Multiple Vehicle Accidents In Philadelphia

Car accidents are some of the most dangerous and traumatic events that you can go through. Every car crash, no matter how minor, carries the risk of a severe injury. However, whenever multiple cars get involved in a crash, the chance of getting seriously hurt rises exponentially. As more and more vehicles get involved, the odds of a life-threatening or fatal injury continue to rise.

Additionally, each car that gets involved in a car accident makes determining liability in the crash more difficult. This can make things problematic in the long-run, as insurance companies try to figure out who is to blame, who should be compensated, and who should be making payments to whom.

Because multiple vehicle accidents come with more costly injuries and complicate liability issues, having a personal injury from the Philadelphia law office of Gilman & Bedigian on hand is crucial if you want to protect your rights and interests.

Causes of Multiple Vehicle Accidents

It is a rare thing for multiple vehicles to all hit each other at the same time. Multiple vehicle accidents are often created when two of them collide with each other, and then other vehicles become involved because they are unable to avoid the wreck. Therefore, multiple vehicle crashes are often technically caused by an original crash. However, other factors often contribute to whether a subsequent vehicle gets involved in a car wreck.

Bad weather is a common element in multiple vehicle accidents. Many of the largest pileups happen when a car accident happens on a highway, but bad weather prevents other drivers from seeing the wreck or avoiding it. Extremely thick fog is often a culprit when drivers become enmeshed in a multiple vehicle accident because they could not see it in time to avoid it. Ice and slick roads are frequently a factor when drivers try to avoid an existing accident, but prove unable to steer away or stop in time.

Of course, drivers are expected to adjust to inclement weather while they are on the roads, and can even be considered negligent – and therefore liable for resulting collisions – if they are not. However, determining negligence and liability in a multiple vehicle accident is often easier said than done.

Liability in a Multiple Vehicle Crash

While multiple vehicle accidents are terrifying to be in, they continue to create headaches even after all of the vehicles are towed away and everyone is getting the medical attention they need.

In a car accident that only involves two vehicles, it is relatively easy to look at the wreckage and determine what happened. This lets police and insurance companies rely on the visible evidence of the crash, instead of on statements by drivers and witnesses which might or might not be accurate or deliberately misleading.

Multiple vehicle accidents, however, make things far more complicated. Every impact that a subsequent vehicle makes in a multiple vehicle crash makes it far more difficult to determine who was at fault for the collisions that came before. This is because each subsequent vehicle that enters a multiple vehicle wreck damages and moves the vehicles that are already in it, to some extent. This prevents police and insurance personnel from easily determining what happened in the accident, based on the evidence they can see from pictures of the crash. It makes them rely much more heavily on statements by drivers. These statements, however, are often unreliable because the drivers were often more concerned with avoiding the accident than noticing everything that happened and have an incentive to say only what does not make them liable for the crash. As a result, it can quickly become impossible to determine who was at fault for a multiple vehicle accident, the more vehicles are involved.

Multiple Vehicle Accident Attorneys in Philadelphia

When there are multiple vehicles involved in a car accident, the importance of having an attorney at your side throughout the whole process skyrockets. Because it is difficult to determine who was at fault for the crash, the chance of you getting blamed for it even though it was not your fault rises sharply. Additionally, with so many more people hurt and more vehicles being damaged in the crash, the costs of being liable, grow exponentially.

For these reasons, having a Philadelphia personal injury attorney legally represent you both in and out of court is crucial. If you or someone you love has been hurt in a multiple vehicle accident in or near the city of Philadelphia, contact the law office of Gilman & Bedigian online or at (800) 529-6162.