Who Is at Fault in a Rear End Car Wreck?

If you’ve been rear-ended by another car while driving, you may be surprised to find out that you could be at fault. Unlike some other states, there is no law stating that the vehicle in the rear is at fault for following too closely. This is both good and bad news for vehicle operators. If you are in a rear end car wreck in which you were behind a car that backed into you, you’ll be relieved that you were not automatically at fault when they pulled this maneuver. However, if you were rear-ended by someone else, you may be distressed to find that this is not an automatic win for you.

While some may think that it should be a cut-and-dried issue when one car strikes another from behind, a rear end car wreck can be a really difficult issue, especially if you consider multi-vehicle accidents.

Take, for example, the fifty-car pile-up that occurred in January of 2012. In this case, a heavy fog rolled over Highway 73, causing major sight issues for all of the drivers on the road that morning at 5:45. If you were on that road, and your lights could not penetrate the fog, no matter how carefully you drove, you stood the chance of getting into a rear end car wreck with one of the vehicles ahead of you.

If you were in that position, and a car hit you from behind, causing your car to jump forward and hit another car, would you be at fault for hitting the car in front of you, or would the person behind you be at fault for hitting both of you? These are questions that personal injury attorneys like Kirkendall Dwyer LLP are trained to answer. If you have any questions about a car accident, contact them today. You could have been wrongly charged, or you could be due some serious pain and suffering compensation. You’ll never know unless you talk to an attorney.