The Echo Park neighborhood is like an oasis in the middle of the Eastside Los Angeles urban sprawl. Freeways, highways, and city streets surround it, and traffic accidents are a daily occurrence in and around the area.
If you were injured in a car accident in or around Echo Park as a driver, passenger, motorcyclist, pedestrian, or bicyclist, the Echo Park car accident lawyers at Quirk Accident & Injury Lawyers, APC are here to protect your rights and obtain the maximum compensation that you deserve for your injuries and damages.
Insurance Companies Make Matters Difficult
While many car accidents are just scrapes or fender benders, others end up causing severe injuries or even death. What comes to issue is that insurance companies don’t make the claim or lawsuit process easy. That’s why car accident victims need strong and assertive legal representation. Dedication and experience fighting against bad insurance tactics will likely obtain far better results.
Common Causes of Accidents in and Around Echo Park
There are any number of causes of car accidents and resulting injuries or deaths. Here are just a few of the common causes:
- Speeding: Stopping distance is drastically reduced when a driver is exceeding the speed limit or driving too fast for traffic or weather conditions.
- Drunk Driving: We all know about drunk driving laws, but some people ignore them. Drunk driving often goes hand-in-hand with speeding.
- Distracted Driving: Both of a driver’s hands need to be on the steering wheel while he or she is paying attention to the road ahead. Being distracted with phoning, texting or an infotainment center while driving is one of the leading causes of car accidents.
- Failure to Yield: This might occur with a 4-way stop, a red light or even merging into a lane of traffic from an on-ramp. There are many other ways that a failure to yield might cause an accident.
- Following Too Closely: It seems as if everybody on a roadway around Echo Park is in a hurry. That causes some drivers to fail to maintain a proper interval between their vehicle and the vehicle ahead of them. That’s how rear-end car crashes occur.
Some Common Types of Car Accident Injuries
Injuries caused by a car crash can range from minor to catastrophic to fatal. Traumatic spinal cord and brain injuries are of the severe to catastrophic to fatal categories. Amputation might be caused by an impact itself, or it might be medically necessary through surgery. A mild whiplash injury might lean to the minor category, but if a cervical spinal disc is herniated, it can become a major issue quickly. Any injuries to internal organs must be attended to at an emergency room immediately.
What to do Upon Becoming a Car Accident Injury Victim
You or somebody acting on your behalf need to call 911 immediately after an accident. Ask for both police and paramedics to be dispatched to the scene. Police can investigate the crash, and paramedics can stabilize you and take you to an emergency room.
The police report will detail how the crash occurred and the report from the paramedics will detail your complaints of pain along with the fact that they transported you to an emergency room. These reports are critical in tying in your injuries with the accident.
Upon your discharge, follow all instructions. You must continue to document your injuries, so if you were advised to follow up with your own doctor, a neurologist, or an orthopedist, do so in a timely manner. Then, contact us here at Quirk Accident & Injury Attorneys, APC for a free consultation and case evaluation.
Note that the opposing insurer might contact you before you contact us. Don’t give the insurer’s representative any information at all about the accident or your injuries, especially if a recorded statement is asked of you. That insurer’s representative only wants to use your own words against you in the future.
Speak with the Echo Park car accident lawyers at Quirk Accident & Injury Attorneys, APC first. If we’re retained to represent you, our mission will be to maximize any compensation that you might receive in a settlement or award.