Determining Fault by the Location of Damage


You can prove who is at fault for a car accident in Nevada by assessing the location of the damage to your vehicle.

If you have experienced property damage and severe injuries due to someone else’s negligence in an auto accident, you can fight back against claims that you were at fault. You will need a personal injury lawyer who understands how to use the location of damage to the vehicles to show who caused the crash.

The Las Vegas car accident lawyers at Valiente Mott have extensive experience in using the location and extent of car crash damage to show how an auto accident happened and who caused it. We use that expertise to recover the largest available insurance settlements and damages awards for our injured clients.

How can the location of damage determine car accident fault?

In some cases, vehicle damage very clearly identifies how an accident happened. In a rear-end collision, for example, damage to the negligent driver’s car will be on its front end, and the injured party’s car will have rear-end damages.

For more complex situations, an experienced car accident attorney will analyze the following:

  • A car’s undercarriage: Breaking immediately before a collision will push a vehicle downward and cause contact between suspension elements and the pavement. This information is crucial in understanding the sequence of events leading up to the accident.
  • Interior damage: Interior damage reveals important clues about a vehicle’s speed and direction at the time of an accident. By examining the impact on the interior components, attorneys can reconstruct the dynamics of the collision.
  • Tire damage and skid marks on the pavement: These also reveal a vehicle’s speed and direction at the time of the accident. The marks help establish the movements and actions of all vehicles involved.
  • The vehicle’s crumple zones: The severity of the crumple zones, which are designed to absorb impacts and spread their forces through the rest of the vehicle’s body, can provide evidence of the intensity and nature of the collision.

The importance of getting evidence

If possible, an accident victim should take photographs of the damaged vehicles and the accident scene to assist the car accident attorney’s analysis of the location of the damage. The vehicles themselves should be inspected soon after an accident because photographs can miss important clues that an experienced accident investigator will see in person.

In Nevada, to give yourself the best opportunity to assign fault to a negligent driver and to recover the largest available accident settlement or damages award, you should retain a knowledgeable Las Vegas car accident attorney immediately after the accident to complete that investigation before the damaged vehicles are no longer available for inspection.

Prove your innocence and win your case. We’ll fight for you.

The location and extent of damage after a multi-car collision can tell a detailed story about how the accident happened and who caused it. Understanding that story takes the knowledge and skills of experienced car accident lawyers and their teams of analysts who can assess and interpret the damage.

At Valiente Mott, we are car accident lawyers with decades of experience with these types of cases. Call our Las Vegas office as soon as possible after your car accident to give us the best opportunity to inspect the vehicles and to set up your claims for the largest available insurance settlements and damages awards.

Your initial consultation with our attorneys is always free. If you retain us and we accept your case, our fees are extracted from the settlement we win for you. You don’t pay anything out-of-pocket. 

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