If you have been involved in a car accident in Massachusetts, you may be considering filing a personal injury claim to get justice and to claim damages. If you want to do this successfully, you will need to show that the other party acted in a negligent way that resulted in the damages that you suffered.
One of the common causes of negligent behavior and collisions is distracted driving. Distracted driving is a broad term to describe any type of behavior that causes the driver to take their attention off of the road. It’s common for distracted driving to occur in the form of texting or eating behind the wheel. But it is perhaps equally common for distracted driving to occur through less obvious behavior, for example, through rumination or through attending to upset children in the back of the car. If you believe that your car accident was caused by another person’s distracted driving, you must take steps to go about proving this.
Eyewitness statements
If you already have a suspicion that the other driver was partaking in an activity such as talking on the phone while behind the wheel, it will be useful to back up your claim by gaining eyewitness statements from others on the road. If multiple people saw this, it will add clout to your claim and increase your chances of being successful.
Gathering contextual evidence
It’s not possible to read a person’s mind, so it is difficult to prove that a person was engaging in rumination, daydreaming or was distracted because of mental illness. However, by gaining contextual evidence, it could be possible to prove that a driver was not in the right frame of mind to drive safely. For example, if it is found that the driver had been involved in an explosive argument that left them very upset before getting in the car and that their absentminded actions caused a crash, it could be possible to deduct from this that they were engaging in distracted driving.
If you want to gain back damages for medical expenses as well as for the pain and suffering that your car accident caused, take swift action to pursue a personal injury claim.