Yes, you do if you are serious about having a strong case and the best chances of obtaining the full compensation you may deserve. The reality is that your crash may not be the first time you’re victimized after a wreck if you don’t have an experienced Denver car accident lawyer on your side.

You could become a victim of an insurance company’s underhanded tactics. The insurers’ jobs are to look for ways to not pay out money so they can protect the company’s bottom line. For you, that means you cannot rely on an insurer to tell you the whole truth about your rights and options. It also means that you cannot count on insurance companies to:

• Correctly attribute fault: They can look for ways to blame you for the accident, either in part or in full. This can include stretches in interpreting evidence in order to try to justify their position.
• Honor the coverage: Insurers may try to argue that an accident, driver, or vehicle was not covered. In some cases, they may go to illegal lengths, like by changing policies after the fact, to try to get out of having to pay damages.
• Offer you a fair settlement: If you don’t have a lawyer, an insurance company is far more likely to offer you a lowball settlement, expecting that you are not fully aware of your rights.

With a Denver car accident lawyer, victims can gain a better understanding of their rights and options while getting an essential ally against insurance companies and/or any other parties who may try to undercut their rights, claims, and/or compensation.

Accidents can be caused by so many different things. Some are obvious; many aren’t. Most of the time, however, some type of negligence is involved. When it is, it usually takes one of the following forms.

• Drunk driving: When drivers are under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs (including legal drugs), their perception, judgment, and reaction times can all be impaired, and horrific wrecks usually follow.
• Distracted driving: Like drunk driving, distracted driving can prevent motorists from seeing, accurately evaluating, or promptly responding to important cues in their environment. This results in far too many preventable crashes.
• Speeding and reckless driving: These aggressive actions may not only violate traffic laws, but they can also increase the risk of motorists losing control of their vehicles and causing deadly collisions.
• Careless driving: From failing to use blinkers to drifting out of lanes of traffic, carelessness behind the wheel can be just as harmful as willful recklessness.
• Faulty vehicle equipment: Poor design, improper installation, or failure to maintain equipment can all result in equipment malfunctions, which can make vehicles difficult, if not impossible, for drivers to safely control.
• Poor roadway conditions: A lack of guardrails, broken traffic lights, and even cracks or potholes in the blacktop can also contribute to devastating collisions.
• Other factors: Depending on the circumstances of a crash, other factors could include the negligence of a motorist’s employer, a motor carrier, a highway work zone crew, or some other party.

Identifying all causes and contributing factors to an accident is pivotal to determining all parties who are at fault and liable for it. This is just one of the many ways an attorney can be crucial after an accident.

The injuries that commonly result from motor vehicle accidents run the gamut from minor and passing to severe, permanent, life-threatening, and deadly. Most commonly, accident injuries tend to include:

• Whiplash: Caused by heads and necks snapping back and forth during a collision, whiplash can take time to present the severity of its symptoms in full.
• Back injuries: Herniated discs, spinal cord injuries, and vertebral fractures can all cause serious and lasting pain. While these injuries can require invasive medical interventions, they can also result in permanent impairments to injured people’s quality of life.
• Head and brain injuries: Concussions, puncture wounds to the head, and severe traumatic brain injury can all cause irreversible damage.
• Bone fractures and internal organ injuries: Depending on which bones break, crash survivors can suffer internal bleeding, punctures to internal organs, and other life-threatening harm.
• Soft tissue injuries: Scraps, bruises, scratches, and more can be severely painful and may even have permanent impacts via disfigurement, nerve damage, and more.

Whether car accident injuries are catastrophic or latent, it’s crucial to get immediate medical attention and the necessary follow-up care. While this can help victims achieve better outcomes in terms of their physical recoveries, it can also be important to a accident case and a potential financial recovery.

You never expect an auto collision to happen. When it does, knowing what to do can make all the difference in how you’re able to recover later. To that end, here’s what you should do if you’re involved in a crash (and if you are not terribly injured):

1. Get to a safe place ASAP and check for any injuries.
2. Call 911 or a non-emergency police number.
3. Wait at the scene and exchange information with the other involved parties.
4. Get medical attention ASAP, even if you don’t think you’re seriously injured.
5. Take pictures and/or videos of the accident scene.
6. Do not admit blame or say “sorry” at any point.
7. Do not make any statements about your injuries.
8. Report the accident to your insurance company as soon as you can after leaving the scene.
9. Do not assume that you have to file a case alone.
10. Talk to an attorney to get important answers about your rights, your potential claim, and your options for financial recovery.

If you are severely injured, the only step you need to take is #10. An attorney can take care of everything necessary to help you recover whenever another’s negligence has harmed you.

You can report an accident in Denver by either calling the police immediately after the wreck so they respond to the scene, or you can report a collision after the fact. Generally, it’s best to try to call the police immediately so they can do things like:

• Assist victims, remove crash debris, and divert traffic
• Investigate the crash, collect evidence, and talk to witnesses
• Write up an official accident report, detailing the evidence and findings related to fault

If that’s not possible, however, you can report an accident online to the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV). You can also use this online reporting tool to revise or change collision reports, within a certain timeframe, and to obtain a copy of a accident report.

The numbers on Colorado car accidents tell a grim story about how often preventable wrecks happen. Here’s what the latest data from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) reveals:

• Accidents are the number one cause of death in Colorado.
• Every year since 2011, deaths on Colorado roads have risen.
• Speeding is a factor in more than 1 in 3 deadly accidents in Colorado. Since 2016, speeding-related deaths have increased by about 9%.
• Drunk driving also contributes to nearly 1 in 3 fatal wrecks in Colorado.
• Traffic deaths on Colorado’s urban roadways have been increasing the fastest, spiking by about 8% since 2016.