How Did Your Accident Happen? You May Not Remember…

You would think that if you were in an accident, that it would be crystal clear in your mind after it happened. I mean, it’s stressful and traumatic and for many, can change your life. Naturally you’d remember every detail about how it happened.

But that’s not exactly how it works in real life. In real life, in an accident, and after the accident you may find that you actually remember much less about the accident and how it happened than you would think that you would — and in some cases, you might even not remember anything at all.

Why You Might Have no Memory

How does this happen? In some cases, you may actually black out — many people who do black out after an accident, usually from head trauma, report afterwards that all they remember doing was “waking up” after the accident.

More commonly however, it’s just stress and adrenaline. Imagine any stressful or traumatic event in your life. You might recall that your instincts take over, and you don’t have a detailed memory of the event afterwards. The same is true after an accident.

Can You Still Get Compensation?

But just because you don’t remember every detail about how an accident happens, doesn’t mean that you can’t recover compensation for your injuries. Many victims are actually afraid to see an injury lawyer, or to bring a claim for compensation for their injuries, just because they are concerned about their inability to remember details of their accident — but that is an unfounded fear.

Remember that your memory isn’t the only evidence of your accident. Every accident has physical clues, incident or police reports, video surveillance, or other external evidence of how things happened.

Imagine a typical car accident, where a car runs a red light and hits and injures you. Even if you remembered nothing, we would still have the positioning of the cars post-accident, police reports, witness reports, property damage on the vehicles — all evidence that helps us recreate how the accident happened, and none of them are dependent on your recollection of the accident.

In car accidents, experts called accident reconstructionists can even be used, to piece together the facts of how the evidence happened.

You may have even told someone what happened after the accident — friends, witnesses on scene, or doctors — you just don’t remember doing that or might not remember what it is that you said.

No Embarrassment

And even if you are in deposition or on the stand answering questions in your injury trial, saying you don’t remember is not something to be ashamed of.

Most jurors can relate to the fact that a stressful situation can impair memory. Your memory is not the definitive verdict on when and how your accident happened — it is simply used in conjunction with other evidence, that your lawyer can and will gather, to fill in the blanks of the information that you may not remember.

Did you have an accident and you don’t remember how it happened?  Schedule a consultation with our Tampa personal injury lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today for help after your accident.

Source:

arcca.com/capabilities/engineering/accident-reconstruction/