San Antonio Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers

What Causes a Spinal Injury in San Antonio?

Spinal cord injuries often result from car accidents. According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, car accidents account for 39.3 percent of spinal cord injuries. Other traumas that cause spinal cord injuries include falls (31.8 percent), acts of violence (13.5 percent), and sports-related injuries (8 percent). In the United States, nearly 300,000 people suffer from spinal cord injuries.

In 2010, 29,585 victims were involved in a crash or injury in San Antonio. In 2018, that number rose to 42,043, and again up to 53,000 in 2019. Spinal cord injuries are more likely to happen when a motor vehicle collides with a bicyclist or pedestrian. Additional risk factors include not wearing a seatbelt and ejection from the vehicle upon impact and car crashes involving vehicle rollovers.

Most traffic accidents happen at intersections. With multiple modes of transportation crossing each other, sudden changes in directions, and the conducting of quick maneuvers, there’s more room for driver error and less forgiveness for or opportunities to correct driver negligence.

Many traffic accidents occur due to negligent or wrongful actions or a failure to act by a motorist, including:

1. Speeding: Drivers that fail to follow posted speed limits often increase the risk of accidents. Additionally, faster-moving cars cause greater impacts, resulting in more severe injuries, such as spinal cord injuries.
2. Disobeying traffic signs and signals: Drivers and pedestrians have a duty to follow traffic signs and signals intended to control the safe movement of traffic. At intersections, where most traffic accidents occur, stop signs, signal lights, and yield signs, when properly adhered to, help motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians maneuver without colliding.
3. Reckless driving: In San Antonio, reckless driving is defined broadly as “willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.” Reckless driving includes changing lanes erratically, driving excessively over the speed limit or too fast for weather conditions, road rage, and driving intoxicated.
4. Driving under the influence: The legal blood alcohol limit in Texas is 0.08 percent. Additionally, drivers might use drugs, such as marijuana or prescription medications, that also impair their ability to drive safely by affecting or hindering their cognitive state (i.e., their ability to make decisions and react timely).
5. Distracted driving: Drivers generally don’t have much time to react to changes in road, weather, or other conditions. Most drivers keep a two- or three-second “safe distance” from the vehicle in front of them, so being distracted for just a few seconds can lead to a car accident. Looking at a text, changing a song, inputting GPS coordinates all seem like quick, inconsequential tasks, but those few seconds are all it takes to find yourself involved in a life-changing traffic accident.

Particularly in San Antonio, the rate of occurrence of car accidents is rapidly growing. In just nine years, from 2010 to 2019, car accidents on certain San Antonio roads, including NW Loop 410 and Hunt Ln., increased by 84 percent and 95 percent, respectively.

The San Antonio Express-News reported on at least 25 dangerous intersections in San Antonio, with the top ten intersections for large numbers of traffic accidents, from most to least, being:

1. Loop 1604 and Interstate 10
2. Northwest Loop 410 and Interstate 10
3. US 281 and Interstate 35
4. West Loop 1604 North and Highway 16
5. Northeast Loop 410 and Interstate 35
6. North Loop 1604 East and Interstate 35
7. Alamo Ranch Parkway and Westwood Loop
8. Northeast Loop 410 and Walzem Road
9. Northwest Loop 410 and Wurzbach Road
10. Northwest Loop 410 and San Pedro Avenue

Generally, we find that many traffic accidents in San Antonio happen at intersections crossing Loop 1604 and Loop 410.

If you are suffering from spinal cord injuries due to a car accident in or near San Antonio, then our San Antonio spinal cord injury attorneys can evaluate the viability of your claim and help you recover fair compensation for your damages. Our law firm seeks to put our clients’ best interests first and give you individualized attention and care from the free consultation to case resolution.

What Is the Impact of a San Antonio Spinal Injury?

Spinal injuries impact individuals in a variety of ways, including:

• Quality of life: A spinal injury can cause partial or complete impairment of sensation and motor function, so you may no longer complete everyday activities or participate in hobbies. Sometimes, even small tasks become difficult. These types of changes are known as “quality of life” impacts, and although they may seem minuscule, the added burden often causes severe physical, emotional, and mental trauma for the injured person.
• Medical: Spinal injuries cause discomfort and can lead to other physical and mental conditions and symptoms as well. For example, a spinal injury can lead to difficulty breathing, depression, cognitive impairment, and harm to different areas of the body.
• Financial: Spinal cord injuries result in significant financial strain. First, someone suffering from a spinal cord injury must seek medical care. Treatment for a spinal cord injury can include costs of hospital and emergency room visits, doctors’ fees, surgery, rehabilitation, and assistive medical devices. Second, a spinal cord injury victim often suffers a loss in income due to time off work to visit the doctor and recover from operations or an inability to return to work altogether due to permanent disability or job loss. Courts sometimes compensate individuals for a loss of future earning ability. Third, spinal cord injury victims may incur expenses to repair their vehicle or modify their home to accommodate their disability.

How Do You Start a Spinal Cord Injury Claim in San Antonio, TX?

Contact an attorney to evaluate your case’s viability and learn about your legal rights and remedies as soon as possible after suffering a spinal cord injury due to a car accident or another person’s negligence or wrongdoing.

You’ll also want to get a medical diagnosis and begin treatment—document everything. Keep records of medical evaluations, treatment plans, and conversations with insurance companies. Log your medical and property damage bills and expenses, including paid and unpaid costs.

Your attorney will need as much information as possible to build a solid case and guide you. For a spinal cord injury, it’s critical to show how the injury is impacting your life. For instance, how has your life changed from before the accident or injury? In what ways has your injury diminished your ability to live as you did before (e.g., can you enjoy the same activities)?

What Happens After You Start Your San Antonio Spinal Cord Injury Case?

Your attorney might try to settle your spinal cord injury compensation claim before filing a lawsuit. Before and after filing a lawsuit, your attorney will help gather evidence via discovery—a process in which both sides exchange evidentiary and supportive documents and information, and each side attempts to examine the other’s claims and defenses. Discovery can include a document exchange, interrogatories, depositions, and other evidence gatherings.

Expert witnesses in a spinal cord injury case can help determine how an injury happened and the severity of those injuries. Your attorney can decide which witnesses will be most beneficial to supporting the specific facts of your case. These witnesses are often essential to a satisfactory outcome if your case proceeds to trial. They can help inform and educate the judge and jury about the medical aspects of your injury and your projected recovery.

In the majority of cases, though, a settlement is negotiated outside of the courtroom. A settlement is often beneficial to both parties because it allows the victim to recover compensation quickly to focus on their recovery, and it eliminates the uncertainty of trial for the defendant. The attorneys at Patino Injury and Accident Attorneys seek to negotiate the best settlement offers for our clients before zealously representing them at trial, if trial becomes necessary.

In a spinal cord injury lawsuit, we try to help you recover the following damages relevant to your case:

• Compensation for medical bills related to the injury: This type of compensation includes hospital bills; prescription drugs; operation costs; doctor visits; rehabilitation fees; assistive medical devices, including wheelchairs, home modifications, and vehicle modifications; and future medical expenses.
• Compensation for lost wages: Compensation is often recoverable for lost wages due to missed work and future lost wages resulting from a loss of earning capacity.
• Compensation for pain and suffering: This type of compensation includes both physical and emotional pain.
• Punitive damages: These damages are sometimes awarded to the injured party to punish the defendant for gross negligence or intentional wrongdoing as a deterrent for future similar actions.