Howard County Rear-End Collisions
Rear end collisions are the most common type of traffic accident and are typically caused by distracted or impaired driving where either someone’s reflexes are slowed because they’re driving under the influence or driving while intoxicated or they’re distracted by texting or emailing, or someone is eating, smoking, reading, changing songs on the dashboard, looking at a GPS or any other thing that can cause a driver to be distracted.
Anything that causes someone to look away from the road in front of them and hit the car in front of them would be considered a rear end collision. It is called a rear end collision because you’re hitting the rear end of the car ahead of you. In those cases there’s a presumption that the person behind you is negligent and they have to rebut that presumption. For assitance or to learn more about your case, call and schedule a consultation with a Howard County car accident lawyer today.
Common Ways Rear End Collisions Occur
These collisions usually happen in stop and go traffic. It also happens as you come to a stop sign or a red light and you don’t have time to stop because you didn’t notice the car ahead of you stop or slow down. Someone who is not giving full time and attention to the roadway may have to slam on the brakes to try and avoid an accident and can’t stop in time.
Another scenario where this happened is when someone is distracted while driving such as while talking on the phone or reading an email or sending a text or looking at social media or something that’s just distracting you from paying attention and you don’t notice the behavior of the vehicle in front of you unless you slam into the back of the car when it’s either stopped or slowing down and you don’t give yourself enough time to slow down or stop.
Additionally, it also happens when people are following too closely to the car ahead of them. Typically people should give the car ahead of them one and a half car lengths to avoid rear-end collisions so that you have time to stop or slow down or at least change lanes or something else to avoid the striking the car ahead of you.
How is Fault Generally Determined in Rear End Collisions?
Most of the time the rear ending driver is at fault, however there are some instances where the lead car is at fault, such as if the lead driver slams their brakes, is driving erratically, is cutting other drivers off or other negligent behavior where the lead car contributed to the collision. Even in a rear end collision the lead car will still need to prove that they are free from any negligence in the occurrence of the collision.
Contributory Negligence in Read End Collisions
Contributory negligence means that you can’t recover from your injuries if you’re more than one percent at fault. So you have to be zero percent at fault for causing the collision from which you sustained your injuries. Typically in a rear end collision case, the person who is in front is not at fault for this because they’re either slowed down or slowing down or stopped when they’re hit. As long as they do so safely they won’t be held liable.
Establishing Liability in Read End Collisions
In order to establish liability, what you can do is take pictures of the accident to show the damage to the car to estimate the speed of the driver that hit you. You can use witness statements to show the actions of both the parties and also the testimony of all the people involved during a rear-end collision case if the case proceeds to a lawsuit. The police report is also very helpful. If the cars are not moved after the accident and the police officer will be able to tell that a rear-end hit because there’s two cars lined up behind each other and one is damaged to the rear and one is damaged to the front and you can infer that one hit the other in the rear.
Importance of Contacting a Lawyer
You should contact your attorney right away to help them preserve any evidence of the scene and to help you make sure you document your injuries from a medical healthcare perspective. Whether or not you can pay your medical bills or not really has no impact on the whether or not you should hire a lawyer.
