San Antonio Rollover Accident Attorney

Our San Antonio Rollover Accident Attorneys Will Fight For You If You’ve Been Injured Due to a Tire Blowout

A rollover accident or any type of wreck involving a blowout is a frightening and harrowing experience.

Unfortunately, the legal process to secure compensation for injuries and property damage caused by such an accident can add more challenges and stress, and you can’t assume that the process to obtain damages will be the same as with any other type of car accident. From a legal standpoint, there are several challenges that are unique to tire blowout accidents, so your best chance of securing the restitution you deserve lies with an experienced San Antonio rollover accident attorney who is familiar with the challenges that may arise.

While the harm done to the victim of a rollover accident and his or her car will usually be far greater than in a standard passenger car accident, many insurance claims are still denied because the victims, also known as plaintiffs, don’t secure adequate legal representation to protect their interests. The specific requirements for proving and winning a rollover accident case can be confusing to inexperienced attorneys and downright mystifying for someone without any legal experience at all. You need help.

How Are Rollover and Tire Defect Cases Different from Standard Car Accident Cases?

In tire defect cases, the chances are high that multiple parties caused the accident, in whole or in part, with their negligence – much more so than with a standard auto wreck. In most rollover accidents caused by blowouts, the tire manufacturer may likely bear liability, but other factors could have caused the accident because other parties may have been negligent as well. For example:

• The tire could have been improperly installed and mounted.
• The tire could have been improperly maintained.
• The tire may not have been suitable for the vehicle upon which it was installed.

As a result, any party that took part in the manufacture, design, selection, installation or maintenance of the defective tire may be responsible for a rollover accident and the injuries and property damage caused by it – at least in part. Moreover, your accident may have been caused by several other factors, including:

• Lack of resistance to rolling over with when static or when loaded due to the design of the vehicle’s suspension.
• The vehicle’s compressive strength and rigidity in the A, B, and C pillars may not have been able to withstand a rollover accident.
• Any supplemental safety equipment may not have functioned properly during a rollover accident, resulting in additional injuries to the occupants.
• Many other factors, since even a minor fault could lead to major injuries in a rollover accident.

Liability Must be Proven for Compensation to be Received

Just because you’ve been injured in a rollover accident isn’t enough for you to be sure that you will be compensated adequately for your injuries. To get what you deserve, you will need the help of a San Antonio rollover accident attorney, who knows how to investigate your case and secure necessary evidence. You also need someone with a list of contacts to use as expert witnesses. Because evidence isn’t enough to make an airtight case, you’ll also need convincing testimony to help frame the evidence in such a way as to convince anyone of your right to compensation.

Rollover accidents are even more complex than normal car accidents because so many different parties may be responsible. That’s exactly why you need an experienced San Antonio rollover accident attorney who’s amassed years of experiences prowling accident scenes in other rollover cases and knows how to find the critical evidence so that everyone who caused your accident will be held responsible for it. After 20 years investigating rollover accident cases, the lawyers at Grossman Law Offices know the importance of a timely and thorough investigation. Evidence can fade immediately and we must find it before it is gone, sequestering your car and examining all of the tires, finding and evaluating any forensic evidence on the scene, most notably skid marks, and locating any eye witnesses or video that can shed light on the case.

In court, you will need expert testimony to convince a jury of the meaning and importance of the evidence we find, so we rely on our expert mechanical and engineering witnesses to explain the damage to the tires or examine the structural inefficiencies of the vehicle’s design.

Selecting the Right Tire for a Vehicle is More Important Than You Might Think

If you think a tire is just some random piece of rubber, then you’re wrong. In reality, the successful operation of any vehicle depends upon the sound construction and functionality of the modern pneumatic tire. A complex apparatus, the tire depends on different layers of various materials working together for maximum heat and friction resistance. Any fault in the chemical or molecular structure of the tire or the suitability of a tire for the vehicle upon which it has been placed can cause the tire to malfunction, resulting in a rollover accident.

In addition to the leaf or fixed metal springs that comprise a car’s suspension system, the tires are often called the fifth spring because they enable your vehicle to absorb and release energy as you change lanes or turn. Unfortunately, the tires don’t have a fixed spring rate like the springs in the suspension. For the tire to perform properly, it must be in good condition and appropriate for your vehicle. If the tire becomes worn down or was never appropriate for your car, then the tire is a bad spring that could result in a rollover accident.

When your car is driving down the road, its weight flattens the tire into a flat spot where it meets the roadway. This area, known as the contact patch, is very small, about the size of a tennis shoe, but it is critically important to the functionality of the car. Friction occurs at the point where the tire bends to meet the ground at the contact patch, forcing the tire to become heated up. The same concept can be seen by bending a paperclip backward and forward repeatedly. The combination of the heat at the contact patch, the heat from the compression of air inside the tire, and the absorption of heat in the atmosphere can affect your tire’s structure. If the tire is faulty, then it can result in a blowout and a rollover accident.

Since the tires are the only things on your car that make contact with the road, manufacturers carry a great responsibility to ensure their tires can perform as they were intended, especially considering the various ways that heat intensifies in and around the tire and the relative small size of the contact patch. Rollover accidents become very likely when manufacturers fail to supply the correct tire for a particular car.

What Damages Can You Receive?

While proving a rollover accident due to a tire defect can be more difficult than a standard car accident, the types of personal injury and wrongful death damages that an injured victim or his or her family can receive are the same as for other types of accidents. If you can prove that you’ve been injured or a loved one has been killed in a rollover accident, then you’re probably wondering about what damages you can receive as compensation for the harm that you have suffered.

Available Damages for Injuries Suffered in Rollover Accidents

When you suffer an injury in a rollover accident, you’re entitled to pursue restitution for:

• Damage to property.
• Medical bills.
• Pain and suffering.
• Lost wages due to time spent out of work while recovering.
• Reduced future earning potential as a result of crippling disabilities.

Available Damages When a Loved One Has Been Killed in a Rollover Accident

Just like a wrongful death claim for any other type of car accident or other fatal accident, the families of people wrongfully killed in rollover accidents can seek compensation for both wrongful death damages and survival damages. The purpose of wrongful death damages is to compensate family members, including spouses, children, parents, and in some cases siblings, for the losses they’ve individually suffered and may include compensation for:

• Funeral expenses.
• Any medical bills charged to the deceased before death.
• Loss of the monetary support the victim supplied the family.
• Emotional and mental distress.
• Loss of the unique consortium and irreplaceable familial love the victim provided.

Survival damages, on the other hand, are only pursuable for the closest living relative of the deceased, going in descending order from spouse, to children, to parents, and finally to siblings. These damages permit the closest living relative of the deceased to serve as proxy to him or her, filing a lawsuit to secure the damages the victim could have sought had he or she survived the accident. Survival damages may include compensation for:

• Medical expenses the victim would have incurred in seeking continued treatment.
• Damage to property.
• Lost salary during the time the victim would have been out of work receiving treatment or recovering.
• Lost future earning potential caused by possible lifelong disabilities.
• The victim’s pain and suffering during the accident.
• Emotional and mental distress felt by the victim would have suffered during rehabilitation.

Actually securing these damages, however, is still tricky because a number of factors complicate the quest for restitution following a rollover wreck. Do to the technical nature of these cases, people without any legal experience and many inexperienced attorneys stand little chance of investigating and utilizing expert witnesses in order to be successful. You need a skilled and experienced San Antonio rollover accident attorney with a strong track record to be successful. Only someone with extensive familiarity can handle the complex factors involved with such a case.

Contact San Antonio Rollover Accident Lawyer Michael Grossman

For more than 20 years, our San Antonio rollover accident attorneys have helped the victims and grieving loved one obtain adequate compensation for the losses they’ve incurred.

If a family member has been killed or you have suffered injuries in a rollover accident or any other wreck resulting from a blowout or other tire flaw, we can help you get what you deserve. To discuss the specifics of your case with a specialist on the subject, call us today (toll-free) at 1-855-393-0000 for a free consultation. We’re here to answer any questions you might have about rollover accident litigation and offer you our knowledgeable legal assistance.