How Do I Know If a Recalled Product Caused an Accident?

Auto recalls happen on a regular basis, and many owners of vehicles with recalled parts may not even find out about the recall until months later, or have a used vehicle with a recalled part they didn’t know about. In many cases, vehicle manufacturers do not advertise recalls to the majority of the public. Vehicles are recalled because the defective product can cause serious, potentially life-threatening injuries. Whether you were aware that your vehicle had a recalled product at the time of the accident, or not, you may have the potential to claim compensation for your losses. Knowing if the recall was the cause of your car accident can be difficult, however there are several ways to find out.

How Do You Check for Recalls on Your Vehicle?

There are multiple online resources that store vehicle recall information online. Search for your vehicle on one of these sites and you may find the type of product that was recalled.  This can help determine the cause of the accident.

When Did the Accident and Recall Occur?

Were you in an accident before the recall was announced? Let’s say that you got in an accident when your tire blew out, and the insurance company claimed it was your fault because you swerved into another car. Three months later, your vehicle’s axle is being recalled for being unsafe, you may have a case against the car manufacturer for damages that happened in that accident. Take pictures of the damages in any accident for your records. You never know when a recall can happen.What if the recall already did occur? If you were aware of the recall, and experienced an accident related to the function of that product, contacting an attorney and allowing them to inspect the damages could be the best option. Having your vehicle fixed before legal professionals can look at it could eliminate the evidence.

Recall Cases Can Be Complicated

There are multiple kinds of product defects, and having a Lufkin product liability attorney can help you determine if your accident was the cause of a faulty product. Attempting to take action against a large auto corporation on your own can be expensive and extremely risky.

Why Texas School Buses May be Unsafe

Every car has seat belts, it’s the law. If you are caught without your seat belt in Texas, you will be fined and a minor caught without a seat belt is an even greater fine. Seat belts save many lives every day, and you would assume since Texas state law has made wearing seat belts a priority enforceable by the law, especially for children, that school buses would definitely be equipped with the best seat belt technology. Unfortunately, this is not the case and is why Texas school buses may be unsafe for passengers.In 2009, Texas legislature allotted $10 million to invest into updating school buses to be equipped with seat belts. The majority of school districts have still not updated their buses to this day. State officials say that it is a priority issue within the school districts not wanting to purchase new buses with new seat belts, because the buses they currently have are sturdy and work for a very long time. The money allocated by the state does not apply to retrofitting old buses, it only applies to purchasing new ones. A bill has been introduced by a Texas state senator requiring that all new buses purchased be required to have 3-point seat belts, one of the safest varieties.We can assume that school buses will continue to get safer as more buses are bought, but many old buses are still running with limited safety for the passengers. This is a serious issue, and below are some tips for how to react if you are involved in a bus accident as a car driver.Steps to Take If Involved in a Bus Accident.

• Remain calm: This will be difficult in the wake of a potentially severe bus accident with multiple victims, but necessary for you to get through the situation.
• Report the accident: Call the local authorities if the accident is serious, make sure emergency response gets to the scene as quickly as possible.
• Call your insurance company: Report the damages to your vehicle, take pictures of the crash scene, tell them what happened. Report how much the damages cost to repair once they are fixed.

Bus accidents can be severe, and the reasons behind the accident can be much more complex than initially meets the eye. Having a Lufkin auto accident attorney that is experienced in handling many vehicle accident cases, including different kinds of vehicles, can help you get all the information you need for dealing with compensation for injuries and vehicle damages. Rules for filing claims against Governmental entities, like an accident involving a city bus, are different than filing against another insured driver of a car.

How Do You Know if Negligence Was Involved In a Bad Weather Car Accident?

Bad weather greatly increases the risk for an accident. Determining who is at fault in an accident is usually an issue of negligence. east Texas is especially prone to bad weather. Severe thunderstorms and hurricanes can create flash floods within minutes. Driving in these conditions requires a higher level of care needed to keep everyone safe. Keep reading below for some questions that are asked to prove if negligence was involved in an auto accident.

How to Prove Negligence in a Bad Weather Car Accident

• What speed was necessary? Determining how fast the vehicles involved in the accident were traveling will help to prove if negligence was involved. In bad or severe weather, cars can be expected to slow down for visibility and safety reasons.
• Were headlights on? Visibility can become scarce when skies darken in severe thunderstorms or heavy fog. Driving without headlights can cause accidents to other cars and pedestrians.
• What was the condition of the vehicle? Were windshield wipers on and working? What about headlights? Were tire pressures at a safe level and in decent condition? Was there an engine failure that could be at the heart of the accident? These are all questions that need to be considered to determine the level of fault in an accident.
• How bad was the weather? The driving conditions at the time of the accident will also determine how the drivers should be behaving in that scenario. The less severe the weather, the less it would matter that you are driving slowly, with hazards on, etc.

What If Both Parties Are at Fault?

States have different laws to determine when a member involved in an accident can sue the other party for damage compensation. In Texas, if a member is determined to be 51 percent responsible for the accident or higher, they are not able to recover their damages from the other party. Some states are 50 percent or higher, other states compensate on the exact amount of the percentage of liability they have in the accident, i.e. if you are 90 percent responsible for an accident, you are able to win the remaining 10 percent from the other insurance party.Car accidents can be expensive, and there are many complex factors that go into determining if drivers were acting negligently, and who is financially responsible for the accident. Contacting a Lufkin car accident lawyer can help you answer the hard questions in your auto accident.

Hit by an Uninsured Driver? Learn If You Still May be Compensated

Many Americans find themselves in a situation where they have been in a car accident with somebody who does not have car insurance. The first thing that will come to mind is “great, now I will have to pay out of pocket for all the damages.” While there may be some situations where that is true, there may also be a possibility your insurance should cover you.

Prepare Ahead of Time for a Collision with an Uninsured Driver

• Do you have Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Protection? 21 states require that all drivers have uninsured/underinsured motorist protection, and there are two types of coverage. Uninsured/underinsured motorist bodily injury coverage (UMBI), and Uninsured Motorist Property Damage coverage (UMPD). UMBI will help cover medical expenses, lost wages, and any injury-related expenses for you and the passengers that were in the vehicle at the time of the accident. It also helps cover hit-and-run related injuries. UMPD helps with vehicle repairs. Underinsured coverage will help cover damages if the dollar amount of damages is more than the other motorist’s insurance plan will cover.
• Is my state a no-fault state? Texas is an at-fault state, which means that someone needs to be identified as being at fault for the accident so their insurance can pay the damages. Also, uninsured motorist coverage is not required in Texas. You are still able and advised to purchase uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage plans in at-fault states.

Have You Been Hit by an Uninsured Driver? Below Are Some Steps to Follow After the Incident.

• Contact local police: This is not a bad idea for any car accident, but is especially a good idea if there is an uninsured driver. Having a police report of the accident will help win expenses that you need. Make sure you take pictures of the damage while still on the scene.
• Contact Your Insurance Provider: Whether you have uninsured motorist coverage or not, your insurance company should be able to help you to their best abilities.
• Get Treatment and Repairs: If you do not have uninsured motorist bodily injury coverage you will most likely pay the deductible out of pocket for your injuries and your health insurance will cover your medical bills. Document what repairs you had for insurance purposes. If you do not have uninsured motorist coverage you can still seek compensation in court.

Even if you do have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, your insurance company may try to work against you since they will be considered the at-fault party if you are hit by an uninsured driver. Contact Lufkin based car accident attorneys at Mike Love & Associates, LLC for help with insurance coverage questions and car accident assistance.

Are Red Light Cameras Good or Bad?

Red light cameras are infamous for attracting controversy wherever they are used. These cameras are placed at intersections to take photographs of drivers running red lights. Once drivers are identified by cameras, they receive tickets. In Lufkin, you can receive a fine of $75 if these cameras catch you running a red light. The fine can increase to $150 if you do not pay the fine in time. Proponents of the cameras claim they prevent car accidents at intersections.If you hate red light cameras, we have some good news. A Texas lawmaker recently introduced legislation that would remove these cameras across the state. According to the lawmaker who filed the bill, only 20 percent of Texans support using red light cameras.These cameras are not only hated by most, they might be ineffective and unsafe. There are several arguments against their use.

Do These Cameras Make Us Safer?

Red light cameras create a dilemma for motorists who are approaching an intersection at a yellow light. Motorists may feel compelled to suddenly slam on the brakes or speed through intersections to avoid being ticketed.The Chicago Tribune commissioned a study to analyze whether these cameras made the public less or more safe. According to the results, some intersections experienced a 22 percent increase in rear-end crashes after the cameras were installed. Injuries caused by these accidents rose by 5 percent. Other studies have come to similar conclusions. A Washington Post analysis of crash statistics in Washington D.C. found the cameras did nothing to prevent injuries from collisions.

Are These Cameras Worth the Cost?

Public policy initiatives are supposed to utilize a cost-benefit analysis. Are the costs of a policy initiative worth the benefits for the public? In 2002, the U.S. Department of Transportation found costs for automated red light camera systems range from $67,000 to $80,000 per intersection. If it is true these cameras do not prevent accidents (the supposed purpose of the policy) this means the costs are not worth the benefits – at least to the public.Opponents of these cameras argue there are better ways to prevent accidents at intersections. These include making traffic lights more visible, increasing the yellow light times and improving signage visibility. Intersections can also add an all-red clearance interval.This would turn lights in all directions red for a brief amount of time after a yellow light phase. Motorists who misjudged the yellow light’s duration who may be stuck in the intersection would not be hit by other vehicles.

Are There Any Benefits to These Cameras?

A study released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety claims fatal accidents increased by 30 percent on average when cities removed red light cameras. The IIHS study analyzed camera programs in 79 cities, and concluded they saved nearly 1,300 lives. Statistics on this issue can go both ways.Red light cameras are deeply unpopular with the public. People see these cameras as a means to create revenue. In Chicago, these cameras generated more than $500 million in revenue between 2002 and 2014 – just one city. An analysis on citations generated by the cameras found 13,000 drivers in the Chicago area were a cited erroneously. No wonder people hate these things.For future updates on transportation and consumer safety, continue following our blog. The Texas car accident attorneys at Mike Love & Associates, LLC encourage you to drive safely.