Can a Car Accident Be the Rental Car Company’s Fault?
Determining who is at fault for a car accident isn’t just about picking sides and deciding who wins and who loses. It involves examining the many factors that led to the accident. Was there ambiguity about how the flow of traffic should go? Was the road slippery, and if so, could the city or county responsible could have done something to prevent the slipperiness? Did one of the cars malfunction, and if so, was it because the driver didn’t maintain the car properly or because of an inherently defective part? Was one of the drivers drunk, and if so, was anyone else aware that she was about to drive drunk, so that they could have stopped her? Were the injured people wearing seatbelts. These are just a few of the many questions to which South Carolina car accident lawyers find answers when helping you recover damages for your injuries in a car accident lawsuit.
Plaintiff Sues Thrifty Car Rental for Renting Car to Unauthorized Driver Who Injured Her
In May 2017, Christopher Alexander Reyes was being pursued by police and fled on I-26 in a car he had rented from Thrifty Car Rental. The car reached a speed of 120 miles per hour before it veered off the road in a wooded area, crashed into the trees, and caught fire. A woman who was a passenger in the car was seriously injured. Her injuries were so severe that, in April 2020, when she filed a lawsuit in relation to the accident, she was still unable to work. Her medical treatment for the accident-related injuries cost $470,000.
The defendant in the lawsuit is Thrifty Car Rental. The plaintiff alleges that Thrifty was negligent in renting the car to Reyes, who presented a driver’s license that did not belong to him in order to register the rental. According to the lawsuit, Thrifty’s duty of care required it to verify the driver’s license a customer is using to rent a car before handing him the keys and allowing him to drive away. While the plaintiff was riding in the car with Reyes during the accident and the police chase leading up to it, the WGSC website did not specify the relationship between Reyes and the plaintiff or whether she has filed a separate lawsuit against him.
The passenger’s lawsuit highlights the fact that there is more to liability issues than what meets the eye. You still have a case against a defendant even if the defendant did not directly cause the accident, as long as the defendant had a duty to prevent the dangerous conditions that enabled the accident to happen.
Contact an Attorney Today for Help
If you were injured in a car accident involving a rental car, the legal issues can be more complicated than if the car belonged to the driver, but a Columbia car accident lawyer can help you navigate them. Contact The Stanley Law Group for help with your case.
Resource:
live5news.com/story/35289653/deputies-man-facing-multiple-charges-after-charleston-co-pursuit-ends-in-fiery-crash/
live5news.com/2020/04/12/lawsuit-claims-car-rental-company-issued-car-unauthorized-driver-who-crashed-car-injured-passenger/
