Most people assume that a sideswipe accident usually results in a minor accident involving minor damages to the vehicles and little to no physical injuries. However, most sideswiping accidents lead to quite the opposite results. They can lead to loss of vehicle control or other potentially tragic results including severe physical injuries and even death.
Most often sideswipe collisions occur when two vehicles are driving next to one another and one vehicle starts moving into the other vehicle’s lane. This can occur because the driver was distracted by something or did not look before attempting to change lanes. Sometimes sideswipe accidents only involve one vehicle and an inanimate object such as a barrier or maybe even a vehicle parallel parked on the side of the road. And the initial sideswiping contact is normally just the beginning of a more serious automobile accident. The aftermath of the sideswiping collision is normally due to a driver overreacting by steering the wheel too abruptly or swerving too quickly in order to try to avoid the initial impact. This could result in something as serious as a roll-over accident.
Additionally, many sideswipe car accidents happen when a driver sometimes overreacts to a road hazard or an impending collision with another motor vehicle. By taking action to avoid a rear-end collision with one car, the driver may actually cause his vehicle to strike the side of a second, adjacent automobile. The negligent action by the one driver may result in a sideswipe collision, which could send the victim’s vehicle off the road and into a stationary object such as a tree, utility pole or bridge abutment.
Under Pennsylvania law, and more specifically Section 3309 of the motor vehicle code, a vehicle must be driven “as nearly as practicable entirely within a single lane and shall not be moved from the lane until the drive has first ascertained that the movement can be made with safety.”
Sideswipe collisions are often referred to as “blind spot” accidents, which typically cause vehicle damage such as dented driver- or passenger-side doors, scraped quarter panels and lost or damaged side-view mirrors. Since intrusive damage is generally not a severe as other, more direct impacts many insurance companies may dispute certain injury claims. There is minimal space between the side of the car where the impact occurs and the location of the drivers and passengers inside the vehicle. So as experienced injury attorneys, Edelstein Law, LLP knows that even these minor impact collisions can cause injury to the occupants’ shoulders and necks due to unexpected side-to-side jerking motion that such a collision can cause.
However, by their very nature, sideswipe incidents can also present real challenges regarding who is at fault for the accident. Nowadays, sideswipe accidents are primarily caused by a distracted driver. The causes of driver distraction or loss of concentration can include the following:
Texting while driving
Operating smartphone or talking on a cellphone
Operating a motor vehicle while fatigued
Changing stations on a car radio
Driving while impaired by alcohol or prescription drugs
Since insurance companies may dispute paying for injuries sustained in a sideswipe-type impact, victims will benefit from the services of a qualified Philadelphia car accident lawyer. A good automobile injury attorney must understand the physics of the accident in order to formulate arguments that the Court will accept and which will address the contrary arguments that the insurance company’s attorneys will likely assert.
Regardless of the circumstances surrounding a sideswipe incident, if an injury or death was involved the victim or his family should speak to an experienced legal professional to learn about their rights in the aftermath of this kind of roadway collision. And, because determining fault in a sideswipe accident can prove a challenge, retaining a competent car accident attorney is the first step to recovering costs for medical treatment, rehabilitation, and even long-term care in those situations where permanent injury, paralysis or lost mental capacity is involved.
