Negligence and Auto Accidents: Determining who is at Fault

Finding out who is at fault in an auto accident will enable the victim to recover monetary damages. However, achieving this goal may be difficult and may require him to attain the legal services of a lawyer.

What is Negligence?

A driver will be seen as negligent if he has behaved in a careless or thoughtless way, thus causing injury or harm to others. In addition, he should have performed an action that should have been avoided or failed to perform an action that he is expected to do.

The victim will have a successful claim if his lawyer succeeded in establishing the following:

• The defendant is required by the law to exert reasonable care while driving- Drivers are required to be careful while on the roads. In addition, they should never ignore the presence of other road users like pedestrians and other vehicle drivers or occupants.
• The defendant failed to exert reasonable care- This element is also referred to as breach of “duty of care.”

Meanwhile, here are some causes of auto accidents that are attributed to a driver’s negligence:

• Drunk driving - A driver’s ability to properly operate a vehicle may be impaired if he took drugs or alcohol beverages before sitting behind the wheel. Statistics released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revealed that approximately 16, 654 people died in alcohol-related accidents in 2004 alone.
• Driver Fatigue - According to NHTSA, drowsy or tired drivers are responsible for around 100,000 accidents that annually occur in the United States. There is a high risk that accidents caused by driver fatigue will occur during the time when people usually sleep.

Different symptoms of driver fatigue include frequent yawning, daydreaming, heavy eyelids, and feeling irritable or fidgety.

• Distractions - The risk of an accident significantly increases when a driver suddenly becomes distracted. These distractions may be caused by playing loud music, eating, talking to another vehicle occupant, reading print materials, and cell phone use.
• Aggressive driving - This happens whenever a driver operates his car in a selfish way, without considering the safety and rights of other road users. Here are some examples of actions that indicate aggressive driving:
• Physical assaults
• Ignoring traffic signals
• Rude or aggressive gestures
• Aggressive tailgating
• Sudden change of lanes
• Speeding - It is considered as a grave threat to all road users because it prevents the driver from having full control of his vehicle. Speeding increases the danger of an accident and makes it more severe when it happens.