Until the day when driverless cars fill the roads and highways, every motored vehicle has a driver. Consequently, automobile owners feel compelled to buy car insurance, and insurance companies need to determine who should be held responsible for any given auto accident.
Sources of information, regarding who should be blamed for a specific collision:
The police report is one source. If police come to the scene of a collision, they will write a report on that incident. If no cops arrive at the scene, the drivers involved must report the accident at either the police station or a collision reporting center. A driver that was involved in an accident can request a copy of the official report on that same incident.
Provincial traffic laws: Those can be found by going online or by visiting the public library. These offer in print clear guidelines, concerning what the law says about which drivers should be blamed for certain types of collisions.
Rules on the right-of-way in various situations: Drivers are supposed to know and observe such rules. For instance, one rule dictates who should be blamed for an accident at an intersection. Vehicles going straight normally have the right-of-way. That means that someone trying to make a left-hand turn is apt to be named as the one responsible for a collision at an intersection.
Still, there are exceptions to that general rule. The driver headed straight through could be held responsible, if he or she drove at an excessively high rate of speed or drove through a red light. Such actions would shift responsibility for the accident to the inpatient person at the wheel of the vehicle that did not make a turn, when passing through the intersection.
Possible considerations on contributory negligence
The personal injury lawyer in Sault Ste Marie know that the insurance company might indicate that the plaintiff should be held partly to blame, if the evidence indicates the plaintiff’s commission of contributory negligence. Drivers often express surprise at the insurer’s interpretation of contributory negligence.
Suppose, for example, that a driver got hit from the rear, while sitting at an intersection. Seldom does the driver in the car that got hit get told that the blame must rest on his or her shoulders. Still, it is possible that the same driver’s shoulders could be forced to carry a part of the blame.
That could be the case, if the insurer had found that the impacted vehicle had a faulty brake light on the day that it was hit. Similarly, the insurer could charge contributory negligence, if the vehicle with the rear-end damage had stopped in the middle of the road, due to the presence of a flat tire.