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[/profileleft]All of us have ridden in vehicles as passengers recently, and few if any of us have thought about the legal duties that attach when such a situation unfolds. Sadly, it seems all too often that either passengers who have been badly injured or family members of passengers who have been killed are forced to look into the realities surrounding these situations after a terrible crash.
Tragically, one family finds itself suddenly grieving the loss of a loved one after a San Diego rollover accident left a passenger dead. Passenger rights is not something anyone should ever have to deal with after suffering harm, but those who are prepared for such a circumstance in the future may be well-served with some basic ideas regarding what to do after this type of an accident.
About the Fatal San Diego Rollover Accident
This entire situation has become unfortunately relevant because of the San Diego rollover crash that occurred this past Friday night. According to an article that can be found here, the accident occurred sometime before midnight on Saturday morning. The unidentified female driver of a vehicle was moving in a westbound direction on the 4000 block of Main Street in Chula Vista. At that point, she reportedly drove onto a residential property and collided with a concrete block. The impact of the collision caused the vehicle to roll over.
A 39-year-old female passenger in the vehicle suffered head injuries and did not survive the crash. The driver suffered what were described as minor injuries and she was transported to a nearby hospital. The police believe that the driver had been consuming alcohol and she was arrested on suspicion of several different criminal charges. The two women were in the vehicle because they were leaving the Dixie Chicks concert that had taken place at Sleep Train Amphitheater.
Vehicle Passenger Rights and Unfortunate Statistics
First and foremost, we’d like to offer our condolences to the family and friends of the woman who was killed in this crash. Losing a loved one in an accident is always extremely difficult to endure. In addition, this crash will now become part of the overall body of statistics regarding vehicle passengers who are killed in accidents.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or the IIHS, more than 5,000 passengers in vehicles were killed in car accidents in the United States in 2014 alone. A full breakdown of this data can be found here.
Generally speaking, drivers take on a legal duty of care for all passengers in their vehicles. That means that they are responsible for their wellbeing. It is possible that a passenger can cause a car accident that leads to injuries if he or she distracts the driver or otherwise causes the driver to make a terrible mistake. Otherwise, passenger rights are something that should be kept in mind and enforced when a driver does something that causes harm.
If you or someone you love has been injured or worse while riding in a vehicle as a passenger, contact the San Diego car accident lawyers at Gomez Trial Attorneys today to schedule a free initial consultation.
