Hang gliding a popular and dangerous sport. Every year many people are injured in hang gliding accidents. Sadly, many people are also killed. If you have been injured in a hang gliding accident because of someone else’s negligence, you may have a legal right to be compensated for your injuries.
Types of Hang Gliding Accidents
Most hanging gliding crashes involve a sudden loss of altitude and crashing into the ground or a collision with a fixed object, such as a hillside, while airborne. Other types of hang gliding accidents include falling out of a glider, collapse of a glider while on the ground, or being struck by a foreign object while flying.
Causes of Hang Gliding Accidents
Hang gliding is an inherently dangerous activity. Most accidents are caused by human error, often the error of the person piloting the glider. Some common causes of hang glider accidents include:
• High winds
• Inexperienced pilot
• Equipment failure
• Inexperienced teacher
• Defect in the safety harness
• Failure to adequately secure the safety harness
Hang glider accidents, even tragic ones, can happen due to the normal risk involved in the activity. But, if the actions of another person elevate that risk or hamper safety precautions, they need to be held responsible of their actions and your injuries.
Types of Hang Gliding Injuries
Because hang gliders spend much of their time in the air, the injuries from a hang gliding accident can be catastrophic.
Common types of injuries include:
• Death
• Spinal cord injuries
• Broken bones
• Head injuries
• Neck injuries
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Back injuries
• Amputated limbs or digits
• Torn or ripped muscles, ligaments, and tendons
• Sprained or strained muscles
• Mental trauma
• Lacerations
• Internal bleeding
• Damage to internal organs
If you are involved in a hang gliding accident you need to seek immediate medical help. Even if you believe that are not injured, you may serious internal injuries that you are not aware of due to the shock and adrenaline. If you do have serious injuries the sooner they are treated, the faster you will recover and the better you long term prognosis will be.
Failure to seek out medical treatment after a hang gliding accident can not only have string negative effects on your health, but it could jeopardize any injury claim you may later have. Without proper documentation, it may be hard to later link your injuries to the hang gliding accident.
Understanding Your State’s Laws
While personal injury law has many common elements across all 50 states. Each state has its own unique rules, laws, and procedures. You need to understand how personal injury law applies to your hang gliding accident in the state where the accident occurred. If you live in a different state form the accident, the law of the state where the accident occurred will control how your claim is compensated.
Some states view hang gliding as so dangerous that the ability to recover damages is strictly limited. People who hang glide are often found to have assumed the risk of the dangerous activity and unable to collect routine personal injury damages
Each state also has different rules about fault. In states with a strict contributory negligence rule, even if you are 1% at fault for the accident, you can be barred from recovering any damages.
Fortunately, almost all states follow some form of a comparative negligence rule instead of the harsher contributory negligence rule. In comparative negligence your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault.
If you are 45% at fault for the accident, you can still recover damages, but they will be reduced by 45%. In some states you can recover damages even if you are 99% at fault. Other states require that you be less than 50% at fault for the accident before you can recover damages.
Making a Claim
Before you can make a personal injury claim, you will need to know who is at fault for the accident. Was a rental company at fault for not properly maintaining equipment? Perhaps the hang glider itself was defective. There may be multiple parties at fault. You will need a personal injury lawyer to review your case. A lawyer may seek to hire an accident reconstruction specialist to help assist in reviewing the case and determining fault.
If you are dealing with injuries from a hang gliding accident for you or a loved one, the injuries are likely serious. It can be difficult to bring a hang gliding claim, even under the best of circumstances. You need a lawyer on your side with knowledge and experience. We can help connect you with the right personal injury lawyer for your case. Even if your accident took place far from home, we can help find you the lawyer your case deserves. Contact us right away.
