Did a Defect in Your Car Make Your Accident Worse?

 Posted on May 19, 2022 in Car Accident

Every year, thousands of people are severely injured or even killed in car accidents. Sometimes the cause of the injuries seems obvious. However, in some instances, a defect or malfunction in your car may have made your injuries worse than they otherwise would have been.

Discovering Automobile Defects

While some vehicles become notorious for their defects, other more routine defects pass through unknown to most people. For example, some SUVs are well known to have a higher risk of rollover rates or roof-crush injuries. It is much lesser-known, however, that there are thousands of components in a car that may not be working properly which could make injuries in a car accident much worse.

In many cases, such defects will not be discovered unless a crash reconstruction expert examines the evidence. The expert may find that a seatbelt or airbag failed to work as designed. It may become clear that your injuries were actually made worse caused by something inside your own car.

Managing Complex Litigation

Illinois law allows people who are injured because of the negligence of others to recover money to compensate them for their injuries. In some routine car accidents, this might be a fairly straightforward process. However, when another driver’s negligence caused an accident, but your injuries were made worse by a defect in the car, your case becomes much more complex.

In such a case, you might have two or more different defendants who may owe you compensation. Even worse, each party may be more interested in blaming the other for your injuries than in paying you a fair settlement. Establishing that a part of your car was not only defective but that it also caused your injuries, or made your injuries worse, will take substantial effort, expert reports, testimony, and a great deal of paperwork.

An Attorney Can Help

Whenever even a single part of a car is found to be defective, the case may involve several different companies. In addition to the car manufacturer, there may be questions that need answered by suppliers, designers, and manufacturers of the component that caused the injuries. You will need an attorney who not only deeply understands personal injury law, but who also knows how to manage a complex case with different defendants and mounds of reports and paperwork.

Call an Arlington Heights Personal Injury Lawyer

If you were injured in a car accident, you need to speak with a skilled and experienced Rolling Meadows car accident attorney at Newland & Newland, LLP. Call 847-797-8000 to schedule a free consultation. You may only have a short period of time to protect your rights, so you must act quickly.

Source:

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812115