A motorist was speeding down a residential street and failed to notice a child running onto the road to retrieve a ball. The motorist swerved to avoid the child but crashed into a car parked on the side of the street. The parked car then rolled down the inclined road, collided with a pedestrian walking on the sidewalk at the bottom of the hill, and caused serious injuries. The pedestrian sues the motorist for negligence, arguing that the motorist’s actions caused the injuries. Which of the following BEST explains whether the motorist is liable for the pedestrian’s injuries?
The motorist is not liable because the pedestrian’s injuries were caused by the rolling parked car and not the motorist’s direct actions.
The motorist is liable if the pedestrian’s injuries were a foreseeable result of the motorist’s actions.
The motorist is not liable because the parked car's rolling was an independent act that was not caused by the motorist's negligence.
The motorist is liable because speeding and swerving caused the parked car to roll into the pedestrian.
The correct answer identifies that liability hinges on causation principles. The motorist's negligence must be both a factual ('but-for') cause and a proximate cause of the pedestrian's injuries. Factual causation examines whether the injuries would have occurred but for the motorist's speeding and swerving. Proximate cause evaluates whether the injuries were a foreseeable result of the motorist's actions. While the crash into the parked car was a foreseeable consequence of swerving, the sequence of events leading to the pedestrian’s injuries involves intervening forces that may break the chain of causation. This distinguishes foreseeability of harm from the actual sequence of events leading to the injury. Other answer choices fail because they conflate foreseeability with causation or fail to address intervening causes.
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What is causation in the context of negligence?
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What does 'foreseeability' mean in legal terms?
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What are intervening forces and how do they affect liability?