How To Identify The Driver-At-Fault Following A Winter Car Accident?

Anyone that has been involved in a wintertime collision should give serious thought to hiring a lawyer. Lawyers have been trained to deal with the complicating factors that work to determine who should be held liable for such an accident.

Why a driver cannot blame the weather for causing a winter accident:

According to the law and according to the insurance companies, all drivers must control their vehicles, even in bad weather. Someone driving in adverse weather conditions should exercise an added amount of precaution.

What happens if 2 drivers lose control of their vehicles, causing a collision?

In that case, the court might declare a 50/50 liability. In other words, each driver would be declared 50% at fault. Neither of the drivers could blame the weather.

How can drivers’ actions lower their chances for getting charged with any percent of the blame?

All drivers should spend money on winterizing their vehicles. Regular wiper fluid needs to be replaced with fluid that will not freeze. Regular tires should be removed, so that snow tires can be put on the vehicle’s wheels.

No vehicle should be taken on the road, until any snow, ice or dirt has been wiped off of its headlights. Each driver should check the level of inflation in the tires, before traveling down a street or highway. During the winter months, the person sitting behind the steering wheel should reduce the average level of that vehicle’s speed.

Whenever the road is icy or slippery, anyone traveling over that same surface should keep a safe distance from the car in front of the driver’s moving vehicle. That distance exceeds the distance used on a dry surface.

If a vehicle has not been winterized, or lacks any of the other features that have been listed above, the vehicle’s owner and driver should limit the extent to which it gets driven in poor weather conditions.

Why smart drivers should take such actions:

In the absence of such actions, chances for an accident increase. The insurance company might try to destroy the resulting case, after learning about the driver’s need to deal with some serious injuries. Insurance companies can destroy a case by checking to see if the injured victim has adhered to the treating physician’s suggested program. Discussing the case with an injury lawyer in Collingwood will help you get justice.

Also, if the same physician failed to include in his report any mention of an injury claimed by the victim, the insurer might use the absence of such mention as a reason for doubting the filed claim. That tactic illustrates another way to destroy a case. Yet such tactics only work, if a claimant has been injured by one of the company’s policy holders.