We spend hours and hours per week in our vehicles. In many ways, our cars are like our second homes: a place we spend much of our time when going from place to place and living out our lives.
However, a vehicle can also be a risky place to be. Accidents happen at an alarmingly high rate. An auto accident is so common an occurrence, in fact, that there is a high chance that each one of us will end up in an accident at least one time during our lives.
If you’ve been in an accident due to another driver’s carelessness, you have a right to compensation if you can prove your case in court. First, you’ll need to prove the other driver was texting while driving or engaging in some other negligent activity. How can you go about doing this? Read on.
Understand Auto Accident Laws
Any kind of car accident is no laughing matter, even in instances where the damage done is relatively minor. The combined threat of property damage to your vehicle and physical damage to yourself can add up to a life-altering burden. That’s not even to mention the inconvenience, pain, and stress you might be put through.
For these reasons and more, it’s important that the driver that caused this accident be held responsible. They need to pay for the damages incurred, which will most likely be paid out by their insurance company. Unless they were illegally driving without insurance, this is how things should proceed.
However, the process of getting a proper payment from an auto insurance company can be a lengthy and difficult one. Auto insurance companies stay in business by trying to avoid hefty payouts, meaning they will be looking at any opportunity that will allow them to pay less.
You’ll have to work hard to get the evidence you need to support your case. That means finding evidence of both the extent of your damages and the negligence exhibited by the other driver.
No texting and driving should be permitted by a driver. So if they caused an accident while on their phone, this can be the evidence you need to make your case a solid one.
However, how can one prove that the other driver was engaging in this sort of activity? Having an experienced attorney on your side can help work through this difficult situation.
Proving a Texting While Driving Accident
While texting and driving laws vary by state, a large percentage of stages across the country have some sort of law in place that prevents or limits the use of cell phones behind the wheel.
Distracted driving is no different than reckless driving and plenty of accidents have been caused due to the use of a cell phone. However, it can be hard to show concrete evidence of this behavior.
The easiest way to provide evidence of a texting and driving situation? If there were other witnesses to the accident that could support this claim. Other drivers or pedestrians nearby to the accident at the time might be able to confirm that they saw the driver with their phone out behind the wheel.
An impartial third-party viewpoint holds a lot of weight when it comes to car accident situations, so this can be a real help to your case. It’s possible that this information was already recorded in the official police report at the time of the accident.
Someone may have mentioned to the officer at the scene of the accident that texting and driving seemed to have contributed to the accident.
Even if there was no physical eyewitness to this kind of behavior, there might have been a camera nearby that captured the action. Traffic cameras and CCTV security cameras are often used in car accident cases as evidence.
One of these cameras might provide visual evidence that the driver in question was texting and driving when the accident occurred. This hard evidence would be hard for any auto insurance company to dispute.
Other Methods to Consider
What if there doesn’t seem to be any visual or eyewitness evidence to bring forth? An experienced legal professional will be able to suggest a few other possibilities that might be worth looking into.
An attorney could, for example, pull the cell phone records of the other driver to see when their cell phone was being used. Evidence of text messages sent directly before the time of the accident can make a convincing case that texting contributed to the incident.
A subpoena must be given in order to obtain these cell phone records, which might be difficult for the average citizen to do. However, an attorney with a deep background in car accident cases should be able to get their hands on these types of records with relative ease.
This kind of documented evidence can mean a lot in a case like this.
Of course, no matter what evidence your attorney manages to pull together, their presentation of this evidence will also contribute to the overall success of your case. This is why it is important to hire a legal aid with a stellar background – you need someone you know you can rely on.
Texting While Driving Accidents
A serious car accident can upset the balance of your life in a major way. As such, it’s important to ensure that you get the compensation that you deserve. If you need to prove another driver was texting while driving in order to prove your case, the above information can help.
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