How Weather Conditions Affect Car Accident Lawsuits

When you suffer injuries in a car accident that you know wasn’t your fault, you may believe you have an easily proven case and will win your financial claim. However, there is one more step that our St. Paul car accident lawyers have to complete to help you win your claim – proving that the other driver was at fault. Occasionally, a car accident could occur where neither party was at fault, which would leave your personal injury lawsuit in jeopardy. The impact of weather on a car accident may make fault difficult to assign.

Learn more about weather-related car accident claims and how our attorneys will attempt to maximize your financial award for your medical costs, lost wages, pain, and suffering.

Situations Where Weather Is the Primary Factor in Causing an Injury Car Crash

Although the driver who hit you – and the driver’s insurance company – might try to blame weather for the accident and your injuries, the weather’s impact on a car accident lawsuit is usually up for debate. Very few situations exist where the weather is the only contributing factor, but that doesn’t stop insurance companies from trying to put extra blame on the weather and remove fault from their clients.

Excessive Winds

When a sudden wind storm appears, it could blow a high-profile vehicle or a truck into your lane, causing a sideswipe accident. It would be almost impossible for the other driver to anticipate a sudden gust of wind strong enough to knock the vehicle out of its lane and into your lane.

Icy Roads and Winter Conditions

If you’re driving during cold weather or a winter storm, another driver could unexpectedly hit a patch of ice and lose control, hitting your car. As long as the other driver was not going too fast for the weather conditions and the icy spot was not predictable, the weather might be considered the primary cause.

You could have a similar situation where snow piled up underneath an overpass during an earlier storm and suddenly dropped onto the windshield of the other driver’s car. This could cause the driver to lose control and hit you. It might be tough to place blame on the other driver because no one could have anticipated the sudden appearance of snow.

Some Weather-Related Car Accidents May Be the Fault of the Other Driver, Even in Poor Weather

A weather-impacted car accident lawsuit doesn’t mean that you have to give up trying to win a financial settlement for your injuries. Even when the weather played a role in the crash, the other driver must still operate the motor vehicle as safely as possible. In poor weather, the expectations for driving safely change, forcing all drivers to be more attentive to their surroundings and to their choices behind the wheel.

Our attorneys will look for evidence from the accident that show the other driver was behaving negligently and caused the crash by not adjusting their driving behavior to match the weather conditions.

Going Too Fast for the Weather Conditions

A common situation when trying to win a weather-impacted car accident lawsuit is when the other driver was going too fast for the weather conditions. During times of rain or snow in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the roads become slick. Drivers must slow down – often going below the posted speed limit – to give themselves more time to stop or to react to obstacles ahead on the slick roads.

A driver who is going too fast in this weather has a higher chance of causing an accident. Because this is general knowledge, especially in the Upper Midwest where driving in winter conditions occurs more frequently than in other areas of the United States, failing to slow down in poor weather could be considered negligent behavior. When our attorneys can find facts that show the other driver was behaving unsafely before hitting you and causing your injuries, this gives us a better chance to win your personal injury lawsuit.

Failing to Remove Rain and Snow From the Windshield

When another driver has worn windshield wipers, it can be difficult to see the road ahead in the middle of a thunderstorm. If this problem causes the other driver to hit you in a rear-end collision accident because the driver did not see that you had stopped at an intersection, failing to repair the wipers could be considered negligent behavior.

Some drivers in Wisconsin and Minnesota don’t clear all the snow off their cars before driving after a winter storm. If the snow flies off the hood and obscures the vision of the driver for even a second, this driver could hit your car, leaving you with injuries. Failing to remove the snow could be a negligent act that helps you win your injury lawsuit.

Taking Note of the Weather Conditions During the Accident

When you are speaking to your attorneys about the injury accident, be sure to mention the weather conditions. If the other driver’s insurance company might attempt to reduce its driver’s level of responsibility by blaming the weather, it’s helpful for your attorneys to have research at their fingertips about the weather conditions during the crash. Your lawyers can focus the investigation on why the other driver did not take the weather into account when going too fast or failing to prepare his or her vehicle for the conditions.

The police officers investigating the crash may make note of the weather on the accident report. If you believe the accident report is inaccurate regarding the weather and road conditions, tell your attorneys immediately.

Our Team at Tyroler Leonard Injury Law Has the Experience to Help With Your Weather-Impact Car Accident Lawsuit

After a car accident that wasn’t your fault and where you suffered injuries, you might hear from the insurance company representing the other driver. Although you might expect the insurer to immediately start discussing a financial settlement for your injuries, the insurance company might instead tell you that you won’t be eligible for any settlement amount because this is a weather-related car accident claim. In other words, the insurer might say that its driver is not liable for your injuries because the weather caused the crash.

As an injury victim, you do not have to simply accept this finding from the insurer. You have the right to present your own evidence that shows weather was not the primary cause of the accident. When you hire our Minneapolis car accident attorneys, we will do an investigation for you and look for facts that show the other driver was primarily at fault, giving you the best chance at winning a financial award. For a free consultation about your case involving weather-related car accident claims, call Tyroler Leonard Injury Law today at (651) 259-1113.

Attorney Isaac Tyroler

Attorney Isaac Tyroler has been a strong advocate for injured people his entire legal career. He has a passion for righting wrongs, and he deeply cares about representing injured clients who may feel overwhelmed or uncertain about how to navigate the legal system. He is compassionate toward clients and aggressive with insurance companies and defendants. He is on the elected Board of Governors of the Minnesota Association of Justice (MAJ), the top personal injury lawyers’ group in Minnesota. And is currently the chair of MAJ’s legislative committee. [ Attorney Bio ]