Legal Issues In Multi Car Pile Up Accidents

In a typical car accident there are two cars involved. Usually, one is the vehicle at fault, having caused the accident, and the other is the one that is innocent, although there is some middle ground when both driver and victim have some blame for the accident.

But then there are those accidents that involve more than two drivers—sometimes, a lot more. These are called multi car pileups. They may be 3-4 cars, but often they can be much much more—so many that they can make national news when they happen.

How Do They Happen?

Most multi car pile ups are like chain reactions. There is an accident—usually, a rear end collision—which causes each successive driver to run into the back of the car in front of them. In some cases, collisions may be so severe, that cars can veer off the road, or can topple over onto their sides or upside down.

Very often, multi car pile ups work in tandem with some other factor, usually something that impairs full visibility on the road, or which affects vehicles’ ability to see, react to, or stop for, traffic in front of them. This has, in the past, included inclement weather, but also external factors, like smoke or haze from nearby factories. In 2008 in Florida, a multi car pileup happened after the state conducted a controlled burn, causing smoke to billow onto the highway, affecting visibility.

How and Why are They Different?

Multi Car pileups have factors that make them different from other types of car accidents, where there are two cars involved.

That’s because in the chain of accidents, each driver can, potentially, both be negligent, and at the same time, be a victim of some other drivers’ negligence. This puts each driver in the position of suing the driver behind them for running into them, but also, defending against being sued by the driver in front of them, who the injured victim ran into.

Insurance Issues

But a multi car pileup victim may not just sue the driver behind them that ran into them—they, along with all the other vehicles in the pileup, may also sue the first driver in the pileup if they feel the first driver did something negligent to cause the pileup.

If that first driver is just someone in their car (that is, not a business or commercial vehicle or truck), there may be limited insurance to compensate everybody injured in all the cars involved in the pileup.

Additionally, with so many drivers suing and being sued, and the insurance companies involved, litigation involving multi car pileups can be extraordinarily complex, with multiple parties and attorneys involved.

Serious Injury

Sadly, many major multi car pile ups, will involve some fatalities. The force that it takes to cause multi car pile ups, which usually happen on highways with higher speed limits, can be enough to cause serious injury and death, to multiple drivers.

Injured in a multi car accident? Contact our Rhode Island injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700.

Sources:

wctv.tv/2024/08/27/ten-vehicle-crash-blocks-traffic-both-ways-i-10-gadsden-county/

theledger.com/story/news/2012/07/29/smoke-fog-caused-5-deaths-70-car-pileup-on-i-4-in-2008/26556886007/