Marietta Injury Lawyer Blog
As outlined below, the three kinds of negligence in a car crash claim are basically the three major types of driver mistakes. Driver error causes over 98% of car crashes in Cobb County. Generally, that error is negligence, or a lack of care.
If negligence caused a car accident, a Marietta personal injury attorney can obtain compensation for that accident in court. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.
Environmental
Occasional winter and spring storms are part of life in Georgia. Frequently, these storms are so severe that they make driving dangerous. Reporters routinely say that bad weather, like slick ice or heavy rain, “caused” an accident. Legally, that’s not correct. Bad weather often contributes to car crashes, but driver error causes these wrecks.
When conditions are bad, the duty of care requires motorists to slow down and drive more carefully. For example, when cars drive on ice, motorists must remember to increase their following distance. Additionally, drivers must remember that they cannot do two things at once. They can brake or steer, but if they do both those things at once, they will lose control of their vehicles.
Uber drivers and other commercial operators have a higher duty of care in Georgia. Arguably, slowing down and adjusting to conditions is not enough. Instead, these drivers must not get on the road until the ice melts, or at least mostly melts.
Behavioral
Sometimes, drivers make bad decisions behind the wheel that cause wrecks. Other times, they make bad decisions before they get behind the wheel, and these decisions cause wrecks. Some examples include:
- Substance Use: About half of all tortfeasors (negligent drivers) test positive for alcohol or drugs. Alcohol, prescription pain pills, and even marijuana may be legal to ingest, at least in most cases. However, driving under the influence of a substance is dangerous and clearly violates a driver’s duty of care.
- Fatigue: Most people are fully aware of the dangers of drinking and driving. Most people aren’t fully aware of the dangers of fatigued driving, even though these two things are very similar in many ways. Drowsiness, like alcohol and drugs, dulls the senses and impairs judgment ability.
- Medical Condition: The impairing effects of alcohol and drugs begin with the first drink, puff, or pill. Likewise, the impairing effects of illness begin with relatively mild symptoms, like coughing, sneezing, and watery eyes. Additionally, some people drive with serious medical conditions, like heart disease, that could cause a sudden loss of consciousness.
A Marietta personal injury lawyer can often obtain additional compensation in these cases. Arguably, these tortfeasors (negligent drivers) knowingly chose to put other people at risk when they got behind the wheel when they were sick, tired, drunk, or stoned.
Operational
Bad driving decisions also include things like speeding, turning unsafely, and running red lights. These behaviors account for about half of all car accidents in Georgia.
Speeding might be the worst kind of operational negligence. Excessive velocity increases the risk of a wreck and also multiplies the force in a collision.