A 36-year-old woman had to be extracted from her car through the passenger door after a two car collision in Billings’ South Side on November 27. Police say another Billings woman will probably be cited for failing to yield the right of way after crashing her Isuzu SUV into the driver’s side of a Chevrolet Monte Carlo at the intersection of South 33rd Street and Fourth Avenue South.

The auto accident crushed the Monte Carlo into a light pole at the corner of the intersection and responders had to physically push the car away from the pole in order to attend to the driver. The driver of the Chevrolet appeared not to have suffered any serious injuries, but she was taken to the hospital as a precaution. An accident investigation is underway and the full extent of the driver’s injuries remains to be seen.

Unfortunately, even though multi-vehicle accidents are often the fault of a careless driver, injured accident victims frequently face a challenge securing fair compensation from insurance companies. Insurance companies know that Montana law operates under the principle of contributory negligence. The liability of a negligent driver will be reduced if a court determines that some degree of negligence on the part of the victim contributed to causing an accident.

Even when authorities cite a driver for violating traffic laws, insurance companies often seek to assign some measure of blame to the victim of an accident. Because insurance companies actively look for opportunities to shift blame, a thorough and accurate accident investigation can play a critical role in a victim’s opportunity to get fair damages from an at-fault driver. An experienced personal injury attorney can help make certain that flawed conclusions from an accident investigation do not stand in the way of helping injured victims get the compensation they deserve.

Source: Billings Gazette, “Driver injured in 2-vehicle accident on South Side,” Nov. 27, 2012