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Are You Liable if You Cut Off a Car That Goes Off the Road Without Hitting You

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  • 10-14-2018, 08:12 AM
    T.Del
    Are You Liable if You Cut Off a Car That Goes Off the Road Without Hitting You
    My question involves an injury that occurred in the state of: Florida.

    My wife was making a u-turn from the median, she believed she had plenty of space to complete the u-turn before the next grouping of cars, but after making the u-turn realized the cars were moving much faster than she originally perceived. As she tried to gain speed, a vehicle closing in behind her in her lane attempted to pass her at his maintained speed instead of slowing down. While changing lanes, he overshot his lane, hit the median and flipped his vehicle. His vehicle made no contact with my wife's vehicle or any other vehicle.

    She pulled over in the nearest parking lot, called 911 and being in a panicked state due to seeing this happen right in front of her face, said to the operator "I think I was involved in an accident.." . After that, she waited there for 2 hours, the police left and never came to speak with her or take a statement. When she got home, she called the local police station to see if this was a mistake, and the operator said that if they needed her statement, they would have done it.

    Weeks later, she receives a call from a very large personal injury/class action firm. Their claim is that she contributed to the accident and that they want to get her insurance company involved. They ask for her insurance information, which she gives, and they ask her to give a statement, which I instruct her to decline and that she will give her statement to our insurance company. This was a few days ago, and we still have not heard back from our insurance company.

    I guess my question here is, can the responsibility of this accident be put on her?

    Also, the driver of the crashed vehicle actually came to our residence today, came in our driveway and inspected the back of our vehicle and/or took the license plate number. As I went outside to make contact with him, he just got in his vehicle and left. This means that the lawyer he is using gave him our address. Is this normal?
  • 10-14-2018, 08:28 AM
    PMMH
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Don't assume that the attorney gave him any information. Any address is pretty easy to track down if you have a name, especially if you own your home. Property records are public records, and I don't think any attorney with any sense would send a client out to do leg work on a case.
  • 10-14-2018, 08:34 AM
    T.Del
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    I wouldn't think so, but that is the only person my wife gave any of her personal information to, other than her first name. It just struck me as odd. Maybe he was just driving down our street by chance, but it was pretty unsettling to my wife to see this guy snooping around our vehicle at our home.
  • 10-14-2018, 08:48 AM
    budwad
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    I guess my question here is, can the responsibility of this accident be put on her?

    If her actions created the condition that caused the accident, then yes she is at least a contributor to the cause. The insurance companies will determine who is at fault and at what percentage.

    Turn it all over to your insurance company and let them handle it.
  • 10-14-2018, 09:08 AM
    PMMH
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    The law firm contacted her first. They clearly got her information from somewhere. They didn't pull her name and phone number out of thin air.
  • 10-14-2018, 09:19 AM
    T.Del
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Quote:

    Quoting PMMH
    View Post
    The law firm contacted her first. They clearly got her information from somewhere. They didn't pull her name and phone number out of thin air.

    I assume they got her name and number from the 911 call.

    Quote:

    Quoting budwad
    View Post
    If her actions created the condition that caused the accident, then yes she is at least a contributor to the cause. The insurance companies will determine who is at fault and at what percentage.

    Turn it all over to your insurance company and let them handle it.

    Should she contact her insurance company, or wait for them to contact her? Thanks.
  • 10-14-2018, 09:37 AM
    adjusterjack
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    My wife was making a u-turn from the median, she believed she had plenty of space to complete the u-turn before the next grouping of cars, but after making the u-turn realized the cars were moving much faster than she originally perceived. As she tried to gain speed, a vehicle closing in behind her in her lane attempted to pass her at his maintained speed instead of slowing down. While changing lanes, he overshot his lane, hit the median and flipped his vehicle. His vehicle made no contact with my wife's vehicle or any other vehicle.

    I guess my question here is, can the responsibility of this accident be put on her?

    Yes. And from your description I can almost guarantee it. She failed to yield to an oncoming vehicle, appeared suddenly in front of it, causing the driver to lose control.

    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post

    Also, the driver of the crashed vehicle actually came to our residence today, came in our driveway and inspected the back of our vehicle and/or took the license plate number. As I went outside to make contact with him, he just got in his vehicle and left. This means that the lawyer he is using gave him our address. Is this normal?

    It's not abnormal and there's nothing wrong with an accident victim checking up on the at fault driver.

    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    it was pretty unsettling to my wife to see this guy snooping around our vehicle at our home.

    Unsettling, sure. Nothing you can do about it.

    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    Should she contact her insurance company, or wait for them to contact her?

    She should call her insurance company today. She has knowledge of a claim and her policy requires it.
  • 10-14-2018, 09:45 AM
    jk
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Depending on the very precise facts of the incident, her actions could be considered to be the primary cause of the accident. In fact it appears she likely is the primary cause of the accident.

    And how does your wife know the guy didn’t try to slow down? Maybe he did but even that was not enough to avoid hitting somebody that,just pulled out in front of them and had to take further action to avoid a Collision?


    Neither attorneys nor insurance companies make a legal determination of fault or percentage of fault. They make claims. Unless a court agrees with the claim, it doesn’t hold any weight.

    Reprrt this to your imsurance company and don’t talk to anybody but your insurance company about this for the time being.
  • 10-14-2018, 11:09 AM
    T.Del
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Quote:

    Quoting jk
    View Post
    how does your wife know the guy didn’t try to slow down? Maybe he did but even that was not enough to avoid hitting somebody that,just pulled out in front of them and had to take further action to avoid a Collision?

    This is mainly an assumption on my part based on her description of the incident. Considering the speed limit of that road and the distance she describes between the location of her u-turn and that next wave of traffic, there should have been plenty of time for slowing down. I believe the other driver made the choice to attempt to pass her, rather than sacrificing any of his speed or time. I do think she misjudged the speed of the oncoming traffic, but she did not pull out in front of them at an unsafe distance.

    I do realize this is just my opinion.
  • 10-14-2018, 11:20 AM
    PMMH
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    This is mainly an assumption on my part based on her description of the incident. Considering the speed limit of that road and the distance she describes between the location of her u-turn and that next wave of traffic, there should have been plenty of time for slowing down. I believe the other driver made the choice to attempt to pass her, rather than sacrificing any of his speed or time. I do think she misjudged the speed of the oncoming traffic, but she did not pull out in front of them at an unsafe distance.

    I do realize this is just my opinion.

    But, keep in mind, by her initial "opinion" she had enough room to make it, which was not true. She shouldn't have pulled out if there was enough room for her to make it only if every oncoming vehicle slowed down significantly to accommodate her. That's now how driving works. You don't pull out into oncoming traffic with the assumption that everyone will be able to stop themselves from hitting you.
  • 10-14-2018, 11:57 AM
    jk
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    This is mainly an assumption on my part based on her description of the incident. Considering the speed limit of that road and the distance she describes between the location of her u-turn and that next wave of traffic, there should have been plenty of time for slowing down. I believe the other driver made the choice to attempt to pass her, rather than sacrificing any of his speed or time. I do think she misjudged the speed of the oncoming traffic, but she did not pull out in front of them at an unsafe distance.

    I do realize this is just my opinion.

    The speed limit Is actuslly irrelevent. A driver is obligated to judge the actusl speed of oncoming vehicles and act accordingly.

    And the fact the other drivers had to react to her pulling into their path proves it was not safe for her to pull out. Only if she could pull out without interrupting traffic would it be considered “clear”. Yes, often times people have to slow down to avoid hitting a person and life goes on. That doesnt mean it was proper that they had to slow down.
  • 10-14-2018, 12:24 PM
    T.Del
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Quote:

    Quoting PMMH
    View Post
    She shouldn't have pulled out if there was enough room for her to make it only if every oncoming vehicle slowed down significantly to accommodate her. That's now how driving works. You don't pull out into oncoming traffic with the assumption that everyone will be able to stop themselves from hitting you.

    I never implied this. I stated that there was a misjudgment of the speed of the vehicles, not the space. No one was cut-off. She realized that the vehicles were going faster than she expected (faster than she could accelerate to match the speed of) after turning into her lane and seeing them closing in in her rear view mirror. If she had the time to observe this in her rear view mirror after making the turn, and re-act to it by maximizing her acceleration, then the other driver behind her had even more time, considering he also watched her make the u-turn. No one was cut-off.
  • 10-14-2018, 12:31 PM
    jk
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Your description does not remove the possibility they were “cut off”

    She shouldn’t have “expected” them to be going any speed. She should have observed them long enough to determine their speed and then calculated if she had enough time to safely pull out given the distance at the time. Whether she misjudged the speed or the distance doesn’t really mattter. She is negligent in either case and an accident resulted.


    Observing somebody closing in in the rear view mirror takes almost no time so it does not allow one to conclude there was adequate time or space for the driver to react safely. You can watch a car 5 feet behind you for a fraction of a second and realize they are moving faster than you are.
  • 10-14-2018, 12:32 PM
    PMMH
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    I never implied this. I stated that there was a misjudgment of the speed of the vehicles, not the space. No one was cut-off. She realized that the vehicles were going faster than she expected (faster than she could accelerate to match the speed of) after turning into her lane and seeing them closing in in her rear view mirror. If she had the time to observe this in her rear view mirror after making the turn, and re-act to it by maximizing her acceleration, then the other driver behind her had even more time, considering he also watched her make the u-turn. No one was cut-off.

    She literally pulled out in front of a car who had to swerve to miss her. It doesn't matter if she "perceives" that the car should have had enough time to slow down enough to not hit her. She already proved that perception is not accurate by misjudging the speed of the cars to begin with. The oncoming cars had the right of way, she pulled out after she misjudged their speed, and an accident happened. When she chose to pull out into oncoming traffic, she didn't get to expect everyone else to slow down or move to not hit her. She admits she misjudged the speed of the other cars. You can argue all you want that everyone else should have been fine, but they weren't. Can I shoot a gun into a crowd and then say, "Well, everyone should have had enough time to duck and not get hit?"
  • 10-14-2018, 05:44 PM
    Highwayman
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    This is mainly an assumption on my part...

    Which means nothing.

    Your wife's beliefs don't mean much more unless she has some specialized training we don't know about.
  • 10-14-2018, 06:59 PM
    adjusterjack
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    was a misjudgment of the speed of the vehicles, not the space. No one was cut-off. She realized that the vehicles were going [B]faster than she expected [/B](faster than she could accelerate to match the speed of) after turning into her lane and seeing them closing in in her rear view mirror.

    That's called negligence, no matter how you spin it.
  • 11-30-2018, 09:02 AM
    acai
    Re: Can This Single Vehicle Accident Be Successfully Blamed on Another Driver
    They could have gotten the driver info from the license plate. There's several websites that will run plates for a fee. They can also locate her via phone number, which the lawyer could have obtained by FOIA requesting the 911 call. As callous as it may sound, she would've been better off just driving away without making that 911 call. Or make the call without incriminating herself.

    I've actually asked lawyers about a situation similar to this that happened to someone I know and they said the fault would mostly or entirely lie with the car that swerved and lost control. She should be good but wouldn't surprise me if some unscrupulous lawyer sues her.
  • 11-30-2018, 09:42 AM
    pg1067
    Re: Are You Liable if You Cut Off a Car That Goes Off the Road Without Hitting You
    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    I guess my question here is, can the responsibility of this accident be put on her?

    Of course.

    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    This means that the lawyer he is using gave him our address.

    Not necessarily, but it doesn't matter. I also wonder how you purport to know that the person in question was the other driver.

    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    Is this normal?

    Whether it is or isn't "normal" (and regardless of what "normal" means) is legally irrelevant.

    Quote:

    Quoting T.Del
    View Post
    Should she contact her insurance company, or wait for them to contact her?

    She should have contacted her insurer ASAP after the accident. She should read her policy regarding her duty to notify the insurer of any potential claims.
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