Pedestrian accidents can happen in busy parking lots, like the Henderson Target, Walmart Supercenters, or Walmart Neighborhood Market. Cars can strike pedestrians in the downtown Water Street District or while heading to a Silver Knights game.
Negligent drivers don’t watch for pedestrians. They might drive distracted, especially tourists trying to find their destinations. They may drive or be under the influence, especially after leaving the Eldorado Casino or Emerald Island Casino. This increases the risk of hitting people in parking lots, crosswalks, and sidewalks. When a vehicle hits a pedestrian, chances are that the injuries the pedestrian sustains are severe or catastrophic, if not death.
A pedestrian doesn’t have any protection against a car, truck, or even a motorcycle. This is not the type of case you want to fight yourself—you need an experienced Henderson pedestrian accident lawyer to ensure you recover the compensation you deserve.
If you suffered injuries or lost a loved one in a pedestrian accident, contact a Henderson pedestrian accident lawyer today at Edward Bernstein and Associates for your free case evaluation.
Henderson Pedestrian Accident Guide
- Pedestrian Accident Injuries
- Causes of Pedestrian Accidents in Henderson
- Recovering Damages After a Pedestrian Accident
- Henderson Pedestrian Accident Attorney FAQs
- Contact a Henderson Pedestrian Accident Lawyer
How Our Henderson Pedestrian Accident Attorneys Can Help You
Some people do not realize that insurance companies are not on their side. Edward Bernstein and Associates can help with your case by ensuring insurance companies and other defendants don’t take advantage of you to save themselves money.
A Henderson personal injury lawyer at Edward Bernstein and Associates not only has the skills and resources to investigate pedestrian accidents, but they also help:
- Prove liability.
- Evaluate your injuries to determine fair and reasonable compensation.
- Work with expert witnesses, including accident reconstruction experts and medical experts.
- Proving insurance company allegations are false—insurance companies like to twist the facts so they can deny a claim.
- Negotiate for a fair and reasonable settlement. If an insurance company or defendant refuses a fair settlement, we are ready to take your case to court and fight for the compensation you deserve.
You are in good hands when you choose Edward Bernstein and Associates for your Henderson pedestrian accident claim. Our attorneys have over 40 years of experience protecting your rights and recovering the compensation you deserve from insurance companies and negligent people.
Insurance companies have more access to your life through social media, and they will use it in conjunction with their other tricks to reduce your claim payout—or deny the claim. Our legal team keeps up with them so we can ensure you receive the compensation you deserve.
Pedestrian Accident Injuries
Because a person is no match for any vehicle, even something as small as a motorcycle, pedestrian accidents usually involve severe and catastrophic injuries that could cause life-long disabilities.
The severity of your injuries depends on how fast a vehicle hit you, whether you were able to minimize the impact by moving, and to some extent, the size of the vehicle. Even smaller motorcycles and scooters could cause significant injury.
Accident injuries could include:
- Cuts, bruises, scratches, and scrapes.
- Strains and sprains.
- Pulled and torn muscles and other soft tissue injuries.
- Face and eye injuries.
- Ear injuries, especially if a vehicle explodes.
- Chemical and thermal burns.
- Road rash.
- Traumatic brain injuries.
- Head, neck, and shoulder injuries.
- Internal injuries.
- Simple and compound fractures.
- Crushed bones and crush injuries.
- Back and spinal cord injuries.
- Amputation of a digit or limb.
You could also sustain additional injuries, such as infections and other secondary injuries. Because they would be a direct result of the initial pedestrian accident injury, the defendant is responsible for the medical expenses and other damages for those injuries.
Additionally, pedestrian accident injuries could exacerbate existing injuries and illnesses. Because your existing illnesses and injuries would have healed sooner, the defendant is also responsible for the added expenses of treating the new issues with the old injuries and illnesses.
What Are Some of the Causes of Pedestrian Accidents in Henderson?
A pedestrian accident can happen anywhere, whether rural or urban. However, you have more of a chance of getting hit by a car in cities with more traffic, especially in a city like Henderson, which is close to Las Vegas. The area sees a lot of truck traffic, especially with two highways—15 and 515—running through the city and with all the shopping in the area.
Trucks leave the highway to deliver goods to home improvement stores, grocery stores, restaurants, and other retail establishments. While a vehicle could hit a pedestrian anywhere on the sidewalk or road, the more common places for pedestrian accidents include crosswalks, parking lots, and intersections.
Some of the common causes of pedestrian accidents in Henderson include:
- Distracted drivers.
- Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
- Speeding and excessive speeding.
- Ignoring traffic control signals.
- Failure to signal.
- Failure to yield the right of way.
- Drivers turning left without watching.
- Improper lighting.
- Dangerous road conditions that could cause a driver to lose control.
- Vehicle malfunction.
- The weather.
In some cases, the driver might not be at fault. For example, if it is snowing and the driver is driving slow enough for the conditions but slides on black ice and hits a pedestrian, it would be difficult to assign negligence to the driver. In the same case, if a driver is driving at the speed limit or faster, he or she is most likely going too fast for the conditions. The court could find that the driver’s negligence caused the pedestrian accident.
Recovering Damages After a Pedestrian Accident
If you suffered injuries in a pedestrian accident, you could recover damages if the at-fault driver’s actions or inactions were negligent. The best time to gather evidence is immediately after the accident. However, it takes a couple of days for most to choose a Henderson pedestrian accident lawyer and for the attorney to schedule investigators to investigate the accident.
If you are able to move around without causing additional damage to yourself, you can take several steps to help gather evidence, including:
- Call first responders and check on others involved in the accident, especially other pedestrians.
- Take photos of the accident scene.
- Allow emergency medical technicians to check you for injuries, even if you believe your injuries are minor.
- Obtain contact, insurance, and registration information from the driver.
- Obtain contact information from witnesses. You could also ask witnesses what they saw.
- Seek medical attention as soon as possible once released from the accident scene.
- Contact a Henderson pedestrian accident attorney.
If you are unsure of your injuries, do not move until the emergency medical technicians check you—you could cause additional injuries that could lead to long-term or permanent disabilities.
How Much is a Pedestrian Accident Case Worth?
No attorney can answer this question without investigating the accident scene and reviewing medical records and other evidence.
However, the damages you might collect include compensatory damages in the form of economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic damages have a monetary value. Most accident victims collect some form of economic damages, including:
- Medical expenses, including doctor’s appointments; surgeries; follow-up appointments; physical therapy, cognitive therapy, occupational therapy, and psychological therapy appointment expenses; prescriptions and prescribed over-the-counter medications; ambulatory aids; hand controls for your vehicle; and updates to your home, including but not limited to wheelchair ramps, stair lifts, widened doorways, grab bars, and handrails.
- Lost income.
- Loss of future earning capacity. Even if you are able to work part-time or must take a job that pays significantly less than the job you can no longer do, you could recover partial loss of future earning capacity until your retirement age.
- Death-related expenses, including funeral and burial expenses, cremation expenses, certain probate court costs, and probate attorney’s fees and costs.
Non-economic damages do not have a monetary value. In most cases, only those who sustained catastrophic injuries or lost a loved one recover non-economic damages. Long-term disabilities are those caused by accident injuries that your doctors expect to last for more than 12 months or result in your death.
Non-economic damages include:
- Pain and suffering, including emotional distress.
- Loss of quality of life if you have to make life-long changes, such as taking prescriptions or using ambulatory aids.
- Loss of companionship if you can no longer participate in family activities or events.
- Loss of consortium if you can no longer have a physical relationship with your spouse.
- Loss of a body part or bodily function, such as a hand or eyesight.
- Inconvenience if you have to hire someone to do the chores you usually do, such as grocery shopping, lawn maintenance, house cleaning, and home maintenance and repair.
- Amputation of a digit or limb.
- Excessive scarring and/or disfigurement.
Henderson Pedestrian Accident Attorney FAQs
People who suffered injuries or lost a loved one in a pedestrian accident often have many of the same questions. We answered some of those questions here. If you have additional questions or need more information on any of these questions, call Edward Bernstein and Associates to schedule a case evaluation, and we’ll answer all of your questions.
How Long Do I Have to Take Legal Action After a Pedestrian Accident?
You must take legal action on your case within a specific time set by Nevada statutes. Once that time runs, you can no longer bring a claim or try to settle with the defendant. You or a family member should contact a Henderson pedestrian accident lawyer as soon after the accident as possible.
While it might seem as though you have a lot of time to make a legal claim, your attorney must take several steps before starting settlement negotiations or filing a court case, including investigating the accident. Additionally, if you wait too long, you could forget pertinent facts that could make or break your case.
Finally, evidence tends to disappear shortly after an accident. In some cases, the defendant might purposely destroy evidence, but what usually happens is that anyone involved could inadvertently destroy evidence. The police could leave an impounded vehicle outside. The weather could destroy evidence on the vehicle and on the roadway.
Crews cleaning up after the wreck could also destroy evidence. The defendant, thinking evidence has been gathered, could repair his or her vehicle and inadvertently destroy evidence.
How Do I Pay for a Henderson Pedestrian Accident Lawyer?
Your initial case evaluation is always free and without obligation. If you retain us, you don’t pay unless we win your case. When you retain us, we’ll review our contingency contract with you.
How Do I Pay Medical Expenses Until I Receive a Settlement or Trial Award?
You can use your auto and medical insurance to cover medical expenses until you receive your settlement or a trial award. Once you receive a settlement, you reimburse the insurance companies. Thus, it is imperative for you to provide your attorney with all of your medical expenses so that he or she can figure them out as part of your settlement.
Who Can I Sue if the Driver Is Not at Fault?
In some accidents, especially those involving a commercial vehicle, the driver might not be the only one at fault.
Others who might share in the responsibility could include:
- A business owner.
- Vehicle owners, if not the same person as the person driving.
- Vehicle manufacturer.
- Parts manufacturer.
- Auto technician.
- Inspectors for commercial vehicles.
- Dispatchers.
- The weather, including sunny weather.
- Towns, cities, counties, and states for not keeping the roads in good condition.
The legal team at Edward Bernstein and Associates thoroughly investigates your case to find everyone who might share responsibility for your injuries. Even cases involving an individual could have more than one defendant, though it is more common with commercial drivers.
What Should I Bring to a Case Evaluation?
You should bring any documents you have that pertain to the accident, including:
- A copy of the police report.
- Medical bills and medical records.
- Any information you gathered at the scene, including copies of photos and witness information.
- Repair bills or replacement bills for any personal property that was destroyed or damaged in the accident.
If you have trouble obtaining medical records, bills, and other documents, let us know, and we can help you obtain them.
Contact a Henderson Pedestrian Accident Lawyer
If you suffered injuries or lost a loved one in a pedestrian accident, contact us or call (702) 728-4137 for your free, no-obligation case evaluation with the experienced pedestrian accident attorneys at Edward Bernstein and Associates.