Personal injuries like car accidents, slips and falls, and accidents at work can change a person’s life in a moment. You may experience painful injuries, lost wages, and a diminished quality of life. The Morehead personal injury lawyers at Maze Law Offices do not believe you should have to pay for someone else’s mistakes. That is why we fight zealously to pursue compensation following personal injury incidents. If you are considering filing a legal claim against another person or entity, reach out to a hardworking attorney today.
With settlers coming to Rowan County in 1783 following the Revolutionary War, and the town founded in 1854, Morehead has a long and colorful history. As the county seat of Rowan County, Morehead was the focal point of the Rowan County War, a turbulent time for the area that is little-known outside of the region. These days, Morehead is home to 7,000 people and is the site of Morehead State University, regarded as one of the South’s leading institutions of higher learning. Nearby is the Daniel Boone National Forest and Cave Run Lake, the largest lake in eastern Kentucky and prime boating, camping, and recreation destination. While many things set Morehead apart, one unfortunate fact does not: Like any other place where people live, Morehead is the site of many personal injury accidents and incidents. When those injuries occur, victims should consult with the personal injury lawyers in Morehead to learn what the options are and receive a free case evaluation.
Many accident victims often wonder, “Do I need a personal injury lawyer?” While there is no legal requirement that you must hire a personal injury lawyer, a lawyer can help your claim in many ways. For example, our Morehead personal injury lawyers can help by:
Our lawyers can take steps to protect your legal rights, such as making sure you file your claim in a timely manner. The following are some of the more common personal injury accidents:
Motorcycle accidents are a common cause of personal injuries. In fact, in about 80% of collisions that involve a motorcycle and another vehicle, the motorcyclist is either killed or injured. Often, people in the larger passenger vehicle are not injured at all. Even though motorcycle accident fatalities have been dropping for a while, nearly 5,000 motorcyclists were killed in traffic accidents in 2018, and an additional 89,000 riders were hurt. It is a sobering statistic that motorcyclists in most recent years have been at least 28 times more likely to die in a traffic accident than the occupants of passenger vehicles.
A report from the early 1980s called The Hurt Report is still largely regarded as the best look into the causes of motorcycle accidents. The report followed a multi-year examination of the leading causes of motorcycle accidents and found that approximately three out of four motorcycle accidents resulted from collisions involving another vehicle, usually a passenger vehicle. Federal statistics to this day support that conclusion. Furthermore, the top cause of two-vehicle fatal motorcycle accidents as determined by the report remains the same today — collisions at intersections where a passenger vehicle turns left in front of a motorcycle that is traveling straight ahead. Some things never change.
A report from an industry media site recently listed the top 10 causes of motorcycle accidents, finding agreement with The Hurt Report as well as current federal statistics. That media report found those causes included:
When involved in a motorcycle accident, a hardworking attorney in Morehead could help file a personal injury lawsuit as soon as possible.
Morehead might be a small town in some states, but it is a city. Even residents of this small city know that car crashes happen everywhere, every day. Unfortunately, those car accidents can result in wrongful death or serious personal injuries. No matter where car accidents happen, cars are driven by humans, and year after year statistics from the federal government show that human error lies behind the majority of traffic accidents. Such human errors include lack of attention by drivers, distracted driving – similar, but different – and failing to take account of traffic conditions, weather, and other surrounding factors.
While other sources might differ slightly on leading accident causes, those causes usually also are based on human error, including:
Distracted driving seems to have the attention of lawmakers in recent years, especially including texting while driving. Kentucky has banned texting while driving by all drivers. Further, the state does not allow cell phone use of any kind while driving by drivers who are younger than 18 years old. Despite the legal attention, cell phone use is simply one of the newest causes of distracted driving, not the only one. Distracted driving includes any kind of activity that takes a driver’s mind off of driving, including talking to passengers, eating or drinking, or both, fiddling with the stations on your radio or the settings on your sound, entertainment, climate control, or navigation systems.
Possibly more than the people of any other country, Americans love their pets. While Americans love all kinds of pets, dogs top the list. Fish are the most numerous of all pets in the United States, but not the pets present in most households. Fish are not loyal, loving, or cuddly, and while a single household can easily own much fish, few people own many dogs. On the other hand, about two out of three households in the country have at least one dog, including nearly half of all households in Kentucky. Nationwide, there are more than 78 million dogs kept as pets.
Relatively few of those dogs ever bite a human, but that does not mean none ever do. In fact, dogs bite about 4.7 million nationwide every year, and about 800,000 of people bitten require professional medical treatment. Dog bites rarely end in fatalities, but 59 people died from dog bites across the country in 2019, with two of those fatalities happening in Kentucky. Further, those injuries from dog bites can be serious, and frequently are expensive. In 2019, there were insurance claims totaling more than $797 million as a result of dog bites nationwide, with each claim averaging about $44,000. Of course, insurance claims are not necessarily limited to medical expenses, but those expenses are a factor in such claims. When you get hurt by someone else’s animal, a personal injury lawsuit – filed by one of our diligent lawyers in Morehead – could help file a claim.
Collisions involving commercial trucks and passenger vehicles are generally one-sided. About 531,000 large commercial trucks, which includes 18-wheeler tractor-trailers, got into traffic accidents across the country in 2018. In those accidents, nearly 5,000 people were killed and 151,000 people were injured. Nearly three out of four of those who die or were injured in those accidents were in the passenger vehicles involved, with more than 70% of those killed and 72% of those injured being occupants of the passenger vehicles involved in those accidents. The imbalance makes sense. After all, an 18-wheeler weighs up to 80,000 pounds – the legal limit for the trailer and the tractor combined. Passenger vehicles weigh an average of roughly 4,000 pounds, but they can weigh under 2,500 pounds. Small wonder, then, that passenger cars and their occupants bear the brunt of collisions between passenger vehicles and large commercial trucks.
That disparity of outcomes does not end with 18-wheelers. Delivery trucks and vans are categorized as large commercial vehicles. So are garbage and recycling trucks. Both types of vehicles pose a major hazard to people in passenger vehicles. They are larger than passenger vehicles, and to make matters worse, delivery vehicles and trash pick-up vehicles put in many of their driving miles on residential streets.
For recycling trucks and garbage trucks, the size advantage over passenger vehicles is only slightly less than it is for 18-wheelers. Trash trucks typically weigh between 40,000 and 64,000 pounds. They are large, square vehicles built of heavy steel. When those vehicles collide with passenger vehicles, the result most frequently is more damage to the passenger vehicles and more injuries to the occupants of the passenger vehicles. There were 107 fatalities in the U.S. in 2018 in accidents that involved garbage or recycling trucks, as well as 1,400 injuries. The majority of those deaths and injuries occurred among people who were in the passenger vehicles involved in those accidents.
The results for accidents between delivery vans or trucks and passenger vehicles do not differ much. Delivery vans, which have become ever-more common in recent years, especially during the pandemic as people place online orders for more of practically everything, are a threat to passenger vehicles in the same way that 18-wheelers and refuse vehicles are. Delivery vans and other commercial vehicles that weigh more than 10,000 pounds were in about 1,900 fatal accidents in 2017. They were involved in roughly 22,000 collisions that resulted in injuries, as well. Delivery vehicles are the smallest vehicles in the category of “large commercial vehicles,” weighing “only” between 10,000 and 26,000 pounds, they still have a significant size advantage over passenger vehicles. For instance, the most popular delivery van, the Mercedes Sprinter, weighs at least 11,000 pounds. The Sprinter is used by Amazon, UPS, Purlolator, and Federal Express, among other delivery services. It weighs close to three times as much as the average passenger vehicle and tips the scales at more than four times the weight of the smallest passenger vehicles. That size advantage does not bode well for the occupants of passenger vehicles. A personal injury attorney in Morehead could help you with any assistance based on the facts of your case.
Kentucky has its fair share of bodies of water suitable for boating and tubing. Many states require no operator’s license for boaters, but that can lull people into a false sense of security. Operating a boat, particularly a powerboat, is different from operating a car, and carries at least as much potential for accidents, and if you were involved in one, a Morehead personal injury attorney could help. Just for starters, boats do not have brakes and cannot stop quickly, making paying attention that much more important. Unfortunately, many boaters fail to do so, resulting in many injuries and deaths. There are thousands of boating accidents every year. The Coast Guard recorded 4,168 recreational boating accidents in 2019, resulting in 613 deaths and nearly 2,600 injuries, while also causing roughly $55 million in property damage. Only one of those boating accidents took place in Kentucky in 2019, causing one death. However, many boating accidents are never reported to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard only requires that certain kinds of accidents be reported, and not even all of those get reported. As a result, federal statistics regarding boating accidents do not record all accidents and injuries, although fatality reporting is considered reliable.
Of the reported accidents, though, Coast Guard statistics identify the top causes of boating accidents as operator inattention, operator inexperience, excessive speed, not keeping a proper lookout, and boating under the influence of alcohol. While there is a high potential for serious injuries and fatalities as a result of boating accidents, few states require adults to obtain a boating license, including Kentucky. For unaccompanied boat operators who are from 12 to 17 years old, the state requires a safety course certification if the minor is operating a motorized vessel. The safety certification is available through an online course. If there is an adult in the boat, no safety certification is necessary, even if the minor is driving the boat.
Personal injuries can come from a virtually unlimited number of causes, and attorneys in Morehead have seen many different types. Among the many other causes of personal injuries that involve the negligence of someone else are:
Bicycle accidents: In 2018, 857 bicycle riders wound up being traffic fatalities. Every year, about 450,000 people are injured in bicycle-related traffic accidents. Whether bicycle riders are just out for some exercise, commuting to work, or riding to enjoy being outdoors in beautiful weather, bicycle riders on the roads have the same rights as any other vehicle on the roads. They also bear the same responsibilities. Bicycle riders, though, lack the physical protection that the occupants of motor vehicles enjoy, virtually guaranteeing that people on bicycles will come out on the losing end of any traffic accident with a motor vehicle of any kind. It is small comfort that a bicycle is the legal equivalent of any motor vehicle on the roadways, putting liability for damages from an accident on the negligent driver. It almost goes without saying that no matter who is at fault, the bicyclist will come out of an accident with a motor vehicle worse off than any occupant of the vehicle.
Swimming pool injuries: About 350 children younger than 15 years old drown every year nationwide in swimming pools, while another 5,900 children are injured in such accidents and treated in hospital ERs after suffering non-fatal drowning injuries. Furthermore, about three-fourths of child drowning deaths involve children younger than 5 years old. There were an average of 363 drownings of children younger than 15 each year from 2014 through 2016 in pools across the nation. During the summer of 2019, at least 150 children under the age of 15 drowned in pools. Overall, federal statistics indicate that drowning is the fifth leading cause of accidental deaths nationwide.
In addition to fatal drownings, thousands more people are injured every year in accidents involving pools or spas. Many of these are nonfatal near-drownings. About 6,600 people are treated for injuries in emergency rooms each year, and that is just among children younger than 15. These numbers include people injured in slips, falls, near-drownings, and diving accidents.
Many of these injuries can be life-changing. Non-fatal drownings frequently result in brain damage causing serious health problems lasting a lifetime. Anoxic brain injuries, which occur when the brain is cut off from oxygen for too long – a common event in near-drowning – can result in permanent brain damage. That damage often is severe and causes symptoms including full or partial blindness, loss of memory, cognitive issues, paralysis, or even a coma. Even outside the water, injuries around pools and spas are potentially just as serious, can include poolside accidents such as slips and falls, diving into shallow water and striking your head on the bottom of the pool, or other accidents resulting in head or spinal injuries. In fact, diving is the fifth leading cause of spinal cord injuries.
Here are some local resources if you were hurt in Morehead:
The most important thing to do after a personal injury is to seek medical care. You want to diagnose your injuries and maintain all medical records. You can seek immediate medical care from:
For accidents that occur within the city limits, you can contact the Morehead Police Department. Their address is 105 E. Main St., Morehead, Kentucky 40351. Their phone number is (606) 784-7511. For accidents outside the city limits, contact the Kentucky State Police – Post 8 at (606) 784-4127.
After a serious accident, you also want to retain the services of experienced Morehead personal injury lawyers. A seasoned personal injury attorney can take immediate steps to protect your legal claim and take some of the burden from you. For years, people have chosen Maze Law Offices because we:
If you have suffered a personal injury in Rowan 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. At Maze Law Offices, our Morehead personal injury lawyers treat you like family because that is how we would want to be treated if we were in your position. We give every client the respect and individualized attention they deserve. 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.
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