Establishing who is at fault for a crash is important when there are expenses involved. The driver who caused the collision (theoretically) provides insurance coverage to those affected. They are also potentially at risk of civil litigation if their insurance is insufficient to cover any losses that victims incur.
Given the financial and legal responsibility that comes with being at fault for a crash, many motorists are eager to deny their responsibility for a collision and lay the blame elsewhere. Those seeking to hold someone else accountable for a crash can improve their chances of successfully establishing the fault of the other driver by following the two tips below.
Capturing the scene of the crash
It is amazing how quickly the human brain starts to forget the details of even the most traumatizing experiences. Additionally, courts tend to view witness testimony as fallible. Objective evidence is therefore always better than subjective evidence if people end up litigating. Those who take the time to take pictures or video footage of the scene of the crash, the placement of the vehicles and other key details will preserve evidence that could play an important role in a future crash recreation or analysis that might affirm the other driver’s fault.
Communicating effectively with the police
Those involved in a crash are often eager to be kind and polite to the other party involved and the officers that respond when they call to file a police report. One can be polite without apologizing, which implies fault in many cases. It is also possible to be respectful of the police officer while very clearly and fully asserting one’s own opinion about what happened.
Those who communicate suspicions about impairment or distraction to a police officer may help ensure the officer looks into the situation thoroughly and reaches an appropriate conclusion. Police officers can’t include details in the report that they are unaware of, which is why sharing thoroughly with the officer can be very important when someone wants to establish that the other driver was at fault.
Taking the right steps after a collision will improve someone’s chances of establishing that another driver was the one at fault for the wreck.
