Causes of Car Accidents in Aventura

Causes of Car Accidents in Aventura

Aventura is a small city on the east coast of Florida—about 3.52 miles square—and there are many people packed in that small space. The city features single-family homes, condominiums, apartments, restaurants, a shopping mall, and a water park.

Additionally, it has two major roads that cross the river onto the spit of land that contains more homes, businesses, and Atlantic beaches. Even during the winter months, the area sees a lot of traffic. Because of the number of vehicles that travel through the area, including the residential areas, you have a higher risk of getting into a car accident.

And, when tourist season hits in the spring, more vehicles are on the roads. Many tourists have never been to Aventura or have been there once or twice and do not know the roads well. That is another factor that increases the risk of getting into a car accident, no matter how careful you are.

Types of Car Accidents in Aventura

Car accidents in Aventura come in many forms, and you can see all of them in this small city. The most common is one passenger vehicle hitting another.

However, because of the location of the city and the large number of businesses and tourists, you will also see:

• Commercial vehicle accidents
• Pedestrian accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Passenger vehicles hitting other passenger vehicles of various sizes, including full-size pickup trucks
• Single-vehicle accidents
• Multi-vehicle accidents

The severity of the accident often depends—at least partially—on the type of accident. For example, a passenger car that tangles with a commercial vehicle, such as a garbage truck or a tractor-trailer, is not going to fare as well as it would if it crashed with another passenger vehicle that is close to the same size and weight.

Car Accident Injuries

The accident injuries you sustain could range from minor cuts and bruises to catastrophic injuries or even death.

Accident injuries depend on many factors, including:

• The speed of the vehicles when they crash.
• The number of vehicles involved in the accident.
• The size of your vehicle vs. the vehicle that hit you.
• The way the vehicle hit you, for example, a sideswipe accident, head-on collision, or rear-end wreck.
• Your health. For example, if you have a compromised immune system, something as minor as a small cut could become a significant injury.
• Whether you hit a stationary object, either in a single car accident or because another driver’s vehicle shoved your vehicle into a tree, pole, or another vehicle.

Car accident injuries might include:

• Cuts, bumps, bruises, and scratches.
• Strains and sprains.
• Pulled and torn muscles and other soft-tissue injuries.
• Simple and compound fractures.
• Crushed bones and crush injuries.
• Face and eye injuries.
• Head, neck, and shoulder injuries.
• Internal injuries.
• Traumatic brain injuries.
• Thermal and chemical burns.
• Lung damage due to breathing in hazardous fumes from a car fire.
• Ear damage, including deafness, if one or more vehicles blow up.
• Amputation of a digit or limb.
• Back and spinal cord injuries.
• Road rash.

You could also sustain secondary injuries. For example, if you are on a medication that compromises your immune system or have an immunodeficiency disease, a simple cut could become infected. Infections sometimes become uncontrollable and get into your bloodstream. You could hold the at-fault driver responsible for these injuries.

Additionally, you can hold the at-fault driver responsible for car accident injuries that exacerbate existing injuries or illnesses, as you would not have suffered the additional pain and suffering or had the extra medical expenses if not for the defendant’s actions or inactions.

Causes of Car Accidents in Aventura and Surrounding Areas

No matter how careful you are, whether you are driving, biking, or walking, you cannot control others’ behavior. Sometimes another driver will come right at you, and you simply do not have time to move out of the way. Other times, other traffic blocks you in, so you cannot move to avoid that driver hitting your vehicle.

If the cause of the accident was the other driver’s negligence, you could recover compensation for your injuries.

Causes of car accidents include:

• Distracted driving, such as texting, talking on the phone, fiddling with the radio, eating, putting on makeup, watching the kids in the rear seat, or even holding a conversation with the person in the passenger seat.
• Driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol, legal or illegal prescription drugs, or other illicit substances.
• Driving while tired or fatigued. If you are tired, a short nap off of the road will often wake you up enough to continue. However, even eight hours of sleep will not refresh you if you are fatigued.
• Driving recklessly or aggressively.
• Driving too fast for conditions, including weather, traffic, and road conditions.
• Poor vehicle maintenance.
• A medical emergency.
• Vehicle repairs that fail, such as when a mechanic installs a part wrong or installs a defective part.
• Someone causes another vehicle to ram into you.

Who Can I Hold Responsible for My Car Accident Injuries?

In some cases, you can hold the driver who hit you at fault. In other cases, you can hold the driver at fault, in addition to others who caused your injuries and other damages.

An experienced car accident attorney tracks down all of the parties who they can hold responsible for your injuries, including, but not limited to:

• A trucking company.
• An independent owner-operator who leases the truck out.
• An auto technician who installed parts wrong.
• Vehicle or truck manufacturers.
• Trailer manufacturers.
• Commercial truck inspectors.
• Third-party dispatchers.
• Road maintenance crews at the federal, state, county, and local municipality levels.
• The person who caused the initial accident in a multi-car pileup.
• The person who caused additional accidents in a multi-car pileup after the initial accident.
• In some states, the person or establishment who served liquor to someone who was already intoxicated.

These are just some of the people and things that could cause an accident. Car accident lawyers investigate cases to determine and locate all those who could share in the responsibility for your injuries.

Recovering Damages After an Aventura Motor Vehicle Accident

To recover damages after a car accident, you must be able to prove the at-fault driver was negligent. In some states, you can also recover punitive damages if you are able to prove the at-fault driver’s actions or inactions were grossly negligent or intentional.

How to Prove Negligence

To prove negligence, you have to show the defendant met the four elements of negligence:

• Duty of care: Every driver has a duty of care to drive safely and obey traffic laws. This is a legal obligation.
• Breach of the duty of care: A driver breaches the duty of care by breaking traffic laws or driving in an unsafe manner, such as driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving distracted, speeding, or driving recklessly or aggressively.
• Causation: The driver’s actions or inactions have to cause injuries and other damages. This is generally easy to prove when only two vehicles wreck. The driver that hit you because the driver ran a stop sign is an example of causation. However, a driver that hits you because that driver was pushed into you because of another driver might not meet the causation element. However, the other driver might. The more vehicles involved in an accident, the more complicated it becomes to apply causation.
• Damages: For the last element, you must be able to prove that you suffered injuries or other losses because of the driver’s actions or inactions.

The Difference Between Negligence and Gross Negligence

Ordinary negligence is when someone does not use reasonable care to prevent harm to others. Gross negligence takes it a step further—it is when a person does not care for the safety of others. When applied to car accidents, negligence might mean rolling through a stop sign and not noticing that someone with the right-of-way was passing through. If that person in the right was driving the speed limit, that person might reach the rolling stop person faster than expected.

An example of gross negligence might be someone who wants to pass a truck and drives down a crowded sidewalk to do it, but the driver does not see the people on the other side of the truck until it is too late.

Types of Recoverable Damages

You could recover two types of damages: Compensatory damages and punitive damages. Compensatory damages include two categories: Economic damages and non-economic damages. The court orders compensatory damages in an attempt to make you financially whole again. The court orders punitive damages as a punishment for the defendant’s grossly negligent or intentional behavior that caused your injuries and other damages.

Economic Damages

Sometimes referred to as special damages, economic damages have a monetary value. Most accident victims recover economic damages, which include:

Medical Expenses

The at-fault driver can be held responsible for paying medical expenses, whether they come out of your pocket or your insurance company pays for them. In cases where the at-fault driver caused catastrophic injuries, you might have expenses for life.

Medical expenses include:

• Doctors’ appointments

• Surgeries and follow-up appointments
• Prescriptions and prescribed over-the-counter medications
• Ambulatory aids
• Medical equipment such as oxygen tanks
• Physical therapy appointments
• Occupational therapy appointments
• Psychological therapy appointments
• Cognitive therapy appointments
• Hand controls for your vehicles
• Wheelchair ramps and lifts for your vehicle
• Updates to your home, including but not limited to widened doorways, wheelchair ramps, handrails, and grab bars

Loss of Income

If you are unable to work due to accident injuries, whether for a day or three, you could recover lost income. If your injuries cause disabilities that prevent you from working for the rest of your life, you could recover compensation for loss of earning capacity.

Even if you are able to work but only part-time, or your disabilities force you to take a full-time job that pays less than your previous career or job, you could recover loss of earning capacity for the difference in your salary or wages.

Personal Property

You can also recover compensation to reimburse you for damaged or destroyed personal property, including your vehicle and anything of value inside the vehicle—for example, cell phones, computers, or even dry cleaning damaged or destroyed in the wreck.

Death-Related Expenses

If you lost a loved one in a car accident, you could recover death-related expenses, including funeral and burial expenses, cremation expenses, certain probate court expenses, and probate attorney’s fees and costs.

Non-Economic Damages

Sometimes referred to as general damages, non-economic damages do not have a monetary value and include:

• Pain and suffering, including emotional distress.
• Loss of quality of life if you have to make lifelong changes, such as using ambulatory aids or taking prescription drugs.
• Loss of companionship if you can no longer enjoy time with your family, including attending family activities and events.
• Loss of consortium if you can no longer have a physical relationship with your spouse.
• Loss of use of a bodily function, such as your hearing, eyesight, or bladder.
• Loss of use of a body part, such as a foot or a finger.
• Amputation of a digit or limb.
• Inconvenience if you have to hire someone to do the chores you usually do, including but not limited to grocery shopping, lawn maintenance, house cleaning, and home repair and maintenance.
• Excessive scarring and/or disfigurement.

Punitive Damages

If the court finds that the defendant’s actions or inactions were grossly negligent or intentional, you could recover punitive damages to punish the perpetrator.

If you suffered injuries or lost a loved one in an Aventura car accident, contact a car accident lawyer for your free case evaluation.

Call Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, if an Aventura Auto Accident Injured You

These are just a few of the causes of automobile accidents that occur in Aventura and beyond. If you have been injured in an accident due to the negligence or carelessness of another driver, you may be eligible for compensation. Our experienced Aventura auto accident attorneys can help you to determine what your legal options are. To schedule your free consultation and case evaluation, contact us at Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, online or by calling (954) 302-7068.

Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA
20803 Biscayne Boulevard Suite 101,
Aventura, FL 33180
(954) 302-7068

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