T-bone accidents can be devastating collisions, destroying vehicles and upending lives. Determining who is at fault is especially crucial to evaluating your options for compensation in a state like Mississippi, where liability is assessed on the basis of pure comparative negligence. To learn more about what Mississippi’s accident liability rules may mean for your case, contact Lott Law Firm today by calling (228) 215-2787 to book a free personal consultation.
What Does “T-Bone Accident” Mean?
A T-bone accident is a type of two-vehicle collision in which the front end of one vehicle crashes into the side of another – forming a shape like the capital letter T. The relative sizes of the two vehicles will go some distance toward determining the height of the impact on the struck vehicle, a consideration which can have implications for the type of damage the struck vehicle sustains as well as for the safety of the driver and passengers. Other considerations that can also be important include where along the vehicle’s length the impact hits – a T-bone accident can strike the engine area (usually the vehicle’s front end, forward of the cab), anywhere along the cabin area (the interior spaces designed for occupation by a driver and any passengers), or at the rear (on most vehicles this would be primarily cargo space, such as the trunk of a passenger car or the bed of a pickup truck).
T-Bone Accidents and Property Damage
T-bone accidents can “total” either or both of the vehicles involved, a casual expression often used in discussing damages in car accident cases; the term refers to a situation in which the damage to a vehicle is either so great that it is impractical to attempt a repair, or damage so extensive that the cost of repairs would exceed the value of the (pre-accident) vehicle. Either scenario can have implications for insurance settlements, and insurance adjusters obviously have economic incentive to provide low estimates for both the cost of repairs and the expense of replacing a vehicle. If you are offered an insurance settlement that you suspect will not practically allow you to recover the full use of your own vehicle or to pay for an equivalent replacement, you may wish to consider speaking with a Mississippi car accident attorney with Lott Law Firm to discuss your options for negotiating an improved offer.
T-Bone Accidents and Bodily Injury
T-bone accidents are also a common cause of serious bodily injuries. Factors that can affect the nature and severity of T-bone accident injuries include:
- Relative size (mass) of the vehicles involved: When the “striking” vehicle (the one whose front end collides with another vehicle’s side) is much larger than the “struck” vehicle, that can increase both the likelihood of injury for occupants of the struck vehicle and the risk that their injuries may be severe. On the other hand, when the reverse is true – for instance, when a passenger car collides with the side of a truck – then the impact injuries sustained by the driver and anyone in the front passenger seat can be devastating, especially if the crash happens at a high speed of travel.
- Relative height of vehicles: Distinct from a measure of total size, sharp differences in vehicle height can make a difference in the kinds of injuries passengers in the struck vehicle are likely to sustain. Even if the two vehicles have a roughly similar mass, a difference in height can determine whether the impact occurs at eye-level for passengers or on a level with chest and torso.
- Speed of travel: The speed of the striking vehicle can be especially important in determining the severity of the crash; higher speeds generally correlate with more property damage and a higher risk of injury to vehicle occupants. On the other hand, if the struck vehicle is also traveling rapidly, the collision can sometimes cause a “tearaway” effect, as the striking vehicle shears down the side of a motor vehicle that is traveling rapidly in a perpendicular direction.
- Location of passengers: Each vehicle will have at least one occupant as the driver. The risk to additional occupants will depend on whether there is anyone in the front passenger seat of the striking vehicle, and whether anyone is seated on the same side of the struck vehicle as the point of impact.
Sometimes additional factors, such as surrounding traffic or secondary impacts on physical objects in the vicinity of the crash, can also contribute to injuries resulting from a T-bone accident.
Who Is Usually at Fault in a T-Bone Accident?
How fault is apportioned after a T-bone accident in Mississippi can depend on a few factors. One of the biggest of these is whether either party broke the law. If the T-bone accident was caused by one party running a stop sign or a red light, for instance, then the driver who failed to obey the posted signage may be held to be at fault, no matter which vehicle ultimately crashed into the other.
While running a red light or sailing past a stop sign are classic causes of T-bone accidents, these front end collisions can also happen in a number of other contexts. Cars exiting driveways or backing out of parking spaces can be at risk of being struck in T-bone collisions. All other things being equal, the driver who has the legal right of way is generally less likely to be considered “at fault” in a T-bone accident, but given the unpredictability of life and traffic, sometimes there can be factors involved in a particular accident that complicate the picture for determining T-bone accident liability, and potentially even bring additional parties into the conversation.
Mississippi T-Bone Accidents: Speeding
Speeding can contribute to T-bone accidents on Mississippi roads. Sometimes a careful review of the details from a car accident police report will reveal that the driver who struck another vehicle may have had the right of way, but they were exceeding the speed limit to such a degree that, even though the driver of the struck vehicle stopped, looked both ways, and otherwise complied with applicable traffic laws, he or she could not adequately account for the rapidity of the other vehicle’s approach.
In this situation, even though the speeding driver may technically have had the right of way, their failure to obey the rules of the road may have contributed to the T-bone accident. Depending on the difference between this driver’s actual speed and the legal limit at the location of the accident, as well as on how the other driver responded to traffic conditions, a driver who is found to have been speeding at the time of a T-bone accident may sometimes be held to be partly at fault for the accident, even if he or she legally had the right of way.
Mississippi T-Bone Accidents: Visibility
Another factor that can contribute to T-bone accidents is an obstructed view. These obstructed view scenarios can be particularly common for drivers who are pulling out of a parking lot or private driveway, or entering an intersection for which cross-traffic is not required to stop; the inability to see oncoming traffic clearly can put these drivers at particular risk of becoming the “struck” party in a T-bone accident. However, partially hidden driveways and side roads can also make it more difficult for drivers who normally have no obligation to stop to recognize the emergence of another vehicle and make necessary adjustments in time to prevent a collision. Obstructed view hazards can include:
- Improperly maintained landscaping (e.g., shrubberies planted too close to an intersection)
- Illegally or improperly parked vehicles (especially common in dense urban areas)
- Poorly placed signage (including posters, flyers, political signs, and of course, the signs intended to direct traffic)
- Low-hanging limbs (particularly common during summer months and after major weather events)
There can be numerous other causes of obstructed view hazards, but any obstruction of a driver’s view at the point where one roadway intersects with another can contribute to the risk of a T-bone accident. The crucial point for considerations of liability is that, when an obstructed view is determined to have been a contributing factor in a T-bone accident, then the party responsible for creating the obstructed view hazard may also be held partly at fault for the accident. Rarely would this party be either of the drivers; private property owners, municipalities, and highway departments could all potentially be held at fault for creating conditions in which a T-bone accident was virtually inevitable.
Legal Responsibility for T-Bone Accidents: Merging Into Traffic
Generally, when a driver is attempting to pull onto a roadway from a parking lot or private drive, it is the merging driver’s responsibility to look carefully before pulling out, and to make sure that their entry is a safe distance from oncoming vehicles. Usually meaning that any approaching cars or trucks are far enough away that, by the time they reach the point at which the merging vehicle has entered the roadway, that vehicle will already effectively have merged and accelerated to match the speed of traffic.
In an ideal scenario, this will mean that the drivers of approaching vehicles will not need to apply their brakes or change lanes in order to avoid a rear-end collision (if the merging vehicle has already entered the roadway and executed a turn, either left or right), or a T-bone collision (if the approaching vehicle arrives while the merging vehicle is pulling into the lane of travel). Of note, however, law enforcement officers at the scene of an accident may assess fault somewhat differently for a rear-end collision vs. a T-bone accident, even when merging into traffic is the event that precipitates the accident in each case.
Legal Responsibility for T-Bone Accidents: Navigating Two-Way Stops
Broadly similar rules apply when one vehicle is approaching the stop sign at a two-way stop. This is the type of intersection in which two roads cross each other, usually at perpendicular (90º) angles, and traffic traveling along one of these roads in either direction has a stop sign, while traffic traveling on the other road – again in either direction – has no stop sign and instead enjoys the right-of-way. After stopping as required by the signage, a driver wishing to cross this roadway or turn onto it will need to look both ways and, like a driver merging into traffic from a private drive, carefully gauge the speed and distance of any oncoming vehicles. If the driver wishes to make a right-hand turn to merge into traffic moving perpendicular to their own vehicle’s current direction of travel, a similar set of considerations involving time to acceleration may also apply. If the driver wishes to cross the roadway to continue traveling in the same direction as their initial approach, or to make a left-hand turn, either can present increased exposure to the risk of a T-bone accident.
In each of these situations, the onus of watching for traffic and yielding to other vehicles falls primarily on the driver wanting to cross the road or turn and merge. However, drivers whose direction of travel would normally give them the right of way are generally expected to remain alert at the wheel in case another driver miscalculates or their vehicle unexpectedly stalls, and not to complicate matters by flouting the rules of the road themselves – for instance, by speeding. An obstructed view hazard that prevents the driver with a stop from clearly seeing oncoming traffic, and potentially prevents an approaching driver from making timely adjustments in response, can also sometimes complicate the question of fault in a T-bone accident by introducing a variable neither driver is fully able to account for.
Pure Comparative Fault and T-Bone Accident Liability
Most states today apply some version of the “comparative fault” doctrine to tort cases based on negligence (thus, the standard is also sometimes called “comparative fault”). Comparative fault is the legal alternative to contributory negligence, a legal framework under which plaintiffs are not considered to be entitled to compensation if their own negligence contributed to the cause or the extent of their damages. American jurisprudence has largely moved away from the strictures of this model, acknowledging instead that just because one person does not take every precaution flawlessly does not necessarily mean they should be prohibited from seeking compensation for the harms they suffer in an accident that is overwhelmingly caused by someone else’s carelessness. As a result, comparative fault – which allows plaintiffs to recover damages for the portion of their damages not attributable to their own lapses – is the norm throughout most of the United States.
Modified vs. Pure Comparative Negligence
Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute (LII) explains that the states that apply some form of the comparative negligence principle can be further divided into two groups: those that use a standard of “pure” comparative fault, and those that apportion liability via a metric of “modified” comparative fault. Under modified comparative fault rules, plaintiffs may only recover damages if they do not bear the primary responsibility for their own accident (and its consequences). Depending on how the statutes in a particular state are written, this may mean a “cutoff” point at a 50% share of the responsibility, or a slightly more plaintiff-advantageous 51% requirement.
Pure Comparative Fault and Recovery of Compensation in Mississippi T-Bone Accidents
Mississippi is one of the few states that determines a plaintiff’s right to compensation on a “pure” comparative negligence basis. Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-15 specifies that contributory negligence “shall not bar” plaintiffs from seeking damages in court in a personal injury case. However, the same statute also goes on to establish that damages awarded in such a case should be reduced in proportion to the plaintiff’s share of responsibility.
This requirement is generally also shared by the states that apply a “modified” standard in assessing comparative fault, but in Mississippi, it is theoretically possible for a plaintiff who holds 80% of the responsibility for his or her own damages to still recover compensation for the 20% attributable to another party’s negligence. Mississippi’s application of the pure comparative negligence rule means that individuals injured in Mississippi T-bone accidents can theoretically pursue compensation in court, even if they were primarily responsible for their own injuries.
Speak to a Mississippi Car Accident Lawyer
If you have recently been injured in a T-bone accident, investigating thoroughly to develop a clear picture of all the factors determining responsibility is an important step toward assessing your potential right to compensation. The legal considerations that can go into a determination of car accident liability are often complex, so you may want to go over the circumstances of your accident with the assistance of an experienced Mississippi personal injury lawyer. Contact Lott Law Firm today to schedule a free initial consultation. You can reach us by calling (228) 215-2787.
