On Monday, December 6, and Wednesday, December 8, two separate traffic accidents rocked Philadelphia. Around 7:15 p.m. Monday at the Market East Station, a regional SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) rail train rolled over and trapped a woman underneath the train. According to local reports from the station WPVI, firefighters helped the woman off the tracks and took her to Hahnemann Hospital... but not in time to save her hand from being fully amputated.
Less than 48 hours later, at around 12:30 on December 8, a car slammed into a 20-something year-old pedestrian on Roosevelt Boulevard. The oncoming car smashed into the pedestrian so hard that the victim ended up getting embedded into the windshield. Early reports said the man was in critical condition. The driver stopped at the scene of the accident. So far, no one has been charged in connection with the injuries and damages.
As a Philadelphia accident lawyer will tell you, boulevards, surface streets, and train stations in Philadelphia can be quite dangerous places - even to pedestrians and motorists who observe all posted warnings and traffic rules. The reality is that no one can predict things like a SEPTA train rollover, and it's easy to misjudge the speed of oncoming traffic when you cross the road at night. Unfortunately, in the wake of highway/railway tragedies, victims - and family members of victims - often don't know how to advocate for themselves to collect money to pay for medical bills, surgical care, medications, rehab, loss of companionship, pain and suffering, and more.
A Philadelphia injury lawyer will probe the accident to identify potentially culpable parties using as much data as possible. For instance, in the case of the man who got hit while crossing Roosevelt Boulevard, one's first thought might be either that the pedestrian made a grievous error and crossed when he shouldn't have or that the oncoming driver acted in a negligent/careless way by driving too fast. Either judgment (or perhaps even both) might be correct. But a good attorney won't stop with this superficial analysis. Instead, he (or she) will examine alternative hypotheses. For instance, maybe the driver slammed on his brakes but the brakes failed - and that's why the man got hit. In this case, the culpable party - or at least one culpable party - would be the designer, manufacturer, or installer of the failed brakes. Alternatively, maybe the crosswalk itself had terrible lighting. So maybe the pedestrian crossed legally at a crosswalk, but faulty traffic engineering created the hazardous conditions.
All this is to say that, if you or someone you love has been injured on Philadelphia streets -- or if you need the services of a Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer because you got injured during a surgery or during recuperative care -- you want an experienced, creditable law firm working on your behalf.
Get a free consultation today with the time-proven lawyers at Rosenbaum & Associates by calling 1-800-7-LEGAL-7. You can also visit www.rosenbaumandassociates.com to learn more about the firm's history, credentials, and philosophy.
