Before former Olympic athlete then-Bruce and now-Caitlyn Jenner became known for undergoing sex change surgery, she became perhaps better known this year for a fatal multi-car accident that took place in February, in which a vehicle that Jenner was driving apparently rear-ended another car which itself had just rear-ended a third car. The impact by Jenner’s vehicle apparently not only caused the original rear-end collision to happen a second time, it also allegedly sent the car that Jenner’s vehicle hit into the path of a fourth vehicle, resulting in a fatal head-on collision.
Surviving relatives of the deceased driver have already filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jenner. Now, the driver of the first car that was struck in the first rear-end collision has filed a personal injury lawsuit against Jenner as well.
Automobile accidents can often involve complicated issues of causation. The more cars that are involved in the collision, and the more collisions that take place, the more complex it can be to determine not only actual but also proximate causation in connection with claims of negligence. In this case, for example, that a chain reaction crash occurred can lead to questions about what claimed injuries were caused by which specific impact. The existence of multiple lawsuits can also lead to a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit becoming more complicated to pursue.
Any car accident-related lawsuit will require detailed and careful analysis of the underlying facts as well as a personal injury lawyer with a firm grounding in California personal injury law on the part of the plaintiff’s attorney, who in turn may need to call in additional investigators and experts such as accident reconstructionists to build a solid case. This example, involving four vehicles, a chain-reaction series of impacts, one death, multiple injuries and now two lawsuits is a good, albeit tragic example of how complex car accident litigation can become.
Source: CNN, “Second lawsuit filed over fatal wreck involving Caitlyn Jenner,” Kimberly Hutcherson, June 9, 2015