The weather outside is frightful—and so are the nation’s highways. The first snows of the winter season often create havoc on the highways because drivers who haven’t dealt with ice and snow for many months seem to have forgotten how to drive in the stuff, and multi-vehicle pileups are often the result.
Chicago has already seen some morning pileups on the roads involving multiple vehicles due to a combination of slick roads, fog, and driver error. The first measurable snowfall in the Chicago area for the season resulted in an pileup on the Jane Addams Expressway with at least eight vehicles involved.
If you’re injured in a multi-vehicle accident, it’s important to understand that it can be a lot more difficult to determine fault than in a standard accident with just one other car or truck. It often takes a lot of investigation and some legal help to sort out, especially if you’re seriously injured and need to recover payment for your pain and suffering, lost wages and medical expenses.
Determining fault in most accidents is just a matter of figuring out who caused the accident (or who contributed the most to the cause of the accident). For example, in accidents where one car rear-ends the other, the second driver is almost always at fault for failing to maintain a safe following distance.
In multi-vehicle accidents, it’s harder to make that sort of determination. One car may skid into another and propel it from behind into a third car. Cars may cross lanes, and get struck simultaneously by more than one vehicle. You could have come to a stop after being struck once by one vehicle only to be struck again by another a few minutes later—which then opens up a debate about which accident actually caused which of your injuries. Insurance companies may be loathe to pay, each trying to pass the blame off to another in the hopes of limiting their own losses. Sorting out the details often requires extensive investigation, in-depth analysis of the accident scene reports and photographs, and expert testimony from accident reconstructionists.
Our firm aggressively pursues compensation for our clients who have been injured in highway accidents, whether the injuries are catastrophic or mostly soft-tissue damage. Check out our website for more information on how we may be able to help you with your multi-vehicle accident claim.