Top Three Causes of Accidental Death
Vehicle collisions, falls, and unintentional poisonings (mostly drug overdoses) have been the top three causes of accidental death for decades. But recent events have shuffled the deck, in terms of wrongful death proportionality. Safety advances have somewhat reduced the number of motor vehicle crash deaths, although these incidents still kill or seriously injure millions of Amercians every year. Social changes have affected falls and poisonings as well. More on that below.
Some things have changed, and other things haven’t changed. For example, wrongful death survivors still need compensation and justice in these cases. Survivors need money to pay the decedent’s final expenses and replace the income s/he would have provided. They need justice to get closure, so they can move on with their lives. A Sugar Land personal injury lawyer can obtain both these things in court.
Car Crashes
Driver error causes over 98 percent of the car crashes in Texas. Defective products, usually defective tires, cause most of the other 2 percent. The two major kinds of driver error are:
- Operator Impairment: During the pandemic, drivers picked up some bad habits. These bad habits include drinking and driving. Quite simply, since traffic enforcement fell off drastically, drivers knew there was little chance of being caught. This bad habit, like many others, was easy to form and has proven hard to break. Drunk driving crashes remain high. Other kinds of driver impairment include drug use and excessive fatigue.
- Aggressive Driving: Speeding was another bad pandemic-related habit. Empty roads encourage excessive speeding. Many people even bragged about speeding online. Excessive speed increases the risk of a wreck as well as the force in a collision, making speed one of the leading causes of fatal car crashes. Other kinds of aggressive driving include turning unsafely and ignoring a traffic control device.
Driver error causes almost all wrecks, but errant drivers aren’t necessarily legally responsible for damages in these cases. Texas is a comparative fault state. So, if both drivers were partially at fault (e.g. one was speeding and the other was drunk), survivors might be ineligible for compensation.
We should briefly mention passengers. Regardless of which driver was at fault, survivors of a deceased passenger can partner with a Missouri City personal injury lawyer and exercise their legal rights.
Falls
As the population ages, fatal falls have become more common. In fact, in 2021, falls killed almost as many people as car crashes.
Motorists have a duty of care to avoid accidents if possible. Property owners have a duty of care to provide safe environments for their invited guests. This duty includes a responsibility to immediately address wet spots on floors, uneven walkways, and other fall injury hazards.
In addition to a duty of care, an attorney must prove the owner knew, or should have known, about the injury-causing hazard. As in all civil cases, an attorney must prove actual or constructive knowledge by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not).
Unintentional Poisonings
In 2021, as the opioid epidemic continued, unintentional poisonings killed almost twice as many Americans as car crashes.
From a liability standpoint, unintentional poisoning wrongful death claims are very complex. We mentioned multiple causes above. Unintentional poisonings almost always have multiple causes.
Frequently, a drug company made, and illegally marketed, a potent and addictive medicine. Then, a drug shipping company transported the pills without complying with the Controlled Substances Act. Next, a doctor wrote a prescription without asking questions. Finally, a negligent property owner turned a blind eye to drug use at that location.
One or more of these parties could be responsible for wrongful death damages, which usually include compensation for the decedent’s final expenses, the decedent’s final medical bills, lost future financial support, the decedent’s emotional distress, and lost future financial support.
Work With a Tough-Minded Fort Bend County Attorney
Injury victims are entitled to significant compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney in Missouri City, contact the Henrietta Ezeoke Law Firm. We do not charge upfront legal fees in these matters.
Source:
cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm
