Campton, Incorporated in 1870, is the county seat of Wolfe County. The town is one square mile, with an estimated population of 422 in 2019. Campton had its beginnings around a small stream called Swift Creek, named for Jonathan Swift of the legendary lost silver mine. Local lore has it that Swift buried treasure somewhere in the area that was never found, and there is a historical marker in Campton near what is claimed to be one of Swift’s campsites. Every Labor Day Weekend, Wolfe County holds the Swift Silver Mine Festival in honor of that heritage. While small and proud, Campton is nonetheless not too small to have residents suffer personal injuries from all the most common causes. There is no such thing as a town too small to see personal injuries suffered as a result of someone’s negligence. If you suffer a personal injury in any type of accident, you should call for a free consultation with Campton personal injury lawyers at Maze Law Offices as soon as possible. Our seasoned leg has experience in fighting for compensation for clients who have been injured in a number of different ways.
The following are the most common causes of accidents in Campton:
Car crashes happen every day, and no city is small enough to overcome that universal truth. Car accidents all too frequently lead to fatalities or serious injuries. According to the federal government, human error is what lies behind most traffic accidents. These errors often take the form of driver inattention, distracted driving, and not giving sufficient attention to surrounding conditions and traffic.
Other sources list different top accident causes, although those causes also are rooted in human error. These include:
When it comes to distracted driving, texting while behind the wheel gets more attention than most other forms of the behavior. In fact, Kentucky state law prohibits texting while driving. That ban applies for all drivers, while drivers younger than 18 are not allowed to use a cell phone at all while driving. Cell phone use is heavily regulated in our state, but it is not the only cause of distracted driving. Distracted driving can include any time your attention is taken away from the road. Many such distractions long predate cell phones, including eating and drinking, switching stations on your radio, talking to other people in your car, or changing settings on your climate control system. Engaging in such distractions can result in a driver being at fault for a traffic accident.
Of course, Kentucky has a no-fault system for auto insurance, which is often confused when it comes to filing an insurance claim or suing the other driver when there is a question about who caused the crash. Kentucky’s no-fault system means that your own insurance pays for your medical expenses, lost wages, and any other expenses you might incur as a result of a traffic accident, no matter who might be at fault for the accident. Your no-fault insurance does not allow you to recover damages for pain and suffering or other emotional damages.
As is the case with many laws, though, there are exceptions. Kentucky no-fault law allows you to sue the at-fault driver if your medical expenses exceed $1,000. You also can sue if you suffer a broken bone, incur a permanent injury or disfigurement, or if there is a wrongful death as a result of the wreck. Because the threshold for medical expenses is fairly low and modern medical expenses keep going up in cost, it usually is possible to sue the at-fault driver in just about any accident involving injuries. If you meet the threshold for filing a lawsuit, you also can sue for pain and suffering as well as emotional damages.
It goes without saying that Americans love their pets, and they especially love their dogs. While fish make up the most numerous of all pets, unlike dogs, fish are neither loyal nor loving, and are mostly decorative. That said, more than two-thirds of households in the United States are home to at least one dog. That includes almost half of households in Kentucky. People nationwide keep more 78 million dogs as pets.
Most dogs do not ever bite a person, but some do. Each year, dogs bite about 4.7 million people in the U.S., with roughly 800,000 of those dog bite victims needing some level of professional medical care. Deaths from dog bites are rare; there were 59 deaths from dog bites nationwide in 2019. Two of those dog-bite deaths occurred in Kentucky. The fairly low total of dog-bite deaths is a positive thing, but the impact of dog-bite injuries remains significant for victims. Injuries from dog bites can be serious, and often are expensive. Nationwide in 2019, there were insurance claims totaling more than $797 million as a result of dog bites, averaging more than $44,000 per claim.
Collisions between large commercial trucks and passenger vehicles tend to be one-sided. In 2018, about 531,000 large commercial trucks, including tractor-trailers, were involved in traffic accidents nationwide. Those accidents led to almost 5,000 people dying and another 151,000 people being injured. Nearly three-fourths of those killed and injured in those accidents were occupants of the passenger vehicles involved — more than 70% of those killed were occupants of passenger vehicles, while 72% of those injured also were occupants of the passenger vehicles that were in the accidents. The disparity is not hard to understand. An 18-wheeler can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds between the weight of the truck itself and the trailer, while passenger vehicles weigh an average of about 4,000 pounds and can weigh less than 2,500 pounds. Force equals mass times acceleration. More mass usually means more force, and 18-wheelers have a lot more mass. Passenger cars and their occupants tend to suffer more severe injuries in collisions between the two for this reason.
The problem is not limited to crashes involving 18-wheelers and passenger vehicles. Delivery trucks and vans are considered large commercial vehicles, as well, as are garbage and recycling trucks. These vehicles also are a hazard for people in passenger vehicles. Both types of vehicles are much larger than passenger vehicles, while both delivery vehicles and refuse trucks spend a lot of their time on residential streets because of the nature of their work. Recycling trucks and garbage trucks typically weigh from 40,000 to 64,000 pounds and are basically heavy steel boxes on wheels. Collisions between passenger vehicles and refuse trucks generally result in more damages to the passenger vehicles, and occupants of the passenger vehicles generally suffer more severe injuries. There were 107 deaths nationwide from accidents involving garbage and recycling trucks in 2018, and an additional 1,400 injuries. Most of those deaths and injuries were suffered by occupants of the passenger vehicles in those accidents.
Accidents between delivery vans and trucks and passenger vehicles trend the same way, as well. Delivery vans – a growing presence on the roads these days as more and more people order seemingly everything online – are a major hazard for passenger vehicles for all the same reasons as are garbage trucks and tractor-trailers. In traffic accidents size and weight matter. In 2017, delivery vans and other commercial vehicles such as box trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds were involved in nearly 1,900 fatal accidents as well as 22,000 collisions that resulted in injuries. While delivery vehicles are the smallest of those vehicles considered “large commercial vehicles,” and are much smaller than 18-wheelers or garbage trucks, they are still bigger than passenger cars by a good margin. The most popular delivery van is the 11,000-pound Mercedes Sprinter. Used by Amazon, FedEx, Purolator, UPS, and a number of other delivery services, the Sprinter weighs almost three times as much as the average passenger vehicle and weighs more than four times as much as the smallest passenger vehicles.
Four times out of five, collisions involving motorcycles and other vehicles leaves the motorcyclist either dead or injured. The people in the other vehicles involved in the accident are typically not even hurt, or they suffer only minor injuries. Deaths from motorcycle accidents have been dropping for a number of years, but almost 5,000 motorcyclists died in traffic accidents in 2018, and another 89,000 riders suffered injuries. Every year, motorcyclists are 28 times more likely to be killed on the road than are occupants of passenger vehicles.
Even though it was published in the 1980s, The Hurt Report remains the most comprehensive look at motorcycle accidents and their causes. The result of a multi-year dive into the top causes of motorcycle accidents, the report found that roughly three-quarters of motorcycle accidents involved a collision with another vehicle, and in most cases that was a passenger vehicle. Federal statistics still support that conclusion. In addition, the leading cause of two-vehicle fatal motorcycle crashes as put forward by the report remains passenger vehicles turning left at intersections in front of a motorcycle going straight. Some things never change, and a recent report by an industry media site of the top 10 causes of motorcycle accidents mirrored the report and the federal numbers. According to the recent media report, those causes included:
When someone is responsible for your injuries following an accident, a hardworking attorney in Campton could help you file a claim against them to get the compensation you deserve.
While these kinds of accidents are among the leading causes of personal injuries, they are by no means the only ones. Personal injuries happen in many different circumstances, including:
Under Kentucky law, an ATV includes any motor-powered vehicle that is either intended or primarily used for “recreational off-road use.” ATVs must have a state-issued title, but they do not have to be registered. State law requires that if you are riding an ATV or a UTV – a Utility Task Vehicle or Utility Terrain Vehicle, a similar vehicle to an ATV that has two side-by-side seats, often used for hunting, farming tasks, or the same kind of off-road recreational riding for which people also use ATVs – on public land, you must wear an approved helmet. However, you do not have to wear a helmet if you are engaged in commercial operations or if you are riding your ATV or UTV on private land. Been in an accident in Stanton? No worries, we can help you too. Reach out to our lawyers in Campton today to get started on your personal injury claim.
If you have suffered a personal injury in Wolfe County and believe another person might have been at fault, you should seek advice from a local attorney to help find out what options you may have. It is possible there are provisions within a liability insurance policy which may be able to pay for your injuries and other damages, depending upon the circumstances of how you were hurt. Our Campton personal injury lawyers can help you get the compensation you deserve for your injuries and other damages. The attorneys of Maze Law Offices can help you. Unlike many larger attorney offices you may see on TV, we live here and know this area, its people, and its laws. Contact us today to schedule a free, no obligation consultation.
