How Do You Know if Negligence Was Involved In a Bad Weather Car Accident?

Bad weather greatly increases the risk for an accident. Determining who is at fault in an accident is usually an issue of negligence. east Texas is especially prone to bad weather. Severe thunderstorms and hurricanes can create flash floods within minutes. Driving in these conditions requires a higher level of care needed to keep everyone safe. Keep reading below for some questions that are asked to prove if negligence was involved in an auto accident.

How to Prove Negligence in a Bad Weather Car Accident

• What speed was necessary? Determining how fast the vehicles involved in the accident were traveling will help to prove if negligence was involved. In bad or severe weather, cars can be expected to slow down for visibility and safety reasons.
• Were headlights on? Visibility can become scarce when skies darken in severe thunderstorms or heavy fog. Driving without headlights can cause accidents to other cars and pedestrians.
• What was the condition of the vehicle? Were windshield wipers on and working? What about headlights? Were tire pressures at a safe level and in decent condition? Was there an engine failure that could be at the heart of the accident? These are all questions that need to be considered to determine the level of fault in an accident.
• How bad was the weather? The driving conditions at the time of the accident will also determine how the drivers should be behaving in that scenario. The less severe the weather, the less it would matter that you are driving slowly, with hazards on, etc.

What If Both Parties Are at Fault?

States have different laws to determine when a member involved in an accident can sue the other party for damage compensation. In Texas, if a member is determined to be 51 percent responsible for the accident or higher, they are not able to recover their damages from the other party. Some states are 50 percent or higher, other states compensate on the exact amount of the percentage of liability they have in the accident, i.e. if you are 90 percent responsible for an accident, you are able to win the remaining 10 percent from the other insurance party.Car accidents can be expensive, and there are many complex factors that go into determining if drivers were acting negligently, and who is financially responsible for the accident. Contacting a Lufkin car accident lawyer can help you answer the hard questions in your auto accident.

Can New Auto Technology Prevent Truck Accidents?

New automotive technology looks promising to prevent car accidents. Collision avoidance and lane departure systems are becoming standard features on many vehicles sold in the United States. These technologies promise to prevent the ‘human error’ factor involved in most car accidents.Can these same technologies prevent accidents involving large semi-trucks? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has tested some of these technologies on commercial trucks with great results!If we look at causes of truck accidents involving human error, the benefits of these technologies become apparent. Lane departure warning systems can alert sleepy commercial truckers if they begin to depart from the road. Collision avoidance systems can automatically brake for tired commercial truck drivers. Another new technology can automatically steer during emergency situations.Collision avoidance systems are among the most exciting of the new technologies being considered for use on commercial trucks. This technology uses radar systems to detect moving, stopped and stationary objects. Collision avoidance systems also use audible and visual warnings to alert drivers.Do collision avoidance systems work? After all, we wrote about a fatal accident involving a Tesla Model S several weeks ago. The vehicle had Autopilot (which incorporates collision avoidance technology) active at the time of the crash. However, the collision avoidance systems used by Tesla’s vehicles are different than what commercial trucks may use.Testing conducted by NHTSA shows collision avoidance systems on trucks may be highly effective at preventing accidents.

NHTSA Tests Collision Avoidance Technology on Commercial Trucks

NHTSA equipped 150 Class 8 tractor-trailers with collision avoidance systems. To test the effectiveness of these systems, NHTSA recorded results for one year. More than 165 drivers were involved in the study.The data involved 6,000 collision avoidance system activations, 3 million miles and 110,000 hours of driving! According to the results published by NHTSA in its report, Field Study of Heavy-Vehicle Crash Avoidance Systems: Final Report, none of the 6,000 activations resulted in collisions.So there you have it, these technologies can at the very least help to prevent truck accidents. If we consider that drowsy driving and driver inattention are a major cause of truck accidents, the benefits of collision avoidance technology are obvious. Some companies have plans to utilize collision avoidance and lane departure systems. Volvo claims it will use both on its VN series trucks.NHTSA statistics show that 3,903 people died and another 111,000 were injured in truck accidents during 2014. New technologies on trucks may greatly reduce these numbers and make driving much safer for everyone.The Texas truck accident attorneys at Mike Love & Associates, LLC, will hold negligent commercial carriers accountable when they cause accidents.