You know the drill: Your teenager missed the school bus this morning, or maybe your neighbor’s car won’t start, and they’re late for work, or Aunt Helen is in town for the weekend and wants to visit some old friends. You hand over the keys to your car and get back to your day, happy in the knowledge that you were able to help a friend or family member.

Then, you get the dreaded phone call. There was black ice, or someone ran the light, or the car in front of them on the freeway just stopped without warning. Now you start to worry, asking yourself, “What happens if someone who’s not on my insurance crashes my car?” Do you know what to say when your panicked borrower is on the line, sitting in the middle of an intersection, peppering you with questions?

Someone struck you here in Baltimore, and they either stopped and you discovered they were uninsured, or they didn’t pull over at all and instead fled the crash scene. If you have uninsured motorist coverage, that’s a good thing in a situation like this. However, if you’re wondering, “Do I need a lawyer for an uninsured motorist claim?” our skilled attorneys will hash that question out (and more) below.

What To Know About Uninsured Motorist Coverage in Maryland

Much like other states, Maryland has mandatory minimum insurance requirements. One of those requirements is uninsured or underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage. This means that your insurer should step in and pay any accident-related expenses you incur if the driver who strikes you either does not have insurance or has inadequate coverage to pay for the damages they caused. UM coverage would also cover you if a hit-and-run driver struck you.

Data published by the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) shows some pretty alarming trends, one of which is that 16.2% of all serious auto accident injuries for 2020 occurred here in Baltimore despite the fact that only 9.8% of our state’s population resides within city limits. Considering how other MDOT data from 2022 shows that there were nearly 18,000 traffic accidents reported for our city alone in 2021, that means there are likely many situations in which motorists had to make on-the-spot decisions about what to do at their crash scenes.

Individuals involved in crashes often find themselves stressed and disoriented right after a crash occurs, which can make it challenging to know what steps to take to ensure the best outcome should they ultimately decide to file a claim to recover compensation for their injuries, lost earnings, and other costs they incur due to their involvement in it. Below, we’ll address which information to exchange in a car accident, so you’ll have a resource to reference if you have the misfortune of becoming involved in a crash in Baltimore or elsewhere in Maryland.

Whether you call it a pile-up accident, a chain-reaction crash, or a multi-car collision, these names refer to a similar type of wreck involving multiple vehicles. While sorting out liability might seem fairly intuitive when two vehicles are involved in a crash, determining fault in a pile-up accident may seem far less straightforward.

Given the heavy congestion on Baltimore’s roadways, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that our Belsky & Horowitz, LLC legal team handles our fair share of these complex car accident cases every year. Below, we’ll share why these collisions occur, how liability is sorted out, and how that impacts your rights in hopes that this insight can be helpful to you if you’ve had the misfortune of becoming involved in such a crash.

Roadway deaths in Maryland have dropped by 48 percent since 2011. At the same time, distracted driving is responsible for 45 percent of all Maryland vehicle crashes. Eighty-five percent of crashes in Washington and Baltimore now involve distracted drivers.

Researchers believe that over 30 percent of roadway wrecks result from driver error. These collisions could be avoided if people focused on driving instead of distractions and kept their emotions in check on the road.

Over the past five years, the state of Maryland has averaged over 4,000 crashes caused by driver aggression each year. This equates to over 2,000 injuries and nearly 50 deaths every year. Each and every one of these injuries and fatalities could have been prevented if a driver had not lost control of their anger and used their vehicle as a weapon.

Tailgating is a serious and violent form of aggressive driving. “Tailgating,” “following too closely,” or “riding someone’s bumper” describes when a driver leaves little room between their vehicle and the vehicle in front of them. While the three-second rule is recommended to measure a safe following distance, tailgating usually leaves drivers with less than one second of reaction time.

Nerve damage suffered by car accident victims is usually what is called peripheral neuropathy—damage to the nerves located outside the brain and spinal cord. Your body is connected by a network of nerves that sends messages between the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and other areas. Nerves in various parts of the body can be injured by the physical trauma of a car accident. One nerve or multiple nerves may suffer injury.

When you think about being safe on the road, remaining hydrated may not top your list. It perhaps should, though. Temperatures can reach, on average, the mid to high 80s during the summer months here in Baltimore and across the state. So, you can surely benefit from assimilating tips for avoiding heat sickness while driving into your routine.

Drivers should always give their full attention to the road when driving. Unfortunately staying on task can be a challenge in a world filled with constant distractions. Most Baltimore drivers do their best, though, and many even take preventative measures like putting their phones out of reach when they are behind the wheel.

There are several steps you should take if you are involved in a car accident. One of the first of these is that you should call 911 and make sure a police officer is headed to the crash scene. You may then want to turn your attention to a few additional tasks as you wait for a law enforcement officer to arrive.