The injuries people suffer after car accidents range from minor bumps and bruises to catastrophic injuries, including spinal cord injuries, amputation, and traumatic brain injuries. In one recent year, 39,107 people died in car crashes, and 4.5 million people sought medical attention for injuries. The cost of car crash injuries for that year was $463 billion, a staggering sum.
What you should do after a car accident injury depends on the severity of your injuries. At the accident scene, if you believe you might make injuries worse by moving, sit still and wait for the emergency medical technicians to arrive.
If you believe your injuries are minor and you won’t suffer additional injuries or make those that you have worse, you can help your case at the accident scene. First, call 911 to report the accident. Check on others involved in the accident. If you are still on the phone with first responders, let them know if they’ll need to send more than one ambulance.
Take photos of the accident scene before anyone moves their vehicles. Most people will move their vehicles to the side of the road if they are drivable. While doing that is safer for those involved in the accident and for other drivers, it also destroys the evidence. If you can get photos before anyone moves their vehicles, you can help preserve evidence. Be sure to take photos from all angles.
Obtain contact information from other drivers and passengers involved in the accident, including each person’s name, a good phone number, and, if possible, a good email address. Also, obtain all drivers’ license and insurance information.
Obtain contact information from each witness. You can also ask each witness what they saw and write down what they tell you.
Always allow first responders to check you over. Once the police release you from the accident scene, go to the hospital or an urgent care center. Some car accident injuries don’t show symptoms for hours or even a day or two later. Tell the nurses and doctors that you were in a car accident and need a thorough exam to ensure that you do not have internal injuries or other injuries that might manifest later.
Do not try to move. Allow the emergency medical technicians to check you out. Go to the hospital via ambulance if the EMTs recommend it. You could have additional serious injuries that you can’t feel because of the adrenaline flowing through your body. The police will obtain all of the available information about the accident and put it in the police report, of which you can later request a copy.
Car wreck injuries can include:
You could also suffer from secondary injuries, such as infections from open wounds, disfigurement, and scarring. If you have certain underlying conditions, such as diabetes, immunodeficiencies, or are on certain drugs, such as chemotherapy, you are at a higher risk for infections. Because of these underlying conditions, or because your white cell count is lower because of certain drugs, it takes longer to recover. The longer a wound is open, the more risk you have of acquiring an infection.
Nevada allows car accident victims to recover two types of damages from the party that caused the accident: compensatory damages and punitive damages. Compensatory damages break into two categories: economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are reimbursement for accident-related expenses, while non-economic damages are reimbursement for intangible losses, such as pain and suffering.
Sometimes referred to as special damages, economic damages can include:
Sometimes referred to as general damages, non-economic damages can include:
If you suffered injuries or lost a loved one in a car or vehicle accident, contact an experienced car accident attorney near you for a free case evaluation to determine if you can pursue compensation.
Yes, and you really can’t afford to ignore it. Nevada has a strict two-year “statute of limitations” on personal injury cases. Basically, if you haven’t filed your lawsuit within exactly two years of the crash, the court will almost certainly toss your case out. You lose your right to compensation, period. Two years might seem like a while, but gathering medical records and building a case takes months, so waiting is a huge risk.
You don’t have to be perfect to get paid, but there is a limit. Nevada uses a “modified comparative negligence” rule. In plain English: as long as you weren’t more than 50% to blame, you can still recover damages. The only catch is that your payout drops by your percentage of fault. If you’re 20% responsible, you lose 20% of the money. Just watch out, if you hit 51% fault, you get nothing.
It sounds odd, but your injuries affect the people closest to you, too. Under a claim called “loss of consortium,” your spouse or domestic partner can seek compensation if your injuries are bad enough to hurt your marriage. We’re talking about the loss of companionship, affection, or even just the help you used to give around the house. The law recognizes that the accident took something away from them, not just you.
Definitely. Legally, “pain and suffering” isn’t just about physical hurts like a broken arm. It covers the mental fallout of a crash-anxiety, PTSD, depression, and what we call “loss of enjoyment of life.” If you used to live for weekend hikes or playing the guitar and now you can’t, that loss is real, and it’s something you can be compensated for.
Think of this as payment for all the daily hassles the accident caused. If you’re hurt so badly that you can’t do your normal chores, like mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, or grabbing groceries, and you have to hire someone to do it, that’s “inconvenience.” You shouldn’t have to drain your own bank account to pay for help you wouldn’t have needed if the crash hadn’t happened.
That’s a gray area. Usually, the two-year countdown starts the day of the crash. But Nevada does have a “discovery rule” for rare cases where an injury stays hidden for a while. If you genuinely couldn’t have known you were hurt, the clock might not start until you discovered the injury. That said, proving that in court is tough. It’s always safer to get a full checkup immediately so you don’t have to rely on legal exceptions later.
Benson & Bingham Accident Injury Lawyers
Summerlin Location
11441 Allerton Park Dr #100
Las Vegas, NV 89135
Phone: 702-684-6900
Fax: 702-382-9798
Downtown Location
626 S 10th St
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Phone: 702-382-9797
Fax: 702-382-9798
Henderson Location
9230 S Eastern Ave #155
Las Vegas, NV 89123
Phone: 702-463-2900
Fax: 702-382-9798
Reno Location
1320 E Plumb Lane Ste A
Reno, NV 89502
Phone: 775-600-6000
Fax: 702-382-9798
Joseph L. Benson II, and Ben J. Bingham, Personal Injury Attorneys
