Legal Question in Personal Injury in Maryland
weather related accident
My son was in a minor fender bender from ice/snow from a recent storm. A car was stopped in the middle of the road, no flashers on. The car was blocking traffic. My son attempted to go around him when the ice conditions made him slide into the corner of the other rear bumper. He was going extremely slow. No damage happened to my sons car. He feels he was not at fault because the other car was blocking traffic, and the weather conditions caused him to slide. Does he need to report this? Who determines whos fault it is? Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: weather related accident
First of all, you should definitely report the accident to your insurance company. If a claim is filed by the other driver, your liability coverage will protect you. Whether the accident was your son's fault depends on the facts. Your son had a duty to drive carefully and in a manner consistent with the weather and visibility conditions. Just because a car may be stranded in the road ahead of him doesn't excuse him if he fails to timely observe the stranded vehicle and drive in such a manner as to avoid him. On the other hand, the other driver may be partly at fault for not putting on his flashers or some other warning mechanism, or by failing to pull off the road if he could have done so safely before stalling out. In that case, your son wouldn't be legally responsible even if he were partly at fault. Once you report the accident to your insurance company, they will do an investigation and determine whether to accept responsibility for any damage sustained by the other vehicle.