Car accidents are scary, and the aftermath is often stressful. This stress compounds dramatically when you find out the driver who hit you has no insurance. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence.
Across the U.S., 12.6 percent of drivers are uninsured. The state of Texas ranks third in the nation, with 1.6 million uninsured drivers on the road.
If you’re unlucky enough to find yourself in an accident with an uninsured driver, it can be difficult to know what to do next. Uninsured motorist laws vary by state, so the location of your accident will have a major impact on your legal rights and responsibilities.
Here’s what you need to know if you are hit by a driver with no insurance in the state of Texas.
New statistics published by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) show almost 1,700 alcohol-related traffic deaths in Texas alone in 2014. This means that more than 45 percent of all fatality crashes in the state involved a driver with a BAC above .01. This total is more than any other state.
Facet joints are the two small joints on either side of each vertebra that help your spine remain stable when twisting. These joints receive support from many soft tissue components such as cartilage, lubricant sacks, and signal nerves. When a facet joint sustains damage in a car accident, it typically causes pain in the neck or lower back.
After a car accident, most people suffer from pain and yet, as time goes on, struggle to be able to describe what they went through, how it felt, or even how long it lasted with any sort of certainty. Car accident attorney Julie Johnson recommends that you keep a detailed car accident pain journal of not only the facts surrounding your accident, but also your ongoing medical treatment, any tests that are done, and your pain and suffering.
Especially because many car accidents involve back and neck injuries where costs can be extremely high, recovery can take months or years, and the long-term impact indefinite, it is important to be able to refer back to the beginning of your recovery.
The most important thing to remember is accuracy. This record will be useful to both your attorney in evaluating your case and making sure that all potential issues are considered and to your doctor in prescribing treatment and diagnosing problems. So being forthright and accurate is absolutely critical.
There are a number of causes of cervical radiculopathy, and a car accident is definitely one of them. Typically, cervical radiculopathy, also known as a pinched nerve, can be caused by disc herniation in a car accident. A disc herniation occurs when the nucleus of the intervertebral disc tears through the disc’s outer ring called the annulus. This can result in pinching of the nerve root. A pinched nerve can also be associated with whiplash.
In a car accident, such as a rear impact, there can be an immense force on the neck, and sometimes discs are unable to take this kind of impact. The result is a disc herniation. The herniated disc can place severe pressure on the pinched nerve, resulting in radiating pain.
Whiplash from a car accident, most commonly a rear-end collision, can be very painful and can even lead to worse injuries. In these types of accidents, the acceleration-deceleration force that results in causes backward and forward movement of the head and neck at high speed. The muscles of the neck and shoulder region are under excessive strain in an accident like this, causing whiplash injuries.
Getting into a car accident can be incredibly disruptive on many fronts. One of the things that can be most aggravating is getting into a car accident and then watching your car insurance rates go up, even if you do not believe that the car accident was your fault. If you have been in a car accident and you file a claim with your own insurance company, this is likely. However, if the accident was not your fault, you may be able to stop your rates from rising, but you first need to prove the fault of the responsible party.
The size and type of car seat you should use for your child depends on his/her age and weight. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) guidelines, children should be kept in an age- and weight-appropriate car restraint until they are big enough to use a regular seat belt correctly.
If you’re a driver in Texas, then you know that the state requires you to carry car insurance ($30,000 and $60,000 in bodily injury liability insurance per person and per accident, respectively, and $25,000 for property damage). What you might not know, though, is whose car insurance pays for injuries in the event that an accident does happen when both parties have insurance.