What does it mean to be negligent in an auto insurance accident when making an auto insurance claim?

Mallory

That’s an excellent question.

The word negligent is a term used in the legal sphere to speak of an action that was caused as result of carelessness on the part of the negligent driver. This is often used concerning people, as in a negligent parent is someone who does not watch their child well enough and the child runs out into the woods and is eaten by a bear. In driving, negligent is much the same in that one driver’s careless action causes damage to another person or someone else’s property. For example, say you are passing through an intersection that has stop signs. While you’re in the middle of the intersection, another vehicle drives up to the stop sign that is perpendicular to you, fails to see it, and keeps right on going, and then smashes into the middle of your vehicle. You would have no fault in an accident such as this, because the second driver was completely negligent and didn’t keep an eye out for stop signs and other drivers.

Even direct acts involving the driving itself are not the limits when it comes to the word negligent as it is used concerning auto insurance claims. For instance, say someone who thinks they are especially cool goes driving after dark while wearing dark sunglasses. This person would then have a much lower visibility and could easily miss something and cause an accident. They would be considered negligent, and thus, at fault, because their silliness in wearing the glasses lowered their ability to drive responsibly and thus indirectly caused an auto accident.

Negligence is usually what is used to figure out who is the one who is at fault in a car accident and auto insurance claim, and it isn’t until negligence (or the occasional purposeful act) is found out that someone can be considered the at fault driver. If the other driver in your car accident is found to have acted carelessly, that is, to have been negligent, then they are responsible for any trouble they have caused you. Thi can extend from injuries and damages to your vehicle to anguish that you have suffered from the collision.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.