Casinos, hotels, and parking structures can play a factor in your liability in car accidents. Millions of people drive through the roadways, valet lanes, garages, and resort entrances every year. Each of these scenarios can have different liability implications than your typical street crash. Knowing how casinos, hotels, and parking structures affect liability in Las Vegas auto accidents can help you make a successful claim with the help of Easton & Easton.
Accidents on Casino and Hotel Property
When a crash happens on a casino or hotel property, the location of the crash is a key factor. If it occurs on a casino or hotel property, the property owner could share responsibility. If a resort, casino, or property management company failed to maintain safe traffic conditions, they could be partially to blame for a crash.
Failing to provide sufficient lighting, well-planned traffic flow, clear signage, and appropriately designed entrances and parking areas can contribute to property liability.
Hotels, resorts, and casinos have a responsibility to exercise reasonable care to keep their guests and visitors safe from harm and foreseeable accidents. So if a property was aware of dangerous conditions and didn’t remedy them, the business may share responsibility for injuries. Hotel surveillance cameras, maintenance requests, and incident reports may be relevant evidence.
Where These Accidents Happen
Las Vegas auto accidents are very common throughout the Strip and Downtown corridor, involving casinos, hotels, and parking structures. Due to the high volumes of traffic, valet operations, and multi-level parking garages, there is a significant risk of accidents that may occur in this area.
Collisions occur most frequently on the Strip in the immediate vicinity of the Bellagio (3600 South Las Vegas Boulevard), MGM Grand (3799 South Las Vegas Boulevard), and Caesars Palace (3570 South Las Vegas Boulevard) in parking garages and entrance/exit ramps.
Claims for injury are generally handled through the Eighth Judicial District Court located at 200 Lewis Avenue in Las Vegas. Injured individuals often receive medical treatment at facilities such as Sunrise Hospital or University Medical Center nearby. The responsible party may not necessarily be the driver of another vehicle. The owner or operator of the property or valet services may be liable for damages.
Parking Garage and Structure Accidents
In Nevada, there were 52,243 accidents in 2022. Of these, 0.7% were fatal, and 43.8% resulted in injury.
Parking garage collisions are all too common in the Las Vegas area. Collisions in these structures happen frequently due to the close quarters and low visibility. Tight turns, steep ramps, distracted pedestrians, and driver unfamiliarity with the garage layout are contributing factors. People visiting Las Vegas from other states may not be familiar with one-way garage lanes or poorly-marked surfaces.
Parking garage owners or operators may share fault for these accidents if there are underlying property issues, lighting problems, malfunctioning mirrors, or a lack of warning signs. Drivers who were speeding, distracted, or failed to yield within the parking garage can still face liability for an accident. Parking garage collisions typically involve shared liability among multiple parties, so each case is fact-intensive.
Las Vegas Car Accident Laws and Liability on Public Property
Nevada law permits injured people to seek compensation even for accidents on private property. Determining who is liable is based on negligence and a party’s failure to exercise reasonable care. Nevada follows a modified comparative negligence rule that still allows compensation in shared-fault crashes. An injured party can be up to 49% liable and still pursue recovery from other responsible drivers.
In the context of casinos, hotels, and parking garages, liability may extend to property owners, casino management companies, or building maintenance contractors if they failed to exercise reasonable care. Examples of unsafe conditions include:
- Parking garage or driving defects
- Failure to maintain streetlights in the casino or resort areas
- Insufficient valet parking capacity and attendant management
- Valet lane car accidents due to inadequate traffic control
- Walkway collisions due to property owner or casino security failures
Additional Party Involvement
Valet drivers and hotel shuttle drivers present an additional variable. If a valet or shuttle driver operating a guest’s or customer’s car is liable for a collision, there could be shared liability with the hotel or valet company. The employer is typically responsible for damages paid by their insurance company, rather than an individual valet or shuttle driver.
Rideshare vehicles are common in casino zones and nearby intersections. Uber, Lyft, and taxi accidents may involve multiple insurance companies based on whether the rideshare driver was on-duty, en route, or had just completed a passenger delivery. Property control measures can also contribute to rideshare collisions in the parking garage or casino areas. These are complex accident investigations that often involve multiple forms of insurance and liability protection.
Hire a Car Accident Lawyer
There are many factors to consider if a car accident occurs at a casino, hotel, or parking structure property. For this reason, it’s even more important to hire a car accident lawyer. These crashes are more likely to involve corporate entities, complex insurance arrangements, and legal teams that will fight against paying you compensation.
An experienced car accident attorney can help you identify all liable parties and pursue a recovery from large property owners and insurance companies. Hiring legal counsel also protects you from getting blamed for an accident caused by the condition of the property and other factors that were beyond your control.
FAQs
What Is the Number One Cause of Car Accidents in Nevada?
Driver negligence is the number one cause of car accidents in Nevada. It can be due to distracted driving in the form of texting, using map/navigation apps, eating, or not paying attention in heavy traffic. Speeding and aggressive driving are other major causes, especially on heavily traveled corridors near the Strip, freeways, and resort regions where traffic congestion, tourists, and unfamiliar roads intersect.
Can I File a Claim for a Car Accident in Las Vegas?
Yes. If you are injured in a Las Vegas car accident due to another person’s negligence, you may be able to file a personal injury claim in Nevada to pursue compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and property damage. You may have a claim against individual drivers, rideshare companies, casinos, or property owners, depending on the circumstances of the crash.
What Should You Do After a Car Accident in a Hotel or Casino Parking Lot?
Following a parking lot accident, you should get medical attention. You should also report the incident to security or property management as soon as possible. Take photos, get witness information, and get any surveillance video available. Do not give a recorded statement without legal advice. Fault and liability in a parking lot crash are often disputed.
What Percentage of Car Accidents Happen in Commercial Parking Lots?
Parking lot and garage accidents are a significant percentage of car crashes, especially at business premises. Collisions can occur at relatively slow speeds and result in injuries and damage. Busy and confusing layouts, inadequate visibility, distracted drivers, and pedestrian traffic contribute to casino and hotel parking lots being a common area for accidents and liability claims.
About Easton & Easton
Easton & Easton is a family practice personal injury firm with over 100 years of combined litigation experience. Our attorneys have been named in the Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, and various national trial lawyer organizations’ lists for handling complex accident claims against corporate defendants. Contact us today, and we can help you with your case.
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