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Bringing up a family in the 21st Century is certainly a lot more challenging than 100 years ago. When your child begins their elementary education, it’s almost imperative – to keep up with the Joneses, as the saying goes – that they get a smart phone. By high school time, your child will want to start driving in a show of independence and freedom. Phones present challenges of their own, but statistics on teenage driving are startling.

Your common automobile accident involves a collision between two vehicles, but what if you’re out driving along, and a piece of debris suddenly appears? You swerve to miss it but can’t, resulting in damage to your vehicle. Who’s to blame, and how do you get reimbursed for your car’s damage?

According to the Insurance Information Institute (III), a motor vehicle operator will generally face the possibility of an accident around every 17 years. Some of these may be simple fender-benders that are easy – to use a flexible term – to resolve.

Statistics show that nearly 80% of all drivers have been involved in at least one accident on the road. In Florida, car wrecks are an unfortunate reality. Everyone knows that if you are involved in one, you’re going to need to document what happened as completely as possible. But what does this exactly entail?

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), at least 95 percent of vehicles built since the start of this century contain what are known as “black boxes.” These devices record important information when a crash occurs—speed, brake usage, maneuvering and more—all of which are data that could prove useful in a accident settlement or personal injury lawsuit.

Florida has what is called parental responsibility laws on the books, which cover the actions of any minors, including driving incidents. However, the other party would have to prove negligence on the part of your teen to be able to prevail in a personal injury lawsuit.

According to the National Safety Council (NSC), the average cost of being injured in a vehicular accident ranges from $29,200 to $101,000 when all costs and losses are factored in, including wage and productivity losses, medical expenses, administrative expenses, motor-vehicle damage, and employers’ uninsured costs.

You hop in your car to set out for work or to meet friends for lunch and suddenly you’re rear-ended or struck in the side by another vehicle. You definitely feel the effects of the blow – your body gets jerked around and maybe an airbag pins you to your seat – but otherwise, you feel no pain, just the shock of what happened.

In this age of social media, many of us feel the urge – if not the need – to share virtually every detail of our lives with others. We do this through posting messages, uploading photos and videos, and interacting with others online, some of whom we may never even meet.

Just going about daily activities, you can be injured unexpectedly and often not because of something you did. For instance, you could be walking down the aisle of a supermarket searching for products when you suddenly slip and fall because of a wet spot on the floor. In another scenario, you could back out of your driveway to go to work, you get on the highway, another car strikes yours, and you end up being thrown back and forth in your seat.