Automobile and Truck Accidents

If you have suffered a significant injury in a collision, you may be dealing with a number of difficult issues:  medical bills, insurance claims, lost income, inability to do your daily activities, property damage, and in some cases, long-term disability, trauma or grief.  We invite you to contact our highly-qualified attorneys to advise you about how we can help.  Our firm handles a relatively small number of significant cases to ensure that our clients understand their legal options and, where appropriate, receive the full value of each claim.  You may request a free and confidential consultation with our web form or by telephone at 503-445-2100 or toll-free 1-800-800-1004.

If you are looking for information about what to do immediately after a collision, we also encourage you to read the information below.

What to do After an Accident

After a truck, motorcycle, bus, car or any other motor vehicle accident, you should take these critical steps to protect yourself and preserve your rights:

First, if you have suffered any injury or impact, you should immediately seek medical attention. It is common for crash victims not to realize that they have suffered a significant injury for hours or days after a collision.  Head, neck, spine, hearing/tinnitus, and connective tissue injuries are particularly likely to cause delayed symptoms. Such undetected injuries could affect your ability to work and otherwise affect your life. As treatment progresses, it is essential for crash victims to follow the treatment recommendations of their doctor, physical therapist, chiropractor or other medical provider.

Second, report the crash.  Oregon law requires you to report the vehicle accident to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) within 72 hours of the accident. The accident report form can be found on the DMV web site here.  The Washington Vehicle Collision Report form can be found on the Washington State Patrol web site here.

Third, do not make any statements or give any recorded statement to the other driver or his or her insurance company unless you have consulted with a lawyer. Although insurance company representatives are usually courteous and professional, keep in mind that their primary responsibility is to minimize the amount that the company pays on each claim.  Insurance companies often pressure claimants to settle early, before they realize the extent of their accident-related injuries. Once you settle, you cannot later obtain any money from the insurance company.

Fourth, you will likely need to file a Personal Injury Protection (PIP) application with your own insurance company to recover certain medical expenses and lost wages. Keep in mind that PIP coverage in Oregon and Washington is limited in amount (often $15,000) and duration (often one year), and may provide only a small portion of the expenses you have incurred. Additionally, in the event your collision involved an uninsured or underinsured driver, you will need to file a “proof of loss” with your insurance company.

Fifth, even if it appears that the bad driver's insurance company will or should accept responsibility, preserve the evidence that will support your case.  Keep a record of your injuries, lost wages and other damages you suffer as a result of the car or truck accident.  Save all documents related to your case.  Take and save photographs of all visible injuries, casts, wound bandages or dressings, vehicle and property damage.  Take additional photos of visible injuries frequently as they heal.  Digital photographs of 3 megapixels or more are preferred, in the event it is necessary to use them as exhibits.  Understandably, crash victims often don't think of collecting this information.  However, good documentation helps us to prove to the insurance company or, if necessary a jury, the full extent of your injuries and your claim to recover for them.

Protect Your Rights

We encourage crash victims to contact our firm as early as possible to ensure that evidence and claims are preserved.  This is important even though an insurance company representative may have told you that their company will accept responsibility, or that your statute of limitations to pursue a claim is not urgent.  In some situations it is essential for us to obtain expert reports from a private investigator, consulting doctor, accident reconstructionist, vocational rehabilitation specialist, economist, or life care planner early in the process. 

In addition, deadlines are often shorter than expected.  For example, in Oregon, many claims involving vehicles operated by public employees (including police, fire and other emergency vehicles), are subject to a 180-day deadline.  Certain claims involving drunk drivers can also expire in 180 days. 

We can respond to inquiries to our free web form or by telephone at 503-445-2100 or toll-free 1-800-800-1004.

Special Note: Drunk Driving Victims in Oregon

If you are a drunk driver victim in Oregon, extremely short statutes of limitations may apply to some of your claims.  Notably, in Oregon, bars, restaurants or others who serve alcohol to patrons who are “visibly intoxicated” and become drunk drivers can be held liable for injury or death caused by the drunk driver.  However, the deadline for asserting a claim against the server may be as short as 180 days.  This is commonly referred to as the "Dram Shop Act" deadline. 

Common drunk driving collision scenarios involve loss of control, roll over, crossing the centerline and causing a head on collision, running a red light at an intersection, or causing a multiple car pile up. As with other automobile injury claims, you and any other witnesses to the collision should preserve as much information as possible about how the crash occurred.

Details Matter

Vehicle accidents can involve many different vehicles operated in varied circumstances. The vehicles may include an ATV, automobile, car, freight truck, golf cart, limousine, logging truck, mini van, motorcycle, moving truck, moving van, off road vehicle, parked vehicle, motor home, recreational vehicle (RV), rental car, rental truck such as a UHAUL or HERTZ truck, scooter, SUV, taxicab, tanker truck, tow truck, towncar, tractor trailer, truck, Tri-met or Trimet bus, Maxtrain, or Max train, wheelchair or wheel chair. In discussing your case with an attorney it is important to provide full details of the accident and the vehicles involved.

Pedestrians

Pedestrians are often the victims of careless drivers and drunk drivers. These pedestrian victims can include: children or students crossing the street at a crosswalk, persons walking down a sidewalk or on the shoulder of the road, persons in wheelchairs, and highway construction workers or flaggers.  Because many pedestrian statutes are the same or similar to laws protecting bicyclists, our firm's work on behalf of pedestrians overlaps with our bicycle law practice area.

Deadlines

If you have been injured in an car, tractor-trailer, motorcycle, school bus or truck accident, it is important to have an attorney in your state evaluate any claim you may have before potential deadlines expire. The law provides strict deadlines for bringing automobile claims. For example, in Oregon, certain claims involving drunk drivers, and most claims involving vehicles driven by federal, state or local public employees may expire in as little as 180 days. These may include situations where a person is hurt by a negligently-driven police car, fire truck, meter reader, mail delivery truck or other publicly-owned vehicle.  Crash victims should not assume that claims are governed by general tort statutes of limitations.

Insurance Tip

Are you covered? Contact your insurance agent to ensure that you have adequate insurance coverage. Oregon law requires only $25,000 in liability and uninsured/underinsured coverage. Higher levels of coverage cost relatively little and can provide significant protection at relatively low cost. Many people choose to purchase liability coverage that is approximately equal to their net worth. Unlike liability coverage, uninsured/underinsured coverage provides benefits to you in the event you are injured by an uninsured or underinsured driver, and generally protects you in the event of a collision with a vehicle while you are bicycling or walking, as well.

A Portland based accident attorney at Vangelisti Kocher LLP can provide you a free consultation to discuss your injuries and legal rights.  Our attorneys are licensed in Oregon and Washington.