Common Causes of Fatal Accidents and When a Wrongful Death Claim Applies In Montgomery County

In Pennsylvania, wrongful death occurs when someone dies because of another individual’s intentional misconduct or negligence. Negligence is a significant factor in many fatal accidents and contributes to common bases for fatal accidents throughout the state. If your loved one is killed in a fatal accident like any of the accidents below, you may be entitled to bring a wrongful death claim to recover for the losses you incurred, including your emotional suffering, as a result of their death. 

Common Causes of Fatal Accidents in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, accidents are one of the top three causes of death in the state, accounting for seven percent of all deaths in 2022. Among adults ages 18 to 44, accidents account for 43 percent of total deaths, and are a leading cause of death for that age cohort. Accidents can arise in many different scenarios, but some of the most common causes of fatal accidents in Pennsylvania are motor vehicle accidents, fatal falls and other workplace incidents, defective products, and medical malpractice. 

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Motor vehicle accidents account for a large portion of fatal accidents in Montgomery County. In 2025, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation reported 109,515 total automobile crashes in the state and 979 fatal crashes. Motor vehicle accidents include not only car accidents but also truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, bicycle accidents and pedestrian accidents, many of which are the result of drivers’ negligent conduct while behind the wheel. 

Drivers are negligent when they fail to exercise reasonable care while driving their vehicle and cause harm to others. Common forms of negligence in motor vehicle accidents include distracted driving, texting while driving, driving under the influences of drugs or alcohol, and speeding. 

Workplace Accidents 

Workplace accidents are also a common cause of fatalities in Pennsylvania. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2024 there were 185 total fatal work injuries in the state, leading to a fatal work injury rate of 3.1 fatalities per 100,000 workers. Transportation incidents accounted for 32 percent of those fatal work injuries, while fatal falls, slips, and trips accounted for another 26 percent. 

Falls, slips and trips were particularly likely to cause fatal accidents in the construction industry, which had the highest number of fatalities of all industries. Because of the nature of construction work, construction accidents are a frequent cause of workplace fatalities. Other common causes of fatal workplace accidents include machinery accidents, fires, explosions, and exposure to hazardous substances. 

Employers in Pennsylvania have a legal obligation to provide a safe working environment as required under state and federal law. While some workplace accidents are outside of an employer’s control, an employer’s negligent failure to comply with state and federal workplace requirements can create a heightened risk of fatalities. 

Defective Products

Defective products may not seem particularly dangerous, but they are also a leading contributor of injuries and fatal accidents. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 1.5 million people visit the emergency room for defective product related injuries in 2024 and an estimated 50,900 deaths were related to consumer products. Common types of product defects that can lead to fatal accidents include:

• Faulty machinery
• Toxic consumer goods like unsafe children’s toys
• Defective medical devices
• Exploding devices such as defective batteries

Product liability laws govern how manufacturers and retailers handle consumer goods and where a company’s negligence contributes to product defects or the failure to address product defects, they can be held liable for damages and wrongful death. 

Medical Errors

Finally, medical errors also contribute to fatal accidents. Doctors and healthcare professionals have a duty of care to their patients. This means they must provide a standard of care that a reasonably skilled professional in the same field would have provided under similar circumstances. If they fail to do so, they may have acted negligently, which can give rise to a medical malpractice claim. Some common examples of medical errors that may result in fatalities and medical malpractice include errors during surgery, mistakes in dispensing medication, and accidents during birth. 

Bringing A Wrongful Death Claim After a Fatal Accident

Not all fatal accidents will give rise to a wrongful death claim. Accidents can occur despite everyone’s best due diligence and some are simply the result of unexpected circumstances and bad luck. For example, a motorist who is killed when a deer runs in front of their car is unlikely to be able to claim that negligence caused their death. And a worker who is hit by a falling box may not have any evidence that their employer’s negligence contributed to the accident. 

Wrongful death claims require a show that a specific duty of care was violated and that this violation was the cause of a loved one’s death. Family members seeking to bring such a claim must be able to make that connection and show how a driver, or employer or manufacturer’s failure to act with reasonable care directly led to the fatal accident that occurred. 

Proving negligence is not always a straightforward process and it may require careful thinking about strategy and how to best gather evidence of a defendant’s failure to exercise reasonable care. A Montgomery County wrongful death lawyer can help you assess whether negligence may have been a factor in your loved one’s fatal accident and what evidence would be needed to prove your wrongful death claim in court. 

Who Can Bring Wrongful Death Claims? 

Pennsylvania law permits certain “beneficiaries” to bring wrongful death claims based on a loved one’s unexpected death. These include any surviving spouse, children of the deceased and parents of the deceased. If no family members exist who could bring such a claim, the law  allows a personal representative of the deceased individual’s estate to bring a claim and recover damages on behalf of the estate. 

Anyone wanting to bring such a claim must do so within two years of the date of the person’s death. This is known as the wrongful death statute of limitations. While certain rare exceptions do apply, in most instances if a family member or personal representative fails to bring a wrongful death claim within this time period they will be permanently barred from filing the claim in the future. 

Recovering Damages for Wrongful Death

When a fatal accident occurs, family members and personal representatives may seek a wide range of damages through their wrongful death claim. First, they can seek economic damages for the costs that they incurred for medical treatment before the deceased’s death and for funeral and burial costs after death. This can include medical bills for hospital stays, emergency treatments and medication. 

Family members can also seek damages for the lost wages and lost future earnings of their loved one. Particularly when the deceased was the breadwinner for the family, this can amount to a significant number of damages and recovering future earnings can help support a family as they navigate life without a spouse or parent. 

And family members can seek damages for the emotional impacts of a fatal accident. This includes the emotional and mental anguish they may have experienced as a result of the death, anxiety and depression, and loss companionship and intimacy with a spouse or partner. 

While nothing can ever make a family whole after the death of a parent or spouse, wrongful death damages are meant to try to compensate the family as much as possible and to provide justice for the death that occurred. A Montgomery County wrongful death lawyer can help you assess what sort of damages might be available as part of your wrongful death claim. 

Evaluating Your Options For a Wrongful Death Claim

If you have a family member who was recently killed in a fatal motor vehicle crash, workplace incident, or another type of fatal accident, you may be wondering whether you have the right to bring a wrongful death claim for the loss you’ve experienced. If exploring your legal options feels overwhelming in the midst of such turmoil, a knowledgeable Montgomery County wrongful death lawyer may be able to assist you in exploring your options and managing the legal process. 

Understand Your Legal Options with the Help of a Montgomery County Wrongful Death Lawyer

The wrongful death attorneys at Anthony C. Gagliano III, Esquire, P.C. have decades of experience representing family members who have lost their loved ones to fatal accidents in Montgomery County. They can help assess whether negligence played a role in an accident, what duty of care applied at the time, and how to prove that this duty was violated in court. They can also help you pursue a significant settlement of your claims outside of court while also preparing to aggressively advocate for your rights in court, if needed. For more information or to schedule a consultation, contact us today.