Who Can I Sue For My Accident That Was Caused By Debris In The Road?

Any automobile accident, even a minor one, is aggravating, but some of the most bothersome accidents happen when a collision with road debris damages your car. A three-year study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that road debris was a factor in more than 200,000 crashes where police reports were filed. Those accidents resulted in 39,000 injuries and 500 deaths.

“Road debris” is anything that creates a hazard on the roadway, including objects that fly into your field of vision or strike your car. Two-thirds of road debris accidents are caused by items falling off vehicles.

Can I Sue for an Accident Caused by Road Debris?

So, whom can you sue? That depends on the particular circumstances. If the debris comes from another vehicle, and you exchange information with the other driver, your insurance company will treat it like any other accident where the drivers exchange information.

Unfortunately, your car will often encounter debris that was dropped long before you came upon it. Under those circumstances, your insurance company will likely blame you: A driver is presumed responsible for avoiding anything lying on the road that creates an unexpected danger.

The experienced legal team at Manfred Sternberg & Associates has helped thousands of people handle the aftermath of all sorts of car accidents, including those involving road debris.

Of course, not all debris falls off vehicles. A tire or hubcap may come rolling across the highway so fast that you can’t avoid it. An oil spill spread across the road may be impossible to avoid without hitting something else. But by the time you’re out of the car post-collision, it might not be evident that’s what happened–and your insurer may challenge your account.

It’s harder to avoid debris at night when visibility is limited. But even under those circumstances, an insurer might still contend that you were driving too fast or could have avoided the debris. That’s one reason it’s important to take photos of the accident damage and the area around it. You’ll need to be able to present evidence to your insurance company showing that you couldn’t avoid the debris.