Winter in Minnesota creates a unique set of hazards for drivers on the road.
The Twin Cities have received our first real winter weather of the year, causing widespread commuting delays. Delays more than an hour were common. However, many people dealt with more serious results of the storm than being late for work. The Pioneer Press reported that this past Monday and Tuesday there were over 500 single-vehicle accidents with vehicles leaving the roadway and over 400 crashes. Just during the storm there were over three dozen injuries related to car accidents and one person was killed.
Winter-Weather Car Accidents
Winter weather related car accidents and injuries are a common part of life in Minnesota. Unfortunately, for many people, the accident itself is just the beginning of a long, unpleasant process of healing. This includes physical injuries, returning to work, repairing vehicles, and dealing with insurance adjusters.
It’s not uncommon for Minnesota weather to lead to hundreds of car accidents. In addition to car accidents, we see many weather-related slip and falls each year. The weather is a part of Minnesota life that we get used to. Likewise, driving in Minnesota weather requires a unique set of skills.
Minnesota Car Accident Injuries
Injuries undoubtedly make an accident worse. From acute injuries like broken bones to permanent, life-changing traumatic brain injuries, car accidents can wreak havoc on the body. Furthermore, when an accident involves a motorcyclist or weather is a factor in a car accident, the risk of death is higher.
Minnesota is a no-fault state, so most injuries and costs associated with car accidents are initially paid by the injured or damaged party’s own insurance, regardless of cost. Injuries generally complicate this process, especially if another party was legally to blame for the accident. In these cases, there are two difficulties: determining the total cost of the accident, and establishing the legal liability.
The Cost of an Accident
Most people injured in car accidents receive medical treatment from multiple providers over the course of months. Each provider has its own billing and medical records system, which causes delays in resolving the insurance claim. Insurance companies may appear eager to agree to a settlement quickly. However, an early settlement often forecloses the possibility of receiving compensation for the patient’s full course of treatment. The situation is complicated when a driver is uninsured or doesn’t carry sufficient coverage to cover the cost of damages.
Medical Care
It is usually impossible to predict what kind of chiropractic care or occupational therapy may be required in the months following a car accident injury. In addition to the costs of medical treatment, injured people often miss work. They must also arrange for alternative childcare and may incur significant costs traveling to treatment sessions. Additionally, injuries may not present themselves right away. It can sometimes take days, weeks, or months for delayed symptoms to be evident.
Lost Wages
Some people are unable to resume their pre-injury occupations. This leads to them making less money for years to come. Injuries often affect a person’s ability to work in complex ways. A person may be able to work a similar number of hours but may be less productive or less profitable because of the injury.
The result of all these factors is that the total cost of an accident-related injury is difficult to quantify. Additionally, it’s even more difficult to prove to an insurer. However, when you have been injured in a vehicle accident, you may have the right to be fully compensated for all these costs and losses, in addition to pain and suffering caused by the injury.
Hiring a personal injury attorney that is experienced in securing full compensation to make their injured clients whole following an injury, as the law provides, is crucial.
Liability in Car Accidents
The primary legal ground for establishing responsibility for a car accident is negligence. In motor vehicle accidents, the injured person must prove that someone else had a duty to exercise care towards the injured person, that the duty was breached, and that the breach of duty was the cause of the injury. Alternatively, the injured person can establish that the at-fault party violated a law relevant to the injury and that this violation of the law was the cause of the injury. Liability is not always clear-cut, especially when the accident involves a commercial truck or a rideshare service.
There are a few common defenses claimed by the insurance companies’ attorneys in injury cases, including the claim that the injured person shared the negligence for the accident, or that some other intervening cause superseded the insured party’s liability. Sand Law has encountered almost every conceivable defense, and has had great success in persuading insurance adjusters, mediators, judges, and juries of the validity of our clients’ claims.
When to Hire a Car Accident Attorney
To ensure that you receive the highest possible compensation, it’s important to speak with an attorney as soon as possible. Additionally, make sure that the attorney you hire is experienced with the winter car accidents we often see in Minnesota.
Sand Law LLC has years of experience working for members of the Twin Cities community to get them the compensation they deserve after a car accident. We have a proven process of winning our client settlements to cover the damages they experience from an accident. Contact us today online or by calling us at 651-291-7263 for a free, no-obligation consultation.
Sand Law, LLC