Personal Injury Blog

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, approximately 40% of all car accidents occur in parking lots.

Reduced visibility, driver obstructions, and pedestrian activity – these are major factors affecting motorist safety inside a parking lot. However, as technology improves, and as the number of vehicles that come with rear-view cameras increases, we are likely to see fewer of these accidents. However, there's much that motorists can also do to help reduce the risk of an accident when they are in a parking lot.

It's important to cut out all distractions, and pay attention to the task of driving, when you are driving at all times, but especially more so when you're in a parking lot and surrounded by stationary or moving vehicles. Be fully aware of your environment around you, and look for cars that may be backing out of their parking spots. Also, look for pedestrians who maybe walking through the aisles.

Look for appropriate parking spaces, and not necessarily one that is closest to where you have to go. Drivers make a major mistake by simply driving around the parking lot searching for the closest space to their destination. Instead, look for an area where there isn't a lot of competition for parking space. Your risks of being involved in an accident are much lower in these areas. For example, look for parking spots in the back or middle of a parking lane, instead of right in front of the lane, where most motorists will want to park their cars.

Injured in an accident? You can file a claim for compensation. To identify the parties that are liable in your car accident claim, speak with a car accident lawyer in Las Vegas.

In 2014, a majority of the motorcycle accident claims that one insurer processed were linked to single vehicle accident and rear-ender accidents.

Accidents involving a single vehicle accounted for a major proportion of all of the motorcycle accident claims processed by Progressive Corp. Apart from single vehicle accidents, the insurer also admitted to processing large numbers of rear ender accidents. In fact, according to the statistics released by the insurer, motorcycle accident claims involving only one motorcycle were 3.5 times higher in volume than claims related to other accidents.

Single motorcycle accidents are usually linked to the use of alcohol and excessive speeds.

Am I Eligible for Compensation after a Single Vehicle Motorcycle Accident?

If you were involved in an accident involving only your motorcycle, you may still be eligible for a claim. Say, for instance, your accident was caused because of a defective condition in the road. Accidents are very often caused because of obstructions in the road, too-steep curves, road debris, potholes, lack of street lighting and other defective road conditions that increase the motorcyclist’s risk of an accident.

In such cases, you can claim compensation from local agencies that were responsible for the design, construction and maintenance of the road. That will depend on the kind of road that the accident occurred on. If your accident occurred on a highway, you will file a claim with a different agency than if your accident occurred on a city street.

For questions about compensation after a motorcycle accident, speak to a Las Vegas motorcycle accident lawyer. An attorney will be able to identify the liable parties in your claim, and will include all of your damages in the lawsuit.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently reported an increase in number of persons driving under the influence of marijuana around the country, including in Las Vegas. The agency also reported that there has been a reduction in the number of people driving under the influence of alcohol over the same period of time.

Although both pot and alcohol can impair a person's ability to drive, studies seem to indicate that the impairing effect of alcohol is much higher than the effect of marijuana. One study that was conducted in Virginia Beach involved data from more than 3000 drivers involved in an accident. Their blood test results were compared with 6000 drivers, who had not been involved in an accident.

The researchers found that while pot users were also likely to cause accidents, the risk was mainly due to the fact that pot users tend to belong to high-risk categories. For instance, most people who use marijuana are young males, a group of motorists that is already at a high risk of accidents. Therefore, the higher accident risks may not be exclusively linked to marijuana use.

However that doesn't mean that marijuana doesn't impair a person's driving skills and increase the risk of an accident significantly. Several research studies have shown that it does impair a person's judgment, and his ability to react to emergencies in his environment and even his awareness of his environment. The difference seems to be that persons who are stoned seem to be aware that they are impaired, and are therefore, much more likely to try to compensate for their impairment by driving more slowly, and avoiding any aggrieve or risky driving. That kind of self-evaluation of one's own accident risks is not seen in persons who are driving a vehicle while drunk.

If you were injured in an accident, speak to a Las Vegas car accident lawyer about filing a claim to recover compensation for your injuries.