Minor Impact Car Accidents and Insurance Adjusters’ Refusal to Pay
If I have heard it once, I have heard it a thousand times from different insurance adjusters: “Your client‘s car accident, involved a minor impact collision and a small amount of property damage; therefore, your client cannot possibly be seriously injured”. At best, such a statement represents an insurance adjuster’s fundamental misunderstanding of the laws of physics, as they relate to car accidents. Unfortunately, I think it is more likely that the insurance industry as a whole has taken this stance, knowing full well that the position is not supported by the facts.
The facts are pretty straight forward. A large percentage of injuries to the spine occur as a result of a rear-end collision. Injuries to the spine can and do occur in accidents involving speeds as low as five miles per hour. Most injuries to the spine occur at speeds of less than twelve miles per hour. Newer vehicles are designed with bumpers that will withstand, without any damage, speeds of up to fifteen miles per hour. Therefore, injuries are very likely to occur at low speeds that do not result in property damage.
If you have been involved in a low impact car accident, it is more likely than not that the at-fault driver’s insurance company will attempt to settle the claim for a very small amount of money. No one should accept less than adequate compensation for injuries resulting from the negligence of another. The truth of the matter is that the insurance companies all have attorneys working for them, and you need an attorney working for you with only one goal: to maximize the amount you recover from the insurance carrier. Contact attorney Russ Purvis at Tieman, Spencer & Hicks, LLC, for a free initial consultation.
