New Brunswick Car Accident Lawyers

Auto accidents are the second-leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. In 2022, 689 motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists died in crashes.

Sadly, many of these deaths are preventable. Several driving errors can cause traffic deaths, including:

• Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol
• Distracted driving
• Disobeying stop signs or red lights
• Failing to yield to pedestrians or cyclists at crosswalks
• Speeding

When an attorney pursues a wrongful death or survival claim based on a traffic crash, they will typically rely on legal concepts of negligence or recklessness. After all, drivers usually do not intend to hit a victim, but they can be held liable when driving carelessly or without regard to the safety of others. This allows attorneys to pursue compensation by proving that the driver failed to exercise reasonable care.

A negligence claim requires proof of up to five elements:

• Duty of care
• Breach of duty
• Proximate causation
• Actual causation
• Harm

In a motor vehicle case, the legal duty comes from the obligation of a driver to travel safely and according to road rules and customs. A breach of duty happens when drivers fail to drive with this aforementioned care. The evidence for the breach can come from a traffic ticket or road cameras. It can also come from eyewitness testimony from other drivers or even passengers who survived the crash.

Then, the attorney must prove at least a proximate causal link between the negligent action and your loved one’s death. This means that the death must have been a natural and logical result of the at-fault party’s negligence.

It can also mean that the action in question could be reasonably expected to lead to injury or death. This does not mean the at-fault party had to foresee the death. Rather, it means that a reasonable person could have foreseen that someone might die due to the at-fault party’s actions.

Finally, it must be shown that the victim suffered losses or harm. This can be self-evident but might also come into question if the at-fault party argues that the death was completely unrelated to the incident.

Premise liability injuries can also result in death and are usually tied to negligence as well. Hazardous conditions on someone else’s property that might lead to such an incident can include:

• Slippery floors
• Falling objects
• Broken stairs or railings
• Poor lighting
• Inadequate security
• Exposed or damaged electrical wires

When a property owner, tenant, or manager fails to reasonably find and fix these hazards, visitors can suffer fatal injuries.

Whether the property owner is liable can depend on several things, such as:

• Whether they conducted reasonable inspections of the property
• How long they knew about the hazard
• Whether they warned guests of the hazardous conditions
• What steps they took to fix it

If a lawyer can prove that a property owner, tenant, or manager failed to exercise reasonable care, it’s possible to recover compensation for a death caused by a hazardous condition.

Wrongful death claims are not limited to accidental deaths. An executor can also pursue wrongful death and survival claims against anyone whose intentional actions caused your loved one’s death.

This claim is different from a criminal prosecution. In a criminal case, prosecutors must prove the person’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. This means jurors can only vote to convict if they have no reasonable questions about the accused person’s involvement. If the jurors vote to convict, the accused person goes to jail.

In a wrongful death or survival case, Jersey City wrongful death lawyers only need to prove liability by a preponderance of the evidence. This means that the at-fault party can be held liable as long as they were more likely than not to have caused the death. If they’re found liable, they must pay damages to the estate.

To prove liability, a wrongful death lawyer can include claims for both negligent and intentional acts. For example, a case involving death due to a bar fight might allege:

• Negligence for unreasonably ignoring the risk of killing the victim
• Battery for intentionally making harmful contact with the victim

Bear in mind that an attorney can also pursue additional claims against other parties. In the bar fight example, the lawyer might also sue the bar for negligence for failing to hire enough bouncers to stop the fight or for serving the attacker too much alcohol.

Reckless driving is not careless or improper driving, which are civil traffic violations. Reckless driving is a criminal offense. It refers to driving a vehicle with no regard for the safety or property of others. Many actions can be seen as reckless driving, including:

• Texting while driving
• Running a red light
• Running a stop sign
• Excessive speeding
• Driving under the influence
• Racing other vehicles
• Intentionally failing to yield the right-of-way
• Tailgating
• Driving without headlights

Although some of these actions are not considered reckless driving on their own, aggravating circumstances like pedestrian traffic or poor road conditions can lead to being charged with it.

Another common cause of car accidents in New Brunswick is road rage. When there’s traffic congestion, impatience can lead to road rage issues. This puts everyone on the road at risk.

Road rage leads you to feel extreme anger or aggression, and it makes you participatein driving that is extreme and deliberate, posing an immediate danger to others.

Road rage can involve:

• Forcing another car off the road
• Profanity
• Inflammatory or rude gestures
• Tailgating

Although men are more likely to engage in road rage, women do as well. People who have frequent road rage are more likely to experience near-accidents and get more tickets for speeding, too.

Driving when you’re tired and drowsy also puts you in danger on the road. Drowsy drivers can’t react to changes on the road as quickly as they need to, and they may even be distracted.

Being tired makes it more difficult to perceive and react to information. For example, someone engaging in drowsy driving might not realize they’ve gone into the other lane until it’s too late.

Some of the signs of drowsy driving include:

• Boredom
• Tired eyes
• Difficulty concentrating
• Restlessness
• Yawning
• Inability to remember directions

Drowsy drivers account for 2.4% of fatal crashes in the U.S. These crashes tend to occur late at night or early in the morning and involve drivers who are alone in their vehicles.

Roads can deteriorate enough to become dangerous, with potholes particularly concerning. Potholes can cause damage to the car’s shock absorbers and suspension, with large ones being severe enough to make you lose control of the car.

Poor road conditions make tire blowouts more likely as well. Even at a moderate speed, blowing out a tire may cause you to lose control and damage your car.

In a location like New Brunswick, which sees significant amounts of snow every year, having the right tires and paying attention to the rules of the road during adverse weather conditions is vital. Ice and snow reduce vehicle maneuverability and pavement friction, increasing the risk of getting into a car accident.

Each year around the country, 24% of weather-related accidents occur on snowy, slushy, or icy pavement. Wind is also a concern, especially on highways, since it reduces vehicle control, decreases visibility, and puts you in danger of being hit by flying debris.