QUESTION:
Are 'not responsible for broken windshields' signs on the back of dump trucks legally binding?
ANSWER:
Nope.
SOURCES:
Seth Price- managing partner at Price Benowitz LLP
Michael Laszlo- partner at Laszlo Law
Brad Bonilla- managing partner at Bonilla Law Firm
PROCESS:
One of our photographers saw this sign on the back of dump truck in D.C. and sent it to the Verify team for a closer look.
It says "WARNING STAY BACK 200 FT. NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR BROKEN WINDSHIELDS!"
He asked us to find out: Can that sign really get a driver off the hook for damage?
To get our answer we went to attorney Seth Price, managing partner of Price Benowitz LLP with offices in D.C., Maryland, Virginia and New York.
Price explained there's nothing legally binding about this placard.
"It is something the companies do for a bunch of reasons," Price told our Verify researchers. "One is they want people to stay back and be safe, they're sending a message. But legally it's not like if they put that sign there it absolved them of all legal liability, absolutely not."
The Verify team cross-checked with two other legal experts who spoke with our sister stations KHOU and KVUE in Texas.
"A sign would not be a contract that would prevent a motorist from presenting a claim for damages against a trucking company, legally speaking, at best they can say the sign was a warning,” attorney Brad Bonilla told KVUE.
They both confirmed, no this sign alone would not protect truck drivers, if a rock, wrecks your windshield.
"The sign has no legal effect, because you are responsible for the injuries you cause to another," Michael Laszlo, a partner at Laszlo Law in Colorado told WUSA9.
Take note: When you file an insurance claim you will have to prove that the pebble came bouncing out of the back of the truck and didn't get kicked up from the road.