Legal Question in Traffic Law in Virginia

My husband was driving on an interstate when the SUV in front of him swerved around something. Traffic was all around him so he had no where to go. There was a wheel barrow in his lane, the left lane. He swerved to miss it, and after attempts to regain control, he ended flipping the car in the median. He was moving along w/ traffic and he was not tailgating. The cops were supposedly on their way to remove the wheelbarrow. He was in a 2 wheel drive vehicle, so he didn't have much of a chance of gaining control once the tires hit the grassy median. In most cases they tell you to hit the object, such as a deer, but it was a large metal object. Had he hit it, there could have been a large pile-up of vehicles, or worse someone's death. Is there any one else at fault? No citations were issued. Because it's unusual for such an object in the road, insurance had no choice but to file my husband at fault. The car was a total loss and we got a check for a new vehicle, but our rates have gone way up.


Asked on 12/17/09, 12:34 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

The answer to your question probably lies in the fact that the vehicle which

your husband was following was able to swerve to miss this "wheel barrow" and

apparently without losing control while your husband was not which would suggest that if he was not tailgating this vehicle, he may still have been following it too closedly, going too fast for the conditions of the highway, or doing something else (or not) which made him largely responsible for this accident.

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Answered on 12/23/09, 6:58 am


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