Airport Car Accidents

Motor Vehicle Collision Lawyers Assisting Victims in Chicago

Many thousands of people work at O'Hare and Midway Airports. They are busy traffic hubs. With millions of passengers to be dropped off and picked up each year, and many rushed, distracted, or emotional drivers, the traffic in and out of the airport can be dangerous. If you were injured in an airport car accident, our Chicago car accident lawyers are ready to help you pursue damages.

Pursuing Compensation for an Airport Car Accident

There are many different hazards when driving in and out of airports. These include distractions due to talking on a cell phone, confusion about which way to go or where to park, unique driving conditions, and traffic congestion. Many pedestrians are climbing in and out of cars or trying to cross roads within the airport, and they are at risk of being struck. Rear-end collisions are common, as are pedestrian accidents.

You may be able to recover compensation from a driver who collides with you by establishing the driver's negligence. This means that you will need to show that the driver owed you a duty of care, the driver breached that duty of care, causation, and actual damages. For example, if a driver was talking to a passenger whom he was picking up and turned onto a one-way road that was clearly marked, you may be able to show that the driver breached the duty to use reasonable care while driving through the parking lot.

Often, a defendant driver will turn around and assert that the plaintiff was to blame for the accident. They will need to establish the plaintiff's comparative negligence. If they are able to persuade the jury that the plaintiff was negligent, the damages will be reduced by an amount equal to the plaintiff’s degree of fault. When there are multiple people potentially at fault for an accident, a case becomes more complicated. It may be necessary to retain an accident reconstruction expert to examine the evidence and determine the contributing causes. The expert may need to provide testimony about the degree to which each party that contributed to the accident was at fault.

Generally, any defendant who is found to be liable will be jointly and severally liable for the plaintiff's past and future medical expenses, such as hospital bills and therapy. Any defendant whose fault is found to be less than 25% of the total fault attributable to the plaintiff and any other defendants will only be severally liable for the damages. This means that they will only be responsible for a share of noneconomic damages equal to their proportion of fault. Any defendant whose fault is 25% or more than the total fault that can be attributed to the plaintiff, the defendants sued by the plaintiff, and any third-party defendants except the plaintiff's employer shall be jointly and severally liable for the other damages.

However, it can be important to investigate all contributing causes of the accident. In situations in which a rental car was used, for example, there may not be enough insurance coverage for your injuries. In these cases, it may be important for your attorney to investigate whether other drivers may bear some responsibility, or whether there were defects in the airport's design or construction that may have contributed to your injuries. For example, was there standing water at the airport that resulted in a driver losing control of the vehicle? Or, for another example, was there construction on the airport roads and a failure to warn? While an airport cannot insure the safety of everyone, it can be held liable for a visitor's injuries if it knew or should have known about a dangerous condition and failed to either make repairs or provide warnings.

Explore Your Options with a Car Accident Attorney in the Chicago Area

If you have been injured in an airport car accident in Chicago, you should contact an experienced personal injury lawyer. At Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Eagle, Johnson & Bareck, we also represent accident victims in Champaign, Quincy, Aurora, Rockford, and Springfield, as well as other areas of Cook, Adams, Sangamon, Champaign, Winnebago, and Kane Counties. Call us at 312-263-6330 or toll-free at 800-444-1525 for a free consultation.