You did not see it coming.
It was late at night when another vehicle quickly came into your lane, which forced you to maneuver your car out of harm’s way. The result was an accident that took you off the road and into a ditch.
The strong impact of the collision left you with hundreds of dollars in vehicle damages, as well as whiplash that required you to seek treatment at a local medical center. With medical expenses added to the accident bill, you were left hanging with a debt exceeding $1,000.
The worst part is your insurance company insists the accident was your fault. How do you dispute fault in an accident when you were run off the road?
Disputing Fault in a Run Off the Road Accident
Disputing fault in any type of accident means you have to deal with an insurance company. With a large and accomplished team of auto accident attorneys, an insurance company appears to have the upper hand.
You might also have to deal with state laws that are favorable to insurance companies involved in at fault car accident cases. The ultimate test for proving the other driver caused the run off the road accident is when your case goes before a judge for litigation.
Insurance companies, civil court judges, and any other parties involved in litigation rely on the same examination of car accident facts to determine which party was the reason for the vehicle accident.
If any party to a car accident case finds you were at least partially responsible for the accident, then you might have your auto insurance claim entirely rejected. The possibility of having your car insurance claim rejected is reason enough to work with a state licensed attorney who specializes in handling auto crash cases.
How to Prove Negligence
According to the law, when a person performs a negligent act, he or she behaved in a careless or thoughtless manner that caused harm to another individual. When it comes to a car accident, a driver is negligent if he or she did something that is considered outside the boundaries of typical driving behavior, such as swerving into the adjacent lane and running another vehicle off the road.
For a run off the road accident, proving negligence can be difficult, as the other driver has left the scene. However, you still have several ways to collect evidence to convince your insurance company that it was not you, but the other driver who was at fault.
For a run off the road case, interviewing eyewitnesses becomes the most important piece of evidence to bolster your argument that you were not at fault for triggering the car crash. Make sure to get witness statements as quickly as possible after an accident, as fresh versions of the incident have much more credibility than stories told an hour or more after it happened.
You also want to prevent witnesses from leaving the scene of the accident, which often occurs after the passage of time. Witnesses can be pedestrians, other drivers, or workers at a nearby construction site.
Consult with an Attorney
Never allow an auto insurance company to blame you for an accident that was the other driver’s fault. The costs associated with healthcare and auto repair bills can set you back for months, if not years. Schedule a free evaluation today to set the legal record straight.