The San Bernardino Sun reported in September of 2017 that five people were injured in a street racing incident involving two vehicles colliding. According to police, the accident happened when a vehicle traveling eastbound on Second Street broadsided a vehicle traveling southbound. The second vehicle was traveling along the 215 freeway around 8:30 p.m. The woman in the second vehicle, the one exiting the freeway, was critically injured.
Police claim that the first car traveling eastbound was racing another vehicle at the time of the accident. A total of five victims were treated at area hospitals following the crash. It was not indicated in the report if the other people injured were involved in the street racing.
The report did not indicate if the woman who was critically injured in the crash would file a personal injury claim in California court. Speed racing is against the law. A driver racing another driver in San Bernardino is breaking a traffic law. For this reason, the accident victim mentioned above may be able to sue using a more specific form of negligence to bolster the lawsuit.
Pure Negligence and Negligence Per Se in San Bernardino are Different Forms of Wrongdoing
General, or pure, negligence occurs when a person fails to act as a reasonable person would in the same and/or similar circumstances. For instance, a reasonable driver would not have raced another driver while operating a motor vehicle in California. A negligent driver fails to act as another driver would have in the same situation when he or she races another vehicle and causes a crash.
However, negligence per se maybe separately invoked when a driver being at fault for a car accident violates a traffic law.
Proving Negligence Per Se in a San Bernardino Car Accident10
According to California law, a driver is liable under negligence per se if he or she:
- Violated a traffic law, ordinance, or statute in California
- The violation of the traffic law was the proximate cause of the accident victim’s injury, death or damage to property
- The death or injury happened because the driver violated a statute designed to protect the accident victim from the exact harm
- The accident victim was in the protected class the statute was enacted to protect from harm
Contact Sanford A. Kassel, A Professional Law Corportaion About Your San Bernardino Negligence Claim
You were involved in an accident in which a driver broke a traffic law or statute. You may have a slam dunk case, but that does not mean you do not have to fight. You still have to prove that negligence per se was the reason why you were injured. That is where we come in. We will represent you and help you gain the copmensation you deserve after an accident. Contact us.
