The victim should try to identify the responsible party, so that the insurance company could seek compensation from whoever deserved to be blamed.
What questions would the adjuster ask, when seeking to put a finger on the person or business that deserved to be blamed?
Had any of the involved drivers received a traffic ticket?
Had any of the involved drivers demonstrated unsafe behavior? Often, a driver that has caused a rear-end accident has been following the leading car at too close a distance.
At the sight of a chain reaction, the adjuster might search for evidence that more than one driver was at-fault. That would certainly be true if the adjuster’s company would have to cover the damages, due to the fact that the same company’s policyholder had purchased an uninsured motorist option. The adjuster’s actions would reflect his or her hope that the existence of multiple drivers would mean the existence of multiple insurance policies.
If the responsible driver had been a young person, the adjuster might try to find out who had allowed that young teen or adult to obtain a license. In some states the parents of an at-fault driver can be held liable for accident-linked damages, as per Personal Injury Lawyer in Truro.
Would the principle of negligent entrustment indicate who should be blamed?
According to that principle, there are situations where a vehicle owner might be held responsible for the damages or injuries that resulted from an accident. That would certainly be the case, if the owner had given the vehicle’s keys to someone that could not be trusted.
Suppose that the vehicle’s owner was also the driver’s employer, then who could be held liable?
Employers must always cover the costs for damages that resulted from an incident involving an employee in a company car. Still, there would have to be proof of the fact that the employer was engaged in a work activity, at the time of the accident. If the incident had taken place while the employee was on a personal errand, then the employer’s liability would cease to exist.
Two other parties that might have contributed to the accident’s occurrence
Sometimes the governmental agency that is in charge of road upkeep and maintenance can be held partly responsible for a given accident. That agency might have failed to fix a mal-functioning traffic light, or it might have hired an inexperience engineer to oversee a road construction project.
On rare occasions, the owner of a private property, one not owned by the driver, might be held liable for any damages. That could be the case if a tree from such a property had fallen onto the road, and the property owner had not ordered the tree’s immediate removal.
