When you are involved in a vehicle collision, you may not know who is at fault. Sometimes the police or insurance company will rule who is at fault based upon witness statements and the accident scene, but there is no such thing as an error-free investigation, so if you want to protect yourself, you should conduct your own investigation and document the car accident yourself very carefully, so that later you have the proof you need to show that you were not at fault and can give evidence to this fact to settle with insurance companies or to pursue litigation.
Generally, the driver who is at fault is the one that broke the traffic law that resulted in the accident. For instance, if you merged into traffic without first looking, and collided with a car then you would likely be found at fault. This is especially true if you admit to the other driver or to police that you did not check the road before you merged. Therefore, it is important to admit nothing to the other driver or apologize to him or her. This will allow you to protect yourself so that if your case comes to court later, or in front of an insurance company, you won’t have made any incriminating statements.
Finding out who is at fault is generally the task of the police and the insurance companies will usually go by the findings made. However, this can be difficult. Let’s take a look at some examples where the other driver may be at fault. Two cars are traveling down an icy hill, and they both slide out of control at the same time, with the car at the rear striking the other car from behind. In a situation like this, it is likely that the car at the back would be found at fault because it was likely following the first car too closely and could not avoid an accident.
However, in this same basic situation just one minor detail different and it could be the driver in front that is responsible for the accident occurring. For example, suppose that the driver out front was the only car that spun out, causing the second car to hit him from behind. This might be found to be the first drivers fault, for driving too fast for road conditions or not being observant enough.
If both drivers were driving too fast then they could both very well be found equally at fault, which usually means that each insurance company pays for the damage to the cars they were covering. However, just because an investigation was conducted does not mean that there were no errors on the part of the police or the insurance companies that appraised the car.
This is why it is vital, if you have been involved in an accident and found to be at fault, that you seek the advice of a qualified car accident litigation attorney. At attorney will be able to reconstruct the accident, get the advice of established experts in the field, and hopefully prove that you were not at fault and that the other driver is liable for the accident.
