Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog
Our Boston car accident lawyers know traffic accidents are seldom “accidents.”
According to a recent report in the Boston Globe, four people were injured in a head-on collision in East Dennis, Massachusetts. Police are saying that the driver of one of the vehicles involved in the crash drifted over the center line and hit another vehicle carrying three people.
The driver of the vehicle alleged to be at-fault suffered severe injuries to her chest and abdomen and was flown in a medevac helicopter to a trauma center. The driver of the other vehicle suffered serious injuries to her head and neck. In addition to the serious injures sustained by the driver, her two young grandchildren suffered what are being reported as minor injuries from the car accident.
Police are still trying to determine if there was a medical reason for the driver’s car drifting into oncoming traffic.
As your Boston car accident lawyer can explain, it is not uncommon for an accident to be caused by a medical condition. The driver experiences symptoms that make it difficult or even impossible to control the car and crashes into another car or pedestrian. While it is easy to be sympathetic to the fact that a person lost control of his or her vehicle due a medical condition, this does not mean that the at-fault driver wasn’t being negligent.
In car accidents caused by a driver’s medical condition, the question is often whether the driver was aware of this medical condition and the possibility of it causing an accident before getting behind the wheel. Everyone who drives a car owes a duty of care to drive in a reasonable manner to protect others on the roads and sidewalks from being injured by their vehicle. If a driver knows that he or she has a medical condition that may make them black out or lose control and decided to get behind wheel anyway, this disregard for the safety of others may be considered negligent conduct.
That disregard for the safety of others can be considered a breach of the duty of care. If a person has a duty of care and breaches that duty, that person can be found liable for any injuries caused by the breach. If, on the other hand, a person had no idea that they had anything wrong with them, and it suddenly caused them to lose control of the vehicle, they may not be liable for any injuries caused.
Under our legal system, people are generally only responsible for conduct that is intentional or negligent. A person is not normally responsible for conduct that is truly an accident. However, though we often use the term “car accident,” it is important to keep in mind that most car accidents are not truly accidents. Most of what we call accidents are really negligent acts for which you may be able to recover financial compensation.
If you are injured in an accident in Massachusetts, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment: (617) 777-7777.
Additional Resources:
Four injured in two-car accident in East Dennis, July 12, 2014, Boston Globe
More Blog Entries:
Boston Car Accidents Result in Serious Child Injuries, March 10, 2013, Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog