Tom McCutcheon – Attorney at Law
As most of you know, I primarily handle car wreck cases. We only handle accidents with injury and we do see a lot of them. Most of them that we see have common issues.
A type of wreck that we see with more frequency than we should are courtesy wrecks. A courtesy wreck occurs when one motorist allows another motorist through a line of traffic as a courtesy and a wreck occurs as a result. Sometimes these wrecks occur when another motorist signals by hand gesture that the roadway is clear. The courts of our State have held that a motorist’s hand signal to another motorist to proceed does not absolve the signaled motorist of their duty under Alabama law to ensure that it is safe to travel across an intersection and to yield to oncoming traffic.
Secondly, we see rear-end collisions. Everybody knows or thinks that they know that if a driver hits someone from the rear, it is automatically their fault. I don’t think that is true. I think there are circumstances where someone who makes a very abrupt stop unexpectedly could cause an accident. The person who got hit would not have caused it but they may have contributed to it and in Alabama that is enough to lose. Nonetheless, the law is the driver of a vehicle shall leave a distance of at least 20 feet for each 10 miles per hour of speed between the vehicle that he is driving and the vehicle they are following. The interesting point about this particular rule is that if it is broken and a collision results, the law finds negligence as a matter of law. I want each of you to do me a favor and please leave enough distance between the front of your car and the rear of the car in front of you to see the rear tires of the car in front of you. We see people all the time who get hit from the rear and then are slammed into the car in front of them. This secondary blow often causes significant injury.
Third, we see yield sign wrecks where drivers are in a lane that is controlled by a yield sign. The driver’s attention is divided between the car in front of them and the traffic they are merging in to. Very frequently the car in front starts to go and then stops. The driver behind them thinks they have gone and it looks clear to merge and they drive right into the back of the car in front of them. This happens all the time where Savannah Highway merges into Mitchell Blvd. to cross O’Neal Bridge. I have had at least half a dozen cases from that one intersection.
Personal injury attorneys are here to make people responsible for the harm they cause and to prevent harm in the future. When I say buckle up and drive safely, I mean it. Be safe.
McCutcheon & Hamner, P.C.
2210 Helton Drive
Florence, Alabama 35630
Telephone: 256-764-0112
Facsimile: 256-349-2529
