As a Cincinnati car accident lawyer I have handed hundreds of rear end car  collision lawsuit claims. These are not always no brainers and the public does not always understand when they are at fault. What follows is a brief explanation of Ohio law on rear end collisions.

At it’s simplest a rear end collision is defined as one motor vehicle striking another automobile in the rear with it’s front. Either a car has stopped for traffic, a stop light or a stop sign or something in the road and the car coming up from behind did not stop and a car accident occurred , with or without injury

 

 

The Ohio Law on Rear End Collisions

 

The law on rear end collisions comes from the statute R.C. 4511.21 As explained by many court cases:

Violation of the statute ( 4511.21) and a finding of negligence as a matter of law depends on whether there was evidence that the driver collided with an object which (1) was ahead of him in his lane of travel (2) was stationary or moving in the same direction as that of the driver, 93) did not suddenly appear in the driver’s path and (4) was reasonably discernable.

An Actual Court Case Can Be Helpful to See Ohio Rear End Crash Law

In Jung v Brothers the facts were as follows: Mr Junge was driving his car at night at a lawful speed and struck an overturned tractor truck . The tractor – trailer had lost control and flipped on its side. The dark underside of the truck was facing traffic. the lights of the truck were of and there were no lights in the vicinity.

The Court said that it was a question for the jury to decide whether the truck was reasonably discernible and therefore whether Mr Jung was at fault for violating the assured clear distance statute. And if he was whether he was more at fault than the truck driver for loosing control of his truck.

Under Ohio law if the person bringing the lawsuit is 51% at fault they recover nothing. but if they are 50% or less they get to recover their proportionate share of damages. There is a lot more to the assured clear distance statute and we will cover that in part 2 of this series.

Anthony Castelli attorney is a Cincinnati car accident lawyer that handles car accident serious injury lawsuits and settlements for over thirty years. He offers free case consultations and you can Call him at 513-621-2345 to speak with him. He welcomes your call.