Carlsbad Intersection Accidents Attorney
Have you been hurt in a Carlsbad intersection accident? Did you suffer a traumatic brain injury? Were you T-boned and broke your arm or leg? Did the airbag cause serious facial injuries? Are you worrying about how you are going to pay your medical bills and meet other financial commitments?
Despite the fact that there are laws, rules, and regulations for drivers that outline how to proceed at intersections, who has the right of way, and how to proceed, negligent drivers do not pay attention to them. Distracted driving, speeding, DWI/DUI, driving while impaired by drugs or texting while behind the wheel often result in Carlsbad intersection accidents.
The most frequent intersection accidents are the result of:
- Not stopping at a stop sign or a red light and braking suddenly causing a rear-end accident.
- Running a red light and causing a side-impact or T-bone collision.
- Making a lefthand turn and not checking the intersection to see if it is clear of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcycles and vehicles.
- Speeding by running a yellow light to beat the red. Thirty-three percent of all car accidents happen at an intersection.
- Rear-end accidents happen when the driver ahead slows down for the yellow light and the driver behind them does not. Usually, the driver who rear-ends another vehicle is at fault.
Many intersections have traffic lights, but there are also four-way uncontrolled intersections, which can act like an accident waiting to happen for an impatient or speeding driver. In good conscience, all drivers should act like there are yield signs in place and yield the right-of-way to vehicles that arrived at the intersection before them, vehicles to the right of them and to pedestrians. That does not always happen. The driver making a left turn is almost always at fault.
Seven of the most dangerous California intersections are in San Diego
When this study was done in 2015, it examined every vehicle crash entered into the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS). The statistics include the total number of collisions, deaths, and injuries and ranked 444 intersections that logged 10 or more accidents. The intersections remain problem locations even now.
The seven dangerous intersection rankings show:
- Wildcat Canyon Road and Old Barona is the 29th most dangerous intersection with over 40,000 vehicles on it every day.
- Palomar Airport Road and Paseo Del Norte ranked 136th
- City Heights at 54th and University Avenue ranked 202
- South Bay, Palm Avenue, and Saturn Boulevard ranked 306th
- Spring Valley at the Jamacha and Sweetwater Road intersection ranked 346th
- Rosecrans Road and Midway Drive came in at 399th most dangerous intersection
- Pomerado and Scripps Poway intersection ranked at 440th
Additionally, there are six other intersections notorious for vehicle crashes. They are:
- University Avenue and 1st Avenue
- University Avenue and Marlborough Avenue
- El Cajon Boulevard and 36th Street
- Market Street and 6th Avenue
- Broadway Road and 5th Avenue
- Carlsbad Village Drive and Harding Street
Dangerous Carlsbad intersection accidents are about government as well
Roads are designed and created by government entities. They have the responsibility to create reasonably safe intersections and roads. If an intersection is dangerous, for whatever reasons, and those reasons result in an accident, that entity may be held liable for damages.
Proving liability in an intersection accident is proving negligence. Negligence must be proved before a person or entity can be held responsible for harm you suffered. Negligence claims must prove four things; duty, breach, causation, and damages/harm.
The elements of a negligence involve the plaintiff proving that the defendant acted negligently. If the case involves a badly designed intersection, that means proving the entity that designed it and created it acted negligently and the four elements come into play. Those elements are:
- That the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff
- That the defendant contravened that duty by acting or not acting in a certain way
- That the inaction or action of the defendant caused the plaintiff’s injuries
- That the plaintiff was injured or killed as a result of the defendant’s action or inaction
The major reason for Carlsbad intersection accidents is negligence, whether that is due to other drivers or due to the poor design of a dangerous intersection. All intersection accidents are preventable but for negligence on the part of one or more drivers. In California, if a driver is in violation of a traffic law which causes a crash, they are automatically negligent per se.
Driving defensively and safely saves lives
It would reduce the number of auto accidents in Carlsbad intersection accidents if everyone drove safely and defensively. However, no matter what you do behind the wheel to stay safe it does not diminish the risk of an accident due to someone else’s negligence.
In most Carlsbad intersection accidents there is usually one party at fault. While there could be more responsible for the crash, it is essential to know who caused the accident, and how it transpired to resolve who is liable for the damages. Insurance companies use this information to wholly or partially credit the claimant with causing the accident to scale down their financial liability.
To find out that the other driver was at fault for an intersection accident, eyewitness accounts, the police report, the injured driver’s account of the crash, security camera clips, and traffic cam footage help your Carlsbad intersection accident attorney at the Levinson Law Group get a clear picture of the case circumstances. Each accident is different. Injuries sustained are different, and the case outcome is different for every accident.
In California, liability and fault are partners, as the state follows the pure comparative fault doctrine. It assigns the amount of liability that the at fault party must accept postulated on the percentage of fault the victim may have contributed. Insurance companies like using this doctrine because it is a way for them to save money, meaning the higher the percentage of fault assigned to a victim, the lower the amount of money is offered on the claim, if it is not denied.
Contact the Levinson Law Group Today
If you or a loved one were involved in a Carlsbad intersection accident, reach out to the Levinson Law Group attorneys right away. At the Levinson Law Group, our dedicated team of Carlsbad intersection accident lawyers is here to help.
If you have questions about the recovery process, we can answer them. If you are not sure you want to bring a case against the other driver, we will not pressure you. We only want to make sure that you are informed and make the best decision for yourself and your family.
When you decide to work with the Levinson Law Group, you can rest assured that you will have someone in your corner throughout the entire process. To learn more about your options, call the Levinson Law Group at 760-827-1700. We accept cases on a contingent fee. That means that if there is no recovery in your case, you pay no fee. And in most cases, we even advance the costs.