How Poor Road-worthiness of a Car Can Affect One’s Claim
Car maintenance is vital for all road users as it maintain its road worthiness and integrity of safety as you use and ride on daily basis and put milage into it, it worn out and tires up just like any other machines, it requires maintenance every specific milage mark.
Important car matters such as changing its oil, tire tightening and pressure maintenance as well as its grip, battery maintenance and changing of it, checking up cameras and other technology inside a car to make sure it is functioning especially in times of need, and other maintenance that renders a of its road-worthiness to not cause an accident and these series of required maintenance is to ensure driver’s safety despite the presence of risks entailed by driving a car.
But some people on rare occasions doesn’t have enough money for their monthly maintenance in order for their car to maintain its road-worthiness and safety, overseeing these inadequancies would likely to increase a driver’s chances to be involved or caused an accident.
How Can Lack of Maintenance And Defective Car Part Affect The Course of an Accident?
Sure does, defective signaling system, brakes, and other significant functions of a car could cause an accident, one way to check if one’s car has any of those scary defected that can lead to road accident is to maintain its road-worthiness by scheduled maintenance. Though, it is hard to prove that the at-fault driver main factor for him to cause an accident is the lack of maintenance of his/her car or letting the existence of a defective part in his car system as there are other factors that can cause accidents such as road and weather condition, human error, and others that from the mechanical error which makes it hard for police investigators to file a proper report without any good narrative or documentation and even harder for insurers to grant victim proper and apt settlement value, that is why it is important to install a camera or document the accident immediately if possible.
After an accident, it is an imperative to call help from nearest hospital and police for people involved in the accident can get proper medical attention and for the victims to narrate the accident as accurate as possible. Phone recorded videos or photos and footage from dash cams can be vital too for investigation and affirmation of statements from the people involved as it can help police investigators to determine who’s at fault.
In an example scenario where the at-fault driver was caught in a dash cam wherein he has defective headlights or tail lights, it could render police authority to have a comprehensive and decisive verdict that the at-fault driver has full liability over the accident. And if pictures of tire from the at-fault driver taken was worn down or an indication of blowout has occurred, police can give a proper verdict with that as well.
Car Issues That Can be Occur Without Proper or Inconsistent Maintenance
There are many maintenance-related issues that can guarantee a driver to end up in car crash, and if negligence is observed upon investigation, he/she is susceptible to be filed against a claim. Here are some of them:
- Brake Failure or Inconsistence If you ever felt like the brake is seemed off and isn’t the same way as before and causes delays in braking or has screeching noise when try to do so, then it is likely that your brake is failing. If you are uncertain, recall how months that you have your car checked and it may prove that your car has brake system issues. Maintenance of brake is essential as they are the main tool to help you prevent from being involved in a car crash. Another indication of brake failure is the leakage of brake fluid from your vehicle, this can be treated with going to your trusted car mechanic to have it checked and don’t risk any more of you and your property from driving with a defective brake system.
- Worn Out Tires Out of all car parts that require rigorous maintenance, tires are the least expensive of them all. Maintenance that tires require are only uninflation and uneven worn out or fully worn out tires, which are both quick to replenish and cheap, it is as well accessible as it is also available at gas stations. But skipping these details in process of maintaining one’s car could cause major accidents since traveling with worn out tires has the same impact of having braking issues which is really bad in a scale. Checking your tires by going to a car shop of gas station would be essential in your travel, may it be long or short. If you are confused on how much pressure you’d put on both ends, you can check you car’s manual to be guided.
- Inactive Headlights or Taillights Broken headlight or taillights are one of major causes of accidents, rear-end crashes specifically. Both of these signal lights provide best notice and the word itself, signal, for all road users in your wake if you are going to stop, turn, or overtaking other vehicle and avoid miscommuncation among other drivers around you and involve in an accident. For an instance, if your taillights are not working you wanted to turn left without making any notice that you want to turn left and suddenly turn so, there are chances that other drivers were not given enough time to react that you have turn left as they are following you and may result in a crash.Fixing and maintaining headlights or taillights price scales depending on car model, but overall it is on average and a good investment for driver and occupants’ safety.
Prevalence of Car Maintenance Related Accidents
There are few common reasons why accidents happen, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) surveys, tires and wheel-related and other car maintenance related problems are linked to accidents as it accounts for 35% of all accidents. Here are some more of them from the recent year of 2019:
- From federal government statistics, there are about 2% of car accidents that mainly caused by car-maintenance related failures.
- 802 out of 2,199 accidents caused by car-maintenance related issues happened in the past year, major cause was accounted by defective brakes.
- Side mirror issues as well caused 22 accidents wherein drivers who failed to give these part proper maintenance tend to result in receiving heavy liability and a lawsuit against at-fault driver.
- Defective lights and turn signals accounted for more than 190 road crashes.
- Even steering and suspension issues cause accidents, wherein they accounted for 391 accidents.
- Out of all these mechanical factors that lead to accident, tire issues is the common of them as it results in 719 injuries which should be the most maintained as it is the cheapest next to side mirrors.
Contact Your Personal Injury Lawyer
If ever you or one of your family members has been involved or has experienced an road accident as a pedestrian and as a victim that has render to sustain significant injuries due to the at-fault driver’s mechanical maintenance negligence and inadequancies, you can always refer help from a professional experienced injury lawyer to smoothen things out.
Ryan Injury Lawyers is an Ohio based injury lawyer that represents victims of personal injury caused by car accidents, medical malpractice due to medical professional’s negligence, and even wrongful death against large companies, agencies and even individuals. We have 40 years of experience doing our service in this field and evidently successful with our civil litigations. Call our office now for free legal consultation.