Ejection Auto Accidents

Ejection auto accidents in Jacksonville are among the most serious of the vehicle accidents we deal with. This is because when an occupant crashes through a windshield and lands on the ground, the injury and fatality rate is much higher.

Our Jacksonville personal injury lawyers have helped the victims of ejection auto accidents to recover compensation from horrendous injuries that gravely impact their quality of life.

More drivers and passengers wear seatbelts than in the past, but there are still numerous accidents in which the occupant of a car, an SUV, a van, a bus or a truck is ejected onto the road in Florida.

People who are ejected are critically injured or killed at a rate of more than three times greater than wreck victims who are not ejected.

Even at a moderate speed of 30 mph or 40 mph, being thrown through a windshield or window exerts tremendous trauma on the body. Often people who are ejected land on pavement and may suffer critical head and spinal injuries. Our Jacksonville ejection injury lawyers carefully investigate these crashes to find out why a driver or a passenger was ejected.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) nearly 30 percent of all deaths suffered in car crashes involve an ejection of occupants.

As well as the serious injuries ejection victims face from hitting the windshield and the ground, accident victims may be struck or run over by other drivers who are passing by.

Vehicle occupants may suffer a complete or a partial ejection during a car crash. This impacts the severity and type of injuries sustained.

• Complete Ejection – Occupants who are completely thrown out of a moving vehicle will typically suffer the most serious injuries. They may hit the road or be struck by vehicles passing an accident scene.

• Partial Ejection – On occasions, the occupant’s body will be projected forward through the windshield, or partially thrown out of a side window. In some cases, a partial ejection is caused by a seatbelt malfunction. Although the injuries sustained in a partial ejection are often less serious than those in a complete ejection, victims may still be gravely hurt. A partial ejection scenario may be extremely dangerous if the vehicle is still moving after a collision because the occupant is often trapped.

Ejection accidents can be complicated and liability may be apportioned to another driver or a vehicle manufacturer if safety equipment failed to work. Parties who can be held liable include:

1. The driver of the car a passenger was traveling in. The passenger can make a claim against the driver of the car he or she was traveling in if the accident was the driver’s fault.

2. Another driver who caused a wreck.

3. A vehicle manufacturer responsible for faulty seatbelts, weak doors, malfunctioning airbags or a tire manufacturer whose defective product caused a blowout.

Seatbelts are meant to prevent ejections in auto accidents. Drivers or passengers who are wearing one should be restrained in their vehicle during a wreck. Of 35,092 people who lost their lives in motor vehicle accidents in 2015, 48 percent were not wearing seat belts, states the NHTSA. In 2015, seat belts saved approximately 13,941 lives in the United States. The NHTSA estimates they could have saved another 2,814 lives if each had been wearing their seatbelt.

Sometimes injured people fear they cannot make a claim because they were not wearing a seatbelt. Under Florida law, an injured person can found to be comparatively negligent for failing to wear an operational seatbelt and the person’s recovery can be reduced by his or her percentage of fault.

Our Jacksonville auto accident lawyers will be happy to discuss an ejection accident with people who have been injured or family members of those who died. We can meet clients either at our downtown Jacksonville office or, if convenient, at or near their homes. Call us at (904) 632-0077.