When a vehicle strikes a pedestrian, the pedestrian may sustain a variety of serious injuries. Broken bones are common. So are traumatic brain injuries and other internal injuries. Pedestrians may require extensive medical support to recover from their injuries.
They may have to pursue a complex compensation claim to limit the financial fallout of the pedestrian collision. Frequently, injured pedestrians find that insurance alone isn’t enough to pay for their losses. After all, many drivers only carry the minimum amount of coverage required by the law.
Those hurt in pedestrian crash scenarios may need to pursue a personal injury lawsuit to recoup their losses. What types of damages can people often include when calculating the full financial impact of a recent car wreck?
Current and future medical expenses
The cost of treating traumatic injuries can be shockingly high. Even broken bones sometimes require surgery. Every day spent in a hospital or rehabilitation facility can significantly increase overall medical expenses.
Injuries may also trigger long-term medical expenses. People often need help calculating reasonable estimates for their future care costs in addition to seeking compensation for their outstanding medical bills after a crash.
Lost wages and earning potential
When car crashes break bones, cause brain injuries or put people in the hospital, the injured party usually loses income. If they have long-term symptoms caused by their injuries, then they might have difficulty maximizing their career success.
Injured professionals often need to consider not just the short-term income they didn’t earn because they got hurt but also the long-term consequences of their injuries. Lost advancement opportunities, lost employment benefits and reduced future earning potential can potentially add up to more than the lost wages they didn’t earn during their recovery.
Pain and suffering
Those pursuing litigation instead of an insurance claim can request compensation for non-economic losses. Pain and suffering claims are among the most common.
Someone who loses enjoyment of life, experiences mental anguish or has to change their daily activities because of an injury may qualify for pain and suffering compensation. Calculating how much to request for pain and suffering and other non-economic damages can be very difficult for an injured pedestrian to manage on their own.
Pedestrians trying to hold drivers accountable for their injuries often need help after a major pedestrian crash. Calculating the long-term impact of a pedestrian collision is often the first step toward demanding accountability from the driver who caused the incident.
