San Antonio Car Wreck Liability Factors

In a large city like San Antonio with hundreds of thousands of drivers on the roadways, there are bound to be some number of accidents. While accidents can be unavoidable at times, and though we hear about or see them daily, we always hope that we are never the ones involved.

However, when involved in a San Antonio car wreck accident, it is important that we take a moment to think about what makes us liable and when we have the right to pursue compensation. Hopefully, the actions we take behind the wheel before and during the accident don’t put us at fault, but every accident can have multiple factors where liability can be placed on either party.

Having a good lawyer that can explain the intricacies of San Antonio car wreck liability factors can help you prepare for filing a claim and pursuing damages where the other party can be held responsible. You’ll want legal expertise from an attorney that is familiar with San Antonio and the particularly troubling high traffic and high accident areas of the city.

Carabin Shaw’s attorneys know San Antonio well and are familiar with areas where the city may lack adequate signage or where drivers make common errors. Having a lawyer that understands the various factors that are unique to San Antonio is just as critical to your case as the knowledge of which San Antonio car wreck liability factors apply.

• Negligence:
  One of the greatest factors determining who can held accountable in an accident is if a party can be proven to have been negligent. A person can be considered negligent behind the wheel if they fail to obey traffic signs or signals, fail to keep a safe following distance, or are speeding.
  Phone use behind the wheel can also be considered negligence. While many states have instituted laws regarding cell phone usage while driving, many drivers are still distracted by attempting to read or reply to a text message, looking at their GPS, or attempting to answer phone calls. A driver preoccupied by their phone or otherwise engaging in non-driving activities can cause an accident.
• Recklessness:
  There is a difference between simply being negligent and being reckless, but recklessness makes drivers no less liable. Drivers that purposely engage in behavior that could put others in danger would be considered recklessness. This could include racing another vehicle, driving while intoxicated, or driving in a manner that disengages the driver from their duties on the road.
  Road rage or excessive weaving through traffic can cause a driver to drive erratically and irresponsibly, thereby making a collision far more likely, and is another form of recklessness.
• Poor road conditions:
  There may be times when an accident is caused by or the damage in an accident is heightened by roadways that lack proper maintenance. This can include potholes in the road, lack of safety features on the road such as signs and rails or design flaws.
  In such cases, uncontrollable conditions may exonerate drivers that technically caused a collision of their liability. However, sometimes these conditions may have been a responsibility of the city to prevent, and municipal entities may emerge as a liable party. Proof of this kind of failure by the city would need to be proven in order to proceed with submission of any type of grievance.
• Type of accident:
  Depending on the type of collision you are involved in, liability almost entirely rests on the shoulders of one side in some cases. One example would be rear-end collisions. In rear-end collision cases, the fault usually lies with the person who rear-ended the other vehicle. Regardless of whether the other person hit their brakes suddenly or not, the general understanding is that the driver in the back of the vehicle should be maintaining a safe following distance.

Understanding San Antonio car wreck liability factors can be complicated, as each individual case may have factors that lead to different outcomes. Your San Antonio car wreck injury attorney at Carabin Shaw can advise you about your individual case in a free initial assessment of your situation. Our knowledgeable lawyer can advise you on your specific case and help put your mind at ease, and we even have bilingual attorneys.

If you have suffered an accident in San Antonio and are unsure about whether you are liable for the damages, call our offices at 210-222-2288 or toll-free at 800-862-1260