This image shows what happens if you are involved in a car accident and your front airbag deploys with your feet on the dash. Ouch! The result is ugly: two femoral hip fractures which are serious and painful and will require surgery to repair followed by a 4 to 6 month recovery period. The owner’s manual of every vehicle with airbags warns of this danger. Assuming the accident was the fault of someone else, can you still recover compensation for your injuries in such an accident if you failed to heed the airbag warnings and that failure caused your injuries in the accident to be worse?
The short answer is it depends upon the type of case. Let us explain. If you are involved in an accident caused by someone else and you are making a claim against the at-fault driver (a negligence claim), you can still recover compensation for all your injuries including the broken hips caused when the airbag deployed with your feet on the dashboard. However, if you were involved in an accident and you are pursuing a claim against the manufacturer of the vehicle in which you were a passenger (a product liability claim), the fact that you ignored the warnings in the owner’s manual not to put your feet on the dashboard in case of an airbag deployment will almost certainly be fatal to your claim.
This distinction between the type of case is also true in the context of seatbelts. While Tennessee law requires you to wear a seatbelt, the fact that you were not wearing one at the time of an accident does not prohibit you from pursuing a claim. Furthermore, the fact that you were not wearing a seatbelt is not admissible even if the at-fault party can prove the lack of a seatbelt caused your injuries to be worse. Again, this changes if you are pursuing a product liability claim against the car manufacturer. In such a situation, you would be claiming the vehicle was defective and you were hurt as a result of the defect. In turn, the car manufacturer would be entitled to show that you were not using the vehicle as designed, i. e., by wearing a seatbelt.
Likewise, many people assume the police report is admissible in a car wreck case. It is not except for very limited circumstances. The simple reason is this: the police officer who wrote the report most likely did not witness the wreck so a lot of the information comes from witnesses, which means it is typically hearsay, unless it meets an exception. A police officer can testify as to any measurements he or she took, any photographs that were taken by the officer, and other actions taken by them personally, but the report as a whole will not come into evidence. All too often, our office finds mistakes in police reports, some innocuous and others more serious. We are not being critical of the officers. They have a hard job and everyone makes mistakes. However, many people are concerned about their ability to seek compensation for their injuries after an accident because the police report is wrong. This is not an insurmountable obstacle if you have an experienced injury attorney on your side.
In short, our award-winning lawyers can help you thoroughly understand the strengths and weaknesses of your case including what evidence will likely be admissible. So if you have questions, we can provide answers in a free, no-obligation consultation. If we think we can help and you decide to hire us, our experienced team handles all accident cases on a contingency basis so we only get paid if we win. Call us at one of our three Middle Tennessee locations:
Nashville: 615-669-3993
Murfreesboro: 615-867-9900
Brentwood: 615-742-4880
Toll-Free: 866-812-8787