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If a passenger becomes injuried in a vehicle driven by a drunk driver
If a passenger is involved in an accident driven by a drunk driver, are they entitled to recover under Tennessee's personal injury laws?
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Tennessee law requires passengers in motor vehicles to exercise ordinary or reasonable care for their own protection. This includes avoiding riding in a vehicle operated by a drunk driver. The state's comparative fault system allows a passenger who does not act reasonably in riding with a driver who is intoxicated to recover if he or she "knew or should have known of the driver's intoxication at the time the guest-passenger volunteered to ride in the automobile." Mansfield v. Colonial Freight Sys., 862 S.W.2d 527, 531 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1993) Upon the trier of fact finds that both the plaintiff and the defendant were negligent, it determines the percentage of fault attributable to each. In summary, in accidents, drunk driver and the passenger are equally negligent.
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Posted by Yara Zakharia on 21 Jan 2010
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