to a realistic result.

Keep in mind that to get an accurate result, you need to correctly assess your own losses to input precise information and to consider your state’s laws. It is important to keep in mind that a more reliable way to calculate what your accident claim is worth is to personally speak with an experienced attorney.

Settlement Calculator: the Variables

We will look into the variables that will be taken into consideration when an initial estimation of your settlement is calculated.

Special Damages: The variables that fall into this category are easily quantifiable and more palpable. They are mostly the economic damages that resulted from your accident, like (past and future,) property damage, lost income, etc. They are all calculated based on the impact the accident has had on your life and what it made you lose. This is why going to the doctor is extremely important, and it will be accounted for even when you don’t pay from your own pocket.

Pain and Suffering: This category of damages is trickier to demonstrate, as it contains the amount of emotional damage and other non-economic damages that you want to get compensation for. For example, if you suffer from PTSD after the accident, you can request compensation for it, that will be included in the settlement.

Multiplier: After all these costs are calculated, a multiplier is added, which ranges from 1.5 upwards. It can even be a multiplier of 5 or even more if you had a really bad injury. This number will increase proportionately to the seriousness of the injuries and damage.

Pure Comparative Negligence: In states like Missouri, the settlement value will also be reduced proportionately if you had a certain percentage of fault in causing the accident. Whether it is 10% or 80%, you will receive a settlement calculated accordingly. If you are in a different state, you need to check the at-fault rules, since it’s possible to not get anything at all if you have any influence on the accident.

Nuisance Settlement: This is what we call a very small amount of money offered to the complainant if it turns out that he is not entitled to any amount of settlement money at all, because he was completely at fault, he had no injuries, or his injuries were not caused by that particular accident. The insurance company may give an amount of $500-750 just to make the complaint go away.

To learn more about what you may be entitled to after a St. Louis car accident, get in touch with an experienced car crash lawyer. Give us a call 24/7 at (314) 361-4242.

Medical Payments Coverage: What Is It and What Role Does it Play in Car Accident Claims?

November 4, 2019 by Christopher

According to the law in Missouri, you are required to carry some form of insurance coverage to help you get through a car crash without going bankrupt. The minimum level of coverage according to the Missouri Department of Revenue is:

$25,000 per person for bodily injury
$50,000 per accident for bodily injury
$25,000 per accident for property

In addition to this, you can also add different options and benefits to your policy, such as medical payments coverage. What is it, how does it work, and do you really need it?

MedPay: What Is It and What Does It Cover?

MedPay or medical payment coverage is an option that you can add to your insurance that will cover expenses for you as well as other people on the policy following an accident. We’re talking here about costs related to medical care or funeral expenses.

Here’s a list to help you get an idea:

Ambulances fees
X-rays, surgeries, and so on
Hospital visits and stays
Dental procedures required because of the car crash
Nursing services

One of the main benefits of MedPay coverage is that it’s not limited to your car. In other words, if you are hit by a driver as a pedestrian or while riding public transportation, your policy generally remains active. However, if you attach a trailer or van to your car and get injured while riding it, then the policy likely won’t cover it.

How Do I Get Reimbursed?

If you’ve been involved in a car accident and have medical bills piling up, there are two ways you can get paid: 1) if the MedPay is your primary coverage, then you may receive a direct reimbursement or 2) you will receive a supplement to your existing healthcare policy.

More often than not, the victims pay the expenses upfront, and then the insurance company reimburses them dollar for dollar. If the medical payment coverage is secondary, then your regular health insurance may cover the bulk of the expenses and you can use your MedPay for deductibles.

Do I Need It?

While it can help you greatly, MedPay shouldn’t replace your regular health insurance. The limit is set quite low, ranging between 1,000 and 10,000 in Missouri. That is because the purpose of the medical payments coverage is to cover immediate expenses and provide some financial relief until the insurance kicks in.

So, the answer to the question is that it depends. MedPay can certainly provide peace of mind knowing that some of the more pressing costs are taken care of without forcing you to break the bank.

The At-Fault Party Must Pay Compensation

The law says that the driver responsible for causing the accident is also responsible for paying for damages and medical expenses. However, if the at-fault party is uninsured or underinsured, then your own insurance can provide some financial relief. As you can see, things can get quite complex, but a St. Louis car accident attorney can help you in these matters. Give us a call 24/7 at (314) 361-4242 for a FREE consultation.

What We Can Learn From the New Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts Report

October 24, 2019 by Christopher

The latest Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts report was released earlier this year and contains data from 2017.

The Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts is an annual report released by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that describes the situation of car accidents involving large vehicles from a certain period of time, on US territory. FMCSA compiles data taken from various statistics and provides a comprehensive analysis of that data, in a wider context.

The latest Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts report was released earlier this year and contains data from 2017, which is put into context by comparing results from previous years with the latest statistics.

Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts for 2017

The LTBCF report is organized into four sections:

Trends – presenting current data in historical context to illustrate trends and possible causes
Crashes – counts of crashes, three-years statistics where relevant
Vehicles – counts of vehicles involved in crashes
People – counts of people involved in crashes, whether they were drivers, occupants or pedestrians.

In these sections, counts are presented by themselves and by comparisons with other data, taking into account the following:

Crashes: counts of crashes
Vehicles in crashes: types of vehicles involved in the crash
People in crashes: all the people who were involved in the crashes, demographics, victims, where they were at the time of the cars
Drivers in crashes: counts of vehicle drivers involved in crashes

Here we will detail some of the most interesting findings in the Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts report 2017. We will present them as they are organized in the report, by chapter.

Trends

From 2016 to 2017, there was a 9% increase in the number of accidents involving large trucks and buses, with the number of fatal crashes increasing by 8%.

In the case of bus crashes, a historical low was registered in 2017, since the first LTBCF report in 1975. Only 73 school buses and 13 intercity buses were involved in fatal crashes in 2017.

At the same time, the number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes increased, as did their involvement rate. Over the past year (at the time of the data collection,) the number of large vehicles in car crashes raised from 4,251 to 4,657.

Crashes

23% of the police-reported crashes that involved large trucks were injury crashes, with 1% being fatal. The total number of police-reported crashes in 2017 was about 450,000.

Of all large vehicle fatal crashes, 63% involved two vehicles and 20% a single-vehicle.

Large trucks were often involved in crashes when crossing rural areas (57% of fatal crashes), Interstate Highways (27% of fatal crashes), or both (13% of fatal crashes).

Vehicles

Critical precrash event: in 73% of the cases, it was another vehicle, a person, an animal or an object on the large truck’s lane; in 23% of the cases, it was the large vehicle’s own movement.

People

Safety issues: 9% of the large truck drivers involved in fatal accidents were not wearing a seatbelt. 45% of them were killed in the crash.

Driving under influence: 5% of large vehicle drivers in fatal crashes consumed drugs (with 59% of the total not even tested). When compared to the number of drivers of all vehicles involved in crashes, you can see a decrease (15% of the total tested positive for at least one drug).

This data is only a fraction of all the information provided by the LTBCF report of 2017. These numbers not only give us an insight into how trends change over the decades, but it also gives us practical information when it comes to road safety and dangers.

If you have been involved in a St. Louis car accident, get in touch with an experienced attorney to ensure your legal right to compensation is protected right from the start of your claim. Give us a call 24/7 at (314) 361-4242 for a FREE case evaluation.

How Staying Calm and Avoiding Road Rage Can Prevent Auto Accidents

October 18, 2019 by Christopher

Anger will likely affect the way you drive: how you react, how quickly you notice things and respond to them.

Everybody knows that frustration and driving almost come as a package deal in some situations. But that frustration can quickly turn into anger, and driving on this emotion is almost surely a recipe for disaster.

Road rage will likely affect the way you drive: how you react, how quickly you notice things and respond to them, etc. If you’re not careful, that anger will translate into aggressive driving, which is estimated to be responsible for around 66% of motor vehicle crash fatalities.

Here are some tips on how to keep your cool while behind the wheel.

It’s Not Just You

One key thing to remember in a traffic jam or another instance where you feel frustrated behind the wheel is that you’re not alone in this. Other drivers are going through the same or similar feelings, and if everyone acted on them, chaos would likely ensure.

It’s Not Personal

A lot of people tend to feel personally offended when a driver does something aggravating like cutting you off or stealing the parking spot you had your eyes on. However, the chances of that actually being true are slim.

Breathe

If you feel like you’re reaching a boiling point, try to manually control your breath to calm yourself down. Even something as simple as counting to ten before you act can give you time to cool off and avoid making a mistake because of anger.

Consider Something Else Might Be Going on

Maybe you’re not only angry behind the wheel. In some cases, the emotional turmoil in your daily life can be too much, and you find yourself pouring all your frustration while behind the wheel, even if the situation doesn’t completely warrant it. If that sounds like something you’re going through, consider talking to a therapist.

The Dark Side of Road Rage

Giving in to the anger you feel while driving can potentially have devastating consequences, even fatalities. Some estimates claim that around 37% of aggressive driving incidents involve a firearm. When people are not in control of their emotions when they drive, some common scenarios can occur:

Mistakes while driving
Retributions
Fights
Running another vehicle off the road

A lot of these scenarios can have fatal endings, making you liable for damages or worse. If your actions caused someone’s death, you can even expect some jail time. No judge or insurance company will take any leniency on you just because you claim you were blinded by rage.

Get in Touch with a Car Accident Lawyer

If another driver is guilty of road rage and caused you harm, then you can legally ask for compensation. Work with an experienced St. Louis auto accident lawyer for help in acquiring it and protecting your legal rights.

Road rage is not a defense strategy. The driver should have been more careful with how they behaved while behind the wheel, no matter how frustrated they felt. Give us a call 24/7 at (314) 361-4242 for a FREE case evaluation.