Seattle Rollover Accident Lawyers

A rollover is one of the most deadly types of vehicular accidents that occur on America’s roads. Not only do they leave grievous injury and death in their wake, but the costs associated with this accident can mount up, hurting a family that is already enduring a difficult time.

Whether your rollover was a single or multiple-vehicle rollover accident, the Seattle truck rollover accident attorneys of Caffee Law have the legal experience you need to earn the maximum monetary compensation you deserve.

If you or someone you love has been involved in a rollover accident and are struggling with debt as a result, there is hope. Contact the rollover accident attorneys of Caffee Law at (206) 312-0954 or online to schedule your FREE legal consultation with our best rollover accident attorneys today.

What is a Rollover Accident?

To put it simply, a rollover accident is an accident that involves a vehicle turning over to its side or on its roof. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), around 10,000 lives are lost due to rollover accidents in our country every year. They usually occur when a vehicle:

• Sustains a side impact from another vehicle
• Performs quick and/or sharp turns
• Trips over curbs or guardrails
• Rolls or falls off embankments

These actions can cause two different types of rollovers:

1. Tripped Rollover – This type of rollover occurs when a vehicle rolls onto its side and slides in a sideways motion off of the road. This can also happen when vehicles go off of the road where soft soil or objects can cause the vehicle to tip over.
2. Untripped Rollover – This type of rollover mainly occurs in top-heavy vehicles that are speeding or making quick, sharp turns. There are no tripping mechanisms in this type of rollover that cause the vehicle to roll.

An experienced rollover accident attorney can explore what the cause of your rollover accident was in order to determine liability later on during your claim.

What Can Cause a Rollover Accident?

When you boil down a rollover accident to its root cause, a lot of it can be attributed to driver error, regardless if it’s the victim’s or the other party’s fault.

However, when we compare all of the rollover accident causes, driver error is the most common that occurs by a large margin. Driver error can account for any of the following:

• Distracted driving (e.g. texting while driving)
• Driver fatigue or drowsiness
• Inattentiveness
• Aggressive driving
• Driving inexperience
• Oversteering
• Unfamiliarity with the road or surroundings
• Top-heavy cargo loads/overloads
• Intoxication (either by drugs, alcohol, or medication)

The rollover accident attorneys can help you fight for your right to compensation from negligent parties that harmed you. Contact us at (206) 312-0954 to start your rollover accident claim today.

Rollover Accidents by the Numbers

The NHTSA conducted a study that found a lot of sobering facts regarding rollover accidents and the people that they affect. To put the report into perspective, the administration found:

• Out of the 9.1 million accidents involving passenger cars, SUVs, pickups, and vans, nearly 2.1 percent had involved a rollover in 2010.
• While 2.1 percent is a relatively small number compared to the grand total of car accidents that year, rollover accidents caused 35 percent of all deaths in passenger vehicle accidents.
• In 2010, 7,600 drivers had perished in a rollover accident, and from this total, 69 percent of the deceased were not wearing seat belts.

Contrary to popular belief, a rollover accident that occurs as a single-vehicle accident isn’t necessarily the driver’s fault. In order to accurately determine liability in your rollover accident, a rollover accident attorney from Caffee Law would be needed to consider all of the factors that led up to your particular truck accident.

What Factors Into a Rollover Accident?

Aside from driver error, plenty of other factors can contribute to the cause of your rollover accident. These factors mainly consist of:

1. Type of Vehicle – Common vehicles that you will often see involved in a rollover accident are usually taller, more narrow vehicles like an SUV, pickup truck, or a van. Since these cars have a higher center of gravity, they are much more susceptible to rolling over compared to smaller passenger cars.
2. Vehicle Speed – How fast a vehicle is going plays a large factor into a rollover crash. In fact, roughly 40 percent of fatal rollover crashes occur because of excessive speeding. While most single-vehicle car crashes are a result of the driver speeding, other drivers that are speeding can certainly cause someone else to rollover if the victim was trying to avoid being struck.
3. Location – The NHTSA states that 75 percent of fatal rollover accidents occur in a rural area where the speed limit is 55 or higher. Open roads in rural areas with high speed limits invite drivers to speed, where frequent stops and lower speed limits in an urban area discourage that.
4. Defective Equipment or Failure – It isn’t unheard of that a rollover accident can occur because of vehicle equipment failure and design flaws. These products are usually the result of a negligent manufacturer cutting corners, putting customers at risk solely for corporate profit.

Some of the more common design flaws that can cause injury and death in a rollover accident are:

1. Seat belt failures
2. Head restraint failures
3. Door locking mechanism failures
4. Roof crush
5. Electronic stability control failures
6. Unsafe gas tanks
7. Improper airbag deployment

It is worth noting that, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), roof crush is the main contributor to severe injury and death in individuals involved in a rollover accident. By law, a roof should be able to support 1.5 times the vehicles weight while only sustaining 5 inches worth of crush. Anything over 5 inches of crush could be considered negligence where the manufacturer could be held liable.

5. Road Conditions/Flaws – Municipalities can be held liable if they haven’t maintained their roads in an adequate fashion. Construction zones, debris on the road, and potholes are just a few of the things that can cause your car to rollover, and this falls all into the municipality’s jurisdiction. If you have suffered injury or lost someone in a rollover accident because of a municipality’s negligence, an experienced rollover accident attorney can help you seek out the compensation you deserve.

Once the factors and their resulting causes have been conclusively decided upon, your truck accident lawyer at Caffee Law can proceed to determining who truly was at fault in your rollover accident claim.

Determining Liability in a Rollover Accident

If you choose to have legal representation, it is up to your lawyer to determine liability—or fault—so that you can qualify for compensation.

An experienced rollover accident attorney like the ones at Caffee Law have to navigate through the complex process carefully, checking how multiple parties are involved and collecting compelling evidence that can prove that the fault lies on a negligent party and not in personal driver error.

Potential parties that may be held liable in a rollover accident include: 

• The Other Driver – As stated earlier, the driver in the other vehicle may have acted in a negligent manner that caused your vehicle to roll. If the other driver had cut you off, ran you off of the road, or suddenly braked in the middle of the road and caused you to use evasive maneuvers, they may be held liable for your rollover accident.
• A Third Party – This usually covers other parties that weren’t at the scene of the rollover but caused—or contributed—it to happen. Car manufacturers usually fit the bill here as auto parts like a defective tire can cause a rollover.
• The Driver – In some cases, the victim may not have been the driver after all. If you were a passenger in the car of a negligent driver, they may be responsible for your injuries.

What Kind of Injuries are Sustained in a Rollover Accident?

As you can imagine from all of the factors above, injuries sustained in a rollover accident can range from minor—if you’re lucky—to life-threatening. It isn’t uncommon for individuals involved in these type of accidents to sustain injuries such as:

• Cuts and lacerations
• Burns
• Broken bones and fractures
• Head, neck, and chest injuries
• Internal injuries to organs
• Internal bleeding
• Spinal cord injury
• Paralysis
• Traumatic brain injury
• Wrongful death

In the event that your loved one’s life is lost in a rollover accident, you may be eligible to file a wrongful death claim. Through a wrongful death claim—if negligence is proven—you may be awarded monetary compensation that can help cover any funeral expenses and loss of companionship.

What Kind of Monetary Compensation Can You Earn From Your Rollover Accident Claim?

If you or someone you love was involved in a rollover accident and sustained heavy injuries, you will need an experienced rollover accident attorney to take a look at your case. If he or she can prove that negligence played a factor into your trucking accident, you may qualify for monetary compensation that can help cover:

• Medical bills
• Rehabilitation fees
• Pain and suffering
• Vehicle damages
• Personal property damages (e.g. personal items like laptops, bikes, etc. that were in or on your car during the rollover)
• Car rental fees
• Out-of-pocket expenses (e.g. cab fare if you had to use a taxi cab to get home)

Even if you appear to suffer from no injury at the time of the rollover, seeking out medical services is a must. Injuries may not appear until a few days later, and the incident report that is generated at the hospital can help your rollover accident lawyers build a solid case.

How the Truck Accident Lawyers of Caffee Law Can Help You

The Seattle truck rollover accident attorneys of Caffee Law have helped clients suffering through traumatic rollover accidents win the compensation they are owed from the negligent or malicious parties that caused their accident.

With our legal knowledge, experience, and resources, we have the capability to build strong, compelling cases for our clients who just want to right a wrong committed against them. When we need more clarification, our professional friends from the medical field can help us gain a better understanding of how your rollover accident caused your injury, and how you suffer from it.

Contact the trucking rollover accident attorneys of Caffee Law at (206) 312-0954 to schedule your FREE, no-obligation legal consultation today.