Negligence per se is a doctrine under which violating a safety statute, such as a traffic law, can establish certain elements of negligence in a Georgia car accident case. It connects a driver’s violation of the rules of the road to the question of fault.
A statutory violation can supply the standard of care. Where a driver violated a traffic statute designed to protect against the kind of harm that occurred, that violation can establish a breach of the standard of care, rather than requiring separate proof of what a reasonable driver would do. A speeding violation bears on a speed-related crash differently from one unrelated to how the collision occurred.
The statute must protect the injured class. The doctrine generally applies where the injured person is within the class the statute was meant to protect and the harm is of the type the statute was meant to prevent. Whether these conditions are met is part of the analysis.
Causation remains a separate question. Even where a violation establishes a breach, the injured person generally must still show that the violation caused the harm. Whether the violation actually brought about the injury is examined independently of the violation itself.
The role of negligence per se generally lies in a statutory violation supplying the standard of care, the requirement that the statute protect the injured class, and the separate question of causation. How a traffic violation establishes breach, whether the protective conditions are met, and whether the violation caused the harm are the factors behind its role.