If you’ve been injured in a single-car crash, you may think it has to be your fault and that there’s nothing that you can do about it. In truth, this is not necessarily the case. There are a variety of factors that can contribute to or cause single-vehicle crashes that have nothing whatsoever to do with the driver himself or herself. Ultimately, your experienced South Carolina car accident lawyer will carefully examine the evidence in your claim and will explore its merits and challenges with you to determine if you may have a claim against an at-fault party.

Your Car and Manufacturer Defects

Sometimes the car (or one of its parts) is faulty, which gets at the heart of an ensuing accident. Motor vehicles are complicated machines, and there’s a lot that can go wrong. Consider the following:

• Your tires connect your vehicle to the road, and when they’re either faulty by design or faultily manufactured, they can cause single-vehicle accidents (blow-outs are a prime example).
• If your car’s steering mechanism is either faultily designed or defectively manufactured, it can contribute to or cause serious single-car crashes (if your steering wheel locks up unexpectedly, for example).
• If your vehicle’s fuel system is faulty by design or manufacture, it can leave you far more vulnerable to a single-car accident (for example, if you experience a fuel surge).

In fact, if nearly any major component of your vehicle is rendered faulty during manufacture, is based on a faulty design, or is repaired incorrectly, it can lead to a terrifying and dangerous single-car accident.

Poorly Maintained Roads

The roads we travel on can also cause or contribute to serious single-car accidents. Roadways are the responsibility of cities, towns, counties, and municipalities. When they are involved in car accident claims, it tends to make these already-complicated cases that much more so. If the at-fault party in your claim is a city, town, county, or municipality, you are well-advised to have a formidable car accident lawyer in your corner.

Damaged Roadways

When roadways are pocked with potholes, are cracked, have crumbling shoulders, have uneven lanes, or are otherwise dangerously worn, very serious one-car accidents can ensue. If you believe the condition of the road caused your single-vehicle crash, discuss the matter with an experienced car accident lawyer.

Road Construction

Road construction is necessary to keep our roadways safely maintained and running as smoothly as possible, but when road construction companies fail to live up to their burden of responsibility, it makes life-threatening accidents more likely, including single-car accidents. Consider all of the following:

• When road construction leaves the road riddled with debris or equipment, it contributes to high accident rates.
• When there aren’t clearly-posted speed limits that require motorists to slow down in response to the road construction, it can lead to serious single-vehicle accidents.
• When the path of travel isn’t posted and clear, it can lead to accidents borne of driver confusion.   

Driving through road construction requires utmost care, but the construction company is also responsible for adhering to important safety standards that can mean the difference between serious single-car accidents happening and not. 

Poorly Designed Roads

Roads that are not designed and constructed according to exacting safety standards can directly cause dangerous single-car accidents. When curves are too sharp, exits are too abrupt, or other design flaws are incorporated, the roadway itself can be responsible for your single-vehicle accident.

Inadequate Attention to the Effects of the Weather

When the city, county, town, or municipality responsible for a roadway fails to adequately attend to the effects of inclement weather, it can greatly increase the risk that deadly accidents will occur. For example, when icy roads don’t receive the salting they need in a timely manner, accidents that may have otherwise been prevented are more likely to happen.

Common Single-Vehicle Accidents

Single-car accidents can be just as terrifying and dangerous as accidents involving two or more vehicles. While every car accident is unique to the details involved, there are two primary categories of accidents that are commonly associated.

Tripped Rollovers

 Rollover accidents are singularly terrifying and singularly dangerous. A specific type of rollover is the tripped rollover, and it is a common single-car accident. The meaning of “tripped” is that something tripped the vehicle’s trajectory. The tripping mechanism is often an obstacle in the road that the driver must respond to instantaneously. These tripping mechanisms can include uneven lanes, a shoulder drop-off that creeps into the lane, fallen cargo on the road, and much more. If the motorist has no other option than veering to attempt to miss the obstacle, it can lead to a life-threatening rollover accident. Some vehicles’ very designs contribute to the problem. Vans, SUVs, trucks, and RVs are especially prone to single-car tripped rollovers.

Accidents Caused by Obstruction on the Road

Another common cause of single-car accidents is random obstructions on the road that leave drivers with very few options. Often, a serious obstacle will send the motorist barreling off the road and into whatever it is that stops the car’s motion (a tree, pole, or anything else). While motorists are naturally responsible for driving safely in response to whatever comes their way on the road, there are some obstacles that are nearly impossible to avoid (especially if you come upon them when you are coming around a curve or encounter something else that limits your vision, leaving you no time to absorb the fact of the obstacle before you swerve to avoid it). Such obstacles can include:

• Deer that suddenly enter the road
• A truck dropping cargo or something else suddenly
• The large, heavy debris of road construction left on the road (and in the labyrinth of the road construction)
• A sudden accident immediately ahead that causes a separate one-vehicle crash

Call an Experienced South Carolina Car Accident Attorney Today

The fact is that, depending upon the situation, you may be able to file a claim after a single-car crash, and the savvy South Carolina car accident attorneys at McCravy Law can help you with that. If your crash was caused by another person or entity’s negligence, we could help you build your strongest case in support of a favorable outcome. To learn more, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 864-388-9100 or contact us online today.