If a car in front of me kicks up debris from the road which hits my car and causes damage, is he liable?

[psteng19]

Some guy driving in front of me kicked up a huge piece of debris, which smacked right into my headlight, hood, fender and caused visible scratches.
I'm pretty sure he saw what happened because he then started driving like he wanted to get away... really fast, changing lanes, dodging traffic, etc.

Is he liable?
I wasn't tailgating.

 

[Vic]

No.

Comprehensive coverage on your insurance.

 

[AnyMal]

No

 

[Phoenix86]

Road debris=no.
Something off his car=yes.

I'm sure this varies by state.

 

[dullard]

If debris hit your car, you were too close. Call it tailgating or not, you were too close. Thus it was your fault and you are liable (true in most states).

Edit: since this was misinterpreted, here is a retype:

Whether you were tailgating or not, you were too close. You can be too close to avoid flying debris even if you are not tailgating.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

IANAL and YMMV, but generally if debris strikes you while airborne and without bouncing, the originator of the debris is at fault, unless you were deemed to be following too closely. Check your local laws.

Edit - as mentioned above, it's the originator of the debris. If it was on the road, "you should have avoided it" is all you'll get.

- M4H

 

[psteng19]

Originally posted by: dullard
If debris hit your car, you were too close. Call it tailgaiting or not, you were too close. Thus it was your fault and you are liable (true in most states).

Nope, I was well behind him. It was a flimsy piece of hard plastic that kicked up really high and got good air.

But I am fine with the answer no, he is not liable.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: psteng19
Nope, I was well behind him. It was a flimsy piece of hard plastic that kicked up really high and got good air.

But I am fine with the answer no, he is not liable.

If a piece of ANYTHING flies up and hits you, you were too close.

Edit: Since this was misinterpreted, here is a retype.

Whether you were tailgating or not, you were too close. You can be too close to avoid flying debris even if you are not tailgating.

 

[leftyman]

Originally posted by: Vic
No.

Comprehensive coverage on your insurance.

thats your answer.

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: psteng19
Nope, I was well behind him. It was a flimsy piece of hard plastic that kicked up really high and got good air.

But I am fine with the answer no, he is not liable.

If a piece of ANYTHING flies up and hits you, you were too close.

so if a plastic bag flies up and hovers in the air for about 2 minutes then hits your car, you are too close to the car in front of you?

 

[Zenmervolt]

If it were road debris, the only way he would be liable would be if he hit it because he was driving in an unsafe manner (for example, drunk driver hits a tree that falls onto your car).

If it was a part of his vehicle, or if it was something that he threw out of his vehicle, then he's liable.

ZV

 

[imported_Devine]

Originally posted by: randay

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: psteng19
Nope, I was well behind him. It was a flimsy piece of hard plastic that kicked up really high and got good air.

But I am fine with the answer no, he is not liable.

If a piece of ANYTHING flies up and hits you, you were too close.

so if a plastic bag flies up and hovers in the air for about 2 minutes then hits your car, you are too close to the car in front of you?

Of course

 

[dmw16]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: psteng19
Nope, I was well behind him. It was a flimsy piece of hard plastic that kicked up really high and got good air.

But I am fine with the answer no, he is not liable.

If a piece of ANYTHING flies up and hits you, you were too close.

This is absolutely NOT TRUE! My car got hit by a rock kicked up by a truck in the lane next to me. Was I too close? Get off your high horse about it. The right object in the right circumstance can get a good amount of distance and hang time.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: randay

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: psteng19
Nope, I was well behind him. It was a flimsy piece of hard plastic that kicked up really high and got good air.

But I am fine with the answer no, he is not liable.

If a piece of ANYTHING flies up and hits you, you were too close.

so if a plastic bag flies up and hovers in the air for about 2 minutes then hits your car, you are too close to the car in front of you?

At some point the risk from following to closely fades into stupidity for not hitting your brakes.

Viper GTS

 

[OutHouse]

\

Originally posted by: Phoenix86
Road debris=no.
Something off his car=yes.

I'm sure this varies by state.

yip

 

[psteng19]

Originally posted by: dullard

Originally posted by: psteng19
Nope, I was well behind him. It was a flimsy piece of hard plastic that kicked up really high and got good air.

But I am fine with the answer no, he is not liable.

If a piece of ANYTHING flies up and hits you, you were too close.

I don't really want to argue this but I don't know how you can even debate it if you didn't witness my situation.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: dullard
If a piece of ANYTHING flies up and hits you, you were too close.

I've seen some things get spectacular air. I was on a drive with the PCA and the guys at the front of the line were about three car lengths behind a pickup that was carrying a propane grill in its bed. The grill was not secured and the guy in the truck whipped around a corner and the grill was simply launched. The grill hit almost immediately, but the cooking grate was flung skyward and landed off to the side of the third Porsche in the line. (That's about 11 carlengths behind the pickup.) The lead car, by the way, was perfectly able to stop in time to avoid hitting the grill.

It's entirely possible to be following at a safe distance and still have kicked-up debris hit you.

ZV

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: randay
so if a plastic bag flies up and hovers in the air for about 2 minutes then hits your car, you are too close to the car in front of you?

Like Viper said, again it isn't the liability of the car in front of you. It is your fault for not hitting the brakes.

Originally posted by: dmw16
This is absolutely NOT TRUE! My car got hit by a rock kicked up by a truck in the lane next to me. Was I too close? Get off your high horse about it. The right object in the right circumstance can get a good amount of distance and hang time.

This only applies to the car ahead of you. You can't really follow *behind* too close when you aren't behind someone. Common sense for the win. I can see people in this thread don't have common sense. Attack the messenger and not the message. :roll:

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
It's entirely possible to be following at a safe distance and still have kicked-up debris hit you.

We aren't talking about safe distances. We are talking about liability. Safe distance is not equal to liability distance.

Originally posted by: psteng19
I don't really want to argue this but I don't know how you can even debate it if you didn't witness my situation.

Go ahead and take it to court. You can bet the front car driver's lawyers and the judge didn't witness the situation either. But of course, they can't debate the liability either according to you.

 

[OS]

how can i be supreme court god like some of you

 

[Vic]

:roll: to this thread.

To those who think the driver of the car is at fault, tell ya what: track him down (somehow), take him to court, and then try to prove before a judge that it was his car and his car only that kicked up the road debris that damaged your car.

Yeah, good luck with that.

In the meantime, the OP should call his insurance company.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Vic
:roll: to this thread.

To those who think the driver of the car is at fault, tell ya what: track him down (somehow), take him to court, and then try to prove before a judge that it was his car and his car only that kicked up the road debris that damaged your car.

Yeah, good luck with that.

In the meantime, the OP should call his insurance company.

Seems to me that people are arguing whether or not it's the OP's fault because he should've been able to avoid it.

It's comprehensive by the way. Also, trying to swerve out of the way of a possible comprehensive claim accident is a bad idea, you can end up wrecking or causing an accident. Comprehensive usually doesn't ever raise your rates, collision does (usually only on claims > $1000 from what I've seen).

 

[d3n]

I take the view that if you get hit you were too close. I am split on it a bit.

One of the more dangerous things I see is construction equipment pulling off of a job site with a bulldozer or such that has a million chunks of mud and gravel waiting to go flying off. It should be a practice to clean equipment off before taking it on an interstate.


There is one condition that I see being able to nail someone for liability. That is if they are passing illegally on a shoulder and they happen to kick some debris up on your car. You only have a chance at this if a police officer observers the illegal maneuver. Otherwise your SOL.

 

[DougK62]

Good luck. The only case you could have is if the vehicle was not road worthy - like the huge raised up pickup trucks that do not have fender flares which results in it flinging rocks.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: dullard
If debris hit your car, you were too close. Call it tailgating or not, you were too close. Thus it was your fault and you are liable (true in most states).

I don't agree that he was necessarily too close.

But the other driver definitely was not at fault, which leaves the OP to pay for the damage to his own car.

 

[Chiropteran]

What about a giant sheet of ice coming off the roof of the truck in front of you and pieces bouncing up and hitting your windshield?