What Happens If You’re Injured While Helping Someone in an Emergency?

If you’re injured while helping someone at the scene of an accident, you may be entitled to compensation. Legal recovery will not be against the person you are assisting, but the person who caused the original accident. While you cannot be sued for assisting an injured party (in most circumstances), you may be able to recover medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering for your own harm. If you have recently been injured while helping someone in an emergency situation, our PA personal injury lawyers are here to provide aggressive advocacy on your behalf.

Original Accident Causes Your Injuries

If you become injured yourself when attempting to provide aid to an accident victim, you may be entitled to legal recovery. A successful injury claim will depend on proving the at-fault driver’s negligence. There is no denying that the driver had a duty to follow traffic regulations or that they breached this duty by causing the original collision. Rather, the main issue will be foreseeability, which is required to prove causation and recover damages.

Personal injury claims hinge on showing that the defendant caused the injury to the plaintiff. Foreseeability is straightforward when dealing with the at-fault party and the initial victim, but it becomes complicated when more parties get involved. However, if it was foreseeable that someone might have stopped to render aid, then causation will be established. Therefore, the at-fault driver will be accountable for your injuries.

Secondary Accident Causes Your Injuries

In some circumstances, you may stop to render aid and be hit by another driver who failed to slow down. If you are a victim to a secondary collision, then the secondary driver will be responsible for your medical bills, lost wages, and other damages. However, you must show that the secondary driver failed to use reasonable care when coming upon the scene of the accident.

In the law, reasonable care is determined by assessing what actions an ordinary, prudent person would take under the same circumstances. If the collision was located behind a steep curve that would not allow a reasonable person to stop, then liability may be disputed. However, if you turned on your hazard lights or placed warning triangles behind your vehicle, then a reasonable person would have known to stop. Before pursuing litigation, you will want to speak with an attorney who can assess your case.

PA Good Samaritan Law

Pennsylvania’s Good Samaritan law grants you civil immunity if you stop to render aid to someone in good faith. This applies even if you cause further injury to the victim. However, the courts evaluate whether the victim was in imminent peril, meaning in danger of serious injury or death. If the person was not in imminent peril and you injured them further, the Good Samaritan law is likely not a valid defense.

The law also applies only in cases of ordinary negligence, not gross negligence. Ordinary negligence is based on the reasonable person standard; that is, whether your actions in the emergency situation were consistent with what a reasonable person would have done under the same circumstances. Gross negligence, by contrast, involves conduct that goes well beyond what is reasonable or necessary to render aid. If you have been accused of gross negligence at an accident scene, it is important that you speak with our personal injury lawyers to review your rights.

PA Personal Injury Attorneys Offering Tenacious Representation

At HGSK Injury Lawyers, our dedication to our clients can be seen in our numerous successful case outcomes. We believe that anyone who helps others should be compensated for any losses they experience. To arrange your free consultation with one of our PA personal injury lawyers, our office can be reached online or by calling (267) 551-8782 today.