Following an accident, you may not be immediately thinking about how much your injury is going to cost you or what you can do about it. Instead, you’re probably focusing on your recovery. While this is not a bad thing, it’s important to know what you will likely have to deal with the financial consequences of your injury before you have the opportunity to fully recover.

When you do start to think about the costs, it’s likely you’ll worry about your medical expenses and lost wages. While you may be able to seek compensation for those calculable amounts, you should also keep in mind you may be eligible for damages regarding your pain and suffering. These are called noneconomic damages.

After you’re involved in a car crash, there are many responsibilities you’ll need to take care of. You need to inform your insurance company of the accident, take care of your injuries, and start filing your accident claim if you choose to take legal action. You may be wondering if hiring a lawyer is your best chance of recovering damages. Here is some good information to know about when you should consider hiring a lawyer:

A police report can play a major role in how your insurance company views your car accident claim. While police officers are not dispatched for every accident, they are sent when someone has been injured, when the accident is blocking traffic, when any of the drivers are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or if the parties are fighting about what happened.

When the police officer arrives, they will talk with the involved parties, investigate and assess the accident scene, take photographs, talk to possible witnesses, and generate their report. The reports contain a variety of information; however, it’s important to understand that no two reports are the same. Every police department is likely to have their own form and their own way of generating the reports.

If you’ve been in an accident in Maryland, it’s important to understand how the information on the police accident report can affect your settlement offer. Let’s take a closer look at police accident reports in our state, so you have an idea what to expect in the event you’ve been in an accident.

While auto accidents are often stressful and scary situations, there are procedures in place to help us deal with the events; however, not all drivers choose to comply with these procedures. In the event the other party involved in the accident intentionally leaves the scene without providing their correct identity and contact information, they are essentially guilty of a “hit-and-run.”

Hit-and-runs can occur with another moving vehicle, a parked vehicle, a pedestrian or bicyclist, or an inanimate object.  According to a study done by AAA’s Foundation for Traffic Safety, more than one hit-and-run crash occurs somewhere in the United States every minute. The number of hit-and-run incidents continues to rise on a yearly basis.  Over 2,000 hit-and-run fatalities were reported in 2016.

As a result of the commonality of these types of accidents, it’s important to understand your rights under Maryland laws that are in place to protect victims of hit-and-runs.  And while it’s a good idea to know what you should do if you’ve been in a hit-and-run, it’s even more important to know what not to do.

When two or more road cross, the risk of motor vehicle collisions increases. This is especially true when you add rush hour traffic, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Drivers often need to be hyper aware of their surroundings when driving through busy intersections. Even a mere second of distraction can have serious consequences.

The Federal Highway Administration recognizes that part of addressing road safety involves improving intersection travel and reducing the number of conflicts. While there are discussions about geometrically designed road markings and the application of additional traffic control devices, intersection safety often boils down to drivers yielding and stopping when they’re supposed to.

Too many Maryland families have lost loved ones to car crashes. What may make the sorrow worse is when that loved one was left to die by a driver who failed to remain at the scene of a motor vehicle accident. Some of those accidents involve pedestrians who may have lived if they had received medical care as quickly as possible.

The problem is that some of the victims are not found right away. For instance, a pedestrian was found in a roadway on a recent Thursday night. His condition was critical, and emergency responders rushed him to a hospital in the area. Sadly, his injuries were too severe, and despite their best efforts, medical personnel were unable to save his life.

When you hear the term “distracted driving,” you probably picture someone who is texting or using a cell phone to make a call. Many times that cellphone is the culprit, but there are many other kinds of distractions that divide motorists’ attention when they should be focusing solely on the road.

Accidents happen swiftly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1,000 people are injured each day in crashes involving distracted drivers. All it takes is a few moments of diverted attention behind the wheel to change lives forever.

There is no disputing the toll that drunk driving accidents take on U.S. roads and highways. Indeed, statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that 2015 alone saw over 1.1 million DUI arrests and, more significantly, a staggering 10,265 lives lost in DUI-related crashes. As if this wasn’t shocking enough, the CDC puts the price tag of these crashes at over $44 billion per year.

Given staggering numbers like these — and the sad reality that they are by no means a statistical anomaly — the question has always been what can be done to lower impaired driving rates. One suggestion that has been consistently floated by vehicle safety experts has been to limit alcohol intake by raising the sales tax on spirits, wine and beer. 

While motorists can now rely on everything from GPS systems and in-dash navigation programs to smartphones to provide them with directions, many nevertheless still rely on such tried-and-true techniques as consulting paper maps, asking strangers for directions and, of course, following friends.

Interestingly enough, a recently published study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology set out to determine just how safe this last method of getting from Point A to Point B really is.

For teens, the period running from Memorial Day through Labor Day ranks as one of the best of the year. That’s because school is officially out, meaning they are free from homework, able to earn much-needed income at summer jobs and, of course, hang out with their friends far more often.

On the other hand, the period running from Memorial Day through Labor Day ranks as one of the worst of the year for parents, emergency responders and safety advocates. That’s because it’s come to be known as the “100 deadliest days,” a timeframe in which the average number of teen driving fatalities has been shown to rise by as much as 15 percent compared to the remainder of the year.