Prairieville’s population of over 30,000 includes many hardworking people with rich histories and strong ties to their community. When they suffer an injury due to someone else’s negligence, all that hard work can come crashing down in an instant. If you’ve suffered the physical, financial, and emotional toll of an unexpected injury, our team of Prairieville injury lawyers can help you seek maximum compensation for your losses.
A personal injury is a legal term for any injury, physical or emotional, that results from someone else’s negligent or intentional actions. Many scenarios can lead to a personal injury case, and all have the potential for life-altering consequences for victims.
Traffic accidents can result in severe injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries, bone fractures, burns, spinal cord injuries, and internal organ damage. In 2023, Ascension Parish had 1,019 motor vehicle crashes resulting in suspected injuries. Some 1,576 people were injured in these collisions. Another 23 crashes resulted in 25 fatalities. The rate of traffic crash injuries in the area decreased by 11% from the previous year, but fatalities rose by 4%.
Not all of these crashes were accidents — many were the result of someone else’s negligence. For instance, 11 injury crashes involved drivers distracted by a handheld mobile device, and six involved distraction by another person. Careless, inattentive, negligent, or erratic driving was the leading type of driver violation, accounting for 17.39% of injury or fatality crashes.
Alcohol is another major contributor to serious crashes in the Prairieville area — alcohol-related crashes caused 11 fatalities and 89 injuries in 2023. Other common causes of serious motor vehicle collisions in Ascension Parish include:
Environmental conditions are also contributing factors in some cases, with traffic congestion as the leading factor in 6.91% of injury and fatality crashes. Heavy traffic doesn’t necessarily cause car crashes, but it can add to drivers’ distractibility, especially at Prairieville’s intersections. There were 609 injuries and five fatalities at Ascension Parish intersections during 2023.
Similar reasoning applies to the 4.7% of crashes that involved adverse weather or road surface conditions, such as ice, snow, or wet pavement. Prairieville drivers may not be able to control the weather, but they can control how they drive in poor weather conditions.
Several major trucking routes intersect in Prairieville, including Interstate 10 and U.S. 61. These busy highways contribute to the high number of Prairieville truck accidents. Nearly 2% of fatality and injury crashes in Ascension Parish in 2023 involved a tractor-trailer, single-unit truck, or other large truck. Two fatal crashes and 42 injury crashes involved a commercial vehicle.
Small vehicles are no match for large trucks in a collision. Semitrucks can weigh 20 to 30 times more than passenger vehicles, and their sheer size makes it difficult for truck drivers to stop quickly. The immense force of a collision with a large truck can result in severe injuries or death for occupants of smaller vehicles.
Driver fatigue, distracted driving, and inadequate training can increase the risk of a commercial truck accident. Truck drivers have strict deadlines to meet, which can lead to their driving longer hours than recommended by federal regulations. This can result in fatigue and reduced reaction times behind the wheel. Improper cargo loading and maintenance issues can also play a role in truck accidents.
Less than 2% of fatal/injury crashes in Ascension Parish in 2023 involved motorcycles, but these accidents can be catastrophic. Two motorcyclists died and 32 were injured in crashes in the parish that year. Nearly 67% of motorcycle crashes resulted in some type of bodily harm to the driver — 4% of those injuries were fatalities, and 18% were classified as “serious.”
Motorcyclists have a reputation for being reckless on the road, but other drivers are the cause of many Prairieville motorcycle crashes. Common causes of motorcycle accidents include drivers not yielding to motorcyclists, making unsafe lane changes, and distracted driving that prevents them from seeing a motorcyclist in time to avoid a collision.
The severity of injuries in motorcycle accidents can be attributed to the lack of protective barriers for riders. Unlike occupants of passenger vehicles who have airbags and seat belts, motorcyclists are exposed to direct impact with other vehicles or objects. Road hazards such as potholes, debris, and uneven surfaces can also be hazardous for motorcyclists.
Motorcyclists’ failure to wear proper protective gear, such as helmets, can also increase the risk of serious bodily harm in an accident — in fact, only 85% of motorcyclists involved in Ascension Parish crashes wore helmets. Of the motorcyclists involved in crashes who were not wearing helmets, 17% died. Of those who were wearing DOT-compliant helmets, just 3% died.
Collisions between motor vehicles and pedestrians are not as common as vehicle-vehicle accidents in Prairieville, but they are often fatal. In 2023, four pedestrians died as a result of traffic accidents in Ascension Parish. This means 16% of fatalities across all crash types involved pedestrians. Nineteen pedestrians suffered injuries, accounting for only 1% of all traffic injuries that year. This demonstrates the severity of Prairieville pedestrian accidents compared with other types.
Like motorcyclists, pedestrians are vulnerable to direct impact with a vehicle and have minimal protection against the force of a collision. Pedestrian accidents are often the result of distracted or impaired driving, failure to yield at crosswalks or intersections, and speeding.
Prairieville’s roads are often not designed with pedestrian safety in mind, lacking adequate sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian signals. This increases the likelihood of accidents involving pedestrians, but both drivers and pedestrians are responsible for reducing the risk of these collisions.
Ascension Parish’s bicyclist fatality rate is just as staggering as its pedestrian fatality rate. In 2023, three bicyclists died on the roads, accounting for 12% of all traffic fatalities. Another 15 bicyclists were injured in bicycle accidents that year.
Motor vehicle drivers contribute to the high rate of bicyclist injuries and fatalities when they fail to yield to cyclists. The small size of bicycles makes them less visible to drivers, and many accidents occur when a driver turns or changes lanes without checking for cyclists. Prairieville also has few dedicated bike lanes, forcing vulnerable cyclists to share the road with larger vehicles.
Prairieville is located close to several bodies of water, including Lake Pontchartrain, the Amite River, and the Mississippi River. Boating is a popular recreational activity on these waterways, but it also carries dangers. There were 26 boating accident fatalities in Louisiana in 2021 and 24 in 2020. News reports of capsized boats, boat crashes, and other incidents on Lake Pontchartrain highlight the dangers of boating in this region.
Some boat accidents are true accidents, but many involve some level of human error, such as speeding or operating a boat while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Failure to wear proper safety gear, like life jackets, also increases the risk of death or serious injury in a boating accident.
The Louisiana Department of Health estimates that 20% of the state’s workforce is employed in occupations with high risk for workplace fatalities. This holds true in Ascension Parish and Prairieville, where major employers include Volks Constructors, BASF Corporation, Shell Chemical, CF Industries, Huntsman Chemicals, Smith Tank and Steel, Occidental Chemical Corporation, and Westlake Vinyls.
More than 100 people die from work-related incidents each year throughout the state, and many more suffer traumatic injuries. A variety of industries were associated with fatal workplace injuries in Louisiana in 2022.
These injuries resulted from a range of events or exposures, including transportation incidents, falls, slips, and trips, exposure to harmful substances, and contact with objects or equipment. Prairieville workers injured in these incidents and surviving family members can usually seek workers’ compensation benefits.
If a third party, such as a subcontractor or equipment manufacturer, contributed to the accident, injured workers may also have grounds for a personal injury lawsuit. For example, if an oil rig worker suffered a fall because of a faulty harness, they could pursue damages from the manufacturer of the harness or the contractor responsible for inspecting and maintaining it.
Many injuries in Prairieville occur on someone else’s property, including hotels, stores, public parks, and private homes. Property owners are responsible for providing reasonably safe conditions to anyone who enters their premises legally. Owners who fail to maintain their land and buildings safely may be held liable for accidents resulting from hazardous conditions.
For instance, if the owner of an apartment complex received reports of a broken stair railing but failed to repair it, and a tenant fell down the stairs and suffered injuries, the owner may be liable for not addressing the known hazard. Prairieville premises liability cases can involve a range of incidents, including slips and falls, dog bites, violent crimes, fire hazards, and more.
Manufacturers and distributors of commercial products owe a similar duty of care to consumers. They must ensure that their products are safe for their intended use and include appropriate warnings and instructions for safe use.
A manufacturer or distributor may be held liable for damages if its product is defective and causes harm to a consumer. It may also be liable if it knew of a potential hazard but failed to warn consumers. Examples of Prairieville product liability cases include faulty car parts, dangerous toys, contaminated food products, and harmful medications.
Product liability can come into play in other types of personal injury cases, such as motor vehicle accidents — if a faulty car part contributed to the accident, the manufacturer could be held liable for the victim’s damages. Faulty airbags and tires are common examples of product liability in car accidents.
If you have a valid personal injury claim, you can recover compensation for any losses you suffered as a result of your injuries. These losses, known as damages, may include economic and non-economic damages.
Those who lost a loved one due to someone else’s negligence or intentional actions may also be eligible to recover damages through a wrongful death claim. Damages in a wrongful death case in Prairieville include any losses the family suffered as a result of their loved one’s death, such as funeral and burial expenses, loss of financial support, and loss of companionship.
As a Prairieville accident victim, you must establish four elements to prove negligence and hold the at-fault party liable for their damages.
Proving these elements of negligence can be challenging without legal representation. The right Prairieville personal injury lawyers will build a strong case to help prove the at-fault party’s liability for fair compensation.
Personal injury victims must show that someone else’s negligence caused their injuries to recover damages in a personal injury lawsuit. However, negligence isn’t always clear-cut, and multiple parties may share responsibility for an accident.
For example, 62% of drivers who died in crashes in Ascension Parish in 2023 were not wearing seat belts properly. If one driver ran a red light and crashed into another driver who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, both parties may be liable. The accident likely wouldn’t have happened if the first driver had followed traffic laws, but the injuries would have been significantly less severe if the second driver had been properly restrained.
The concept of comparative fault comes into play in these types of cases. Under Louisiana’s comparative fault law, you may still recover damages if you were partially at fault for your injuries. The damages you can recover, however, would be reduced in proportion to their percentage of fault. For instance, if a court determined that your negligence contributed to the accident by 25%, and the total value of your damages is $100,000, you could recover no more than $75,000.
Louisiana has a strict time limit for filing personal injury lawsuits, known as the statute of limitations. In most cases, victims must file a personal injury lawsuit in Prairieville within one year of the date of the injury. This deadline is shorter than in most other states, which typically allow two to three years to file a lawsuit.
If you miss the deadline, you may lose your opportunity to seek compensation for your damages. However, there are some exceptions to the statute of limitations that may apply in certain circumstances. For example, if you were a minor at the time of the accident, the deadline may be extended.
Regardless of any potential exceptions, it’s best to start taking legal action as soon as possible after being injured. This gives our Prairieville injury lawyers plenty of time to investigate the injury, gather evidence, and build a strong case for compensation.
If you’ve been injured in Prairieville, hiring a personal injury lawyer can make all the difference in your ability to recover fair compensation. The defendant’s insurance company will do everything in its power to reduce the compensation it pays you, and we’re ready to level the playing field.
Our Prairieville injury lawyers will gather compelling evidence for the defendant’s liability and negotiate with insurance companies on your behalf. If the insurer refuses to make a fair settlement offer, our experienced trial lawyers can take your case to court.
It costs nothing to get started with a consultation to discuss your case. Contact us today to learn more about your legal options and start moving forward
“We focus on being the best at 3 things: preparing hard for our cases, making sure we deliver what clients need, and making sure they are treated well throughout the process.”
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