Who is at fault in this situation?

Real fault or technical/legal fault? Real fault is you. You are driving a car that was not properly maintained – brakes very seldom fail on a car that is properly checked and serviced. You hit a vehicle in front of you and in the process obstructed the road, became a hazard to following traffic. The person who hit you is also in the wrong, they should have been able to stop. (Maybe they also were driving a poorly maintained vehicle with bad brakes.)

Whoever hit you from the rear is legally at fault.

Were you in the road at all when you pulled over?

I don’t really know, but to my way of thinking you would be responsible for the damage caused by the original accident and the third car would be responsible for any additional damage. Even if you are partially responsible for the second accident, it is not all on you. The driver of the third car has an obvious responsibility to avoid hitting anything.

the person that hit you is at fault for your damage, you are at fault for the truck’s damage since it was your vehicle that struck it. (again)

@Kiev749 I think that varies by state. I was rear ended once, which knocked my car into the one front of me and caused that car to hit the school bus in front of it. The driver who hit me was responsible for the entire accident.

@DarkScribe My car is a ‘91 Accord.. It’s technically my fathers, but he never kept up with it. I didn’t know the brakes had issues until that morning [then I got home, and he goes “Oh, I knew it did that. Forgot to tell you.”]. I just got the clutch to stop sticking too.. I think the car just needs to be retired.

@augustlan We were in the far left lane on a 4 lane road. We were blocking that lane, but we both had hazards on.

So, no shoulder to pull off on? If that’s the case, I’d say the guy that hit you is (legally) responsible for that, and the damage your car did to the one in front of it.

Okay, that makes me feel better.. I hadn’t done any damage to her car before the other car hit me.

Thanks guys!

You hit the truck, as you said your fault. The person who hit you later is at fault for hitting you and causing further damage. Did the cop give you a ticket for he accident? @Supacase is correct that it depends on the state. For instance I think Michigan is no fault, so it does not matter who does what in an accident, you are only responsible for your car.

Don’t you have a police report? Did they issue any tickets?

They gave the car behind me improper driving.
I didn’t get a ticket because I caused no damage to the truck before I got hit, and I had taken a few pictures to prove it in case it came up.
As I said, we were about to leave when I got hit.

The officer said that all three of us will probably have to go to court and let them decide who is responsible for paying for what damage, and that he would call us by the end of the week to let us know.

Good job taking pictures! That’s really important. I’d say that you are not at fault at all, and your dad is fully responsible for the part of the accident that involved your brakes failing. He let you borrow his car, for one, and furthermore he did it without notifying you of a defect that might have cost your life under certain other circumstances. That’s pretty scary.

If the 3rd driver got a ticket and you have photos from the initial impact, then it seems clear-cut that the 3rd driver will be held at-fault. Like @Supacase: I was once the front car in a 3-car domino collision like this, and the man in the back that hit the middle car into me was responsible for the entire accident.

As others have noted, it depends on the laws in your state. To the best of my knowledge, “no-fault” is used when there has not been a ticket issued. If the officers have issued a summons relating to the collision, then ‘fault’ has been established.

You can speak to your Insurance Agent/Representative and ask their advice on how to proceed, and may want to consult an attorney just to be sure. There are tons of legal advice websites out there. I recently used AVVO.com on a Motor Vehicle related matter and received prompt relies.

Good Luck!

@hearkat thanks!

@rangerr: You’re most welcome! I hope it works out smoothly for you!

Usually your insurance companies will sort this out, without having to go to court, especially if no one was injured.

Usually the person who gets the ticket is deemed to be at fault, and usually your insurance company knows just how to handle all of this, including dealing with the court situation.

In the US do you need (by law) to have vehicles MOT’d every year? Here in the UK, if the MOT isn’t up to date we are breaking the law. I was once fined £60 for my car being overdue for it’s MOT by two days and it was booked in for the next day. If the copper hadn’t been doing routine checks I would have got away with it but it obviously wasn’t my lucky day. However, had I have been in an accident with a car that was past it’s MOT I would have been at fault and my insurance would have been invalid (which could have caused me to lose my driving lisence). I ask all this because, like @DarkScribe said, the fact that your breaks were that faulty implies that the car hadn’t been MOT’d and serviced for a while and so, if the law there is the same as it is here, you may find yourself with a certain amount of blame for not having an insured car.

@Leanne1986 I am not familiar with what MOT means. Could you explain?

@PandoraBoxx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOT_test

@Leanne1986: Vehicle inspection laws vary by state and often depend on the age of the vehicle. But if a vehicle is found to be overdue and has been involved in a collision, they might get ticketed. In the situation above, there is no question that he was at fault for the minor initial collision. Hewever, the bulk of the damage occured while his car was parked and he was hit from behind, so the conition of his brakes should not matter. I think the woman inthe truck is thinking that if he hadn’t hit her in the first place, the second collision would not have occurred, but they are two separate incidents, and hopefully will be treated as such.

@hearkat I thought the law would be slightly different over there to here, just thought I’d check.

@Leanne1986 – Be aware, however, that a lot can happen in a year. My car was inspected and passed per the law where I live, but six months later a brake line failed. Fortunately I was in a parking lot and going very slowly when I discovered it. My car, however, still had a valid inspection sticker, though.

@rangerr didn’t say the vehicle didn’t have a current inspection, just that the brakes failed and that his father knew the brakes were going but forgot to say anything.

@Darwin The good thing is, over here, providing you keep up to date with the yearly MOT’s, if anything goes wrong with the car in that year and causes an accident it isn’t you fault because you have abided by the law and kept up to date with the MOT. Sometimes, depending on the fault and the extent of the damage in an accident caused by the fault the mechanics can be held at fault if they charged you for the MOT and something went wrong that shouldn’t have done. Obviously things like keep tyres in good condition and things like that are always going to be the drivers responsibility. But something like brakes (I would imagine) would be a main test in the MOT.

at any point when you rear end another car, the driver of that vehicle is always at fault. sorry.

No dodge the logic I would say you would be held at fault for accident #1 due to the facts @DarkScribe said but accident #2 is the fault of the other driver. If your hazards were on he/she should have seen them, been driving slow enough to react and also playinf attention to the road to have seen the obstrustion way nefore he/she got there.