Who Is To Blame In A Multi-Car Accident?

When it comes to a motor vehicle accident, usually the scene, evidence, and reports can be reviewed to easily determine who's at fault for causing the accident. If you weren't badly injured during the accident and remained conscious, you may even realize that the accident was your fault or the other driver's. But whose fault is it if there are more than two drivers in the accident?

Single Liability Due to Negligence

In car accidents, fault is determined by negligence. The same applies for an accident that involves more than two cars. A common example of a multi-car accident is when you are at a red light and the car behinds you doesn't stop, rear-ending your car. You then move forward as a result of the accident and hit the car in front of you. Are you at fault for hitting the car in front while the driver behind you is at fault for hitting you? 

As long as you can prove that you wouldn't have hit the driver in front of you had it not been for the driver's actions behind you, you won't be liable for the accident. Witnesses that can say you were stopped at the light before the driver hit you would prove this.

Unfortunately, not everything is this simple and more than one driver can be at fault for an accident.

Multi-Driver Liability Due to Contributory or Comparative Negligence

Contributory negligence and comparative negligence are necessary when more than one driver is at fault.

Contributory negligence means that if a driver is found partly responsible for an accident, they will not recover any damages. For example, if a driver failed to stop at a stop sign and was hit by another driver who was speeding through their stop sign. 

Comparative negligence looks at each party that is to blame for causing the accident and determines a percentage that they are to blame for the accident. Some states don't allow this determination and instead classify it under contributory negligence.

For example, if you are turning at a red light and don't turn on your signal and are hit by another driver running the red light, you are partially at fault because it's possible the driver wouldn't have ran the light had you turned on your signal. Obviously, you aren't to blame as much as the driver who ran the light, so you would be assigned a smaller percentage of fault (i.e. 15%) and be able to recover 85% of the damages (i.e. 100% - 15% = 85%).

So the answer to who is it at fault in a multi-car accident varies. If you didn't do anything negligent to cause the accident or contribute to it, you shouldn't be found at fault. If you were negligent, you will lost part of your damage recovery or all of it depending on the state.

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