An accident that killed a San Jose man driving on Highway 17 in Los Gatos Monday morning provides an example of a type of Bay Area car accident rarely considered by most drivers. During the car accident, the driver attempted a sudden lane change to pass a pickup truck. The driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a signpost in the center median area. The vehicle then crossed several lanes of traffic colliding with another vehicle and a concrete barrier. While the cause of the fatal Bay Area car accident is still under investigation, observers reported that the vehicle was moving erratically prior to the crash veering across lanes of traffic. The possibility that the driver had some sort of medical emergency prior to losing control of the vehicle is under investigation.
Many presume that a medical emergency or health related condition while driving is not the type of situation that may give rise to a car accident claim based on negligence. However, there are many situations where a physical infirmity that interferes with the safe operation of a motor vehicle may be the basis for a car accident lawsuit based on negligence in San Francisco or throughout the Bay Area.
When a medical condition is blamed for being the cause of a motor vehicle collision, this does not end the inquiry into whether the driver that suffered the attack was negligent. The issue generally becomes one of foreseeability. If a driver is prone to epileptic seizures, for example, the driver may have a reasonable basis to anticipate that it is not safe to drive. Cases involving alleged sudden medical emergencies that interfere with driving ability will typically turn on a careful analysis of the facts and circumstances involved in the collision.
Critical questions may include the following:
- Was the driver subject to similar prior sudden medical emergencies based on a known medical condition?
- How frequent and recent was any prior medical emergency of this nature?
- What measures were taken by the driver to prevent such unanticipated medical problems?
The analysis will turn on the degree to which the medical emergency was foreseeable based on factors such as these. It is not nearly as uncommon as you might think for a negligent driver to raise a defense based on an unforeseeable medical emergency. When this defense is raised, a review of medical records for the defendant and disclosures made regarding the medical condition when seeking one’s driver’s license is appropriate.
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If you are involved in a car accident in San Francisco, your life can change in the blink of an eye. If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a defective braking device accident, you should contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply. Our San Francisco car accident lawyers invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation. We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits. We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.