Seconds after impact, smoke pours from under the hood, and a door won't open. Burns from a crash can come from flames, from hot engine parts, or from chemicals released in the collision, and the recovery can stretch on long after the tow truck leaves. We represent Centennial drivers and passengers burned in vehicle crashes and fires, from our Denver office.
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One minute you were driving home through Centennial. The next, another car slammed into yours, the engine compartment caught fire, and you or someone riding with you was burned getting out. Along with the pain, there's a tangle of insurance calls, a totaled vehicle and a question about who pays. A Centennial burn injury lawyer can help you understand what Colorado law allows.
For a conversation about your situation, CGH Injury Lawyers can be reached at (303) 209-9395. A written account through our contact page is fine too.
Colorado treats a crash burn, a product defect, a property hazard, and a job injury under separate rules, and one collision can involve more than one of them.
Fuel leaks, battery fires and hot engine fluids can all cause burns in and around a wrecked vehicle. A crash burn can be part of a claim against a driver whose negligence caused the crash. That driver's auto liability insurance is a starting point.
A fuel system, battery pack, or electrical component that shouldn't have ignited can also play a part. A product liability claim can rest on more than one legal theory, including negligence and strict liability (C.R.S. 13-21-401(2)). A strict liability claim examines the part itself, looking at whether it was defective and whether the defect led to the burn. Its deadline can differ from the deadline for a claim against the driver (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)(II)).
A burn can also start with a property's condition: a space heater plugged into faulty wiring, a gas leak the landlord ignored, or a cracked fire pit at a friend's house. Colorado's premises statute, C.R.S. 13-21-115, reaches anyone "legally responsible for the condition of real property," and that description can fit a landlord. The court decides from the facts whether you were an invitee, whose claim can generally rest on dangers the owner knew of or should have known of, or a licensee, whose claim generally needs the owner's actual knowledge.
Workers' compensation is generally the only claim against your own employer (C.R.S. 8-41-102). If you drive for work and another driver or a defective product caused your burn, Colorado also lets you pursue that outside party for losses workers' compensation leaves uncovered. If workers' compensation has paid benefits, its insurer may have a right to be repaid from what you recover from the outside party (C.R.S. 8-41-203).
Colorado's Premises Liability Act starts with the reason you were on the property. That reason puts you in one of three categories, trespasser, licensee, or invitee, and the category sets what the owner owed you. The Act counts a social guest as a licensee. An invitee is on the land for business; both sides are interested in it, or is there because the owner held the place out as open to the public?
The invitee category carries the most protection, reaching hazards the owner actually knew about as well as those the owner should have known about. For a licensee, recovery generally requires the owner's actual knowledge (C.R.S. 13-21-115(4)(b)). An invitee needs that actual knowledge too if the property is land classified for property tax purposes as agricultural or vacant, as C.R.S. 13-21-115(4)(c)(II) provides.
The court, looking at the facts, decides which category fits (C.R.S. 13-21-115(6)).
Colorado's comparative negligence statute (C.R.S. 13-21-111) lets a jury, or a judge in a case without a jury, weigh each party's negligence as a percentage. You can recover if your percentage is less than the percentage of the driver you're suing, and the award goes down by your percentage. If yours is as high as theirs or higher, the defendant gets the judgment.
Say the other driver ran a red light while you were going a few miles over the limit. A jury might put 35 percent of the fault on you and 65 percent on the other driver. Your damages would then be reduced by 35 percent.
For claims arising on or after January 1, 2025, damages for noneconomic loss are capped at $1.5 million. That category takes in pain, suffering, emotional stress and a diminished quality of life (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5). Medical malpractice and wrongful death claims fall under separate rules. Starting January 1, 2028, the amount is adjusted for inflation.
Economic losses such as treatment costs and lost pay aren't noneconomic damages, so the limit leaves them alone. Subsection (5) adds a second carve-out for compensatory damages for physical impairment or disfigurement. For a driver with burn scars across the arms and neck, that rule can matter, since scarring may be compensated as disfigurement.
The two- and three-year periods generally run from the date you learned, or reasonably should have learned, of both the injury and its cause (C.R.S. 13-80-108). For a child, separate rules can affect how a deadline runs. Ask a lawyer to confirm the deadline that fits your facts.
The City of Centennial describes itself as located in Arapahoe County.
Courthouses
Where a lawsuit is filed depends on the facts. The Arapahoe County Justice Center is in Centennial at 7325 S. Potomac Street, Centennial, CO 80112. The Colorado Judicial Branch also lists the Arapahoe County Courthouse - Littleton. Arapahoe County belongs to the 18th Judicial District.
Hospitals
HCA HealthONE Centennial, A part of Aurora Hospital, at 14200 E Arapahoe Rd, appears as a Level IV facility on the state health department's trauma facility list. That list also shows HCA HealthONE Swedish, at 501 E Hampden Ave in Englewood, as Level I. Records from the ambulance, the emergency room, and any hospital stay are important evidence in a claim.
Fire rescue
Centennial is on South Metro Fire Rescue's list of cities served. Its website accepts non-medical records requests, and a report on a vehicle fire may help show where and how the fire started.
Our office
CGH Injury Lawyers has no office in Centennial. We serve Centennial clients from our Denver office.
We don't publish burn settlement figures. A claim's value turns on the burn, the crash, and what has changed in your life since.
A car fire can trace back to the other driver, a failed part, or both. When the insurer says you caused the crash or the fire, we look at fire origin analysis, maintenance records, and expert testimony to test that claim.
MedlinePlus explains that burns are categorized by depth as superficial, partial-thickness or full-thickness. We gather the records that place your burn in one of those categories and show where on your body it is.
We develop a Life Care Plan with input from medical economists, burn surgeons, and vocational experts, laying out the cost of that future care.
We'll say so if the law or the facts don't back a claim.
CGH Injury Lawyers, formerly Cheney Galluzzi & Howard, was founded in Denver in 2016 and prepares each case as if it will be tried. Managing Partner Kevin Cheney is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).
Call 911 in an emergency. In the words of MedlinePlus, "Major burns need urgent medical care."
Ask your insurer and the tow yard not to repair, sell, or scrap the car until it can be inspected, since a failed part may matter.
Write down the responding agency and the report number, and ask how to obtain the fire report if crews put out a fire.
Take pictures of the vehicles, the burned interior, the scene and your injuries, and keep photographing the burn over the following weeks.
The other driver's insurer may contact you. Before you give a recorded statement to an insurance company, you can ask to talk with a lawyer first. Our direct line is (303) 209-9395.
Keep medical bills, towing and rental receipts, pay stubs, and a journal of how the burn affects your days.
Available damages depend on the facts of the case. Colorado divides them into categories, and its noneconomic limit applies to only some damages.
These compensatory damages fall outside the noneconomic cap (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5(5)).
If the crash involved a government vehicle, C.R.S. 24-10-114 caps what can be recovered from the public entity, and those caps are recalculated on a four-year cycle by the Colorado Secretary of State.
In a negligence claim, the award drops by whatever percentage of fault is yours, and nothing is recovered once your share reaches or passes the other driver's. The evidence of how the crash happened shapes where those percentages land.
A crash and a defective part can both contribute to one burn. The driver who caused the collision and the company that made a failed part can each face a claim on different deadlines.
An early payment can overlook future grafts, therapy, and lost work. A Life Care Plan documents those costs.
It can. Against the driver who caused the crash, tort claims arising out of the use or operation of a motor vehicle generally have three years (C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)). Under C.R.S. 13-80-101(1)(n)(II), a strict liability claim against the manufacturer of a defective vehicle part generally keeps the two-year deadline found in C.R.S. 13-80-102(1)(b). Have a lawyer confirm the deadline for your claim.
Arapahoe County, which includes Centennial, is part of the 18th Judicial District. The Arapahoe County Justice Center is in Centennial at 7325 S. Potomac Street, and the county also has a courthouse location in Littleton. Where a lawsuit is filed depends on the facts.
Scarring may be compensated as disfigurement, and Colorado's noneconomic cap doesn't restrict compensatory damages for disfigurement or physical impairment (C.R.S. 13-21-102.5). The cap itself is $1.5 million for claims arising on or after January 1, 2025. It reaches damages like pain and suffering. Medical malpractice and wrongful death claims are handled under their own rules, and medical expenses and lost wages sit outside the cap.
The landlord may be. A landlord can qualify as someone legally responsible for the property's condition under the Premises Liability Act (C.R.S. 13-21-115), and your status on the property is a question the court answers from the facts. As an invitee, you could generally hold the landlord responsible for dangers it knew about or should have known about. As a licensee, you'd generally need to show the landlord actually knew. If the appliance was defective, the manufacturer may be responsible as well.
No. Our office is at 2701 Lawrence St., Suite 201, Denver, CO 80205. Call (303) 209-9395 to reach us.
It may be possible. Colorado generally limits product liability claims against a seller that didn't make the product (C.R.S. 13-21-402). Exceptions include a seller that knew about the defect and a principal distributor or seller when a court can't get jurisdiction over the manufacturer (C.R.S. 13-21-401(1), 13-21-402). The company that made the product is a possible defendant.
Possibly, depending on what your friend knew. A social guest counts as a licensee (C.R.S. 13-21-115), and a licensee's claim generally turns on whether your friend actually knew about the hazard. Which category fits is for the court to decide, and the owner's liability insurance may respond if there's a claim.
Your medical records, from the ambulance forward, can show the burn's depth, its size and where it is on your body. The crash report, any fire report, photos of the vehicle and your injuries, the vehicle itself if a part may have failed, and records of lost work all belong in the file.
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It's More Than Money.
If a crash left you or someone you love burned, call (303) 209-9395 or send us a message through the contact page. We'll go over what happened, walk through the Colorado rules that may apply, and give you our candid view. Callers who prefer Spanish can dial (303) 835-9177.
Our lawyers work out of the Denver office. Learn more on our Centennial personal injury lawyers page. A Colorado burn injury attorney page explains how these claims work, and our Denver burn injury lawyer page covers similar ground. A crash or a property hazard may also fit our Centennial car accident lawyer or Centennial premises liability lawyer pages.
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