Hitting a car that had been broken down in a lane for days

Attorney Answer

No, not automatically — and the fact that the vehicle had sat in a live lane for three days after repeated warnings is the strongest thing in your account.

The question of whether you were driving carefully and the question of whether the other owner created the hazard are separate, and both can be answered against the same collision. Ala. Code § 32-5A-89(a) sets the standard, and Alabama puts a number on it where most states do not:

The driver of a motor vehicle shall not follow another more closely than is reasonable and prudent, having due regard for the speed of such vehicles and the traffic upon and the condition of the highway. Except when overtaking and passing another vehicle, the driver of a vehicle shall leave a distance of at least 20 feet for each 10 miles per hour of speed between the vehicle that he or she is driving and the vehicle that he or she is following.

Twenty feet for every ten miles per hour is 120 feet at 60 mph. It is a concrete duty — but a breach of it is evidence of negligence, not an automatic answer, and being struck from behind does not by itself decide fault.

Applied here, the duty runs to what a careful driver should have seen and done in that lane. But a vehicle abandoned for days in an exit lane, where the owner had been told to move it, raises the other side of the ledger: whether the owner's own conduct caused or contributed to the collision.

Alabama still applies contributory negligence. If the claimant's own negligence helped cause the injury they recover nothing at all — not a reduced share. It is an affirmative defense the other side must prove, it needs more than simple heedlessness, and it is no defense to wanton conduct.

That cuts your way here, not against you. If the owner claims against you, their own negligence in leaving the car in a traffic lane is exactly the kind of conduct that can defeat their claim entirely under Alabama law. The repeated warnings are what make it provable rather than merely arguable.

The practical question is evidence: who told them to move it, when, and whether any of that was written down.

What you can do

1. Ask your employer whether the instructions to move the vehicle were recorded anywhere in writing. 2. Identify anyone who witnessed the car sitting there over the three days. 3. Check whether any camera covers the exit lane, and ask for the footage in writing now. 4. Photograph the position of both vehicles and the lane before anything is moved. 5. Report it to your own insurer and speak to an Alabama attorney before accepting responsibility.

⏱ Time limits apply. Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l) gives two years: “all actions for any injury to the person or rights of another not arising from contract and not specifically enumerated in this section must be brought within two years.” Evidence goes sooner — footage is overwritten and memories fade — so the practical deadline is usually much earlier than the legal one.

An Alabama attorney can tell you quickly how the facts here line up, and most will look at a matter like this at no cost.