Expert: Richard Hixenbaugh - 4/23/2009

Question
I was the last car in a 3 car chain collision. The events that occurred are as follows;
I was traveling down a two way (one lane each side) road. The car in front of me was a comfortable distance ahead of me, as well the vehicle ahead of the vehicle in front of me.  I saw that there was a green light in the distance, when I begin to hear screeching of tires, but I didn’t see any break lights coming from the vehicle in front of me. All of a sudden I see the vehicle in front of me swerve a bit, and next I hear a smashing sound (like a collision) as I realized that the vehicle in front of me just hit the vehicle in front of it. I tried to swerve toward my right to avoid the vehicle in front of me, but no luck. The left lower end (just below my headlight) collided with the right lower end of the vehicle in front of me.
My question is, how much should I expect to be at fault? The vehicle in front of me had major damage to the front end, as that car did slam into the car ahead of it before I hit them. I’m still not sure what the first vehicle was doing, and that driver’s story is still unclear; but I’d like to know (in approximation of course) what I will be responsible for.
Thank you…  

Answer
Hi LaShell,

You will be considered to be 100% at fault for the damage to the rear of the car you hit. Anytime you hit someone in the rear you are at fault regardless of the reason. This is because you are required to always maintain a safe enough distance and speed to be able to control your car no matter what happens in front of you. If the car you hit then made a second impact with the car in front of him, you may also be responsible for some small percentage of the damage to the front of the car in front of you and the rear of the car in front of him. If there was no second impact, then you would not be responsible for those damages at all.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh