West Palm Beach T-Bone Accident Lawyer

Proving fault is essential to receiving damages for a car accident claim. A Florida T-bone accident lawyer can protect you from defendants who will attempt to inflate your fault to mitigate their payout.

How do side-impact collisions happen?

Side-impact or T-bone collisions occur when a vehicle is struck at a perpendicular angle. Typically, the front of the other vehicle impacts the victim’s vehicle at one side, forming a “T” shape with the resulting wreck. If they occur at any other angle, they are referred to as a side-impact or sideswipe collision.

In severe cases, this side impact can cause the victim’s car to roll. Rolling vehicles are extremely dangerous, as it is difficult to predict the vehicle’s trajectory. In many cases, this can destroy the structural integrity of the car and trap victims inside.

Side-impact collisions are traumatic incidents with a high risk of injury. If you’ve been injured in a T-bone car accident in West Palm Beach, contact a lawyer at Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath.

T-Bone Car Accident Causes

T-bone accidents are typically caused by negligence. One or more drivers involved fail to obey proper traffic laws, resulting in a serious collision. We regularly defend clients who have been injured due to drivers speeding through intersections illegally, turning illegally, and disobeying stop signs.

Additionally, distracted drivers are a prevalent threat on the road. Drivers who are exhausted, eating or drinking, looking away from the road, texting, or selecting songs have all caused major accidents.

It is not as common, but faulty parts can result in a T-bone car accident. Cars made with defective equipment, such as brakes or steering systems, may be unable to avoid a collision. Their vehicle may not respond when they attempt to stop at a red light, causing them to drive into the intersection illegally. In this case, the fault lies with the manufacturer of the parts so long as the driver otherwise maintained the vehicle.

Common T-Bone Accident Injuries

T-bone car accidents are one of the deadliest forms of car accidents. This is because cars are designed with the majority of their safety features in the front or rear of the car, with items like airbags and bumpers to absorb the force. Most cars don’t have side-impact airbags. This means that a metal door and a glass window are the only barriers between the oncoming vehicle and the car’s occupants.

T-bone accident victims commonly suffer from the following injuries:

• Concussion
• Whiplash
• Fractures, especially in the extremities
• Spinal cord injuries
• Contusions
• Lacerations
• Paralysis
• Death

T-Bone Accident Statistics

T-bone car accidents are one of the deadliest forms of accident. In the United States, T-bone car accidents kill over 8,000 people each year. In Florida, the statistic is more grave: 20% of vehicles involved in deadly crashes were hit on their sides.

In a T-bone accident, occupants of the victim’s vehicle sitting on the same side as the crash are more likely to be fatally injured. If they are not wearing a seatbelt, the risk of fatality increases six-fold. 

The development of safety measures, such as seatbelts, have reduced the number of fatalities in T-bone car accidents. However, the lack of standardized side-impact safety features leaves individuals at risk. Since children are more likely to be in the backseat of a vehicle, they are at a higher risk of injury in T-bone accidents.

The severity of T-bone car accidents leads to expensive medical bills and life-long consequences. Don’t pay for someone else’s mistake. Call Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath for your free consultation. You don’t pay until we win.

How to Reduce the Risk of T-Bone Accidents

While you can never control other people’s actions, you can take steps to reduce the impact they’ll have on your life. These are some steps every driver should take to reduce the risk of getting in a car accident on the road:

• Obey all traffic signs. Come to complete stops at stop signs and red lights. Slow down at yellow lights.
• Always check an intersection before you enter, even if you have right of way. Other cars may not obey the signal or may rush through to beat a yellow light. You can’t assume that they’ll follow traffic guidelines, so be on alert at high traffic areas like intersections where side-impact accidents commonly occur.
• Do not speed. Speeding increases the time it will take you to stop your vehicle. That shortens your window to stop short of an impending accident.

Contact a Florida T-Bone Accident Lawyer Today

At Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath, our expert car accident attorneys are here to assist you. We want to make this challenging process easy for you. Find out how our specialized attorneys can put their decades of experience to use working on your case.

Our attorneys are seasoned and not afraid to go to trial. We believe that you deserve to drive safely. If you’ve been injured in a T-bone car accident, our Florida lawyers are here to help you recover maximum compensation so you can focus on rebuilding your life.