Many car accidents happen across America every day. The personal vehicle is the way that many Americans get around, so this should be no surprise. One of these days, you might be in one of these accidents.
This can happen, even if you’re an excellent driver. That’s because, even if you’re great behind the wheel, that doesn’t mean the people around you are as careful about following the rules. You might encounter someone who has consumed alcohol or illegal drugs before driving, or maybe they let their smartphone or the radio distract them.
If something like this happens, you might lose a loved one in a car accident. It’s one of the most tragic things that can happen to you. If this occurs, you might wonder how the law can help. We’ll talk about that right now.
How Often Do Individuals Die in Car Accidents?
Before we dive into what the law can do to help if someone you love dies in a car accident, we should cover how often car crash deaths occur. The CDC says that car wrecks kill about 30,000 Americans yearly.
That’s a lot, so it should not surprise you if a car wreck kills or injures someone you know. You do not want something like this to happen to a friend or family member, but these tragic instances are sometimes beyond your control.
You Can Sue the Other Driver
One way the law protects you if someone you love dies in a car wreck is that you can sue the other driver. This will be the best option for you if you feel sure that the other driver caused the fatal accident.
If you decide to bring a court case against the other driver, you will need to do all you can to prove your assertion that they caused the wreck. This is not always so easy. You might have to try and locate witnesses or traffic camera footage of the accident.
You might also hire an accident scene reconstruction expert to convince the jury that the crash happened like you say it did. The other driver might say that something entirely different occurred. The jury will only convict the defendant if they feel you have presented strong evidence that the events happened that day like you claim.
You Can Also Sue on the Dead Person’s Behalf
The law also protects the deceased in the sense that you can sue the other driver after their death, even if you were not in the car or at the scene at all. You can fight for them by hiring an attorney and bringing a wrongful death lawsuit.
These lawsuits are not for yourself but for the victim. If you win any money, you can keep it if the deceased was an immediate family member. You can use that money to replace their lost income if they were one of the family’s primary breadwinners.
Again, the law is there to protect the deceased and to make the person who killed them stand up in court and admit it. The court system calls this allocution. You might demand that the other driver make an allocution if they want to plead guilty to the charges you bring.
This means they must tell what they did wrong in open court. That might be just as important to you as getting money for your deceased family member. If the other driver did something irresponsible, like consume alcohol before they drove, you might insist they make an allocution as part of what happens.
Remember that the law exists to help you seek justice for a family member that a reckless or careless driver takes from you. The law is not always a perfect vehicle, but it is the best one you sometimes have if you want satisfaction following a tragic event.
The law will not always be in your favor when you seek justice for a family member that a car accident has killed. You have the optimal chance of winning the more evidence that you can put forth at trial.
Any attorney you hire is liable to tell you the same thing. The whole process gets going when you reach out to one, though. If you are unsure whether you should or not, consider this: are you able to go on with your life until you try to make the person who did this thing face some repercussions?
