What Does it Mean to Be Negligent in a Car Accident?

Car insurance companies have many different duties to perform when a claim is filed on the policy of an insured individual. First, they must make sure that they fulfill the terms of the insuring agreement made in the insurance policy. This could be paying out to repair the insured party's vehicle under the collision coverage that is present, or, it could mean to make a liability payment to an individual who the insured party affected. To do so, the insurance company must first make an assessment of negligence.

This assessment of negligence will be done with an investigation of the accident that will include statements of all parties involved, police reports and possibly witness statements. To determine negligence the adjuster for the insurance company must decide if any of four requirements was breached by the insured to decide negligence. Here is how that is done.

First, the insurance company must decide that the insured had a "duty to act" in the given situation. With a car accident this means that you had a duty to drive in a safe and responsible manner.

Next, you must have made a breach of that duty, meaning that you drove in such a manner that you did not act in the best interest of all other drivers on the road. For instance, if you were to hit someone from the rear you did not carry out your duty to keep a safe distance from that vehicle.

After that the insurance company must determine that damage or injury occurred in the car accident. If someone files a claim on your insurance and says that you broke the law, but nothing happened the claim will be dismissed.

Finally, the breach of duty owed must have had a direct link to the damage that was caused in the accident. So, if you cut someone off in the morning but no accident occurred, but later in the day someone hit another vehicle they cannot claim to still have been shaken up by what you did. The cause and effect must be clear and obvious to all parties involved.

Once all of this information has been taken in to account and the insurance company decides that your breach of duty owed caused damage or injury to another party, you will be determined as negligent. This means that your insurance policy will be responsible for repairing the other party's vehicle and you will be responsible for the damage to your own vehicle as well.