사진 확대

If you lose your family in a car accident, it seems natural to get damages from the other person. But what if my fault is also in the part where the accident occurred, and what if I signed up for auto insurance with a very low limit on property compensation? Due to the negligence of the deceased, the compensation that the bereaved family should receive may be offset.

Mr. A was driving a truck on the highway one evening in spring 2022 when he collided with another truck ahead of him. Mr. A's car stopped obliquely over the second lane and the shoulder, but he remained in the car without taking any measures to prevent a second accident.

A short time later, the tractor truck that was following crashed into the back of A's vehicle, which was stopping. A suffered a heart attack due to chest compression caused by these two accidents and died.

Mr. A's spouse and children filed a claim for damages against the insurer in the back car. It was that she lost her husband and father when the car behind her collided with a stopped vehicle.

However, the insurer rather filed a counterclaim. The back car contained an industrial battery owned by a company, which was damaged in a secondary accident and the insurer had already paid hundreds of millions of won in damages to the company. The insurer claimed that A was also negligent in the second accident, so the battery damage should be returned from A's bereaved family at that rate.

The court first acknowledged that the insurer in the latter car was liable for damages. However, I saw that Mr. A also had a reason to limit his responsibility. After the first accident, it is judged that the second accident occurred while not taking any measures to prevent the second accident. The court limited the liability of the insurer's vehicle to 70%, seeing A's negligence at 30%.

The court calculated the amount of damages the bereaved family could receive on this basis and offset the amount of damage to the battery from there. As a result, the amount of damages that the bereaved family can receive is virtually limited.

Han & Yul, a lawyer at Han Se-young's law firm, said, "If a series of accidents occur on the highway, not only the responsibility of the back car is a problem, but even the person who caused the accident earlier can be admitted to negligence due to lack of follow-up measures. In particular, cargo damage is often separately hung in truck accidents."

He added, "If the damage is linked to the driver's negligence ratio, you may have to pay for it."

A lawyer advised, "Before we start litigation, we should review whether the other party has room to claim counterclaims or set-off, especially if there is any involvement in the load or damage to third parties."