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When A Medical Condition Causes A Car Accident
On a busy highway, a man has a heart attack while driving his motorcycle. A line of stopped traffic is smashed into by an unconscious truck driver who suffered from a stroke. There are multiple reasons why an accident caused by a medical issue can be serious. They can cause injury to innocent people, add to an already severe health issue, and create a complicated situation that makes placing blame difficult. Sometimes, people may withhold details about the incident.
Rather than accepting responsibility, some individuals may claim the accident was caused by a medical condition to avoid blame. However, there are some cases where an individual does have a severe medical condition that has the potential to affect their driving ability, chooses to ignore this, and gets behind the wheel regardless. When you are injured due to an accident like this, it is crucial to know whether you can sue someone with a medical condition.
What if the person is lying? How can it be proven? What if they are telling the truth about their health? Will this prevent you from seeking compensation for your medical bills or other damage costs?
Chronic medical conditions can have a detrimental impact on driving, as it is a task that requires complex cognitive functions. Numerous studies have focused on the role of a medical condition in causing accidents involving motor vehicles. Many of these studies have explicitly focused on specific subgroups of the population, such as the elderly, while others have focused on specific conditions, like diabetes.
A 1965 study of California drivers who had medical conditions known to the Department of Motor Vehicles, which focused on CVD individuals, also known as those with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, alcoholism, mental illness, and epilepsy, found that all of these averaged double the number of crashes per 1,000,000 miles. This study was done in comparison to a control group of drivers without any of these conditions.
However, having a medical condition does not necessarily mean an individual is unable to drive anymore. This may result in restrictions and limitations being placed on the driver’s license. The limitations placed on an individual driver will be based on the severity of their impairment or condition. These restrictions can ban a driver from driving on any busy interstate or limit the time a driver can be on the road. Often, the limitations on an individual’s license are based on a recommendation by a medical professional.
Breaking Down California’s Medical Emergency Defense Law
In California, the law allows for what is referred to as the medical emergency defense, also known as the sudden emergency defense. This law is only applicable if the individual has an unforeseen and legitimate medical condition, and all of the following terms have been met:
- The driver was not the cause of the emergency.
- Someone was put in danger of injury due to a crisis that occurred.
- The driver acted reasonably.
This means that for the medical emergency defense to be used after an accident, it must be proven that the accident was the cause of a sudden health crisis that arose. The driver at fault acted reasonably, as anyone else would have done in the same situation. The driver at fault would have to provide detailed medical evidence that supports the claim that an unforeseen medical emergency occurred. Not all states have the same requirements for this law, but a driver who has suffered from a sudden medical emergency will often bear the burden of proof when it comes to demonstrating that the conditions above were met.
How Does This Medical Defense Typically Work?
This defense is not an easy one to use in court. It has often been challenged by showing that the person at fault acted in an unreasonable manner, or by presenting evidence that a person was aware, or obviously should have been aware, of the medical condition that caused the incident.
Let’s say, for example, a driver mentioned to someone that they had been feeling lightheaded and dizzy for the past week. This statement can then be used against them after the accident has occurred. Lightheadedness and dizziness are both common early warning signs that a person may have a heart attack. Having a heart attack, or even symptoms of one, would interfere with a person’s ability to maintain full control of a motor vehicle as the law requires.
The abruptness of the medical emergency has to be established. This abruptness means that a driver who has suffered from a sudden medical emergency would have had to have been overcome and often rendered unconscious by an unpredictable medical event. The person driving the vehicle would have no opportunity to avoid the medical emergency that occurred.
If a driver experiences any symptoms that could indicate a medical emergency is about to occur, the correct course of action would be to pull over onto the side of the road, rather than placing other drivers in danger by continuing their commute. You cannot consider a medical emergency to be sudden if symptoms were present and not correctly handled.
The issue of foreseeability also comes into play when determining whether a specific car accident can be attributed to the sudden medical emergency defense. For example, suppose a driver does not have any history of heart issues but has a heart attack. In this case, the driver could successfully assert the defense we mentioned because there was no way to anticipate this heart issue.
Another similar example of a driver that could apply this defense would be a driver who does not have a history of having any syncopal episodes, suddenly suffering from a low blood pressure drop that causes a blackout.
Many individuals do not seem to be aware of how medical history can come back to haunt them after having an accident. After examining the cases of California medical emergencies, the majority of unsuccessful sudden medical emergency defenses failed due to the person at fault having a long history of various medical issues.
The medical defense is used successfully in the rare occurrence that all of the following are true:
- The individual did not act negligently and acted reasonably.
- The medical emergency in question was completely unforeseen.
- The individual involved had no pre-existing medical issues.
- The individual was put in a situation where they could not control their vehicle due to a medical emergency.
An important aspect to keep in mind is that the medical defense is not eligible for mental health emergencies. A person cannot use mental illness as a defense for negligence or other civil claims, according to California Civil Code 41. So there is no way for an individual to avoid their responsibility in an accident if they were feeling suicidal, having extreme anxiety, or were in a state of psychosis at the time of the accident.
Can You Sue Someone With A Medical Condition?
There is no law forbidding you from suing an individual simply because they state a medical condition caused the accident when you are an injured victim. Keep in mind, the medical condition they claim to have may wind up helping your case. You and your lawyer could present evidence to show that they should have been aware of the dangers involved with their driving with that medical condition.
It is also essential to keep in mind that a person may be lying, mistaken, or scared. They may have blacked out and not have any memory of what occurred. None of these circumstances will leave them in a position where they are automatically exempt from responsibility for the incident.
There are times when an older person living on a fixed income may become very afraid after an accident, wondering how they will afford the financial impact of the situation.
This situation might encourage them to use a medical condition as a reason instead of merely admitting to making a mistake while driving. No matter what caused the accident, you are still left to pay medical bills, car repair bills, and loss of income from missing days of work when you are injured. A claim or lawsuit can help you seek these and other related damages.
A Lawyer Will Help You Investigate The Facts
When an individual blames a medical condition as the cause of a car accident, it makes the case more complicated, but it should not prevent you from suing for damages. With your lawyer’s assistance, you can investigate what happened to cause the accident. This assistance includes obtaining the police report, meeting and interviewing doctors, and working with the insurance companies. There could potentially be plenty of evidence to support your case.
Healthcare facilities and doctors can often provide medical information, as well as expert opinions on the medical emergency that may have occurred, to support your claim. Additionally, there have been instances where a defendant’s friends, co-workers, employer, or even a family member may share a random bit of information to assist you with your case.
To help identify which party is at fault, the car accident lawyers, as well as the judge, will go over the following information:
- Review testimony from neurologists, cardiologists, and other medical professionals to determine whether the driver was aware of their condition.
- Determine whether or not the driver was intentionally negligent through failure to take care of themselves if they were aware of their condition.
- Determine how much the condition of the driver affected the accident. For instance, if the impairment is a minor issue, the ruling may be that the driver’s health issues had no bearing on the accident. However, if there is a severe medical condition, it may be that the illness will be a significant factor in assessing the damages caused.
Reach out and contact an experienced California car accident attorney who can help you understand your rights after being in a car accident involving a medical emergency. At Arash Law, we offer a free evaluation of your car accident case.
We Can Manage The Legal Aspects Of Your Personal Injury Claim
After an injury has occurred, contact Arash Law to talk about your options. Our attorneys work with many different aspects of personal injury law, including damages resulting from accidents caused by medical conditions. We are dedicated to assisting our clients and aim to help them focus on recovery while we handle any legal details. We are committed to helping injured victims in California. Contact us now for a free case evaluation to see how we can help you with your needs.
