VWB Blog Did you know that about 4.4 million people get injured in car accidents throughout the United States every year?
Getting hurt from a car accident and dealing with the damage to your car can be difficult enough as it is. Now, imagine if an insurance company is trying to tell you that the accident was your fault and that you are responsible for the damage.
How do you know that you are responsible for car accident fault? How do you go about determining fault?
This is your guide on auto accident fault.
Determining Car Accident Fault
This can be controversial because the two drivers and the two insurance companies may not agree on who is at fault in a car accident. However, there are a few ways that you can get a better idea of who is responsible for the accident.
The Drivers Themselves
Sometimes, fault can be pretty easy to determine and both drivers will be willing to accept one of them to be responsible for the damage. This can be if one driver hits a parked car from behind, a driver running through a red light, and more.
Normally, these accidents are pretty clear cut when it comes to who is responsible for the accident and these types of situations would rarely be challenged by either side.
Police Report
When it comes to car accidents in the United States, it is expected that both drivers will call the police to have someone come over and file a police report for both parties.
The police officer will typically be a neutral third party that will take a statement from both drivers to get an idea of what actually happened. It can be common for these two drivers to have different perceptions of events, so it is typically up to the police officer to write up a report for insurance companies on their perception of what actually happened.
Insurance Companies
If the above two fail to come up with a driver that was clearly at fault, it will be up to insurance companies to determine if they will accept responsibility for their driver or not. This can lead to someone needing a personal injury lawyer if an insurance company refuses to pay, which you can visit shapirolawaz.com for one such personal injury lawyer.
Types of Fault
As stated above, there are different types of fault such as having a clear cut guilty party with no argument. Then, some police reports can have an inconclusive report with it appearing to be 50/50 for both sides.
Finally, some states have a law where if a driver is determined to have 51% of fault or more in a car accident, they are the ones that become primarily responsible for the damage.
Avoid Car Accident Fault
These are just some of the ways that you can determine car accident fault. Using the methods above, you should be able to determine this quickly and swiftly.
For more relevant information, check out our Auto section.