Types of Car Accidents

Types of Car Accidents

At any given time, there are tens of thousands of vehicles roaming the roads and highways of Illinois. During heavy traffic times like rush hour or holidays, the number of cars and trucks on the roads can increase tenfold. That’s not surprising, given that in 2021 Illinois registered more than 11 million vehicles. Increased vehicle traffic will cause an increase in automobile accidents. No matter how safely you drive, there's always a real chance that a negligent driver will cause an accident that affects you. If that happens, contact an Illinois car accident lawyer as soon as possible. So many different vehicles can cause many different car accidents. Some accidents are more serious and more deadly than others. In 2020, 1,196 car crashes killed people in Illinois. In 2021, during the pandemic, that number jumped to 1,341. This article will discuss the most common types of car accidents that car crash lawyers handle every day.

Rear-End Collisions

Rear-end collisions are one of the most common types of car accidents. A speeding vehicle that slams into the back of another can severely injure the occupants of both vehicles. Rear-end collisions happen for many reasons:

• The behind driver isn’t paying attention and doesn’t stop in time
• The behind driver is driving too closely and can’t stop in time
• The front driver experiences a sudden emergency and stops quickly
• The front driver veers into another lane in front of an oncoming car

Rear-end crashes can cause serious injuries, including whiplash injuries to the soft tissues in the spine, concussions and brain trauma, and injuries to wrists and shoulders. A car accident lawyer can help you recover compensation for these injuries. If the accident killed your loved on, a car accident lawyer can seek compensation for the wrongful death.

Head-On Collisions

A head-on collision can occur at any time. When a driver loses control of their vehicle, drifts into another lane, and hits a vehicle traveling the opposite direction, that’s a head-on collision. The whole thing can happen in a second, not allowing the other driver enough time to react. Distractions (checking texts on their phones, for example) cause many drivers to veer into other lanes. It takes only a few seconds of distraction to veer into an oncoming lane and strike another vehicle head-on.

Broadside Accidents

A broadside collision is also commonly referred to as a T-bone accident. It’s when a vehicle pulls out from a stop sign or stoplight-or fails to stop at one-and rams into the side of another vehicle. A T-bone accident can also happen when someone makes a left-hand turn in front of an oncoming vehicle. Broadside accidents are dangerous because occupants in the struck vehicle usually have no protection other than seatbelts. However, over the last decade or so, newer vehicles have come equipped with side-impact airbags. This goes a long way to protect against serious injuries.

Rollover Accidents

A rollover accident can cause some of the most horrific car accident injuries. It’s when a vehicle rolls over, side to side. Sometimes, the rollover happens many times and is quite violent. Rollover accidents cause a lot of vehicle fatalities because when the vehicle flips over so quickly, the centrifugal force can cause occupants to be shot out of the vehicle many feet into the air. This can happen even to a buckled passenger.

Low-Speed Accidents

Low-speed accidents happen all of the time and are usually no big deal. These are commonly referred to as fender-benders because that’s usually the only damage done. However, low-speed crashes can also cause serious injuries, depending on how they occur. For example, when there is a low-speed rear-end crash, the occupants of the front vehicle can still suffer serious whiplash neck injuries. Even with low-speed impacts, a significant amount of force transfers into the other vehicle. There is nothing that prevents someone's neck from whipping back and forth. These injuries can cause bulging discs or even herniated discs in the spine. This can create significant pain and weakness down the arms and may even require surgery to repair. If this happened to you, contacting a car crash lawyer is the best way to be fully compensated for such a serious injury.

Multi-Vehicle Accidents

Multi-vehicle accidents can scare anyone. The winter season often brings news stories of multi-vehicle crashes on Illinois highways. These crashes usually result from cars and trucks traveling too fast for the weather-particularly during snow, ice, or fog. It only takes one vehicle slamming on its brakes to cause a chain reaction involving dozens of trucks and cars. Once the chaos settles, you see vehicles scattered over the roadway, some on top of each other, and burned out carcasses of cars and trucks that caught on fire. Multi-vehicle crashes happen in Illinois every year and can involve many fatalities. These are extremely complex cases, and determining the ultimate fault is very difficult. In most of these cases, many drivers contributed to the overall accident. These accidents will usually involve dozens of automobile insurance companies and many trucking companies and their insurance companies. If a multi-vehicle accident injured you or a loved one, hire a car accident lawyer with the knowledge, skills, and resources to handle such a tough case.

Single-Vehicle Accidents

Single-vehicle crashes can have many causes. If you were a passenger in a single-vehicle accident, then you might have a cause of action against the driver, assuming the driver acted in some negligent manner. In some instances, the driver is distracted by their smartphone or something else. In other cases, the driver is speeding. Driving too fast is the cause of most car accidents. If the careless or reckless driving of a driver injured you, contact an Illinois car crash lawyer today.