As defined by Chattanooga Law, a rollover accident is any accident in which one of the vehicles turns upside-down or on its side. A rollover accident can occur if a person is sideswiped or hit in some way that forces it off the roadway, forced off the side of the road, down an embankment. If the vehicle rolls onto a steep slope it then rolls over. Getting hit hard from the side can cause a rollover or being forced off of the roadway down a steep slope will cause a rollover. It may be critical to speak with a Chattanooga rollover accident lawyer about what injuries you may have sustained from your collision. An experienced car accident attorney can help you collect the information you need to begin filing a claim.
Unique Aspects of Rollover Accidents
Rollover accidents are different from any other type of accident because they involve multiple impacts to the person inside the car, e.g., impact from the collision of the car that runs into them and every time their vehicle slams into the ground. When the side of someone’s vehicle slams into the ground, they may be thrown against something else inside the car. If the top of their vehicle then slams into the ground, they are going to have another impact. Every time it continues to roll onto the next part of the vehicle, there is a new impact. People can be thrown 30-50 feet away from the vehicle the top of the vehicle pressed down onto a person in rollover accidents. Rollover accidents are more severe, and they cause greater injuries. They are more likely to cause death than most other types of accident.
Prevention Tips
Drivers need to be aware of their surroundings and other drivers all of the time and make sure they are driving in a safe manner at all times. The first person to pull from a red light that just turned green should make sure that the cross traffic is slowing down and stopping at their red light to avoid a side impact collision. Drivers need to be aware of the weather conditions and drive appropriately. Drivers should keep a safe distance from cars and keep an eye out for other vehicles when driving on unfamiliar roads which may not be in good condition, near a slope, narrow lanes, et cetera. Chattanooga rollover accident lawyers have seen cases where other people cannot keep from running into another car.
How to Document an Accident
The best thing to do to document a rollover accident is to take a lot of photographs. Photographs of the entire vehicle, where the vehicle landed, how far it is from the roadway, how far it is from the point of the first impact; places where the car rolled over, if it scarred the pavement, if it dug up the grass, if it left grass spread out over a large space. Try to document everything.
The next thing would be to retain a Chattanooga rollover accident lawyer so they can get to work right away and can preserve evidence. Often times the victim of a rollover accident is not able to take photographs and even if they were, their phone may be destroyed, and so those photographs are just not possible. Sometimes, the police will take photographs. The attorney will need to procure those photographs from the police as quickly as possible and preserve them, as well as photographs of the other vehicle.
Help from a Lawyer
Chattanooga rollover accident lawyers will take steps to help their potential clients recover damages by first of all determining exactly how the accident happened, understand the trauma and sources of trauma that the individual suffered; understand exactly how the accident was caused why the defendant caused the crash. They will try to preserve all of the evidence; help the person with their medical treatment, and try to understand the extent and all of the details of their physical injuries. They will create the life-sized picture of their other losses as well to show how the person is suffering and what they have lost, in an effort to recover everything that is available to be recovered.