You were rear ended in a Kentucky car accident last night while sitting at a red light waiting for the light to change and listening to Toby Keith. BAM! It was like a fire cracker going off. You thought you were okay, but when you get out of bed you realize that something isn’t right. Your back and neck hurts and your head is killing you. What do you do? You told the police officer that you weren’t hurt. Can you still go to a doctor? The answer is absolutely yes.            

As a personal injury attorney accident victims ask me one of these questions:

• Can I choose my own doctor?
• Do I have to go to a doctor the insurance company tells me to go to?
• Do I have to go to a doctor that I’m referred to by my family doctor?

The answer is you can go to whomever you want. You can go when you start experiencing pain. You can choose any doctor to go to to be treated for your Kentucky injury claim as long as you have No Fault Benefits or PIP benefits on your car insurance policy.  You can go to a chiropractor if you choose.  You can go to your family doctor if you choose.  You can go to the emergency room if you choose.  You can go to an orthopedic doctor. And it can be the doctor of your choice!  You do not have to take a referral from your family doctor and your medical bills from the Kentucky car accident will be paid for up to $10,000.00 under the basic PIP insurance on a Kentucky auto insurance policy.

If you have been in a Kentucky automobile accident and an insurance adjustor has told you that you have to go to their doctor, which is not the case.  If they have said it is too late to go to the doctor it is not the case. You can go to whatever doctor you choose whenever you choose and those bills will be paid under your PIP insurance.

Can you stop your teenage driver from texting while driving? I am a parent of a 16 year old daughter and a 22 year old daughter. I preach don’t text while diving. Pull over and to the side of the road if you have to use your cell phone. They give the “Okay dad”.  Have I really got through to them? I sure hope so. Distracted driving is dangerous. As a Kentucky personal injury attorney I see lives changed because a teenager was looking at a text message as they ran a red light.

Now there is help for us frustrated parents.   There is a new smart phone app that hopefully helps prevent texting and driving and consequently deadly fatal accidents.  iSUP is a new product that is will hopefully be a weapon that will be used to help solve this problem.  The app comes to life when it detects that your phone is traveling at a speed of over 5 miles per hour.  When it detects this speed it locks down the phone screen.  The user is not able to dial a phone number, launch an app, read or compose a text message. 

There is some access. You can dial an emergency number such as 911. You can also select a few numbers that have been preapproved that will not be locked down.  Access will also be allowed to some apps such as Google maps and navigation apps. 

This lock down does create problems if you are a passenger or the so-called designated texter. If the app is enabled on the phone the passengers’ screen will also be locked down. The inventors of iSUP are looking into overrides. 

Another new app is called Zom Safer.  This app will put your phone in safe mode and lock down your screen. In other words you cannot dial the phone or enter a text message. This app will allow you to make hand-free calls. 

You might want to check out one of these apps if you have teenage drivers.  iSUP is only $5.00 per month and could prevent a serious Kentucky automobile accident caused by distracted driving or texting and driving.

Bicycle accidents happen in Kentucky almost every day.  If you ride a bike on Kentucky roads like I do you’re going to have some sort of incident or accident. Hopefully it will be a minor one.  It may not be caused by a car or a truck that runs into you. You may just fall, hit a pothole or run off the road. 

I have been thinking about this as I prepare for Shakertown Bike Trek to benefit the American Lung Association.  Each year approximately 460,000 people are injured in bicycle accidents.  These are reported accidents that are serious enough to require some sort of emergency care.  This is almost a half a million people.  Of this number nearly 1,000 cyclists die in accidents every year.  When I saw this statistic I was floored.  I had no idea there were this many deaths annually in bicycle accidents. 

Of the 1,000 cyclists that die each year approximately 75 percent of these deaths are the result of head injuries. This is according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.  So why do I see people riding their bikes that are not wearing bicycle helmets?  Most of these individuals are not cyclists who ride regularly for fitness. They seem to be riding for transportation, to get to and from work. Everyone should be aware of these statistics. 

A helmet is not going to prevent an accident. Should you do have an accident I believe a helmet will greatly reduce the risk of injury, especially head injuries. I wear a helmet when I ride my bicycle. I wear one when I ski. I don’t know how many of the 750 deaths in the United States from head injuries in bicycle accidents were a result of people not wearing a helmet.  Helmets won’t prevent every injury in a bicycle accident but it is without a doubt that a bicyclist will have a less severe injury if the helmet is worn.  Every bicyclist should wear a helmet.  Don’t become one of the statistics.  Pick a helmet that fits correctly so that you can increase your chances of surviving a Kentucky bicycle accident.

I read an interesting case from the Kentucky Court of Appeals.  Unfortunately this case is listed as not to be published. I guess that is what our Courts do when they don’t want to set a precedent (in other words they might change their mind).

The case got me thinking about what is an uninsured vehicle if you have been injured in a Kentucky car accident. The case explored the question as to what is the definition of an uninsured vehicle under the Uninsured Motorist Coverage in your Kentucky car insurance policy. Uninsured Motorist Coverage is the part of your insurance policy that will cover you if you are the victim of a Kentucky car accident and the person that caused the accident does not have car insurance. 

Unfortunately, there is no universal definition of what an uninsured vehicle is. In other words what type of vehicle that doesn’t have insurance and causes an accident will trigger your uninsured motorist coverage? Every insurance policy has its’ own definition and speaks for itself.  To know exactly what an uninsured vehicle is and what is covered you must review your personal insurance policy. 

If you are like me and most people this is only done after-the-fact. You have been involved in a Kentucky automobile accident and look at your car insurance policy to see if you are covered. Do the facts of the auto accident fit the definitions in your car insurance policy?

 In the unpublished Court of Appeals case involved all terrain vehicles (ATVs). One ATV was struck by another ATV on a public road in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.  The question the Court of Appeals struggled with was whether the ATV was a covered vehicle within the meaning of the insurance policy’s definition of an uninsured vehicle in the Uninsured Motorist portion of the policy. 

The Court pointed out that an ATV was not considered a motor vehicle for purposes of the Motor Vehicle Reparations Act.  This is the PIP or Personal Injury Protection statute. This was an important fact because medical bills were not paid or considered covered. 

Some of the included in a definition of an uninsured auto that  are commonly included in car insurance policies:

• An auto that is insured.
• An auto owned or operated by a self-insurer.  This means somebody that does not carry insurance but has enough money to pay for any claim.
• Any car owned by the United States of America.
• A land motor vehicle or trailer operated on rails.
• Farm-type tractor equipment designed for off-road use.

            The ATV was not found to be excluded and not included in any definition and therefore no coverage was found. I think an ATV should be considered a vehicle, but I realize that an insurance policy is a contract between you and the insurance company. If you own an ATV, moped or ride a bicycle pull your car insurance policy out and take a look at it. Find out if you have coverage if you are in a Kentucky car accident and are hit by an uninsured car.

            As a personal injury attorney I have seen policies where coverage has been found for Mopeds and bicycles.  It is extremely important to review your policy if you are in this type of situation.  Don’t trust the insurance company’s interpretation; always bring it to a qualified personal injury attorney to help you make the determination as to whether or not you can be compensated for injuries suffered in a Kentucky motor vehicle accident under the Uninsured Motorist portion of your policy.

          What is cyber sleuthing? What does it have to do with a Kentucky accident victim?  Everybody has heard of Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.  You are living under a rock if you haven’t.  What’s does social media have to do with your Kentucky car, motorcycle, bicycle or truck accident case?  If you have been injured in a Kentucky car wreck you need to be very careful with what you post on your Facebook or Twitter account, or any social media for that matter.

            Why? We have all heard the stories of professional athletes getting in hot water for their twitter posts.  We know employers check out your social media profiles before they hire you for a job.  Insurance adjusters do the same thing. If information is available on the internet that will help the insurance company defeat your Kentucky accident claim the insurance company will try to find it.  A cyber sleuth will look every where.  An insurance adjuster will search social media sites to see what information they can find to see pictures of you having a good time. Doing things you said you were unable to do because of your injuries in the auto accident. They will look for videos of you bowling, golfing or mowing the grass. They are looking at the dates of those pictures and videos. They are finding out who your friends are so they can interview them. Why are they taking the time to look at all of this?  To see if there’s something the insurance company can use to decrease the value of what they’re going to have to pay you for your accident claim.

            I have a friend, Chris Davis, who is a personal injury attorney in Seattle, Washington.  He had a client post a video of himself snowboarding.  That video on Facebook was seen by the insurance adjuster, down loaded and .  The insurance adjuster  lowered the offer $20,000.00 because he saw him making a jump on a snowboard. The post cost him thousands of dollars. Maybe it was harmless, but the perception was that he had fully recovered.

             Be smart. Use your common sense. If you’re going to post on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, make sure your privacy settings are not public, that your private information is protected and access to your profile is limited. Don’t let anybody view your profile and your personal information unless they are your friend. 

              Make sure you know who ALL your friends are. If you don’t your friend could be the kid of the insurance adjuster on your case.  If you’re going to post Facebook be careful. Be smart about what you’re posting.  Don’t post anything that you would not like to see read in the paper the next day. By using common sense and remembering this you will help your personal injury attorney get you the best settlement value in your Kentucky accident case.