Auto accident types
Car crashes vary in type and severity. The point of impact and the speed at which the car is traveling have a great deal to do with the injuries that an accident victim is likely to sustain.
The personal injury attorneys at the Huntsville, Alabama, law offices of Wettermark & Keith, LLC, have experience with nearly every type of car accident imaginable, and we are able to prove liability in nearly all the cases we accept when the accident is caused by another driver who was negligent, reckless, or careless. The accident types that we see most frequently in our car accident practice include, head-ons, t-bones, sideswipes, rear-impact, and rollover crashes.
Head-on Crashes
We are happy to report that head-ons don’t occur very often. They make up only two percent of all car accidents. Unfortunately though, when they do happen, they are the most deadly of all accident types, causing ten percent of all traffic fatalities.
Head-on collisions usually happen on a two-lane road when a driver—who is usually either substance impaired, distracted, or overly fatigued—drives into the other lane and collides with an oncoming vehicle traveling in the opposite direction. The force of the impact is essentially doubled (assuming both vehicles are traveling at the same speed) and the resulting front-end impact is often deadly.
Head-on crashes also occur when a drive turns the wrong way onto a one-way street or enters a highway from the wrong direction after getting on the wrong ramp.
T-Bone Side Impact Accidents
A T-bone accident is one where one car strikes another on its side at a right 90 angle. T-bone accidents occur most commonly at intersections when one car runs a stop sign or red light and ploughs into the side of a car properly traveling through the intersection, or when a car attempts to turn left without yielding to oncoming traffic.
T-bones are the cause of a disproportionate number of traffic fatalities: they comprise 13 percent of all car crashes and produce 18 percent of the deaths, killing around 9000 people every year.
Sideswipes Accidents
A sideswipe is a side impact collision that involves one car glancing off another. The two cars can be traveling in the same direction during a careless lane change, when attempting to merge into traffic from a ramp, or when a one car wanders sideways from its lane and swipes the side of a car in the lane next to it.
In some cases, a sideswipe occurs when contact occurs between the sides of two cars traveling in opposite directions.
Rear-Impact Collisions
These are the most frequent type of car accident. They are somewhat less likely than other types of crashes to cause fatalities. They can often cause neck and back injuries, which can be serious and occasionally fatal. In a rear impact, the lower neck vertebrae are hyperextended, while the upper neck vertebrae are hyperflexed. This is commonly known as whiplash and can result in sprains, strains, and herniated discs when a car is hit hard from the rear.
Rear impact accidents are generally caused by tailgating, when one car drives too close to the car in front of it, or when a driver who is not paying attention to the road ahead doesn’t brake when the flow of traffic stops. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 29.6 percent of car accidents in the U.S. are rear-end crashes.
Rollovers Accidents
A rollover accident is when a car flips onto its roof. This is an extremely deadly type of accident, especially when the occupants of the vehicle are not wearing seatbelts and are ejected as the car rolls. Older model sport utility vehicles, pick-up trucks, and vans are particularly prone to rolling over because of their high center of gravity, which causes them to be unstable, especially when taking curves at high speeds. Rollovers constitute only 2.3 percent of the nation’s accidents, but they often result in fatalities.
Getting Help after an Alabama Car Crash
When you’ve been involved in any kind of a car crash in Alabama that someone else caused, you are entitled to make a claim for monetary compensation for your damages. In Huntsville, the personal injury attorneys at Wettermark & Keith, LLC, have a long history of success in bringing in high value damage awards, with a 95 percent win rate and more than $250 million obtained for clients since 2003. Call us today to schedule a free review of your case.