According to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), New Mexico is the deadliest state in the country for pedestrians, with more fatalities per 100,000 residents than any other state in 2017. 2018 is on track to be just as deadly. Albuquerque alone is tallying 84 pedestrian deaths by early December. Final statistics for the year are not yet available. This comes at a time when pedestrian deaths are spiking across the country. According to GHSA data, 2018 was the deadliest year for pedestrians in the last 28 years, with 6,227 fatalities. When these many people are killed, we can only imagine the number of people suffering serious injuries.
Depending on the details surrounding a pedestrian accident, the person struck by the vehicle may be entitled to recover compensation from the at-fault driver. Because these types of accidents often leave a pedestrian with traumatic injuries and a lengthy recovery process, the pedestrian accident attorneys at Keller & Keller seek out all possible sources of recovery for our clients.
How Our Albuquerque Personal Injury Attorneys Can Help
If you or a loved one is hit by a car on a dark Albuquerque or Santa Fe street, there could be several parties who are liable for compensating you for your losses and our personal injury team will identify them. For example, if a pedestrian is struck by a driver who is found to be uninsured or flees the scene, we will contact the accident victim's own insurance company to determine if their coverage will pay for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and lost wages that the at-fault driver would otherwise be responsible for paying. To be compensated in this scenario, the pedestrian's insurance policy will need to contain uninsured motorist coverage.
Another source of compensation and liability may include New Mexico's city, county, or state government. We have handled cases for clients where our investigation determined that a stop sign was missing or a city light was malfunctioning, thus opening up the potential for a much larger source of recovery for the victim.
What We May Be Able to Recover for You
When you hire our auto accident lawyers to help you following an Albuquerque car accident, we will start working that same day. It's critical that evidence and witnesses are secured before they disappear. In addition, we begin laying the groundwork for a demand strategy that will request compensation for some or all of the following damages:
- Hospital and doctor bills
- Lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional stress
- Punitive damages
Depending on the severity of your injuries, we may also ask the insurance company to pay for future damages related to ongoing medical care and rehabilitative needs.
When the Insurance Company Tries to Blame You
A large number of the accidents we've handled for injured pedestrians involved serious, sometimes life-altering injuries. Because there is a potential for significant exposure, the insurance company heavily scrutinizes these claims. Rare is an accident case involving a pedestrian where an insurance company will not try to place some percentage of fault on the pedestrian in an attempt to reduce the amount they have to pay you.
Factors such as accident location, automobile speed, crosswalk usage, and drug and alcohol use will be examined by your attorney to help place 100% or the majority of fault on the driver of the vehicle.
Put simply, if you were hit by a car while on foot, we recommend that you immediately contact a New Mexico injury lawyer that focuses strictly on personal injury claims and has successfully handled pedestrian accident claims.
