Indiana Sideswipe Accident Lawyers

Indiana car crashes can take any number of forms, and among the most common are sideswipe accidents, in which the side of one car strikes the side of a second car, usually though not necessarily while they are moving in the same direction. Sideswipe car accidents made up nearly 15 percent of collisions across the state in 2022, and a large percentage of them inflicted serious injuries.

While you may be eligible to pursue a personal injury case if you are the innocent victim of an Indiana sideswipe accident, a favorable outcome could elude your grasp thanks to how easily blame can be shifted. However, you could increase your chances of success by reaching out to the highly accomplished car accident lawyers at Hensley Legal Group, PC, a dedicated Indiana personal injury law firm whose experienced attorneys have been fighting on behalf of the wrongfully injured since 1998.

Just call us at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form now to arrange a free case review with a knowledgeable Indiana sideswipe accident lawyer.

Why Do Sideswipe Accidents Take Place?

The vast majority of sideswipe accidents take place when a vehicle departs from its own lane and heads into an adjacent lane, either because of an unintentional drift in traffic or a deliberate lane change.

Every sideswipe accident is unique, though a wide range of factors are routinely associated with incidents like these. Some of those factors are external in nature, such as hazardous surface or weather conditions that could hinder traction or visibility to a dangerous extent. Others may arise from the vehicles themselves, such as mechanical issues like locking brakes or worn tires that could send a car off course.

Yet most often a sideswipe accident is the result of driver error, which is involved in approximately 94 percent of crashes nationwide. Examples of misconduct by a driver that could lead to an Indiana sideswipe accident include:

• Neglecting to check blind spots – Most cars have blind spots, which are areas outside of a driver’s normal field of vision that are chiefly located on either side of the car or to its rear and frequently produced by impediments within the car’s interior. Drivers have a duty to check their blind spots by looking over their shoulders or craning their necks before changing lanes, and they could strike vehicles that are hidden from their view if this duty is neglected.
• Not deploying turn signals – A lane change could similarly bring about a sideswipe accident if the driver changing lanes doesn’t deploy a turn signal, thereby failing to inform the driver in the desired lane of the impending change and reducing the odds of avoiding a sideswipe.
• Distraction – A driver whose attention is diverted from the task at hand may not notice that the car is encroaching into the next lane until it is too late to prevent a sideswipe accident. There are many sources of distraction in the modern world, but few are as detrimental to driving as the cellphone, which has been linked to 12 percent of domestic car accidents.
• Driving under the influence – Though the rate of drunkenness behind the wheel has plummeted in recent decades, it remains a concern in Indiana, where law enforcement makes an arrest for driving under the influence every 11.98 hours. A drunk driver is susceptible to a severe loss of judgment and coordination and may be likelier to swerve suddenly or attempt an ill-advised lane change that could make a sideswipe accident inevitable.
• Fatigue – Drowsy driving could be as detrimental as drunk driving, with one study showing that staying awake for more than 20 hours could impair a driver as much as a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent, the legal threshold for intoxication in Indiana. A motorist who nods off because of extreme fatigue could quickly veer off course and sideswipe anybody in the way.

Regardless of the ultimate cause of your sideswipe accident, you can rely on Hensley’s tenacious Indiana sideswipe accident attorneys to hold everyone responsible for it to account.

Who Is Responsible for an Indiana Sideswipe Accident?

But exactly who is responsible for an Indiana sideswipe accident? According to Article 21, Chapter 8, Section 11 of the Indiana Code, a vehicle may “not be moved from [its] lane until the person who drives the vehicle has first ascertained that the movement can be made with safety.” Consequently, if you are sideswiped by a car that enters your lane, the driver of that car would tend to be liable, as would the car’s owner (if separate from the driver) and any business making use of the car (if separate from the owner).

Other individuals and entities could be culpable too if their actions helped to create the circumstances under which the sideswiping vehicle went out of control, such as a careless mechanic, a defective auto component manufacturer, or a government agency with authority over a road in disrepair. In some situations, multiple defendants could share various degrees of liability simultaneously, and you must go after each of them if you hope to obtain fair compensation.

To complicate matters further, the insurance companies for the at-fault parties may insist that YOU were the sideswiping driver. This assertion might be tough to refute since your vehicles were probably traveling side by side while facing the same traffic signals, and they may have come to rest at a distance from the lane where they made contact. As such, you could both end up insisting on diametrically opposed versions of what occurred with no real means of proving that the other version is false.

By using the relative uncertainty of these kinds of collisions as an excuse to point the finger elsewhere, a savvy insurance adjuster may be able to minimize the insured’s role in your Indiana sideswipe accident or deny it outright, making your path to justice far more difficult.

Fortunately, “difficult” does not have to equal “impossible,” especially when you have the skilled Indiana sideswipe accident lawyers at Hensley Legal Group in your corner.

How Our Indiana Sideswipe Accident Attorneys Can Make a Difference

A significant sideswipe accident could upend your life in an instant, overwhelming you with mounting expenses while undermining your ability to meet them, but the Indiana sideswipe accident attorneys at Hensley Legal Group can make a difference.

Once you hire Hensley, your lawyer will launch a comprehensive investigation to uncover the defendants who may have contributed to your sideswipe accident, then establish valid claims and/or file suit against them within the time allotted by law.

Your attorney will also amass the evidentiary materials needed to back up any allegations you make, such as:

• Police reports
• Citations and dispositions
• Eyewitness statements
• Crash site photos
• Dash cam, streetlight, and surveillance videos
• Black box data
• Phone records
• Driving histories
• Maintenance logs
• Accident reconstruction and forensic analysis

After building a rock-solid case against the defendants, our firm will negotiate tirelessly with their insurance carriers in order to get you compensated for all of your losses and won’t hesitate to proceed to trial for a better verdict if the settlement offer falls short.

This commitment to going the extra mile is what sets us apart from many of our competitors, who rarely venture into a courtroom and may therefore leave money on the table that belongs in their clients’ pockets – something that our Indiana sideswipe accident lawyers won’t ever allow.

You Won’t Have to Pay Unless We Win

We imagine that you may be reluctant to agree to more expenditures when your bank balance may have already taken a massive hit, but Hensley Legal Group operates on a contingency basis, so you won’t have to pay us anything unless our Indiana sideswipe accident attorneys win your case.

Chances are you never anticipated getting into a sideswipe accident, not to mention the physical and financial toll that it would take, but we promise to do everything in our power to make you whole again.

Get in Touch with Our Indiana Sideswipe Accident Lawyers

Hensley Legal Group has been standing up for injured Hoosiers since the firm opened its doors more than 25 years ago. If you have been badly hurt by a reckless driver in Indiana traffic, get in touch with our Indiana sideswipe accident lawyers to learn more about your legal options.

You can schedule a complimentary consultation with a seasoned Indiana sideswipe accident attorney by calling us at (317) 472-3333, chatting with us online, or filling out our contact form today.