Philadelphia Top Injury Lawyer Blog

Philadelphia personal injury law aims to protect our most vulnerable citizens from harm inflicted by negligent, careless, and destructive people. A recent Phildelphia auto accident tragedy highlights the degree to which our citizens are vulnerable to random disasters. On that fateful Sunday (August 15th), a 67-year-old woman left the Philadelphia Zoo with a 4-year-old child in her charge. Minutes later, she got into a car crash near Gerard Avenue on 33rd Street. Her vehicle flipped over, ejecting the 4-year-old and causing serious injuries to him. The boy got treated at a children's hospital in Philadelphia after losing consciousness and suffering a fracture to his leg.

This Philadelphia car accident tragedy can give us lessons. The 4-year-old had been at the Philadelphia Zoo, where he saw dangerous animals, such as (one might assume) lions and tigers. People tend to associate encounters with wild animals as dangerous. But in this case, the real danger was something far more mundane - a traffic accident. The takeaway here -- the counterintuitive lesson that this case highlights -- is that we all have certain biases about what constitutes real danger. In particular, we tend to overestimate the dangers of things like unusual encounters with wild animals (although dog attacks and dog bites in Philadelphia are certainly a serious problem). And we simultaneously underestimate the dangers of more mundane activities - activities we do every day - like driving.

So how can we resolve this dissonance? How can we go about our lives in a way that maximizes our safety and minimizes the chance of ever needing the services of a Philadelphia personal injury lawyer?

One obvious answer would be to look at real statistics. Although many of us fear things like getting hit by a lightning or getting attacked by a shark... statistically speaking, these events are very, very unlikely. Instead, we should focus on things like improving our safety behind the wheel and eliminating factors from our diet that contribute to chronic disease (such as refined carbohydrates and sugars).

All that said, if you or a family member has been in a Philadelphia truck or car accident, you likely need solid and immediate legal guidance to develop a strategy for how to get paid back for your medical bills and the time you've missed at work.