Bakersfield Distracted Driving Accidents

Bakersfield is the ninth-most populated city in California and has a total area of about 144 square miles. I-5, Highway 99, Highway 178, and Highway 58 East are some of the most traveled roads that pass through the area. Distracted driving is dangerous, causing serious injuries and deaths to many people in Southern California. This includes all activities that divert a driver's attention away from what is happening on the road and operating the vehicle. It can include texting, talking on your phone, restraining a pet, eating, drinking, or adjusting the radio or a GPS navigator. If you are injured by a distracted driver, you should call the Bakersfield distracted driving accident lawyers at Sharifi Firm, PLC.

Drivers cannot operate their vehicles safely if the activity of driving does not have their full attention. Anything other than driving that a driver does can present a distraction that increases the risk of injuries. One of the most dangerous distractions is texting, which on average takes a driver's attention away from the road for five seconds, or about the length of a football field with eyes closed while driving down the freeway.

Distracted driving often results in accidents that produce serious injuries or even death. If you were injured or a loved one was killed by a distracted driver, a distracted driving accident attorney in Bakersfield can help you sue for damages. In most cases, we will need to establish the other driver's negligence. This means that the driver owed you a duty that was breached, and the breach caused actual damages. In most cases, failing to pay attention to the road in order to pay attention to something besides driving is a breach of the duty that every driver in California has toward others on the road — to use reasonable care.

How can you establish this breach of care? Sometimes you might have personally seen that a driver was doing something else in the car like eating a sandwich or talking on the phone. In other cases, there may be other drivers or pedestrians who witnessed what the other driver was doing before the collision. The importance of securing witnesses after a car accident cannot be overstated. Our Bakersfield distracted driving accident attorneys can help you handle this process.

Often, the other driver will claim comparative negligence. This is a doctrine that states that a plaintiff's damages will be reduced by an amount proportionate to their percentage of fault. The jury will evaluate arguments and evidence from both sides and assign each party a percentage of fault for the distracted driving accident. If, for example, the damages are $100,000, and the jury believes that the other driver is 70% at fault, while you are 30% at fault, you will be able to recover $70,000 from the other driver.

In some instances, there are multiple distracted drivers on the road in Bakersfield whose collective failure to use reasonable care causes an accident. The jury can apportion a percentage of fault to each driver who is found to be negligent. Defendants who are found to be joint and several tortfeasors can be held liable to the same person for an indivisible, single harm. Joint and severally liable defendants may be entitled to recover from one another a percentage of the damages that are attributed to the conduct of others in a contribution action. California defendants can be jointly and severally liable for economic damages, but each defendant is only severally liable for noneconomic damages. In other words, a defendant who has just 10% of the fault for an accident can be responsible for 100% of the economic damages, but they will only be responsible for 10% of the noneconomic damages.

If you are injured or a loved one is killed due to a distracted driving accident, you should contact an experienced attorney so that you can pursue full compensation. At Sharifi Firm, PLC, our attorneys provide knowledgeable legal representation. Contact us at (866) 422-7222 or complete our online form for a free consultation.