Denton Construction ZonE

Crash Attorney

Highway construction is one of the more annoying things we deal with on the roadways. And if you’re in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, you’re no stranger to highway construction. It doesn’t only slow down your day and make you late, you might have gotten into a wreck in a highway construction zone. You’re driving at highway speed. All of a sudden you see the warning signs about the construction and lane closures. You think to yourself: “this is just great. Will the highways ever be construction-free in my lifetime?” Since you’re a careful driver, you make sure you’re keeping a safe following distance from the person in front of you. You’ve seen the wrecks that often triple the amount of time everyone has to wait to get through the construction zone. You don’t want to be in one of those wrecks and you certainly don’t want to cause one.

You break into a cold sweat as the line of red taillights stacks up in front of you. You clutch the steering wheel with the all-too-familiar death grip you get when something dangerous happens on the roadway. Relieved, you stopped just in time behind that big dump truck that you can’t see around. Your relief is short-lived as you turn your attention toward the rear-view mirror. That car behind you just keeps barreling toward you. Are they going to stop in time? It seems unlikely at this point – the person is moving way too fast.

What's the difference between a car accident and a car crash?

What should I do after a highway construction zone crash?

When you’re in a wreck on the highway (or anywhere), immediately call 911 if you’re able. Get out of the car if you’re able to do so and take pictures of the vehicles and the roadway. After making sure the other person is OK, get that person’s insurance information. Never be confrontational with the other driver. Even though that person clearly doesn’t care about the community’s safety, you don’t need to point that out to the person. You also don’t have to talk to the other person very much. In fact, it’s probably best that you simply get the insurance information and not talk too much to the other driver. Make sure you remember what they say to you or others while you’re standing nearby. Once the police arrive make sure they make a crash report. Some police officers don’t want to make a report, but you really should press them to do so.

You may or may not feel immediate physical pain after the wreck. Sometimes adrenaline is pumping and it keeps you from feeling your injuries for a few hours to a few days. The best thing you can do is immediately seek medical treatment. After all, a 4,000-pound hunk of metal hit you at a high rate of speed.

Need to talk to us about your injuries? We'll be happy to help. Call us at 940-294-7058 or fill out this form.

Why do crashes happen in construction zones?

Quite simply – the other driver was careless. With all the signs and warnings, the person who slammed into your car doesn’t have a great excuse for crashing into you. Insurance companies and their lawyers make up all kinds of excuses – from blaming you to blaming others that had nothing to do with the wreck. When we take a good look at what really happens, it often turns out the driver was texting, looking at some kind of electronic screen, swiping right or left, or just had something other than the road on his or her mind. Sometimes you might even see the person looking down in your rearview when you’re bracing for impact. And perhaps even more annoying, the distracted driver is riding your bumper without a care in the world about you or the danger they are causing.

Thanks to that person’s carelessness, you’re injured, your car is damaged, and your life is disturbed. You’ve now missed work because of medical appointments, the pain, or both. You used to be able to do things with ease that now cause you trouble. We often see issues with injured hands that make it difficult to type or use a phone, torn shoulders that make it hard (if not impossible) to do laundry or even go for a run (you don’t realize how much you need your shoulders to run until you tear one), and concussions that make it hard for you to concentrate on anything for months after the wreck. These are just examples, but being injured in a wreck can have a lasting impact on your ability to do what used to be routine.

What does Tepperman Law do for me?

We take pride in representing individuals who were hurt because of others’ carelessness. Tepperman Law takes time to get to know you, learn your story, and figure out how to best present your case. Other law firms might be interested in getting you in and out of their office without paying much attention to your case. Here, we carefully consider all the facts of your case and how to best argue on your behalf. We put ourselves in your shoes to better understand what you went through. We put ourselves into the shoes of the person who carelessly injured you to best figure out how the wreck happened. And we put ourselves in the shoes of the lawyers and insurance company employees who try to blame everyone but the careless person so we can come up with the best strategy to cut the insurance malarkey.

Should I talk to the other insurance company?

While the commercials make them seem nice and friendly, insurance companies are anything but. They make billions of dollars by collecting premium payments while at the same time paying out as little as possible to people who were injured. Insurance companies treat injured people as algorithms without much care for how your life has changed. Insurance companies often won't even pay for the total amount of actual medical bills. The bottom line is that insurance companies fight to pay you as little as possible to save their bottom line.

In short, you should never talk to the other person’s insurance companies. As we know, insurance companies are more interested in protecting themselves than in paying what is fair and right. Anything you say to them can be used against you if the case goes to court. No matter what you say, the insurance company will find a way to twist your words and use them against you.

You may have to file a lawsuit to get what you are owed from the other person. In Texas (and lots of other states), a lawsuit is filed against the responsible person or company. Although the responsible party’s insurance company covers the defense costs and, typically, the final amount owed to you, court rules generally prohibit ever mentioning insurance in front of a jury. Tepperman Law strongly believes in the jury system and that the jury system is the only way to keep insurance companies honest.