Q&A on the News

Q: I was driving behind a dump truck and it says they are not responsible for broken windshields. Is that true?

-- Judy Wooten, Canton

A: Assuming there is no special Georgia statute addressing this issue (Q&A on the News did not find one in state law and state officials could not confirm one), then the dump truck owner cannot avoid liability simply by announcing that he is not liable for harm done by his truck, Michael L. Wells, the Marion and W. Colquitt Carter Chair in Tort and Insurance Law at the University of Georgia School of Law, told Q&A on the News. "On the other hand, whether he is liable or not, and the amount of his liability, depends on the circumstances, and whether he acted reasonably in those circumstances, and whether the driver of the car behind acted reasonably," he wrote in an email. Thomas A. Eaton, J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law at the UGA School of Law, agreed with Wells' assessment. "The unilateral declaration of dump truck owner that he is not liable, does not make it so," he wrote. "On the other hand, the fact that a windshield is damaged does not automatically render the dump truck owner responsible for the damage. The car driver must prove that the dump truck driver was negligent [failed to use reasonable care] and that negligence was the cause of the damage to the windshield."