I was involved in a 5 car accident on a busy bridge in Connecticut. I was car number 5. The initial car wreck involved 2 cars, car 2 smashed into car 1 after car 1 came to an abrupt stop. This was immediately followed by a second wreck when car 3 smashed into the back of car 2.
Car 4 and car 5 (me) both tried to avoid the accidents and hitting into car 3 by breaking and using evasive steering. I was able to pull off onto the shoulder but as I did car 4 which was in front of me also tried to do the same to avoid car 3 which caused me to crash the front left of my car into the back right of car 4. This resulted in an accident between us, cars 4 and 5.
Due to the nature of the accidents, is it safe to assume car 2 would be held responsible for the resulting accidents for initiating the resulting collisions? Or would i still be held to blame for hitting car 4 even though there was nowhere physically left for me to go in order to try to avoid the car accidents that played out before my eyes.
I had no other options as there was only the shoulder, which i swerved to, and then the edge of the actual bridge.
Sorry for any confusion, please let me know if any clarification is needed and thank you in advance for any advice or thoughts on the situation
5 car accident on connecticut bridge
byu/everydayithrowaway1 inInsurance
Posted by everydayithrowaway1
2 Comments
You’re likely going to be at fault for hitting the car in front of you. You needed to leave enough space to stop in case of this exact incident.
Solely based on what you wrote here, I would split this up into “sub-accidents” within the overall accident.
Car 2 hits car 1- car 2 is 100% liable for that .
Car 3 hits car 2- car 3 is only liable for the back of car 2.
probably you are liable for car 5 since it sounds like they’re in front of you and you hit their rear- maybe slight liability on car 5 if both of you were changing lanes at the same time.
Seems like no one is at fault for the entire accident.