If you’ve been hurt in a taxi accident in Columbus, Georgia, you may wonder who’s responsible for paying for it. You may have gotten the runaround from the cab company or the insurance company. Meanwhile, you’re struggling with painful injuries that weren’t your fault.
But you can recover money to cover your medical bills, your missed time from work, and other losses by filing a personal injury claim or taking them to court. A taxicab accident lawyer in Columbus from John Foy & Associates can help you do it.
What do I Need to Do If I Am in a Taxi Accident in Columbus?
There are two things you should do after any accident, and a taxi accident is no exception. First, take care of yourself. If you need emergency care at the scene, make sure someone calls an ambulance.
Second, call the police. You may think this isn’t your responsibility since you’re just a passenger, but the drivers may want to avoid involving the cops and settle things between themselves. This is NOT in your best interest because you will need a police report to make a strong claim for your injuries.
Even if you are not sure whether you were hurt, get an officer to the scene. Other things that we recommend after a taxi accident include:
- Get information about the cab driver and the cab company. Get the name and license number for the driver and the name and phone number of the cab company. It’s a good idea to use your cell phone camera to take a picture of the cab’s license plate and any signage indicating the name of the cab company.
- Find out if anyone at the scene witnessed the accident. Make some notes and be sure to get witnesses’ names and find out how you can contact them later if you need to.
- Take pictures or video of the accident scene, damage to the cab, and any other vehicles involved in the accident. These photos can be invaluable in showing how the accident happened.
- Follow up with a doctor, even if you didn’t have to go to the emergency room. This will confirm whether you were injured and help with your treatment and recovery. If you see a doctor right away, it also shows that your injuries were caused by the taxi accident and not something else. This helps you make a strong insurance claim.
As soon as you can, set up an appointment with a taxicab accident lawyer in Columbus. Figuring out who is at fault and who will be required to pay can be complicated in taxi accidents, and you will need a lawyer’s help to get the maximum possible financial recovery.
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How Much Money Will I Recover After a Taxi Accident?
As a passenger, you can recover for all the ways the accident has affected your life – financial and otherwise. The amount you receive will depend mostly on the kind of injuries you have. In a typical accident, even a relatively minor one, you can receive money for:
- Your medical bills, including doctor visits, emergency rooms, surgery, physical therapy, x-rays and MRIs
- Your pharmacy bills for prescription drugs
- Time missed from work because of the accident
But what if your accident was more serious, and you’ve been forced to live with chronic pain or a disability? What if it looks like your life will never be the same again? The local courts recognize that these are very real effects of a bad accident, and they want to do what they can to make up for them.
Pain and Suffering
They do this through what is known as “pain and suffering” damages. Depending on the severity of your injuries, your damages for pain and suffering may be multiple times greater than your out-of-pocket costs for medical bills and lost pay.
Finally, if the driver who caused the accident was drinking or using drugs, you may be eligible for something known as punitive damages. Georgia takes a no-nonsense approach to drinking and driving, and if a driver causes an accident while under the influence, the driver may be required to pay you additional money as a punishment.
Who Is Responsible for Paying for My Injuries?
In many ways, taxi accidents aren’t any different from any other car accident. They are usually caused by one driver’s carelessness or negligence. To be negligent, a driver doesn’t have to be doing something outrageous or crashing into cars on purpose out of road rage, though those things do happen.
A negligent driver simply isn’t behaving as carefully as he or she should be. This may mean:
- Distracted driving
- Breaking traffic laws, including speeding and running a stop sign
- Changing lanes too aggressively, or without signaling
- Tailgating
- Drinking and driving
In a taxi accident, sometimes the cab driver was negligent, and sometimes the accident was caused by another driver’s negligence. It just depends on the circumstances. But as a passenger, you are never at fault, and you should not have to pay. A Columbus taxicab accident attorney can investigate liability in your case.
Who Pays in a Taxicab Accident?
A negligent driver’s insurance company must pay for all the consequences of the accident, including injuries to innocent passengers like you. But when a taxi driver is negligent, the question of who must pay can get complicated.
The cab driver personally may be responsible, but the cab company may also be responsible for hiring a driver that shouldn’t be behind the wheel or for not giving the driver enough supervision. This is one reason it helps to have a taxicab accident lawyer in Columbus, GA, on your side when you make a taxi accident claim.
Could I Be at Fault for a Taxican Accident Too?
In a taxicab case, likely not. Since you are a passenger, there’s little you could do that could contribute to the accident unless you were distracting the driver in some way or put the car into a dangerous condition.
Similar to bus crashes, commercial drivers take on a heavier load of responsibility than the standard driver on the road. Transit companies must take pains to hire qualified drivers, but even the most qualified driver could have a bad day.
How Long do I Have to File a Personal Injury Claim?
In general, if you’ve been injured in a personal injury case, you have two years to file a claim before you hit the statute of limitations in Georgia, per Ga. Code § 9-3-33. This is a deadline that keeps one party from hanging a claim over someone’s head.
The idea is that if you waited too long, it must not have been that big of a deal. So, it’s important to get a lawyer on your case as soon as possible after the crash. They can make the necessary filings to keep the statute of limitations off of your case.
Talk to a Columbus, GA, Taxicab Accident Lawyer
John Foy & Associates has long been known as one of the largest and most highly respected law firms in the state. They call us “The Strong Arm” because we know how to play tough with insurance companies. We’re the Columbus taxicab accident lawyers to call.
At John Foy & Associates, we know what it takes to get an insurance company to pay you for your taxicab accident, and we’re not afraid to take your case to court, if that’s what it takes. We keep our services affordable, and we won’t ask you to pay us anything unless we win you money.
Let us give you a free consultation to get you started with your claim. Call us or fill out the form to your right to schedule one.
706-400-4000 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
