After a quick bite to eat before arriving at work, you leave your favorite coffee shop to discover your car has received damage from what you assume is another vehicle.
The driver side of your car has collapsed a bit, and there is a different color of paint plastered on the left front bumper. The color of the paint looks exactly like the color of the sanitation truck that just passed by the coffee shop where you ate breakfast.
The fact that a city vehicle hit your car should not be a surprise. In fact, vehicle accidents that involve municipal vehicles are a common occurrence throughout the United States. Unfortunately, losing an insurance claim for a case that involves a city vehicle is a common occurrence as well.
Cities Have the Legal Muscle to Fight Auto Insurance Claims
City governments typically employ a large department consisting of some of the brightest legal minds in the community. Handling auto insurance claims is just about as common as processing parking meter violations. If you were hit by a city vehicle, yet the city has found you at fault for the crash, you have the right to dispute fault by interacting with the city’s legal department.
One of the most effective ways for the city to find you at fault is to claim you violated a municipal law. For example, if your car was not properly positioned in a street parking space, the city can claim you were at fault for the sanitation truck nudging your vehicle on the side of it.
Finding you at fault carries much more legal weight if a law enforcement officer issued you a ticket before the crash. The ticket could be for improper parking or over extending the time you had paid for to park your vehicle on a city street. However, you can still reverse an at fault decision by proving the driver of the city vehicle was negligent.
How to Prove Negligence
Accidents that involve city vehicles typically receive more attention from local law enforcement personnel. You can expect a police officer to arrive at the scene of the accident, even if the crash is considered to be relatively minor.
Having a police officer gather evidence and record witness accounts is not the same legal slam dunk, as it is for virtually every other type of auto accident report. This is because law enforcement personnel might side with the city worker who was involved in the accident.
It is up to you for collecting the evidence you need to reverse an at fault decision issued by your insurance company and the by city legal department where the accident happened. Interview witnesses to determine whether the drive of the city vehicle acted in a negligent manner.
Maybe the driver of the city car was on his or her cell phone at the time of the accident. You should also take photographs of the accident scene, with a special focus paid to the damage done to your vehicle. Another smart idea is to take an image of the traffic citation you received to determine the legal validity of the citation.
Never allow your insurance carrier to find you at fault for an auto accident that was the fault of the other driver. Schedule a free case evaluation today to start the ball rolling for filing at fault dispute paperwork.
