Who is At Fault for a Multi-Car Accident?

Often following a multi-car accident it is difficult to determine the at-fault party. What any investigator is left with is a jumble of entangled vehicles. It requires some detective work to unravel the contribution each vehicle made to the multi-car accident.

Regardless of who is at fault, you have only two years to file an action under Alabama’s Statute of Limitations (SOL). This would include filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the individual who caused the crash. Meanwhile, you have six years to file a lawsuit if you only want to collect for your auto damage.   

Regardless of who is determined to be at fault, in the case of a multi-car accident, it is possible that your injuries will not be apparent right away. While investigators sort out what led to the accident and who is at fault, do not forget that your soft tissue injuries may need to be addressed as part of your claim against the other driver (s).

It is this sort of guidance that a multi-car personal injury lawyer can offer to make sure your rights are protected and you are not taken advantage of by the insurance company for the other side.

Determining Fault in a Multi-Car Accident

In determining the fault in a multi-car accident, we must first determine who is negligent. 

What is negligence?

To be negligent, at least one party did not follow the rules of the road defined as:

• When driving, there is an assumption that everyone will follow the rules of the road and be mindful of the safety of all. When someone does not follow the rules – when they are driving all over the road, when they are driving under the influence, when they are speeding, when their vehicle is in poor shape and likely to have a tire blow out, they are not being responsible to others.

• To prove negligence, we must prove that they violated their duty to others and therefore were negligent.
  
• As a result of their negligence, you or a loved one, suffered injuries or a death.

Investigating a Multi-Car Accident

Our investigators are experienced at determining the at-fault party. They not only consider the police report but visit the scene or the vehicles before evidence is cleaned up.  There are usually some clues left behind that might pinpoint who is at fault, therefore negligent.

For example:

• Being rear-ended – This generally means the rear car is at fault. There are exceptions. If, for example, you had to slam on your brakes, it could be argued that the car behind that had maintained a reasonable stopping distance could not have stopped under any circumstance. Or if there was a multi-car pileup, it may not have been the fault of the car behind you, but maybe the car behind them.
  
• Running a light or stop sign – We can recreate the conditions before the crash and determine if the light was still red. We can also determine if either party was distracted while driving and placing a call or texting on a cell phone.  Running a stop sign or a light often results in a vehicle being T-boned which can have a serious outcome for those inside the vehicle.
   
• A head-on collision – This will usually result in life-altering injuries and/or death and inspecting the scene or relying on the police report is the only way to determine who was in their lane and who had moved into the oncoming traffic. We often must rely on the language of the police report to help determine fault.

It may take the expertise of an accident reconstructionist along with the police report, eyewitnesses, and other technicians to ultimately determine who was negligent.

Contributory Negligence

Alabama law requires anyone planning a lawsuit to jump through an additional hoop. Under the state’s “contributory negligence” rule, if you played even a one percent role in causing the accident, you cannot recover any compensation from the other driver. 

This is a very tough requirement and most states have adopted a “comparative negligence” rule that allows the at-fault driver to collect some of her damages as long as she is not more than 50 percent responsible for the accident. 

But under the tougher “contributory negligence” standard, a judge can throw out your case and an insurance adjuster can make settling difficult, if not impossible.

Chip Nix understands the need for aggressive advocacy at this time. Please call our Montgomery office at (334) 203-6669 so we can determine what avenues you have ahead to protect your rights and your assets.