Duty to Maintain Vehicle Under Control
TCA 55-8-136 also tells Tennessee drivers that they must “exercise due care to avoid colliding with any other motor vehicle…by keeping the vehicle under proper control…under the existing circumstances…”
Maintaining a vehicle under proper control means operating the car or truck in such a way as to avoid known dangers and unknown dangers that can reasonably be avoided. Known dangers include what the driver sees or should see, such as a ''signal ahead'' warning sign or cars stopped on the roadway waiting to turn. Unknown dangers include all dangers that are reasonably foreseeable—i.e., those dangers that have a likelihood of occurring given a particular course of action.
The amount of control a driver must maintain is what is reasonable under the circumstances. This is a factual question and therefore left to a jury to decide. While related to the driver’s other duties—such as reasonable rate of speed and proper lookout—control means most often the driver’s ability to stop the vehicle quickly and safely. The measure of control required is thus a question of whether the driver had sufficient control over his vehicle to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
But control does not always have to relate to speed. Control may also relate to the driver’s ability to rapidly turn and change direction in order to avoid reasonably foreseeable accidents. For example, where pedestrians are present, the driver should foresee the possibility of a pedestrian walking out onto the road and be ready to act appropriately should such occasion present itself. Again, whether the driver’s attempt to avoid hitting the pedestrian was reasonable under the circumstances depends on a jury determination. Liability, however, will not be imposed if the situation happened so quickly that the driver did not have an opportunity to avoid the accident. In Tennessee, this is called an unavoidable accident and under such a determination, no liability can attach.
Persons who fail to keep their vehicle under proper control are liable for any damages resulting from your Tennessee car wreck. If you feel that you were injured in a car wreck because someone failed to keep their vehicle under proper control, call an experienced Knoxville auto accident attorney to learn more about your legal options.
