Nearly six million motor vehicle collisions occur in the US every year, and approximately three million people get injured every year in car accidents. In most cases, the driver is at fault for the accident. While the victims of a car accident can sue the guilty driver (or their insurance company) to get compensation for injuries, getting the compensation is not an easy task and determining fault in a collision can get murky. The fault of the driver must be clearly established in the court to claim damages. And for this, you need to get the help of an experienced and professional car accident attorney.
Negligence
A driver will be considered at fault if he or she acted negligently resulting in the accident. Negligence is legally defined as the failure to take due care that a person with ordinary prudence would have taken in similar circumstances.
States have different laws regarding negligence in a car accident case. Majority of states have contributory negligence laws. The laws state that the at-fault driver won’t have to compensate the victim who has contributed to the accident in any way. Even if the victim was only 10 percent responsible for an accident, the laws don’t allow the victim to be compensated for repairs or injuries.
On the other hand, some states such as Colorado, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, South Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Tennessee, and West Virginia have modified comparative negligence laws. In such states, the victims can only get compensation from the other driver if they are less than 50 percent at fault for the car accident.
Moreover, you should note that five states including Alabama, Maryland, the District of Columbia, North Carolina, and Virginia have comparative negligence laws. Victims in states with comparative negligence laws can get compensation if they are partly responsible for an accident. They can recoup the losses from the other driver even if they are 99 percent at fault.
Fault or No-Fault Laws
Similar to negligence laws, states have different laws for who pays for losses sustained in a car accident. Most states, including California, Texas, Arkansas, and others, have at-fault laws. The laws state that the insurance company of the driver will have to pay for medical expenses, car repairs, and non-economic losses, including physical pain and psychological problems due to the accident.
In contrast, states including New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Florida, Kansas, Hawaii, Kentucky, Utah, Hawaii, and Pennsylvania have no-fault laws for vehicle accidents. In these states, each driver’s insurance company pays for the medical expenses, while the insurance company of the at-fault driver pays for the cost of repairs.
T-Bone Car Collisions
Determining fault is particularly challenging in case of T-Bone car accidents. Also known as a broadside and right-angle car collision, the accidents commonly occur when someone is making a left turn. This type of accident can also occur at stoplights or when pulling out of a driveway.
The accident occurs when one of the cars broadsides the other car resulting in a ‘T’ formation. This type of accident usually occurs when a driver does not give the right of way to the other driver. However, this is not always the case. A driver who fails to stop when the traffic signal is red and hits another car making a left turn will be at fault.
Determining the fault in such a situation requires the use of eyewitness accounts, photographs, surveillance videos, and official police report. An experienced car accident lawyer will critically examine the evidence to determine the negligence of the other driver.
Location of Damage
A common method that car accident attorneys employ to determine the fault in case of a motor vehicle collision is inspecting the location of the damage. They use the principle of physics to determine who might be at fault.
A qualified attorney will follow the evidence by looking at scratches and dents as well as injuries to the driver or passenger to create a theory about who might be responsible for the accident.
For instance, if an accident occurs on a T-intersection with no traffic lights and the front end of one car and the side-door of the other car are damaged, the clues suggest that the driver of the car with front-end damage is at fault due to not yielding to the right of way or the right before left rule.
Another example is when the car accident occurs at a stop sign. The car accident lawyer will record the testimony of the eyewitness to find out which driver had not yielded to the traffic light. The driver who had not stopped at a red signal will be at-fault in this situation.
Fault In Case of Rear-End Collisions
Determining fault in rear-end collisions is also challenging. In most cases, the driver at the rear is at fault for the accident. However, in some cases, the driver at the front is held responsible for an accident. For instance, if the car at the front had a faulty tail light and the crash occurred at night, the driver at the front will be responsible for the accident.
"Never assume that the police got it right. They’re not witnesses, considering they probably got to the accident after it already happened. Witnesses were there at the moment of impact. They watched the collision occur first-hand.On the other hand, the job of the police was to gather information from all involved parties. More often than not, the results of their investigation are flawed and poorly researched. As a car accident injury lawyer, it’s my job to reconstruct what happened after the fact. I go behind the professional investigators and do their job more thoroughly. That means taking note of a Tire repair shop across the street, or the camera that could have caught the collision on close-captioned video footage."
Frank Hartman | Website
The driver at the front will also be responsible in case of a rear-end accident if he or she had not moved the car out of the road after it had stopped due to a flat tire or a mechanical failure.
Make sure that you contact an experienced car accident attorney if you or a family member was injured in a car accident. An attorney will carry out a detailed investigation to determine the fault of the driver. The attorney will look at all the evidence surrounding the accident to establish the fault of the guilty driver at court without any doubt.
Getting the help of a professional vehicle accident attorney near you will greatly increase the chances of a positive outcome of a car accident case. The attorney will help in determine the adequate compensation amount that covers the losses sustained in a vehicle accident.
Personal Injury Lawyers in San Diego
Car Accident Lawyers in San Diego
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