Night Driving Accidents

When driving at night, all drivers should use more care and vigilance to avoid getting into an accident. Since it is harder to see, drivers need to take care to make sure that their lights are working, and they must drive more slowly on windy roads or where there is less visibility. Failing to take these precautionary measures may constitute negligence. To establish negligence, you will need to show that the defendant owed you a duty of care, the defendant breached this duty of care, the breach caused your injuries, and you suffered actual damages.

For example, if the other driver was speeding on a road that was poorly lit, the jury may take this as a failure to use reasonable care under the circumstances. Similarly, if the defendant took a turn too quickly on a road that was not lit, they may have caused a head-on collision with you. The injuries may be substantial, and for most people, the only way to pay for the medical care and therapy costs is by bringing suit against the responsible parties.

If you lose a family member to a night driving accident caused by someone else, you may be able to bring a wrongful death lawsuit. Each state has its own rules about which family members may bring a wrongful death lawsuit and what may be recovered. Nothing can bring back a loved one, but wrongful death lawsuits attempt to quantify losses so that the basic needs of the family are met in response to the tragedy. Generally, a close family member, such as a spouse, may recover for loss of love and companionship, loss of support, and funeral and burial expenses, and a child may recover for loss of guidance.

Defendants often claim comparative negligence. This means that they blame the plaintiff for the accident and try to prove that the plaintiff’s breach of the duty to use reasonable care caused their injuries. Under Tennessee law, the plaintiff’s recovery of damages is reduced by an amount proportionate to their degree of fault, if any, and if the jury finds that they were 50% or more at fault, they will be entirely barred from recovery.

When multiple parties are at fault for a night driving accident, the jury will assign each a percentage of fault, in addition to evaluating the plaintiff’s total damages. Each defendant is only responsible for an amount of damages equal to their degree of fault in Tennessee, but each state has its own rules related to joint and several liability. In a state that follows the rule of joint and several liability, for example, a plaintiff may recover their total damages from any one defendant that is found to be at fault, even to a small degree.