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Head-on collisions in New Haven and elsewhere are among the most catastrophic car accidents, often with severe injuries or fatalities to motorists in both vehicles. Head-on collisions made up 29.6% of car accidents in 2022, resulting in an alarming 5,800 deaths and tens of thousands of injuries. One driver is almost always at fault in a head-on collision accident, leaving them liable for damages ranging from property damage to wrongful death.
Collision experts explain that there are three collisions in every accident, the vehicle’s collision, the occupant’s collision inside the vehicle, and the internal collision inside the motorist’s body. Crash force calculations show that a 120-pound person becomes a 6,600-pound force propelled forward in a collision between a vehicle and an immobile object. During a head-on collision with both cars moving toward each other at full speed, the crash force doubles, resulting in the most severe car accident injuries.
With the exception of icy or slippery road conditions causing a vehicle to slide out of its lane or a defective vehicle part in the steering system, head-on collisions are almost always preventable and result from driver error. Common causes of head-on collisions include the following:
In fault-based insurance states like Connecticut, it’s necessary to determine the cause of the accident, the negligent or reckless action that led to the collision, and the appropriate insurance company to file a claim against to recover damages like medical expenses, lost income, and compensation for pain and suffering or wrongful death.
Most head-on collisions cause severe or fatal injuries when they occur at average or high speeds. Common injuries in head-on collisions include:
Even when head-on car accidents occur at low speeds, they often leave motorists with significant injuries and expensive damages.
Connecticut follows a modified comparison negligence insurance system that allows injury victims to recover compensation even if they were partly at fault for an accident as long as they are less than 51% at fault. The compensation they recover is minus their percentage of fault. For instance, if a driver is determined as 25% at fault, they can recover $75,000 of a $100,000 claim.
A head-on collision requires an in-depth investigation to determine each driver’s percentage of liability, but typically, the driver who enters or moves into the wrong lane is as much as 100% at fault for the accident. To prove liability in a head-on collision requires demonstrating that the at-fault driver owed a duty of care to take reasonable actions to prevent causing injury to other drivers, they breached this duty by acting negligently or recklessly, their breach of duty caused injury to another, and the injury victim suffered damages like medical expenses, lost income, and pain and suffering.
It might seem clear that the driver who left their lane is completely responsible for a head-on collision, but insurance companies commonly dispute claims or assign an undue portion of the blame to the injury victim to lower the amount of their payout. A New Haven car accident accident attorney from Weber & Rubano is ready to investigate your collision, document evidence to make a compelling case on your behalf, and negotiate the highest possible settlement in your car accident claim.