Teenagers Who Hit You: What to Do
A car collision may result in injuries, high medical costs, and a prolonged recovery. Teenage drivers may provide complicated liability and compensation difficulties in the event of an accident. You can claim against the adolescent driver’s parents’ insurance provider to pay your accident-related costs if they are a juvenile and responsible for the collision.
Parents or legal guardians who signed a teen driver’s licence or other papers may still be held responsible for an accident even if the youngster has their own auto insurance coverage. A Fort Wayne auto accident lawyer can investigate the collision to determine how much responsibility should be shared between the parents of the adolescent driver and themselves.
Examining a Car Crash Involving a Teen Driver
Your attorney will hunt for evidence to support the juvenile driver’s liability when they examine the collision. The following actions could be taken throughout their investigation:
Collecting accident evidence:
Using pictures of the skid marks, the wreckage from the involved automobiles, and the guardrail damage, a lawyer can determine culpability. Additionally, video from mobile devices, security cameras, and traffic cameras may be used to prove responsibility.
Look at your phone’s logs:
Teen drivers cause more deadly crashes when distracted while driving than any other age group. It may be possible to determine whether a distracted teen driver struck you or a loved one by looking at their phone data.
Take a look at the police report:
If there was a police officer present, they needed to have written a police record. Your lawyer can read over the police record to evaluate liability and create your case. Information on the accident’s timing, date, location, and weather can be found in the police report.
A graphic of the accident is also included, witness accounts, the police officer’s assessment of who is to blame, and witness comments.
Getting Compensation for Damages After a Teen Driver Accident
Insurance claim that is uninsured or underinsured:
You can submit an uninsured/underinsured insurance claim to your insurance carrier if a teen driver only has minimal auto insurance coverage or none at all. If your damages exceed the teen driver’s insurance policy limits, you may make this kind of claim.
Third-party liability claim:
Dram shop rules in the state allow for third-party liability claims against vendors that serve alcohol to young drivers. Social hosts may be held accountable for supplying underage drivers, and in rare circumstances, employers may also be held responsible for the deeds of their adolescent drivers.