Injured motorists can seek financial compensation from the driver who hurt them, usually because the other driver was negligent behind the wheel. However, all accident victims have a duty to mitigate their damages. What does this mean, and how does your failure to wear a seat belt impact your case?
A Des Moines car accident lawyer dives into this issue below. Iowa law requires that most motorists buckle up, but some continue to refuse to follow the law. As a result, they end up suffering more serious injuries when their cars flip over or when they are rear-ended or T-bones. Failing to wear a seat belt could impact a motorist’s chances of receiving fair compensation.
Call Ball, Kirk & Holm, P.C., to schedule a free consultation with our office. A lawyer can travel from our offices in Iowa City or Waterloo, if circumstances warrant, and we are always available 24/7 for our clients.
Iowa’s Seat Belt Law
You can find the law at Iowa Code § 321.445. All vehicles after 1966 must come equipped with safety belts which meet federal standards.
Further, Iowa requires that drivers and anyone else in the front seat must wear a seatbelt or safety harness when the vehicle is in motion on public roads. In short, buckle up!
The law doesn’t apply to a narrow range of people, such as postal service employees and bus passengers. But virtually everyone in the front seat of a car or pickup truck must wear a seatbelt when riding. Failure to wear a safety belt according to law is a violation.
Is a Failure to Wear a Seat Belt Comparative Negligence?
No. This same law says that a failure to wear a seatbelt will not qualify as comparative negligence. That’s good news. Because of Iowa’s seatbelt law, some defendants have emphasized the car accident victim’s failure to buckle up. This is the so-called seatbelt defense.
The defendant either argues the accident victim is partially to blame for their accident or they failed to mitigate foreseeable damages by refusing to buckle up.
In some states, the seatbelt defense is valid. If a jury believes the defendant, then they might let him off the hook, allowing him to escape liability altogether for the accident. Fortunately, Iowa has not gone down that road.
How Failure to Wear a Belt Will Reduce Your Damages
Instead, Iowa Code § 321.445(4) states that violating the seat belt law will not qualify as comparative negligence. Thus, your damages will not be reduced by your share of fault for failure to wear a belt.
However, the law allows a defendant to submit evidence showing that wearing a seat belt would have minimized the injuries the victim suffered. Essentially, this is your failure to mitigate damages. Accident victims in Iowa have a duty to take reasonable steps which minimize their injuries and property loss. Typically, the steps someone takes occur after the crash. As an example, car accident victims should go to the hospital to have a doctor look at their injuries. That’s a simple, reasonable step which can prevent your injuries from worsening.
However, drivers must also mitigate damages by taking some steps before a crash. One is to buckle up when you get into a car. As studies show, seatbelts save lives and reduce the risk of a serious injury. It’s a simple step you should take.
How Much Will Your Damages Be Reduced if You Don’t Wear a Belt?
The law states your damages will be reduced by, at most, by 5%. That’s if the defendant can convincingly show that a failure to buckle up made your injuries worse. Your damages aren’t automatically docked 5%. Instead, the defendant must come forward with evidence showing you would have suffered less serious injuries with a seat belt on. That’s hard for some defendants to prove.
At the end of the day, 5% is probably not a lot of money. If your claim was worth $60,000, then you would lose $3,000. Ideally, you should always buckle up, but some people are in a rush and forget. Iowa residents are lucky that our state hasn’t followed the lead of other states and allowed defendants to escape liability completely.
Comparative Negligence
We must emphasize that your damages might also be reduced because of comparative negligence. Imagine you were looking at your phone while driving. A jury could say you contributed 40% to your accident because you didn’t watch where you were going. That means your negligence contributed to the collision.
The good news is that failure to wear a seat belt won’t qualify as negligence—period. Nonetheless, we need to understand how the accident unfolded and what choices you made in the lead up to a collision. Any distraction or fatigue can result in a lower settlement, apart from your failure to wear a seatbelt.
We Can Maximize Your Compensation
The seat belt defense doesn’t make a big difference in most Iowa car accident cases. Still, our clients face many challenges, including finding evidence of fault and defendants with sufficiently deep pockets to pay fair compensation.
Call Ball, Kirk & Holm, PC. We are a firm committed to the rights of accident victims. We can find evidence to use your case to highlight how the accident happened. We also vigorously deny that you are partially to blame for your collision.
Our Consultations Are Free
Were you injured in a car accident? It might feel as if the entire world is against you. Sadly, many victims discover that no one is eager to offer fair compensation, even though they are suffering from major injuries and financial losses.
Ball, Kirk & Holm, PC, is on your side. Our Des Moines car accident lawyers have helped hundreds of accident victims with the insurance claims process. We know how insurers think and what evidence they find persuasive. We credit this experience for our success winning millions of dollars for accident victims just like you.