As personal injury lawyers we spend a lot of time asking questions about why things happen. I call them collisions usually because that’s what they are. We’ve spent time investigating, talking to witnesses, and looking at evidence. We will take depositions of the people involved and witnesses. Defendants will come in angry, scared, or sometimes just ready to talk. All understandable reposes, because they got sued. Unfortunately, in Minnesota we still have to sue the person, despite the insurance company really calling the shots.
What we rarely can get information on is the real background reason why things happened. It’s odd to sit there and know the defendant just ran into a stopped car, went through a stoplight, or suddenly lost control of their car, but not have the answer to whys. If you think about it, the defendants has gone through 1000’s of intersections and never had a problem. Why was that day different?
Studies have suggested that there may be accident prone people. There is also stress which can cause people to not be paying attention. This is on top of loud radios, talking on cell phones, texting, rowdy kids, speeding, and drinking causes.
It will take quick investigation to get some of this information. But, reality is that it’s probably not ever going to be found in most cases, which for society is too bad, because if the background of whys was disclosed more often, it’s possible that future drivers would learn from this. That’s the greatest benefit of having an affective tort system.
