What To Do If Your Child is in a Car Accident in California

The last thing you want as a parent is for your child to be in a car accident. Unfortunately, tragic car accidents with children involved are far too common. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 156,502 children injured in traffic accidents in 2022. Three percent of all traffic fatalities in 2022 were children 14 years old or younger, and 25 percent of child fatalities involved drivers impaired by alcohol.

If your child has suffered injuries, including serious injuries or death, in a car accident, you should contact an attorney to hold the guilty parties responsible. You may qualify for financial compensation for medical bills, loss of earning capacity, pain and suffering, wrongful death and more.

Call us today for a free consultation if your child was injured or killed in a car accident. We won’t charge you any fee to handle your child car accident case until and unless we recover financial compensation on your behalf.

After a Child Car Accident: First Steps

The first steps you should take after your child has been involved in a car accident include:

Stay at the Accident Scene

If anyone has been killed or injured, you are legally obligated to stay at the scene of the accident until police arrive unless you require immediate medical attention. If you unlawfully leave an accident scene involving an injury, you might get charged with hit and run, which could lead to a huge fine or even jail time.

Get Medical Attention if Necessary

If you or your child were injured and require medical attention immediately, you don’t have to wait for the police. You should call 911 or have someone else do it for you if you can’t. For those with children in car seats, do not remove your child from your child’s car seat. Removing children from child safety seats after and accident can injure them further, even if they are age-appropriate car seats. Let emergency responders safely remove your children from their car seats or booster seats.

Get to Safety

If you can safely do, get your car to a safe location where it doesn’t block traffic. If moving your vehicle would be dangerous, though, leave it where it is. If someone has been seriously injured or killed, leave your vehicle where it is until law enforcement arrives unless it poses a serious hazard.

Record the Other Vehicle’s Information

Write down or take a picture of the following with regards to every other vehicle involved in the accident:

• License plate number
• Color, model, make and year of vehicle
• Vehicle Identification Number

Exchange Contact Information

Get the insurance information, registration and driver’s license info of every other driver involved. Get contact information for any witnesses to the accident. Also, get a copy of the police report if you can, as it can be very important when it comes time to trying to recover compensation for any injuries.

Don’t Admit Fault

Don’t admit fault for the accident, even if you think you were at fault. You may be wrong about being at fault, and admitting fault will seriously damage your ability to recover financial compensation for the injuries that you or your child suffered.

Don’t Say You’re Not Hurt

Don’t tell anyone you’re not hurt, even if you don’t think you are. Adrenaline and endorphins can mask injuries at the accident scene. Some injuries don’t show themselves for weeks or months after an accident. Saying you’re not hurt can make it much harder to recover compensation for injuries down the line.

Take Pictures

Take pictures of the accident scene if it’s safe to do so. Take photos from multiple angles of all vehicles involved and any relevant traffic signs, signals, roadway conditions or weather.

Document What Happened Immediately

Write down your version of the events that led up to the accident as soon as possible. Memories fade quickly so it’s important to do this quickly. Important things to note include:

• Adverse road conditions
• Traffic lights’ color
• How fast each vehicle was going
• The direction of travel for each vehicle
• The cross streets
• The date and time the accident occurred

Make Sure Any Injuries Are Documented

Photograph all visible injuries. Write down impressions of physical injuries as well as emotional distress. If you don’t obtain immediate medical attention after the accident, get medical attention for any injuries as soon as possible after the accident. If you wait too long to have a healthcare provider document your injuries, insurance companies can claim something other than your accident caused them and refuse to pay you for them. Get yourself and your child looked at by a healthcare professional even if you don’t think you’re hurt – you may have injuries and not realize it.

Report Your Accident

If anyone was killed or injured or the accident led to over $1,000 in property damage, you must report it to the DMV within 10 days under California law. If you’re not sure, report it anyway.

If the police don’t arrive to the scene of your accident and your accident involved fatality or injury, you have a period of 24 hours to report the accident to the police or CHP.

Tell Your Insurance Company

You’re required by most insurance policies to promptly report accidents. You could end up with your car insurance being canceled if you don’t.

However, do not talk to any other parties’ insurance companies. You should leave this to a lawyer.

Consider Hiring an Accident Lawyer

If you or your child were injured or killed, consider hiring an experienced accident lawyer. You won’t be able to recover the compensation you’re entitled to without a lawyer who can sue insurance companies and win over low ball offers. A lawyer can talk to the other parties’ insurance companies for you so you don’t have to worry about incriminating yourself and causing the value of your claim to plummet.

A lawyer can get you to doctors who will treat you without charging you for treatment if you can’t afford treatment. A lawyer can negotiate with the insurance companies to make sure you recover the maximum compensation possible for the injuries that you or your child suffered.

Common Child Car Accident Injuries

Common injuries that children suffer in car accidents include:

Head Injury and Neck Injury

Common neck and head injuries include:

• Traumatic brain injury
• Whiplash
• Concussion
• Soft tissue injury
• Skull fracture

Long-term, severe pain can result from neck injuries. The cognitive and motor development of children can be impacted by head injuries. Even airbags can cause head injuries.

Thoracic Injury

These are torso injuries, including internal organ injuries. Broken ribs are common thoracic injuries, as are lung injuries.

Spinal Injuries

Spinal injuries can include nerve damage, spinal damage, vertebral fractures and herniated discs. These injuries may result in disability such as paralysis.

Abdominal Injury

Abdominal injuries can impact the reproductive system, kidneys and liver. Spleen damage is common. These injuries may be life-threatening.

Lower and Upper Extremity Injuries

These include injuries to the feet, hands, legs and arms. Common injuries include broken collarbones, pelvic fractures, ankle injuries, broken thighs and wrist injuries.

Facial Injury

These usually result from broken glass. They can lead to permanent disfigurement, which can devastate a child psychologically, socially and physically.

Abrasions, Lacerations and Cuts

These commonly occur when children aren’t properly restrained, but properly restrained children can also be injured like this.

Psychological Damages

Children are more likely to suffer permanent damage, psychologically, than adults after accidents. Post-traumatic stress disorder is common. The symptoms of PTSD include eating disorders, nightmares and insomnia.

My Son Was Hit By a Car: Can I Sue?

If your child was under the age of 18 when they were injured in a car accident, you can represent them in a car accident claim or lawsuit.

There is a small chance your child will be called as a witness. However, this is a very small chance, as the vast majority of car accident claims are settled out of court, especially when experienced accident lawyers get involved. Insurance companies will typically prefer to settle out of court than to spend a ton of money on expensive legal fees in a court battle.

There are two circumstances which will allow you to sue if your child has been injured in a car accident. The first is if the accident was someone else’s fault.

California law holds those who injure others via negligence financially liable for the injuries. This also applies to motor vehicle crash deaths. This means that if your child was injured or killed and it was someone else’s fault, that someone else (or, in most cases, their insurance company) is responsible for paying for your child’s injuries or death.

In this circumstance, it’s best to hire a lawyer. Your lawyer will then negotiate with the at fault party’s insurance company to recover the most money possible for your child’s injuries. If negotiations fail, your lawyer will file a lawsuit. Once a lawsuit is filed, in most cases, the insurance company will become more agreeable to offering a fair settlement. Most accident cases don’t end up going to court.

The other circumstance which will allow you to sue if your child has been injured in a car accident is if your child was injured due to a defective car seat, such as a defective rear-facing car seat. In California when people are injured due to product defects, the product manufacturers are strictly liable for those injuries. This means that they are liable even if negligence did not occur. So, if your child was injured by a defective car seat, a lawyer can file a defective product lawsuit for you against the car seat manufacturer.

The statute of limitations, or time limit to file a lawsuit, increases in California when children are involved. However, you should still file a case as soon as possible.

To help you navigate the process, our attorneys can help. Call us today for a free consultation.

Factors That Impact the Value of Your Child Accident Claim

When child occupants of vehicles are injured in car accidents, the factors which can impact the values of their accident claims include:

Medical Bills

You’re probably already facing medical bills related to your injured child. Your child may need additional treatment in the future, leading to additional medical expenses. Our lawyers can help you recover compensation for any past and future medical bills related to your child’s injuries.

Loss of Earning Capacity

If your child was left disabled by a car accident, this represents a loss or reduction of their future earning capacity. Our attorneys can help you recover financial compensation for this loss or reduction of your child’s future earning capacity.

Pain and Suffering

Our law firm can help you recover financial compensation for the physical pain and mental suffering your child had to endure as a result of the car accident.

Wrongful Death

If your child was killed in a car accident, unfortunately, no amount of financial compensation can bring them back. However, financial compensation can help make sure that the loss of your child doesn’t cause your family to undergo financial hardship. We can file a wrongful death claim on your behalf seeking compensation for things like funeral bills, burial bills, the medical bills your child incurred prior to passing, the pain and suffering your child experienced prior to passing, your grieving and suffering, and more.

How to Help a Child After a Car Accident

Your child may be traumatized by their accident and it may lead to the following behaviors:

Sleep Disturbance

Your child may have nightmares after their accident. Console and reassure your child when this happens. Reassure them they’re safe. Tell them they just had a bad dream and it’s all over. Make sure your child talks to you about the accident when they’re awake in order to help normalize the accident.

Guilt

Some children think an accident happened because they’ve been bad. Tell your child they’re not a bad person. Tell them they’re not being punished.

Acting Younger

Some children act younger after an accident. Give them reassurance and love, but don’t change how you treat them drastically. Don’t let them get away with behaviors which you wouldn’t tolerate normally. Don’t so may make your child think you think there’s something wrong with them.

Fear

Gently and slowly increase your child’s exposure to things related to the accident they may be afraid of, like cars. Talk about it with each small step.

Contact a Child Car Accident Lawyer Today

Call us today for a free case evaluation if your child has been injured or killed in a car accident. We can help you recover financial compensation for pain and suffering, loss of earning capacity, wrongful death, medical bills and more.

We’ve been representing injured children since 1990 and have recovered over $750,000,000 for clients. Our vast experience in handling child car accident cases will allow us to recover the most compensation possible for you.

If you can’t afford to have your child’s injuries treated, we can get your child to doctors who will treat your child without charging you until your case is over. Doctors do this for the injured children we represent because doctors know we get great results for injured children.

We won’t charge any fee until and unless we recover compensation on behalf of your child. The only fee we will charge is a percentage of any compensation we recover on behalf of your child. So, there’s no risk behind calling us to discuss your case.

Call us today for a free, no-obligation consultation.