Causes of Car Accidents

Numerous factors can contribute to car accidents. These include driver errors, along with dangerous road conditions, weather conditions, and product defects. When another person’s negligence or other fault causes your injuries, you may be able to hold them accountable for your injuries. If you were injured in a car accident, it is crucial to discuss your situation with the seasoned Syracuse personal injury lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys who can help you determine whether the cause of your car accident was someone else’s negligence or misconduct and whether that person should be held accountable for your losses.

Common causes of car accidents include negligence, aggressive driving, fatigued driving, drunk driving, failure to yield, blind spots, unsafe lane changes, animal collisions, manufacturing defects, texting and driving, phone calls, distracted driving, dram shop liability, negligent road design, mechanical failures, potholes, road hazards, road rage, speeding, sun glare, tire blowouts, and wrong way accidents. Sometimes multiple people are at fault for a car accident. When there are several contributing causes, it may be necessary to retain an expert who can determine which parties are responsible and their proportionate share of liability for the accident.

Damages cannot be recovered from another party in every instance in which a car accident occurred, and injuries were sustained. As your attorneys, we would need to prove another party was at fault and bears liability for the accident. In many cases, this requires us to show that the cause of the car accident in which you were injured was negligence. Negligence can be shown by proving: (1) another driver owed you a duty of care, (2) breach of the duty of care, (3) causation and (4) damages. Another driver might breach the duty of care by speeding, tailgating, weaving, making an unsafe lane change, failing to yield, falling asleep at the wheel, or driving aggressively rather than defensively.

There are also situations in which the condition of the road contributes to an accident. In those cases, it’s usually necessary to retain an expert to provide expert testimony about what was wrong with the road, such as whether it was negligently maintained, in order to try to hold the owner of the road accountable for damages. When the defendant is a governmental entity that keeps up a public road, there are special procedural hurdles and hoops, including a narrower window in which to assert a claim, that make it especially crucial to give us a call immediately after the accident.

Often, unfortunately, the insurance adjustor and attorney for an at-fault party will ask the injured accident victim questions, hoping to uncover some information that would allow them to avoid paying damages. Under the doctrine of comparative negligence, your damages can be reduced by an amount equal to your percentage of fault. Suppose the other driver caused the accident by failing to yield, but you also contributed to the accident by driving aggressively, and your damages are $100,000. If a jury finds you to have been 50% at fault, you would only be able to recover $50,000 from the other driver.

If we can establish that another party caused the car accident and your resulting injuries, we may be able to recover damages. In car accident lawsuits these are usually compensatory, meaning they are intended to put you back in the position you would have been in had the accident not occurred.

If you were injured or a loved one was killed in a motorboat accident, you should talk with our seasoned Syracuse personal lawyers. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys has more than 30 years of experience seeking best results for accident victims in Albany, Oneida, Canandaigua, Lowville, Auburn, Buffalo, Utica, Rochester, Wampsville, Watertown, Herkimer, Oswego, Lyons, Ithaca, Cooperstown, Elmira, Binghamton, and all of Upstate New York. For a free consultation, complete our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.