Liability and Damages, in Side Impact Car Collision Cases

Side impact collisions, sometimes called “T-Bone” collisions, for the “T” shape that perpendicular cars tend to be in in a side swipe accident, can result in the most serious kinds of injuries in car accident cases. They are not accidents that should be taken lightly at all.

Why So Dangerous?

There are a number of factors that make these side-swipe, or side impact collisions, so very dangerous.

One reason is simply that while the sides of vehicles are reinforced, there is simply not as much cushion on the sides of our cars, that there is in the front or back. Trunks, engines, crumple zones, and a host of other physical and engineering mechanisms work to provide us some protection when we’re hit from the front or back. But from the side, there is just the vehicle door.

That lack of protection is magnified by the number of larger vehicles that are on our roads nowadays. A sideswipe accident by a large truck or SUV, on a smaller or mid sized vehicle, can be devastating.

Combine that with the speed of side impacts.

Side impacts often happen in intersections. When someone ignores or doesn’t see a traffic signal, and goes through an intersection illegally, they often do so at full speed. And because of that, there is less chance for the occupants of the vehicle that was hit, to see, and thus brace for, the collision. That can mean more severe injuries, to parts of the body that often aren’t injured, in front or rear collisions.

And while our cars nowadays do have some side impact safety features, they don’t all have them.

Who is At Fault?

To determine liability in a side swipe accident, the first step is to see who had the right of way. At intersections controlled by traffic signals or stop signs, this is a little easier, but not all intersections (particularly in parking lots) have such control devices.

Beyond the issue of who had the right of way, is who had the last clear chance to avoid the accident. This often doesn’t come into play, in rear or front end accidents.

So, even if a driver did have a green light through an intersection–if they could have seen the other driver, and avoided them, that driver with the green light, may still bear some fault or liability for the accident.

We also look at property damage to vehicles, to see who was at fault.

Often, the vehicle with damage to the front of the vehicle (as opposed to the other vehicle, which would have the damage on the side of the car), will be assumed to be at fault, but that isn’t always the case. For example, a car could be hit on its side after the driver illegally runs a red light–in which case, that driver would be at fault, even though the damage to the car would be to the side.

Call our Boston personal injury lawyers at The Law Office of Joseph Linnehan, Jr. today at 617-275-4200 if you were injured in a side impact car crash.