Legal Definitions - unavoidable-accident doctrine

The unavoidable-accident doctrine is a legal rule that states that no party can be held liable for an accident that was not foreseeable and could not have been prevented by the exercise of reasonable care. This means that if an accident occurs that was not expected and could not have been prevented, then no one can be held responsible for it.

For example, if a driver is driving on a road and suddenly a tree falls on their car, causing an accident, then this would be considered an unavoidable accident. The driver could not have foreseen the tree falling and could not have prevented the accident by exercising reasonable care.

However, the modern trend is for courts to ignore this doctrine and instead rely on the basic concepts of duty, negligence, and proximate cause. This means that if someone has a duty to exercise reasonable care, and they fail to do so, and this failure causes an accident, then they can be held liable for the accident.

For example, if a driver is texting while driving and causes an accident, then they can be held liable for the accident because they had a duty to exercise reasonable care while driving and they failed to do so by texting.