Who Is At Fault When Two Cars Crash Because Of A Deer?
Deer will sometimes run out in front of cars and motorists often don't know what to do in response. If the driver collides with the deer, they may feel guilt over having collided with the animal and may also damage their car. However, some drivers have been killed as they have attempted to avoid a deer and ended up rolling over their cars instead. In other cases, an attempt to avoid a deer may lead to the driver swerving into your lane and hitting you. If this happens, you have every right to seek compensation for your injuries.
What a Driver Should Do When a Deer Appears
Swerving out of the way is a mistake because the driver can put themself in danger and deer can also change direction in a split second making it difficult to know what direction to swerve at. Instead, the driver should slow down to either avoid hitting the deer or at least cause minimum damage. Depending on the speed and where the driver hits the deer, they might simply spin the deer around out of the path of the car. The deer will have a lot of adrenaline and may be able to run away.
When the Driver Swerves and Hits You
Whenever a deer is involved in an accident, contact a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. When the other driver's insurance provider finds out that a deer was involved, the provider will blame the deer and deny your claim. However, an experienced attorney will be able to argue for why the other driver behaved in a negligent manner when responding to the deer that was excessive. While the insurance provider may try to reduce your claim while accounting for the deer, an attorney specialized in auto accident law can help reduce the extent to where this might happen.
Another situation is if you have to stop your car suddenly because there may be other deer nearby since they typically travel in groups, and a driver was following you too closely behind. This can lead to the other driver rear-ending you. That driver might argue that you were negligent for stopping so suddenly, but the other driver might actually be at fault of he was tailgating you.
Not only might the deer be injured, but you might also suffer serious injuries due to the collision. Therefore, you'll want to receive medical treatment and gather medical evidence to support any claim you may wish to make.
