It is not always easy to determine the cause of a collision involving two or more vehicles. That can make it challenging for those injured to get the compensation they deserve and need.
The following lines of investigation might be worth following up if you cannot see any one obvious reason for what occurred.
1. Checking another driver’s sleep pattern
A lot of crashes occur because someone is overcome by tiredness. They might keep their eyes open the whole time but drift off mentally or they might lose the battle and have their eyes close momentarily. You might not be able to tell this immediately after the crash, as if the crash may have woken them up fully. Doing some investigation might show they worked the night shift, have a newborn who may have kept them awake or some other indicator that drowsiness might be to blame.
2. Accessing phone records
A driver who was using their phone might delete the activity from their phone. It is sometimes possible to ask a court to give you access to another driver’s phone records as the activity will still show there. This might show that the driver was engaged in a call (even a handsfree one is distracting), or sent a message around the time the crash occurred.
3. Vehicle records
A vehicle may get completely mangled in a crash, making it difficult to spot any defects that were there before the crash and may have contributed to it. A vehicle history report or maintenance records from garages or dealerships might contain evidence of mechanical issues that could help to explain why the crash occurred.
Many things could be behind a crash. Having guidance from someone as to which options to explore and how to go about it may mean the difference between getting adequate compensation or not.
