Assessing Liability for Accidents in Winter Driving Conditions
I'm Griff Tonkin. I'm a partner here at the Arthofer and Tonkin Law Offices. We're a personal injury litigation firm.
All we do is represent people who've been injured through the fault of someone else. Today, I want to take the opportunity to talk to you about winter driving conditions on the road and how we might assess and determine liability for an accident that happens in those kinds of conditions. I'm talking to you in December of 2024.
So, the weather is getting cold here in Northern California, and we're going to have winter driving conditions very soon on our roadways, even down here in the valley, but certainly surrounding us in the mountains. Now, winter driving conditions are anything from rain to snow to ice. It's very important when you're driving in these conditions that you give yourself extra space between the other vehicles on the roadway.
Your vehicle mechanically can't slow down as quickly as it does in dry conditions. The tires don't grip the road as well, and the brakes don't grip the brake rotors as well. So, wet conditions are going to cause you to need more time to slow down.
So, drive a little slower, give yourself a little more space between the vehicles around you, and be very cautious about watching the roads and the temperature. We also get conditions called black ice around the Northern California area. So, a little snow, vehicles will drive over it.
It'll compact, it'll melt, and some of those areas on the curvy mountain roads never get sunshine in a day, or only get minimal sunshine. So, those areas never get heated up by the sun, and they don't melt. With repeated vehicle traffic, that snow gets crushed and compacted into ice, and then it becomes clear, and you can't distinguish that from the driving surface.
Even if you're driving below the speed limit, there's no friction which is necessary between your tires and the roadway. You can go sliding off the road, and be involved in even a single vehicle accident that can be quite terrible when the roadways are lined with rocks and trees. So, take the time to get there a little slower.
We'd rather have you arrive five minutes late than not arrive at all. Now, assessing liability in these winter driving conditions usually involves an analysis of the winter driving condition. The basic speed law here in California is found in California Vehicle Code Section 22350, and it says that motorists must drive at a safe speed, but it doesn't stop there.
It says a safe speed for conditions, and at all times below the posted speed limit. Well, those conditions depend on traffic, bicycle, pedestrian, vehicle traffic, depends on other accidents or delays that might be on the roadway, and it depends on weather. Is it dark? Is it foggy? Are the roadways slippery? Are they wet, icy, or snowy? So, don't think that just because you hit ice or snow that you couldn't see, that you might not be responsible for the accident.
You're bound under the law to drive at a safe speed for condition. There can be some unique analysis to take place in this case. Whatever government entity is in charge of maintaining that road does have an obligation to warn of conditions that it knows about, and to make safe conditions that it knows about.
So, if the county, or the state, or the city that owns the road knows that it regularly gets icy, or snowy, or that there's a lot of accidents in that area, they have to warn about that. So, if you're involved in an accident where weather conditions are at play, you're going to want to work with a law firm that has expertise in these sorts of cases. We've litigated them.
We've defended them. We've prosecuted them, and we have worked with the appropriate experts who are engineers, weather experts, vehicle experts, driving dynamic experts, over a number of years, so we understand these cases. We want to help you.
That's all we do here at the Arthofer and Tonkin Law Offices, is help people who've been hurt through the negligence of someone else. Our consultations about these sorts of cases are free. If you call our office, and it seems like a case that we can help with, we'll sit down and talk with you at no cost, and no obligation.
Call us today to learn more.
