Common Reasons for Personal Injury Claims in Winter
In the winter, there are many seasonal opportunities for people to injure themselves. However, most of these winter time accidents that cause injuries are preventable. Let’s look at some of the more common winter time mishaps and accidents that cause injuries and lead to lawsuits:
- Slip and fall accidents . Any time of the year slip and fall is the third leading cause of unintentional death in the United States, with nearly 32,000 deaths in 2014. As a person grows older, their risk of falling increases every year. In the winter, accumulating snow and ice can make driveways, sidewalks and stairways slippery. The National Safety Council reports that about 540,000 people require hospital care for a slip and fall injury each year.
- Winter weather motor vehicle crashes. Black ice conditions, snow fall and winter rain storms can make roads slick which increases the likelihood of an accident. When the daylight period is shorter and it gets dark earlier in the afternoon visibility is decreased, which can increase the opportunity for traffic crashes.
- Drunk driving crashes. Winter weather and night time driving can make it more likely that a person who is driving while impaired by alcohol is going to cause a traffic accident.
- Space heater accidents. During those chilly days of winter, people may turn to space heaters to keep their homes warm. Space heaters can be a serious safety hazard because they can cause burns if you were to touch one that is on, and if the heating unit should overheat it could spark a fire.
- Indoor and outdoor fires. Everyone knows how dangerous it can be to handle fire. Whether you are lighting the fireplace in your living room, or in an outdoor fire pit people can suffer burns and sparks from a fire that is not being monitored properly can start a structure fire.
Common injuries from winter time accidents
All these incidents can cause serious injuries, which can be relatively minor or can be serious and lead to disabilities:
- Head injury/ traumatic brain injury
- Back and neck injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Shoulder injury
- Broken bones
- Cuts and lacerations
- Soft tissue injuries
- Burns
Most of these injuries are preventable and many of the factors that can lead to the injuries are the result of negligence. When a property owner fails to clear away snow and ice a person can slip and fall. Drivers may fail to use caution when driving at night and in poor weather drive recklessly and cause a crash. Knowing that they have had too much to drink, someone decides that it’s OK to get behind the wheel and drive home and they cause a traffic crash that sends an innocent driver to the hospital with serious injuries.
If you have been injured in any of these types of accidents, or any other kind of accident that was the result of negligence on the part of another person, you may want to schedule a free consultation with a trusted Tennessee personal injury attorney from the Rocky McElhaney Law Firm. You may be able to recover damages that cover your medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering and other losses. Please call us at 615-425-2500 or use out contact form to schedule your free initial consultation with a skilled auto accident lawyer in Nashville, Hendersonville or Knoxville.