Automobile Accident Victims v Automobile Insurance Companies (accidents)
Traffic Accidents Exact Terrible Toll
Law Firms are investigating possible legal actions on behalf of persons injured or killed in motor vehicle accidents. Over 41,000 people are killed in motor vehicle accidents in the United States every year. That's 114 people every day, one every 13 minutes. Another three million are injured in an average year. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for every age from 6 to 33 years old. The 11 million traffic accidents each year cause over $150 billion in economic losses.
Drinking is one important factor in causing traffic accidents. Over 15,000 of each year's fatalities are alcohol-related. Approximately 1.4 million people are arrested for driving under the influence every year. About three in ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives.
Another common factor in fatal accidents is, of course, speeding. Over 12,000 lives are lost each year in speeding-related crashes.
Too many of the fatalities involve the young. Some 2,500 of the deaths, and 318,000 of the injuries, are children under the age of 15. Another 5,000 of the deaths involve teenagers aged 15 to 19.
A person injured in an automobile accident may need to contact an attorney. As reported over 20 years ago in the book 'Settled Out of Court: The Social Process of Insurance Claims Adjustment' (by H. Laurence Ross), when insurance claims adjusters contact the injured person, their purpose is to resolve claims quickly and head claimants off before they obtain legal representation, which typically results in higher payouts by the insurer. Unfortunately, that reality has not changed in the intervening years. In a 1998 journal article, professor Herbert Kritzer of the University of Wisconsin wrote that 'while the rhetoric of the insurance industry is that it wants to resolve claims quickly and fairly, 'fair' is a relative term.' In fact, according to Kritzer, adjusters often focus a claimant's attention on some aspects of the loss without alerting the injured person to other elements of damages.
Some former insurance company employees also make the point that the companies often put their own interest ahead of their insureds' benefit. In June, 2001, two former in-house attorneys for State Farm, the nation's largest insurance carrier, filed a legal action against State Farm saying they were required by the company to engage in 'wrongful, illegal and unethical conduct.' According to the lawsuit, people insured by State Farm are victimized because company attorneys are required to represent the insurance company rather than the people who had paid for the insurance coverage. The two attorneys claim that, when they refused, State Farm retaliated by reducing their pay and bonuses, making derogatory and demeaning comments, and otherwise creating a hostile work environment that prompted both men to leave the company.
State Farm doesn't have a monopoly on disgruntled employees. Sarah Howard, an Allstate claim adjuster who, tragically, committed suicide, wrote in her suicide note addressed to Allstate that 'you kill people in many ways.'
