Sometimes, a driver’s negligence comes down to them not taking care of their vehicle properly. For example, in California, a driver can have points deducted from their license if they have certain mechanical violations that make their vehicle unsafe to drive, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Other states have similar laws. In addition to this, commercial operators are required under various regulations to maintain their equipment up to state standards. If you are injured in a car wreck, an attorney is likely to look at whether or not there was some sort of a mechanical failure that caused the accident.
It Requires Investigation
Some cases where an attorney has to establish that a driver that harmed their client was negligent are rather straightforward. For instance, if the driver that caused the accident was subsequently arrested for drunk driving, it’s fairly easy for the personal injury attorney to establish that the other driver was clearly negligent in that they got behind the wheel drunk.
In other cases, a different moving violation or some other evidence may make it easy to establish that the driver themselves was negligent in how they drove the vehicle. Where mechanical failures are concerned, this can require a bit more investigation.
Finding Evidence
Because car accidents are so common, the tools that investigators have to look at the root causes of them are actually very sophisticated. With the right evidence, an attorney can generally bring expert witnesses to look at what transpired according to photographs, documents and so forth. They can, of course, also inspect the vehicle if it hasn’t been moved since the accident.
If it is found that the person who caused the accident was negligent in not maintaining their vehicle appropriately, that may constitute grounds to sue. After all, if somebody decided to save $100 by not having their brakes fixed and caused an accident, it’s really nobody’s fault but their own that somebody else got hurt.
With commercial establishments, the penalties can be very stiff for violating regulations regarding maintaining vehicles, so attorneys will generally take a look at this as it can help them to establish that the company was negligent. Sometimes, it turns out that the driver may have actually tried their best to prevent an accident from happening but that the company let them and the other parties involved in the accident down in not adhering to their obligations.