St. Louis Attorney on Accident Investigations
By Christopher Hoffmann
Apr. 18, 2016 12:57p
Car accidents are devastating and can cause many different injuries and property damage. In some cases, the investigative and legal procedures involving accidents demand detailed scrutiny, deep investigations, and often require assistance from an experienced accident attorney.
In severe accidents where the people involved in accidents suffer memory losses, or blackouts, it becomes even more difficult to determine the cause of the accident, prove liability and file claims for compensation, especially if the driver has no recollection whatsoever of what happened. Such accidents cases often require thorough investigation including accident reconstruction to prove liability or fault.
Accident Reconstruction Investigations
The first step to proving a claim is to hire a car accident lawyer to handle all the legal procedures that follow. The car accident attorney could then opt to hire a car accident reconstructionist to authenticate evidences. The concern in such cases is that evidences of car accidents are difficult to obtain and prove once the scene of accident is cleared. Procedures such as gathering witnesses, collating information from different sources are equally stressful.
The attorney generally has to gather information to prove what caused the accidnet and prove that the injuries sustained are a cause of the accident and are not pre-existing.
Investigative Sources
•Eye witnesses – These sources, while useful, can often prove unreliable. Their testimonies are subject to a number of factors like bias, fading memories, past experiences, observation abilities, and physical factors like weather, sight barriers, sunlight, etc.
• Cameras – Accidents that occur at traffic junctions can be captured in the cameras placed at intersections or from cameras of adjoining businesses. However, such visual data is often not preserved for long, and thus, time is of essence while collating such data.
• Physical evidences – Physical evidences include skid marks from cars involved in the accidents, or vehicular damages that can indicate the angle of impact, force, speed, etc. that can point towards the cause of crash. Even auto part malfunctions, manufacturing defects in vehicles, seat belts, child seats, etc. are termed as physical damage evidences. Defective roads, lack for protection barriers and signage at the scene of the accidents can act as evidences.
All these factors need to be carefully collated and scrutinized by the investigators to determine cause.
Claims and legalities
Once these sources are investigated and a case is built, then a St Louis Car Wreck Lawyer can initiate the procedures for filing a claim for damage compensation. Claims can be filed for accident related injuries, medical expenses incurred, part or complete loss of present and future earnings, any emotional trauma and stress, temporary or permanent disability, loss of life, and property damages and other legal expenses incurred.
An experienced car accident lawyer can be instrumental in ensuring that the accident victim gains full compensation for their losses. Call (314) 361-4242 for a free case evaluation if you have been injured in a St. Louis auto accident.