In order to understand who is the at-fault party in a blind spot accident, we first need to understand what a blind spot is.
Every vehicle has certain areas around its exterior that you cannot see. These are so-called blind spots and their size mainly depends on the size of the vehicle and how’s it built. The size and location of blind spots can also be determined by the type of vehicle (car, truck etc.)
How do we determine liability for blind spot accident?
The majority of motor vehicle drivers will check their mirrors and turn their head in order to check if someone is in their blind spots before they merge to the adjacent lane. However, some people can’t see vehicles that are in that lane. But this doesn’t mean that the motorist won’t be liable if the fail to see other vehicles and cause a blind spot accident. In fact, a driver who is merging into another lane and strikes another vehicle is at fault. Drivers are always instructed to only merge into the adjacent lane once they are absolutely sure that they can do so safely. If there’s a vehicle in your blind spot, it’s most likely that you didn’t check your vehicle surroundings thoroughly in order to merge safely. This type of behavior could be considered as negligent.Can the struck vehicle be liable for a blind spot accident?
In case of blind spot accident, it’s not always the merging vehicle who’s at fault. In fact, there are situations where the struck vehicle is at fault. For example, if the struck vehicle was passing on the right, you can’t see it in your blind spot. Even if this resulted in a blind spot accident, the at fault driver will be the one that passed on the right, since that kind of passing is unlawful. Another good example when the driver in the blind spot is at fault for the accident is when you’re trying to overtake and pass him, but he speeds up and prevents you to do so. In this situation the motorist has to yield to the vehicle passing them on the left. But only once the driver in the passing vehicle has determined that he can execute that maneuver is a safe way. If the passed vehicle speeds up and prevents the passing vehicle to overtake, he could be liable for causing a blind spot accident. And finally, there are cases where both drivers can be held liable for causing a blind spot accident. This happens if one driver speeds up to prevent someone else from overtaking and the other driver merges into his blind spot simultaneously. Determining liability in case of blind spot accidents isn’t always simple and straightforward. An experienced auto accident attorney could help you investigate thoroughly and reconstruct the event in order to determine what exactly happened and who’s at fault.How to prove liability?
In order to recover compensation for the damages that you sustained in the accident, you’ll need to present evidence that clearly shows the other driver was negligent and caused the accident. There are many evidence you can provide in order to prove negligent cause of action, such as duty, breach, causation and damages. Usually the evidence can consist of:- Photos of both vehicles showing the damages
- Surveillance videos
- Eyewitness testimonies and
- Expert witness testimonies
