Who is Responsible in a Multi-Car Accident?

Car accidents involving two vehicles are sometimes tricky enough, and so, you can imagine how much trickier a multi-car accident can get. A multi-vehicle accident, sometimes referred to as a “pile-up”, is an accident that involves three or more vehicles.
A multi-vehicle accident can occur in rear-end collisions, on the freeway (pile-up), at intersections, and in lane change crashes. When one occurs, who is at fault?
The most common type of these accidents are rear-end collisions. Sometimes, the last car starts a chain reaction when the driver crashes into the back of the car immediately in front of him or her, pushing that car into the next car, and so on and so forth. A party who is struck from behind and pushed into the next car is generally not at fault.
Other times, a car in the middle will crash into the car in front of it, and is then rear-ended and pushed into the car in front of it a second time. This party will share some of the responsibility.
The common question we ask our clients involved in a multi-vehicle rear-end accident is “how many hits did you feel”? Depending on the number of hits, we can then determine who is at fault. If our client is one of the middle vehicles, we need to determine if our client was rear-ended and pushed into the car in front of them or struck the car in front and was then rear-ended.
The biggest problems arising from multi-vehicle accidents are (1) Who is at fault and to what degree?, and (2) How much insurance is available? Remember that the insurers of everyone involved, both at-fault and non-at-fault parties, will point fingers and all parties will have their policy exposed to some degree.”
For more information about The Mason Law Firm visit us at 28494 Westinghouse Place, Suite 202, Valencia. Call us at (661) 476-5678 or visit our website at www.mrscvlaw.com.