Negligence behind the wheel of a car can manifest itself in different ways. Any instance of driver negligence will involve a failure to observe a reasonable standard of care under the circumstances as they existed at the time of an accident.
Sometimes what may at first seem to be an unavoidable car accident, could, upon closer investigation, be the result of some negligent act or omission by a driver.
A recent collision between two cars in Texas may be a case in point when it comes to examining aspects of negligence. Two people died in a two-car head-on collision that occurred when one of the vehicles hydroplaned on wet pavement, causing the driver of that vehicle to spin out of control. The driver of each of the cars died, one at the scene and the other after being taken to a hospital.
Whenever an accident involving two or more cars takes place, prudent investigation will consider whether something more may have led to it, based on the duty of drivers to adjust their driving behavior depending on the conditions at the time of the accident.
As in this case, the wet road could be a contributing factor. But even then, negligence by a driver may take the form of driving too fast for the conditions, or driving on tires that the driver should have known had excessive tread wear.
An accident that takes place in limited visibility conditions, such as at night or in foggy weather, may also raise questions about matters like driving speed and whether headlights were on or were functional.
Part of the role of a personal injury attorney is to look deeper into the facts that underlie any car crash, to determine whether — aside from a direct cause, such as bad weather — something else may have contributed to the incident which involved a duty of reasonable care, and a failure to observe that duty.
In this case, neither driver survived the accident, but it may be possible for the estate of an allegedly negligent driver to be considered as a defendant in a lawsuit initiated by the estate of the other driver.
Source: KYTX, “2 killed, 3 injured in head on collision in Upshur Co.,” July 17, 2014
