Protecting Clients’ Rights For Over 30 Years

What Caused My Car Accident?

On Behalf of | May 9, 2017 | Car Accidents

PURSUE JUSTICE WITH OUR FARGO CAR ACCIDENT LAWYER

At Ruth Law Firm, we’ve helped secure justice for hundreds of clients, many of whom were car accident victims. What we’ve learned in our decades of investigating accident claims and our clients’ stories is that car collisions are complex events. There are multiple events at play that most victims do not see or are not aware of. It’s why our Fargo car accident attorney is honored to serve our clients and help them find answers they normally would not have access to.

Part of you may believe that you were at fault. Maybe your insurance company even said that you were. However, as our lawyer has discovered time and time again, there is often more to the story. Car accidents can be influenced by factors such as the other driver’s fatigue, their attention level, either car’s manufacturing defects, or even the road’s design. Any number of these things could have contributed to or led to your crash—that’s what our car accident lawyer intends to discover.

Do you want answers about your car accident? Find out if you have a case during a free consultation.

Why Trust Our Legal Team?

  • 30 years experience
  • Hundreds of cases successfully resolved
  • Passion for helping victims of negligence
  • Clients don’t pay unless we win!

Common Causes of Car Crashes

For two years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted an in-depth study into the causes and critical factors involved in car crashes. They focused their study on what they called the “critical event,” or the final moment or decision that directly leads to a car crash. What they found may seem obvious, but their findings finally validate what many have believed for years.

Car crashes were broken down into categories and statistics:

  • Driver error (94%)
  • Vehicle defect (2%)
  • Environmental causes (2%)
  • Unknown reasons (2%)

Driver error was by far the most common cause of car accidents, but even driver error was broken down into further categories. What they found was that 40 percent of driver errors were the result of inadequate surveillance or lack of attention or observation. About 400,000 crashes a year result from poor attention or distractedness behind the wheel or nearly 1 in 5 crashes.

The total breakdown of driver errors was as follows:

  • 40% were recognition errors
  • 34% were decision errors
  • 10% were performance errors
  • 7% were non-performance errors
  • 8% were unknown causes

Comparative Negligence in North Dakota

Even if you were slightly at fault (at least as far as you know), there is another reason to call a car accident attorney regarding your collision—North Dakota is a modified comparative negligence state. That means you can still recover damages for your collision if you are determined to be less than 50% at fault. The world isn’t divided into perfect drivers and reckless ones—instead, car accidents happen when someone’s minor fault combines with someone else’s major one.

Our attorney refuses to let our clients suffer through lost wages, high medical costs, or other painful losses simply because they committed a mistake at the wrong moment. Let our attorney seek the justice you deserve. We build thorough, detailed cases supported by accident investigations at multiple angles, allowing you to give your story a credible, powerful voice.

Call our firm for a free legal consultation. Our skilled Fargo accident lawyer can determine your options and fight on your behalf.