That Time I Rear-Ended a Sheriff

Posted on by Horman Nichols, LLC

What to do after getting into a car accident, even a fender bender with a Deputy Sheriff.

Written By: Andy Nichols

If you’ve been involved in a car accident, even a minor one, you know it’s a bad experience.  You know what makes a bad experience worse?  When you rear-end a car in traffic and a police officer in uniform steps out of the car you just hit.  Your stress level goes through the roof.  You begin to wonder if you paid that last parking ticket you got downtown, you hope your headlights are all working correctly and you begin to think who your one phone call from jail will be.  

This happened to me.  We were in bumper-to-bumper traffic and I looked down at the radio display, looked up and traffic was stopped.  I couldn’t stop in time and I bumped the Toyota in front of me.  Imagine my response when a deputy sheriff stepped out of the Toyota.  Thankfully, the deputy I hit could not have been nicer.  We pulled over into a parking lot, made sure everyone was okay, exchanged information and went our respective ways.  

It is worth noting that in Maryland, if you get into a car accident and your vehicles are able to be driven, you can move them off the roadway.  If you need to take pictures to memorialize where the vehicles were respective to road signs, lanes of travel, etc., do so, but once you’ve done that, you can move your vehicles.  Not only will your fellow commuters and drivers thank you, for obvious reasons, it’s the safe thing to do.  

While even minor accidents are stressful, here are a few tips to help reduce that stress.  

If you think you may be at fault:

(1) take pictures of the other vehicle(s) to document property damage, particularly if it’s minor.  

(2) Call your insurance company on the spot if you can.  This allows the insurance company the opportunity to speak with the other driver and document any injuries they may be claiming and whether or not they were alone in the vehicle or had passengers.  

(3) Don’t admit fault.  Even if you think you’re at fault, there may be circumstances you’re not aware of at that time that may shift some or all of the liability to another person. 

If you believe the other party is at fault:

(1) Take pictures of the other driver’s license plate, vehicle, driver’s license and insurance card.  Call the other driver’s cell phone immediately and make sure it rings to the phone they have.  This a is great way to make sure you’ve got the number stored. 

 (2) Call their insurance company on the spot because this allows you to confirm they have insurance coverage.  

(3) Even if you’re not feeling any injuries, be very careful how you word a response if someone asks you if you’re injured.  Don’t lie, but consider saying, “I’m not feeling anything right now.”  

Be safe and don’t drive distracted!

When Simple Becomes Complicated

Posted on by Horman Nichols, LLC

Currently, car accident cases center on determining human error – which driver was responsible for the accident.  The evolving world of car technology is going to change the future of how some car accident cases are litigated.

Self-driving cars, such as Tesla, are being touted as the future of cars.  However, there have been accidents involving these cars.  As recently as March 23, 2018, a Tesla Model  X SUV, with the Autopilot feature engaged, slammed into a concrete highway divider and caught fire, killing the driver.

When a car accident cases goes to court now, generally the judge or jury listens to testimony from each driver and based upon whose testimony they found to be more credible, they make a determination of who is at fault.  Occasionally, experts such as accident reconstructionists will offer testimony to aid the judge or jury, but usually just the drivers and/or witnesses who saw the accident will testify.

With more and more self-driving cars and cars with technology such as auto-braking, we may see some cases move from the a determination of driver error to a product liability case where the manufacturer of the vehicle will be a defendant as well.  This will also require expert testimony if these cases go to trial.  A judge or jury will have to review the evidence of competing experts in order to make their determination on liability.  This change will possibly create an economic “trickle down” affect wherein the increased cost to vehicle manufacturers for insurance and the cost of litigation may be passed on to the consumer with higher vehicle prices.

Additionally, on average, most car accident cases settle without going to court because insurance companies, through their own investigations may determine that its own driver(s) were at fault, and a settlement will occur, which allows the injured party to be compensated fairly quickly.  However, with a product liability case, you could be talking about years before the case is resolved or adjudicated.

Technology generally makes our lives more convenient, but you always have to consider the law of unintended consequences.