Are drivers of (substantially) lifted trucks subject to add'l liability in accidents?

In My Humble Opinion
1

A recent fender-bender has me puzzling this scenario. A driver has modified his truck’s height to an extent it is dangerous to “normal” cars in an accident. Could he be sued over additional damage or injury caused by the mismatch in bumpers, etc.? I live in ground-zero for the current craze of EMCs* raising their pickups to insane heights with aftermarket kits. I’ve noticed many of these now have their bumper at the windshield level of the average car. This seems to unnecessarily endanger other drivers, and I was wondering about legal liability as a result. If someone is hurt by one of these fools (no matter who is “at fault”), would they have a reasonable case to sue the driver? Or the shop that did the modifications?

My truck was recently rear-ended by a small car while sitting at a traffic light. Apparently texting was involved. :rolleyes: Although both vehicles were unmodified, the small height mismatch resulted in an amazing difference in the damage (Car totalled and undriveable, pickup drives away to shop for a new bumper). This led me to wonder what would happen with a really large height difference.

*Emasculated Man-Child. We refer to them this way, and they’re so common we’ve shortened it to an acronym.

2

IANAL

I don’t think that it would take a terribly bright attorney to raise this as an issue of hightened liability. Federal laws have changed in the past few years with regards to the rear bumper on semi-truck trailers requiring them to be lowered so that a car won’t pass underneath the trailer. These idiots raising their trucks does represent an increased danger to other drivers and thus, additional responsibility/liability in accidents.

I would love to hear some fool try to defend why they need to raise these trucks to dangerous heights.

This just about instantly voids their vehicle warranties and alterations of that type also raises insurance rates.

I don’t get it, but welcome to the land of the free.

3

See if you can understand this:

It makes my head hurt.

4

The people I know who have lifted trucks/SUVs use them off road or for snowplowing. Why else would they?

5

The people I know who do this in Florida do it because they have some exaggerated need that has nothing to do with function.

As an example, the next time you see an F250 10’ off the ground, take a look underneath. Whatever sticks down lowest is your absolute ground clearance. Lifting the truck over the tires substantially does not substantially raise the truck’s off road capability and actually raises its center of gravity making it worse.

The raised trucks, lowered cars, etc have precisely dick to do with function and 100% of some sense of “style(?).” :mad:

Leaffan: Oi!!! College-educated, but what the hell does that say?

6

Really? Who attaches a snowplow to [URL=“http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/93/06/27/93062771168928d754b8d7faba8b754b.jpg”]these things?

And like MostlyUseless says, the off-road capability is not improved.

7

Heh. The people I know with lifted trucks are far less extreme. One guy does mud bogs in the summer and plows in the winter.

8

If you want to drastically lower your vehicle you can’t lower it so far that any part of the vehicle is lower than the bottom of your rims. That is to say if you blow a tire your vehicle has to be able to drive on the rim instead of dragging on the frame or suspension parts rich could cause you to lose control.

9

Yeah, I came to that conclusion too after reading it about 30 times. So, there’s no upper limit on bumper height in Texas, by the looks of it.

10

I haven’t been in Texas in awhile, but from the stupid lifted testosterone-fueled trucks I see here in Florida, I suspect Texas is worse. In my opinion these things are a menace, but again, it is a free country.

I still see plenty of room for potentially large scale liability problems.

11

I agree that some lift helps off roading, but it really isn’t needed for snow plowing. You can certainly combine the two though.

There was zero need to lift either my Dodge or Chevy plow trucks. And the plowing I do is WAY more difficult than the typical suburban parking lot stuff.

The extreme lift in some of those pictures though is just horse shit. Really no way to justify it. And it would be a VERY custom plow mount to make it work.

12

I agree they’re horseshit, but is justification other than “I want (and can afford)” necessary?

13

:shrug: I donno. If it endangers others, perhaps some justification is needed.

14

The risk to other road users is apparently approved by your state government, so modded vehicles like that are legal and so injury that is mostly caused because its lifted (eg it falls over ) isn’t going to lead to criminal charges.

Don’t the insurance companies ask if the vehicle is modified and charge more for insurance, and take on the financial risk when they get paid their rate for that vehicle ?

15

I live in a city of 70,000 in Texas, and I’ve never seen one.

I would think that if the vehicle is street-legal, it’s the same as any other.

16

I’ll counter your data point – I’ve seen 'em. And FWIW every time I kinda want to pat the driver/owner on the head and say, “There, there. Bless your heart. It’s okay; you have a tiny penis. Poor dear.”

Men who do this to their vehicles and/or drive one should know that: the vast majority of women are laughing at you, not being impressed by you. And the ones who are impressed? Yeah, you do NOT wanna fuck that.

17

Actually, they do. Cause it’s all they’re going to get.

18

I guess my question would be:

Additional liability in what way?

If you’re in a crash and you’re 100% at fault you’re 100% liable for the actual damages. That’s the same whether you’re driving a fiat or an ambulance or the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. If you’re 0% at fault you’re 0% liable. If its somewhere in the middle your insurance company will negotiate a liability percentage with the other insurance company. (Not exactly so if you’re in a no fault insurance state, but I digress.) It’s the same whether the damages are $100 or $1,000,000.

Are you suggesting additional punitive damages just because you think their vehicle looks scary or dangerous or isn’t to your personal taste?

19

Do the females I know with lifted trucks have tiny penis’ too?

20

Since the clitoris is formed from the same base tissue as a penis, yes.