Queens Scooter Accident Attorney

Suddenly, you see scooters everywhere. These two-wheeled electric vehicles often swerve in and out of traffic like they are invincible, but these tiny vehicles actually pose serious dangers to both riders and pedestrians.

Many companies provide scooters for rental around Queens, whether you’re headed to Citi Field, Flushing Meadows, or one of New York City’s two main airports. Well-known companies include Bird and Lime, but you can find many options just sitting on your neighborhood sidewalks.

To use a scooter, all you have to do is download the app, enter your payment information, and hop on to go for a ride. Scooters give convenient alternatives to riding a bicycle or having a car, but scooters can prove dangerous.

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury while riding a scooter or from being hit by someone on a scooter, you qualify to recover compensation. Contact our Queens scooter accident lawyers at Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, today to find out how you may qualify to hold the negligent party liable for your expenses.

Causes of Scooter Accidents

Scooters are open-air vehicles, much like bicycles and motorcycles. They provide riders with very little protection in an accident. If you lose your balance and fall over, your body hits the pavement. The only protection you might receive is from a helmet or other protective gear that you are wearing

Likewise, if a car collides with you while on a scooter, it will give you almost no protection from the car or the road.

Most commonly, scooter accidents are caused by human errors, including:

  • Speeding
  • Distracted driving
  • Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol
  • Blind spots
  • Failure to yield
  • Open door crash
  • Poor road conditions
  • Inexperienced driver
  • Bad weather

If you are riding a scooter, pay attention to everything around you. While you cannot control the actions of other drivers, you can do everything in your power to make sure you are safe. Unfortunately, even when you act responsibly, you may still get into an accident.

Riding a scooter and getting hit by a car is a jolting experience. Because the scooter provides you with little to no protection, even slower speed accidents might cause you serious harm and prevent you from enjoying your regular activities.

Your injuries may also require extensive medical treatment. This can come with a hefty financial cost, one that could leave you in financial hardship if you have to cover your bills on your own. That’s why it is vital to your recovery that you speak with an experienced Queens scooter accident lawyer as soon as possible after your accident.

Common Injuries for Scooter Riders

Scooters are fun to ride. You can feel the wind on your face while you zip around Queens. They are cheap to rent and easy to find, and you can leave them where you please when you’re finished.

Scooters are also dangerous for riders. There is no requirement that you take a class or receive specific scooter training. Car drivers are also not required to take any course to understand how scooters operate and how to remain aware of them on the road. This combination can lead to deadly collisions.

Injuries suffered by scooter riders when they get into a crash with a car often include:

  • Broken bones
  • Burns
  • Dislocated joints
  • Neck injuries
  • Back injuries
  • Spinal cord injuries
  • Concussions and other traumatic brain injuries
  • Internal injuries
  • Torn ligaments

Because your body takes the full brunt of the impact with a car, your body will suffer serious consequences in the event of a scooter accident. Nothing protects you from the crash, so even a slow-speed crash can lead to life-altering injuries.

These injuries can lead to a mountain of medical expenses. Your recovery might take years and may require extensive medical care during that time. During your recovery, the last thing you need to worry about is paying your medical bills.

Your Queens scooter accident lawyer can help you by taking on the legal burden of holding the negligent driver liable for your accident and working toward collecting maximum compensation for your injuries. When you no longer have to worry about paying your medical bills, you can focus all of your effort and energy on your physical recovery and get back to the life you love.

Pedestrians Get Hurt, Too

Scooters can go pretty fast; some even exceed 15 miles per hour. Many riders drive on sidewalks, presenting dangers to pedestrians. While riding on a sidewalk may provide some protection for the scooter rider and prevent a crash with a car, sidewalk riding presents serious problems for pedestrians.

Scooters zip in and out between walkers and runners. Scooters move much faster than pedestrians, and when colliding with a person, the scooter can cause serious injuries. While the scooters themselves are fairly light, traveling at higher speeds can knock a pedestrian over. Pedestrians can also trip over scooters that riders left in dangerous places, like in the middle of a sidewalk.

Common pedestrian injuries include:

  • Sprains
  • Head injuries
  • Broken bones
  • Cuts and scrapes

Being knocked to the ground by a scooter is no joke. Falling onto hard surfaces, like a sidewalk, can cause concussions and broken bones. As you fall, you naturally attempt to brace by holding out your hands. This often causes serious wrist injuries and can even result in broken bones.

If this happens to you, your injuries are not your fault, and you qualify to recover compensation from the negligent scooter rider or the scooter company. To discuss the details of your Queens scooter accident and determine your legal options, speak with Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, today.

What to Do After a Scooter Accident

Whether you have sustained injuries as a scooter rider or as a pedestrian, you may qualify to collect compensation for your injuries. The steps you take right after your scooter accident can help your legal team prove your case and recover compensation for your injuries.

Call 911

You might not want to call attention to your accident. You might even feel embarrassed that it happened, and you may think that you are fine. Regardless, get a medical evaluation and have a record of your accident. When you call 911, emergency medical personnel will come to the accident scene, evaluate you, and treat you for your injuries or take you to the hospital for more extensive care. The most important thing you can do right after your accident is to make sure that you are not seriously injured.

Get a Police Accident Report

Calling 911 will also send the police to your accident scene. Officers will speak with you and anyone else involved in the accident. They may also speak with witnesses to your accident. Together with all of this information, the officers will create an accident report. While they may not assign fault in their report, they will provide detailed information about how your accident happened. This accident report may prove invaluable for your legal team to show that someone else caused your accident and injuries.

Take Pictures

Get as much evidence as you can to detail the specifics of your accident. This includes taking pictures and video of the entire accident scene, the scooter, any other vehicles involved, and your injuries. These images can show how your injuries have impacted your ability to go about your regular life.

Get Witness Contact Information

Witnesses often provide a different perspective and details about what caused your accident. Witnesses’ vantage points may have differed from yours, and witnesses may detail the moments leading up to your accident. This can provide insight into what caused your injuries. Often, however, witnesses may not stick around for the police to arrive. By getting their contact information, you ensure that your Queens scooter accident lawyer can speak with them and understand what they saw.

See Your Doctor

Even if emergency medical personnel clear you at the accident scene, go see your regular doctor as soon as possible after your accident. Your doctor knows you better than anyone else and can provide insight into how your life has been affected by your scooter accident injuries. Getting copies of your doctor’s notes can also help your legal team hold the negligent party liable for your medical expenses.

Keep a Journal

Your injuries will affect your life, whether just for a few weeks or for a lifetime. Detailing how your injuries have reduced your ability to go about your daily life is extremely important to maximize the amount of money you can recover. By writing in a journal every day, you can paint a picture of what you had to overcome during your physical recovery process. Leave no detail out, and be as specific as possible. Over time, you will forget most of the hurdles that you face during your recovery. Keeping a journal can help record your pain and suffering and can help to increase your financial recovery.

Damages You May Pursue

When you suffer injuries in a Queens scooter accident, the furthest thing from your mind is likely filing a lawsuit, but that is the way you collect compensation for your injuries. Speak with our skilled scooter accident lawyers in Queens as soon as possible after your accident. We can take on the legal stress while you focus on your physical health.

Your lawyer may try to recover compensation for:

  • Pain and suffering
  • Emotional distress
  • Lost income
  • Lost earning potential
  • Loss of life enjoyment
  • Present and future medical expenses
  • Rehabilitation costs

Scooter accident victims often find themselves not wanting to file a lawsuit. They may think it’s too much of a hassle when their injuries aren’t that serious.

Medical care is not cheap. Even minor injuries that may only require a couple of doctor visits, prescription medication, and an X-ray can still reach into the thousands of dollars in medical bills.

Filing a claim against your own insurance company might be an option for you, but that may result in your premiums going up. That’s not a situation you should be in, especially given that someone else caused your injuries.

By working with a seasoned Queens scooter accident attorney, you can give yourself the best chance of recovering maximum compensation. It’s important to note that scooter accident victims may also think they can only recover past bills. In reality, most of your medical expenses may come in the future, and that may represent a substantial portion of the money that you need to recover.Jacoby & Meyers multi million dollar advocates forum Award

Depending on the severity of your injuries, you may also miss work for some time. Even just a few weeks out of work can put you under serious financial strain. In fact, the number one reason that people consider bankruptcy is the high cost of medical care. You have the chance to avoid this situation by partnering with Jacoby & Meyers, LLP. Together, we can help you get back to your regular life.

Queens Scooter Accident FAQs

Rented scooters are efficient and cost-effective ways to travel around Queens, but they are not without dangers. Inexperienced riders can cause collisions with pedestrians, and distracted car drivers can cause crashes with scooter riders.

When you suffer injuries in a Queens scooter accident, all you want is to get better. Part of your recovery process includes collecting money from the person who caused your injuries.

You do that by partnering with a skilled Queens scooter accident lawyer who will work tirelessly and attempt to collect maximum compensation for your injuries. You might have questions about how that all works and what to expect moving forward. To help, below we provide answers to some common questions that we frequently hear from scooter accident victims like you. To get more detailed answers and to learn how we can best help you, contact Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, today.

Why are scooters so popular in Queens?

Scooters provide Queens residents and tourists with a cheap and easy way to get around. You might not want a car because of all the expenses that come with it, not to mention the headache of driving in New York traffic. Maybe your destination is too far to walk, and it’s a nice day, so you rent a scooter.

Scooters are fun. You feel the wind in your face, and you get to zoom by some of your favorite neighborhood spots.

All in all, scooters provide you with a cheap and easy way to get around Queens. The best part is that you don’t have to worry about any of the ownership headaches, like maintenance, storage, and security. You simply rent a nearby scooter when you need it and leave it when you get to your destination.

Why are scooters dangerous in Queens?

Scooters’ ease of use can also prove dangerous. Riders receive no training on how to maneuver a scooter. Pedestrians don’t receive training to avoid a collision with a scooter. Car drivers are told to drive defensively but may not look for scooters or take the necessary care to avoid accidents with them.

All of this combines to create a potentially deadly situation. Scooters provide very little protection to riders. You may have a helmet or gloves, but even a slow speed impact with a car can prove deadly. Without a dedicated space to ride, scooter riders will consistently find themselves in potentially hazardous situations.

If you get into a collision, your body will endure the full brunt of any impact, whether that’s with a vehicle or the ground. This impact can cause serious injuries, some of which may prove life-threatening or life-altering.

Your job on a scooter is to make sure that you are aware of others around you, but you cannot possibly anticipate what every other person or driver will do. That’s when accidents happen.

Do I have to file a lawsuit to collect money?

When you suffer injuries in a Queens scooter accident, you may face a long road to recovery, which may come with substantial medical bills. When you are not responsible for your accident, it can add insult to injury if you end up on the hook to pay your medical expenses.

The goal of a scooter accident lawsuit is to hold the negligent party liable for your injuries.

To do that, you need to prove:

  1. The at-fault party owed you a duty of care at the time of the accident.
  2. The at-fault party breached that duty of care.
  3. The at-fault party’s breach caused your accident.
  4. You suffered injuries in the accident.

Proving negligence might seem simple and straightforward to you, but proving this in court requires a skilled attorney. Your Queens scooter accident lawyer will need to collect evidence to support the claim that someone else caused your accident and injuries. While you focus on getting better, your lawyer can work on your behalf to give you the best chance of collecting maximum compensation.

Who caused my Queens scooter accident?

Determining the exact cause of your scooter accident in Queens will require an investigation. Multiple parties may face liability, depending on the circumstances of your accident. It’s important to understand that more than one person or entity could face responsibility for your scooter accident.

That’s why it is crucial to speak with a trusted Queens scooter accident lawyer about potentially liable parties.

  • Reckless driver. If you were hit by a car while on a scooter, the obvious place to look for liability is the driver of the car. Maybe the driver was texting or otherwise distracted at the time of the accident. Maybe the driver did not stop at a red light or ran a stop sign. Regardless of the exact reason, if the driver acted recklessly in any way, the driver could face liability for your scooter accident and resulting injuries.
  • Scooter company. Each scooter company must provide riders with a safe scooter. If the brakes do not work or a tire falls off, that could be an indication that the scooter company failed in its duty to offer you a safe scooter on which to ride.
  • Scooter or parts manufacturer. The company that made the scooter or parts for the scooter could also face liability for your accident. If a part was defective or stopped working suddenly, that might indicate poor assembly or a defect in the part itself, in which case the responsible company would face liability for your injuries.

If I wasn’t wearing a helmet, can I still sue?

Yes.

When you signed up on the scooter company’s app, you may have agreed to wear protective gear, including a helmet, every time that you ride one of their scooters. If you did not wear a helmet, the insurance company representing the person or entity that caused your accident may argue that wearing a helmet would have prevented or reduced your injuries.

Lack of helmet use, however, doesn’t absolve a trucker from carelessly driving his vehicle into you.

This is another example of why you need to speak with a knowledgeable Queens scooter accident attorney as soon as possible after your accident. Your lawyer can help you understand what the other side might argue and how to overcome those arguments and still work to collect maximum compensation for your injuries.

How much money will I get?

Every scooter accident victim wants to know the answer to this question.

Ultimately, the answer depends on many factors unique to your case, including:

  • How many surgeries or medical procedures you need
  • How long you spend in the hospital
  • How much time you spend out of work
  • If you can return to work at all and in what capacity
  • Your ongoing medical needs

The more severe your injuries, the more likely you will receive a large sum of money. Working with your Queens scooter accident attorney, you can chart a course for your recovery.

While you focus all of your time and energy on getting better, your legal team works diligently to try to recover every dollar you need to ensure that you do not pay a penny out of your own pocket for your medical expenses or other financial losses. The most important item right now is your health and well-being. By shifting the legal burden to an experienced legal advisor, you give yourself the best chance of making a full recovery as well as recovering maximum compensation.

When you retain Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, to handle your Queens scooter accident claim, we take on the responsibility of collecting evidence and holding the negligent party liable for your injuries and bills. This can provide stress relief to you as well as your family. Often, when one family member is out of work, other household members seek overtime or additional jobs to cover the financial loss. With the guidance of the right legal team, you and your family can relieve yourselves of the stresses associated with your scooter accident injury.

I want to take the settlement offer. Why do I need a Queens scooter accident lawyer?

Over 95 percent of all civil cases settle out of court. This leaves many scooter accident victims wondering why they need a lawyer if they will most likely get a settlement anyway. To get a fair settlement, one that covers all of your needs, you need an aggressive legal advocate fighting to protect your rights.

Insurance companies are in the business of making money. If all settlements provided injured individuals with full and fair compensation, insurance companies would lose out on profits.

Your Queens motorcycle accident lawyer can help you increase your settlement by pushing the insurance company to see the full value of your claim. Your lawyer can also pressure the insurance company to increase its offer by beginning trial preparation. When the insurance company sees that your lawyer is not messing around and is fully prepared to take your case to trial, the company may increase its settlement offer.

Not every lawyer can successfully pressure insurance companies like the legal team at Jacoby & Meyers, LLP. That’s why you need to partner with a lawyer who has proven trial experience. Getting a quick settlement offer is one of our goals for you, but we also want to make sure that any settlement offer that you accept covers the full cost of your injuries.

How long do I have to decide if I want to file a lawsuit?

Every state has a limit on how much time you have to file a claim. Called a statute of limitations, New York law sets this time at three years.

You may think that this is a long time and that you have lots of time to decide whether you want to file a claim. Unfortunately, this time will go by quickly. Your focus will be entirely on getting better, getting back to work, and getting back to your regular life. Before you know it, the statute of limitations will have expired, and you will no longer have the chance to collect money from the person who has caused your pain and suffering.

Andrew Finkelstein Jacoby & Meyers LLP

Queens Scooter Accident Lawyer, Andrew Finkelstein

When you partner with an experienced scooter accident lawyer in Queens, you can feel certain that you won’t miss any important legal deadlines. Without a trusted and experienced legal advisor at your side, you risk missing out on the opportunity to collect maximum compensation from the at-fault party in your scooter accident.

Can I go back to work?

The answer to this question depends a great deal on the extent of your injuries. The more serious your injuries, the more likely you will be out of work for an extended time. In the most extreme cases, you may never return to work, at least not in the same capacity as before your scooter accident.

Determining whether you can return to work is an important step for your lawyer to take. If it is unlikely that you can go back to work soon or at all, your lawyer will likely try to collect additional money for you to cover your lost or reduced income. This sum may constitute the largest chunk of your settlement, so call our trusted Queens scooter accident lawyers to guide you.

How can a Queens scooter accident lawyer help me get better?

Your lawyer acts as your legal advocate, aggressively fighting to protect your rights and recover maximum compensation for your scooter accident injuries. Even minor injuries can result in major medical expenses and time out of work. Both of these situations combine to put most scooter accident victims in financial hardship.

By working with a skilled Queens scooter accident attorney, you can allow yourself to recover compensation from the person or company that caused your accident and your injuries. To learn how we can help you get back to your regular life, contact Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, today.

Get Help From Our Queens Scooter Accident Lawyers Today

You want a lawyer at your side with proven experience helping scooter accident victims like you recover compensation for their injuries. You deserve a lawyer who has the resources necessary to investigate your Queens scooter accident, work with medical experts to determine your prognosis, and aggressively negotiate with the insurance company to settle your case quickly and fairly.

The lawyer you choose can make a difference in your ability to collect maximum compensation for your scooter accident injuries. Since 1972, the legal team at Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, has provided help to our neighbors in their most challenging times. We have collected hundreds of millions of dollars for accident victims like you. While scooters are a relatively new piece of Queens personal injury law, our dedicated legal team has successfully recovered compensation for scooter accident victims by holding negligent parties accountable for such accidents.

Contact Jacoby & Meyers, LLP, today to find out how we can help you get back on your feet by working toward the common goal of recovering maximum compensation on your behalf. You can reach by filling out the form on our contact page, at (877) 565-2993, or through a webchat with one of our live representatives.