Attorney Ben Schwartz discusses what happens if you’re involved in a deer car accident and what happens if you’re injured in a car accident because a deer ran out in front of you.

TRANSCRIPT:

I’m attorney Ben Schwartz and today I want to talk about what happens when you’re in a car accident in the state of Delaware. Instead of being injured in a car accident caused by the negligence of another motorist. What happens if you’re injured in a car accident because a deer ran out in front of you and caused the accident to happen? The attorneys in my office generally do not handle car accidents involving deer, but we get several calls every year from folks who have been in a car accident with a deer and want to know their legal rights.

There are some issues and problems that come up. I think it’s worth talking about. First off, a car accident with a deer is not like an accident where some drunk driver hits you. Someone isn’t paying attention and runs through a red light, smashes into a car. An accident with a deer there’s no at-fault driver that you would pursue a legal claim against. There’s no at-fault driver to sue. What do you do? You’ve got medical bills, lost wages, you may need transportation while your car is being fixed.

These are common issues that come up and people want to know if I’ve been in a car accident involving a deer or another wild animal, what do I do about all these problems I have? First off, if you’re injured in a car accident in Delaware, you’re driving your own car, and you have insurance on it, as required by law, you should have a minimum of fifteen thousand dollars in what’s called personal injury protection insurance, or PIP for short. Your PIP is going to pay things like your medical expenses, your lost wages, and sometimes it will pay for things like household help up to your limit.

Your limit might be fifteen thousand dollars per person. Your limit could be higher. It might be a hundred thousand dollars per person. You’ve got to check your declarations page on your auto policy to see. Your PIP will pay medical bills. It will also pay lost wages. It will pay you at a rate of 80% of whatever your lost wages are. Under your own auto policy, if you bought collision coverage, your collision coverage will pay for your car to be fixed. If you bought rental insurance or rental coverage, it will pay for you to have a rental up to whatever the limit is per day. There’s usually some time limit. Maybe your rental is for two weeks. That’s what you’ve got to work with.

If you’ve been involved in a deer-car accident, you’re going to look to your own insurance policy to cover things like medical bills, lost wages, repairs to your car, and rental. Also, the other question you have to ask is, were you on the job when the car accident occurred? If you’re on the job, you may also have a workers’ compensation claim, which we do. That also will provide benefits for things like medical lost wages.

In the workers’ comp world, lost wages are called temporary total disability. It will also provide you with compensation for things like scarring & disfigurement. If you have a permanent injury, a permanent impairment to a body part under workers’ compensation claims you can be compensated for that. This is, generally speaking, for accidents involving deer. A deer is a wild animal, not someone that you’re going to look to your own insurance policy to get things like medical bills paid, lost wages covered, rental coverage, and any damage that appears to be in your car.

Ben Schwartz is the Managing Partner of Schwartz & Schwartz, Attorneys at Law. If you are searching online for a personal injury attorney, please contact Ben about your case. Ben and the other attorneys in the firm represent people who have been injured in car accidents, deer car accidents, tractor-trailer and bus accidents, motorcycle accidents, slip-and-fall accidents, and dog bites. We have offices in Havertown (suburban Philadelphia), PA, Wilmington, DE and Dover, Delaware. Contact us and see if we can help you today!