If you pass a car accident in New Mexico, your first instinct might be to pull over and help the injured motorists. However, if you pull over without taking safety precautions, the results could be deadly. People have been killed because they stopped to help an injured motorist and were hit by an oncoming vehicle. To keep this from happening to you, here’s a few ways you can stay safe when you pull over.
How can you stay safe when helping another motorist?
To avoid personal injury, always approach the vehicle from the passenger’s side. If you approach from the driver’s side, you could be hit by another vehicle that didn’t see you until it was too late. Additionally, try to avoid parking near a hill or a sharp curve. Someone could easily go off the road and slam into your vehicle.
If the weather is bad, make sure you’re wearing protective gear. Wear shoes with cleats for traction and bundle up in warm outerwear. If you slip and fall on a slick highway, it’ll just be another injury for the first responders to deal with. You might want to keep an illuminated or glow-in-the-dark vest in your glove compartment so people will see you if you’re helping a motorist at night.
When you park, make sure you leave a distance between yourself and the other vehicle. You don’t want to be parked too closely to a damaged vehicle if something goes wrong. Additionally, if the motorist is parked under an overpass, stay underneath the overpass and don’t draw attention to yourself. Otherwise, somebody might peer over the overpass and end up going off the road, resulting in a lawsuit.
Can an attorney help you with a personal injury case?
Personal injury can be one of the most traumatic things you ever experience in your lifetime. You can’t erase the memories, but you can seek compensation that helps you get back on your feet again. An attorney could help you launch a lawsuit against the responsible parties and prevent an accident like this from happening to anyone else.