Filing Personal Injury Claims After Backover Accidents

Backover accidents occur when a vehicle backs over someone, according to our Atlanta motorcycle accident lawyers.

The victims of backover accidents may either be on foot or on a vehicle like a bicycle.

The cause of these types of accidents is often due to drivers who operate vehicles in either a distracted manner or drivers who fail to look behind a vehicle prior to backing up.

Wherever your backover accident occurs, the results are frequently catastrophic in nature and require the assistance of a talented Atlanta car accident attorney.

Statistics Regarding Backover Accidents

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports some startling details concerning backover accidents.

There are 15,000 injuries each year involving backover accidents on off-road locations, while there are 4,000 injuries that occur year due to motor vehicle accidents on public roads.

Common Elements Of Backover Accident

There are some common elements involving backover accidents in Atlanta and elsewhere, which include the following:

• Location. A number of backover accidents occur when a vehicle is exiting a parking space or driveway. While backover accidents most often occur while a vehicle is traveling at slow speeds, a significant number of motor vehicles accidents occur each year due to highway crashes.
• Types Of Vehicles. Sports utility vehicles and pickup trucks are more likely to be involved in backover accidents because these vehicles have a higher center of gravity that can increase visibility problems for motor vehicle drivers. Hybrid vehicles or electric cars are also particularly susceptible to backover accidents because these vehicles are much quieter than traditional gasoline-powered motor vehicles. Due to the low noise of these types of vehicles, individuals who are surrounding the vehicle might not notice that the vehicle is backing up.
• Age Of Victims. Motor vehicle accidents most often involve victims that are either small children or the elderly. More specifically, the two at-risk groups are children under the age of five and adults who are over the age of seventy. Due to their small size, children are often not spotted by motor vehicle drivers who are backing up. The elderly often do not notice a vehicle is backing up or fail to respond in time to step out of the way of a vehicle that is backing up. Motor drivers must also take great caution when driving a vehicle backward at construction and other types of work sites because there is a risk that workers are crouching or kneeling behind the vehicle. Construction workers might not hear a vehicle backing up due to other noises on a work site or because sensor alarms in the vehicle are not properly operating.
• Resulting Injuries. When backover accidents occur, accident victims frequently experience broken bones, lacerations, neck damage, soft tissue damages, sprains, and strains among many other types of injuries.
• Types Of Backover Accidents. There are two common types of backover accidents: (1) accidents that occur when a driver collides with a person or object and stops at or near the point of impact, and (2) a motor vehicle drivers that collide with an object or person and move past the point of impact, potentially knocking a person or object underneath the vehicle as it backs up. Backover accidents frequently occur due to distorted views in mirrors and cameras, blocked views, a driver’s reliance on mirrors or backup cameras that do not sufficiently cover a motor vehicle’s blind spots, drivers who move backward without first inspecting the back part of a vehicle, improperly adjusted mirrors, trailers obscuring a vehicle’s blind spots, and low visibility conditions.

Safety Precautions That Atlanta Motorists Can Take

Our personal injury attorneys in Atlanta believe that backup cameras in motor vehicles frequently prove beneficial in decreasing the risk of a backover accident occurs.

Not all vehicles, however, are equipped with backover cameras.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has even facilitated the passage of a law that requires all motor vehicles constructed after May 2018 to be built with a backup camera, but this legislation is yet to be accepted.

Eliminating the blind spots around a motor vehicle is another one of the key steps to decreasing the risk of injuries occurring due to a motor vehicle accident, which means that carefully inspecting a vehicle’s mirrors and performing visual checks prior to driving a vehicle backward is a particularly good idea.

Some of the other steps that a motor vehicle driver can take include the following:

• Exercise Particular Caution In Certain Areas. Due to the risk of a backover accident occurring, motor vehicle drivers should be particularly cautious of children when backing up a vehicle near a driveway or area where children play. Motor vehicles drivers should also take particular caution in backing up a vehicle when the driver is near-elderly individuals or construction workers.
• Install A Backup Camera. Motorists who have a car without a backup camera might consider installing this type of camera in order to prevent a backover accident from occurring.
• Keep An Eye Out For Children. When walking through a parking lot, individuals should make sure to pay particular attention to children who are at significant risk of being struck by a backing-up vehicle.
• Remember Your Blind Spot. Motor vehicle drivers should be aware of any blind spots that might exist when backing up a vehicle because these areas are frequently involved in backover accidents. Motor vehicle drivers should remember that the larger a motor vehicle is, often the larger a blind spot will be.

Contact A Skilled Atlanta Attorney

In the state of Georgia, backover accidents frequently involve a number of intricate issues for all involved parties.

Parties who are injured due to a backover accident have the right to seek compensation for any party who might be responsible for the accident occurring.

So if you or a loved one is the victim of a backover accident, consider contacting a qualified and talented attorney at The Angell Law Firm LLC to learn about your rights and begin taking steps to make sure that your case resolves in the best possible manner.

Our motorcycle accident lawyers have significant experience helping individuals who have been involved in similar accidents and understand that backover accidents are frequently emotionally difficult events.