Maison Law helps victims struck by careless drivers who don’t stay in their lanes on Salinas area roads. Our lawyers make sure those hurt and left with smashed cars get help with all of their repair and recovery costs.
If you have been injured, please contact a Salinas Car Accident Lawyer for a free case review. It’s an informative, no-string-attached way to find out what your injury may be worth and how to hold a car insurance company fully responsible.
When to Discuss Your Case With a Lawyer
You always have the right to file your own claim, but when your accident is caused by a lane-drifting motorist, and you are left with serious injuries, a lawyer can be helpful in several ways.
Your lawyer will definitely act as a legal safeguard for your case. This is critical when a serious injury, like a broken bone, head trauma, or a neck or back injury, is involved. The recovery costs will be higher, and that means car insurance companies will fight harder to avoid accepting responsibility.
A lawyer on your side makes sure the blame stays with the right driver and then makes sure victims earn enough to cover every damage the accident has caused.
A lawyer would take these steps and others to help increase to protect your claim and earn you more:
- Fully investigate the accident and collect all evidence.
- Use the evidence to make sure the finger of blame isn’t shifted to point at you.
- Gather medical charts and doctor testimony in case an insurer tries to downplay how badly you are hurt, allowing them to pay you less.
- File your claim for you while you are allowed to focus on healing.
- Check over every settlement offer you receive and reject it and demand more if it doesn’t cover all of your hardships.
- Reject any “lowball” offers and demand more on your behalf.
- A skilled negotiator from Maison Law is often able to secure much more for you than you could win on your own.
A Maison Law representative will request any surveillance video or dash cam footage before it can be erased. Our lawyers often work with accident reconstruction teams when the facts of what happened are questioned. These steps all allow you to demand more to help you and your family restore your lives to normal.
The Support We Win for Salinas Car Accident Victims
Lane drifting accidents along local streets and highways can cause major injuries to victims inside and outside of vehicles.
A distracted driver along Highway 101 may veer over and side-swipe an SUV. The occupants inside could endure collisions with the metal or glass of the doors. The vehicle could also be sent into a rollover, exposing passengers to dangerous impacts.
A loaded-down produce truck from a local farm might take up more than its fair share of lanes. It might also shift and send a vehicle spinning off the road.
Victims can also suffer traumatic injuries after a drowsy driver on a busy route like Market Street swerves into oncoming traffic. A dangerous head-on collision, carrying extra force, could send someone to Natividad Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.
All of these very real possibilities in a lane violation accident can leave victims with different needs in the aftermath. But support should always last as long as it takes for victims to return to full health and be able to return to work.
An experienced lawyer would demand that these and other damages be fully compensated with a settlement check:
- Hospital and medical expenses now, and accurate estimates for care anticipated in the future. The estimated expenses faced when living with a permanent disability over a lifetime would be included in your claim.
- Wages and benefits are lost while the victim has been forced to miss time at work.
- The cost of travel to and from medical appointments. This can be a large bill when victims are off their feet and even in wheelchairs. The costs of visiting out-of-city specialists.
- Physical discomfort. The difficulties that come along with the pain of an injury, such as insomnia, loss of mental focus, and fatigue.
- Emotional distress. The onset of anxiety and depression caused by the trauma of an impact or by a difficult recovery journey.
- Loss of enjoyment of life. The inability to participate in family activities or favorite hobbies. The anguish of missing out on vacations.
- Money for car repairs or replacement. Reimbursement for personal property damage.
- Wrongful death benefits. A spouse, domestic partner, children of the victim, and others may file this claim on behalf of the family. The claim asks for help with funeral costs and the income the deceased can no longer provide the family in the years to come.
Lane Violations According to California Vehicle Codes
In California, drivers must show a “duty of care” to all other motorists. They must not take actions that endanger others using the roadway.
That standard of care is even higher for those who don’t have the protection of a metal vehicle around them in a collision. It’s a special duty of care for vulnerable pedestrians trying to cross a lane, or for cyclists sharing the lane or in a nearby bike lane.
The California Vehicle Code details the responsibility of any driver in the lane:
“No person shall turn a vehicle from a direct course or move right or left upon a roadway until such movement can be made with reasonable safety and then only after the giving of an appropriate signal in the manner provided in this chapter in the event any other vehicle may be affected by the movement.”
Changing lanes should never happen suddenly. Drivers should give plenty of warning:
“Any signal of intention to turn right or left shall be given continuously during the last 100 feet traveled by the vehicle before turning.”
Drivers who lose control and cross over lanes can face charges of an “unsafe lane change.” A charge can carry between a $200 and $300 fine, but court costs make these fines much more expensive. They could face stiffer penalties if a reckless driving charge is applied.
And if the unsafe movement causes accidents and injuries, drivers and their insurers should be 100% responsible for all costs of the victim’s recovery.
Contact a Salinas Lane Drifting Accident Lawyer
Maison Law offers free consultations to all Salinas area accident victims. Tell us what happened and how your injury has affected your life. There’s no obligation for this meeting. It’s just a no-risk way to stay informed of your rights and your options. It’s a good idea to be aware of what your case may be worth, because insurance adjusters will be trying to convince your hardships are worth nothing at all.
Martin Gasparian, the founder of Maison Law, has a long, successful track record of winning substantial support for local accident victims. With decades of experience, he knows when insurance companies should be providing more support for you. He can help you reject any “low-ball” settlement offer and demand much more.
