CAR AND MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS

Automobile accidents give rise to the majority of personal injury claims in the U.S. This is not surprising, given that every 10 seconds someone in the United States is involved in a car accident, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Legal claims arising from motor vehicle accidents are typically governed by the law of negligence. Generally, people who operate automobiles must exercise “reasonable care under the circumstances.” A failure to use reasonable care is considered negligence. A person who negligently operates a vehicle may be required to pay for any damages, either to a person or property, caused by his or her negligence. The injured party, known as the plaintiff, is required to prove that the defendant was negligent, that the negligence was a proximate caused of the accident, and that the accident caused the plaintiff’s injuries.

As with other types of accidents, figuring out who is at fault in a traffic accident is a matter of deciding who was negligent. In many cases, your instincts will tell you that a driver, cyclist or pedestrian acted carelessly, but not what rule or rules that person violated. We will look to a number of sources to help you determine who was at fault for your accident, such as police reports, state traffic laws, and witness. In two thirds of motorcycle accidents involving another vehicle, the driver of the other vehicle violated the motorcycle rider’s right of way and caused the accident. Motorcyclists are about 26 times more likely to die in a crash than someone riding in a passenger car, and are 5 times as likely to be injured.

A traffic accident involving a commercial truck such as an eighteen-wheeler or other large freight carrier can be much more catastrophic than an ordinary car accident. A typical fully-loaded large commercial truck can weigh 80,000 pounds or more, while an average passenger automobile weighs approximately 3,000 pounds. Because of this size disparity, and due to the basic laws of physics, any collision between a commercial truck and another vehicle is likely to result in serious, even fatal injuries. While statistics show that truck drivers are generally much more careful on the road than automobile drivers, and thankfully the incidence of fatal crashes involving trucks and other large vehicles has declined in recent years, large truck crashes still accounted for 5,350 fatalities and 133,000 injuries in 2001.

Courts look to a number of factors in determining whether a driver was negligent. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Disobeying traffic signs or signals
• Failing to signal while turning
• Driving above or below the posted speed limit
• Disregarding weather or traffic conditions
• Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol