How Are We Driving in Harford County?
Harford County residents are involved in car accidents at similar rates every year, according to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office. Total car crashes were down by only 23 accidents in 2019 from the previous year. Additionally, Harford County reported three fatal car accidents in each of the past two years. A variable that has not changed much in Harford County is the locations where police filed most accident reports. According to information provided by the Harford County Sherriff’s Office, the intersections of (1) Blue Spruce Drive and Bel Air S. Parkway and (2) Trimble Road and Joppa Farm Road made the top of the list in the past two consecutive years.
What should you do if you’re involved in an accident and injured at one of these intersections or elsewhere? Many of these intersections are surrounded by nearby stores and businesses, such as banks, restaurants and grocery stores. This can be helpful when searching for nearby video surveillance that may have recorded the accident on its footage. Be sure to take note of nearby stores and businesses, which may be helpful in providing video footage to prove your case at a later time.
On the other hand, of the 877 total crashes in 2019, only 276 of them were intersection-related. Therefore, more than two-thirds of crashes in Harford County occur somewhere other than at an intersection. Such accidents may occur during unsafe lane changes, parking lot incidents, as well as rear-end collisions on many of our county back roads. As with many accidents, non-intersection-related incidents often become word versus word disputes between the drivers. For example, one driver says the other driver unsafely changed lanes and caused the accident and vice versa. These disputes can be particularly difficult to prove once the parties have left the scene of the accident and have gone home to report the accidents to their insurance companies. Oftentimes, there are no witnesses nor nearby video surveillance cameras to help prove your case.
The most prudent thing to do following an accident is to stop your car immediately after the impact, leave it in its stopped position and take as many photographs as possible. Assuming the at-fault vehicle has also not moved far from the accident location, be sure to take photographs of that vehicle as well. Photographs immediately after the crash are often what we litigation attorneys spend much of our time in court arguing over to prove someone in your position was not at fault. While a photograph can often speak a thousand words, calling an attorney to discuss your options after you are injured is often a good idea.
