
Are You Liable in a Bad-Weather Accident?
It's important to understand here that as a driver, it's your responsibility to stay aware of the weather conditions and adapt your driving behavior to it. When driving in bad weather, you should anticipate challenges like flooded sections on a roadway, reduced visibility, and slick pavement. Hence, you should not just drive slower than usual but also maintain a greater distance between the vehicle and other cars. Apart from maintaining control, you must take all reasonable measures to avoid collisions. In case your road accident occurred near your home, you must have been aware of the poor weather conditions, and thus, sections of the roads should be prone to standing water. Ignoring everything, you chose to drive fast and tailgate a vehicle in front of you. You're certainly at fault for the collision, as it clearly indicates that you were negligent in adapting your driving to the weather. If, however, you did everything in your power to avoid an accident, you have all the rights to argue that you were not at fault or even that the other driver was negligible. This can be true if that car’s taillights had burned out, its driver switched the lane without prior indication or another type of negligence on their part. However, proving your point in weather-related accidents is not as easy as it sounds. Investigators will not just take your word into account, but they will also consider the stance of the opposing party as well as interview other people, evaluate the traffic congestion at the time, closely assess the road conditions and the vehicles involved in a collision, and even the black box data from cars before reaching a verdict.
