COVID’S IMPACT ON TRAFFIC-RELATED INJURIES

If you’ve driven on the freeways and surface streets since the State of California’s stay-at-home orders, you may have noticed a couple changes.  First, traffic is much less condensed, as non-essential workers stay home.  Second, traffic moves much quicker.

Indeed, California Department of Transportation (a.k.a. “Cal-Trans”) issued a press release recently revealing that while traffic volume during that past month was 35% lower than this time last year, traffic speeds were increasing.  In fact, there has been an 87% increase in the number of citations issued to motorists exceeding 100 m.ph., from 1,335 during this time last year to 2,493 in the past month!

The California Highway Patrol is part of a collective of State agencies encouraging drivers to slow down, warning that increased speeds may result in increased injuries including a significantly greater chance of death, should a crash occur.

Unfortunately, a serious injury or death case is not something to try and handle yourself.  You do not want to learn as you go with a claim of this magnitude, as the insurance company will try to take any advantage they can get.  Often, by the time folks call us after trying to go it alone, they have already signed every form and answered every verbal question the insurance company has asked for – whether in their best interest or not (which it is not, by the way).  So please, do not put off calling an attorney for another day.

If you would like to see what we have to say, give us a call.  Our team of seasoned attorneys and legal professionals are standing by to help in any way we can.