Driving is one of the most dangerous activities that humans do on a daily basis. Every time you park your car, you have averted catastrophe. People routinely get stressed about driving; it is only natural when you are trying to merge lanes on I-10 or turn onto a residential street that allows traffic in both directions. Most people do not stress about parking, though, except during driver’s ed lessons, during the driving test, or perhaps when trying to find parallel parking in the French Quarter of New Orleans after all of its tiny parking lots are full. Even though you may feel a sense of relief as soon as you turn from the main road into a parking lot, you are not out of the woods yet. Parking lots are a common site of car accidents. Even though most collisions in parking lots are minor fender benders, some are as severe as any that take place on the open road. If you have suffered serious injuries in a car accident in a parking lot, contact a Houma car accident lawyer.
How Bad Can Parking Lot Accidents Be?
In general, driving in a parking lot is less dangerous than driving on the highway or on a road with traffic lights. A protective factor is that the vehicles in parking lots do not travel very fast. Most collisions in parking lots occur when one car is backing out of a parking space and collides with another car that is moving straight ahead as the driver looks for available spaces. These accidents usually occur at low speeds and do not result in injuries, even though the resulting vehicle damage can be costly.
One hazard in parking lots is that their logic is different from that of roads laid out on a grid pattern with separate lanes, traffic lights, neutral ground, and red stop signs. Arrows or lines on the road may tell you where to stop and yield or which direction to drive in which row of parking spaces, but every parking lot is different, and it is easy to make mistakes if you are not used to the parking lot where you are trying to park. If parking spaces are interspersed with buildings, such as if fast food restaurants with drive-thru windows are in the middle of a parking lot, it can be difficult to predict the flow of traffic.
St. Tammany Parish Woman Dies in Single Vehicle Collision in Bank Parking Lot
In May 2024, Bertha Rauch crashed her car in a bank parking lot in St. Tammany Parish near Covington; hers was the only vehicle involved in the accident. She suffered fatal injuries as a result of the collision and was pronounced dead at the scene. She was 81 years old. News reports did not include any additional information about the causes of the accident.
Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey About Car Accident Cases
A car accident lawyer can help you if you have suffered a serious injury in a motor vehicle accident in a parking lot. Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey in Houma, Louisiana, to set up a consultation about your case.
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