There are plenty of times when it is tempting to go barefoot in Louisiana, but sometimes you should let your judgment get the better of you before you leave your shoes behind. Forgoing footwear is fine when you are splashing in the mud puddles in your backyard after a rain, or if you are spending the weekend at a spiritual retreat at a park and want to get a feeling for how the discalced monastic orders of earlier times must have felt. Flip flops will do if you are walking home from the nail salon after getting a pedicure or if you are walking down to the corner store to buy a po’ boy after a long day of wearing high heels at work. Bare feet are fine when you are walking in the sand during a beach day in Gulfport, but it is best to put your shoes back on for the drive home.
Even in the absence of other risk factors, such as drunkenness, driving without shoes makes you a worse driver, and insurance companies sometimes note this fact when assigning liability for an accident. If you got injured in a car accident where the at-fault driver’s feet were not fully dressed, contact a Houma car accident lawyer.
How Does it Affect Your Car Accident Case if the At-Fault Driver Was Poorly Equipped in the Footwear Department?
The brake pedal and the accelerator in your car were not designed to interact with your bare feet or with your socks. The pressure that you apply to the gas and the brake in your car is the amount of pressure you need to speed up, slow down, or stop when you are wearing ordinary street shoes, the kind that fit the shape of your foot so that it remains in the same position relative to the sole as long as your shoe is on. If you drive barefoot, it feels different; the pedals do not respond the way they normally do when you drive in your sneakers, boots, or dress shoes, so you must apply more pressure to get the car to respond the way you want it to. Flip flops are just as bad because they constantly change position relative to your foot; they are loosely strapped to your foot without staying in place. Therefore, a flip-flop can easily get stuck to your car’s gas pedal, brake pedal, or floor mat. This can lead to an even bigger delay in getting the desired reaction out of your car than simply having to press the brake harder while driving barefoot. In other words, proper footwear or lack thereof can mean the difference between a near miss and a collision. Because of this, the insurance companies might increase the share of fault to the driver who was barefoot or wearing flip flops, even if he or she does not bear total responsibility for the accident.
Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey About Personal Injury Cases
A personal injury lawyer can help you if you were injured in a car accident caused by a driver. Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey in Houma, Louisiana, to set up a consultation about your case.
Sources
https://www.yahoo.com/news/illegal-drive-sandals-nj-legal-082631851.html
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