An Accident Alone Cannot Establish Negligence
August 6, 2013PAM Transport’s truck driver, James Herdo, allegedly backed into one of Stevens Transport’s semi-tractors. Stevens sued PAM for negligence because it claimed Herdo failed to keep a proper “lookout” when he was backing the truck up. The trial court found that Stevens had established that Herdo’s negligence proximately caused the collision and granted Stevens’ motion for summary judgment. The Court of Appeals disagreed, holding that the mere occurrence of an accident does not establish negligence. Instead, Stevens had to prove conclusively that Herdo’s failure to keep a lookout proximately caused the accident, not simply that Herdo backed into Steven’s tractor.
