Tampa Failure to Yield Accident Lawyer
According to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department’s 2019 report on traffic crash facts, failure to yield the right-of-way caused 158,688 crashes that year. Out of that total, 428 were fatal accidents, and 3,518 caused incapacitating injuries. Out of the 21 different accident causes listed, failure to yield was the number two reason for a crash, after the generic “operated the motor vehicle in a careless or negligent manner.”
Failure to yield is a top cause of traffic injuries and deaths in Tampa and throughout Florida statewide, often including catastrophic T-bone collisions and other deadly crashes. The Tampa failure to yield accident lawyers at Anderson & Anderson are practiced in all manner of car accident cases, helping accident victims for decades recover compensation after getting hurt because of another driver’s negligent or reckless behavior. If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident because the other driver failed to yield when required, contact our office for a free consultation to discuss your claims.
How Do Failure to Yield Accidents Happen?
Failure to yield can crop up and cause an accident just about anywhere along the road. The main places where these accidents occur are:
- Intersections where one driver has a stop sign and the other doesn’t
- Four-way stop intersections where the drivers are confused over who has the right-of-way
- Cars entering a state highway from a side road
- Cars entering a city street from a parking lot, driveway or alleyway
It is not enough to just stop at a stop sign and then move forward. The driver with the stop sign is required to stop and stay stopped until the coast is clear; to yield the right-of-way to any other cars in the intersection or almost to the intersection. Similarly, drivers approaching an intersection with a yield sign may have to do more than just yield; if necessary, they are required to stop and wait, not moving on until it is safe to do so. This includes yielding the right-of-way to motorcycles when they have it.
Drivers who fail to yield might be drunk or distracted and not notice they are approaching an intersection or other area where they must yield the right-of-way. They might be speeding and not be able to perceive and react in time to the need to yield. They might also be aggressive or recklessly trying to beat a signal light or vehicle approaching from another direction. These are all dangerous behaviors, and drivers who cause accidents this way can and should be held liable for the damage they cause.
How Do You Prove the Driver Was Negligent or at Fault?
Car accidents are often complex physical events, and it can take a lot of investigation to determine how they happened if the facts are disputed by the drivers or in the case of a fatal accident. Proving that a driver caused the accident by a failure to yield might rely on eyewitness accounts, security cameras, or the many traffic cameras (red light cameras) dotting Tampa intersections. Tire marks and other physical evidence might also point to the failure to yield; such evidence might be gathered by the investigating police office or a private investigator.
If it is proven the driver violated a traffic law by failing to yield, this fact can help establish the driver’s fault in causing the accident. When a person violates a safety law and causes the type of harm the law was enacted to prevent, that person can be considered “negligent per se” without having to produce other evidence of their fault. Proving a failure to yield is powerful evidence establishing the driver’s liability to the injured victim.
What if Both Drivers Are Negligent?
As mentioned earlier, car accidents can be complex events. Sometimes a driver’s failure to yield is a contributing factor to a car accident, but the other driver’s negligence – speeding, distracted driving – can be a factor as well. In these situations, injury victims who are considered partly to blame can still recover compensation from the other drivers, but the amount they get will be reduced in proportion to their share of the blame. Having an experienced car accident attorney on your side to litigate complicated issues such as comparative fault can be critical to receiving the full value for your claim in a settlement with the insurance company or a jury verdict after a trial.
Help Is Here After a Failure to Yield Car Accident in Tampa
Anderson & Anderson is one of the longest-running personal injury law firms in Tampa and central Florida. We know how to investigate failure to yield accidents and hold the responsible parties accountable for their negligence. if you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident in Tampa, call our office at 813-251-0072 for a free consultation.
