Rhode Island Car Accidents strategy: police report path, witness follow-up, and what to sort out first

Rhode Island car accident law reflects the peculiar geometry of the nation's smallest state: 1,214 square miles with approximately 1.1 million residents concentrated in greater Providence (the capital; the second-largest New England city after Boston), creating one of the highest population densities in the United States. Rhode Island's road network -- particularly the I-95 corridor through Providence (one of the most heavily traveled and most congested highway segments in New England), Route 1 along the South County coast, and the urban arterials of Providence, Cranston, Warwick, and Woonsocket -- generates disproportionate accident rates relative to the state's small geography. Rhode Island uses a modified comparative fault system with a 51% bar (R.I. Gen. Laws sec. 9-20-4): a plaintiff found 51% or more at fault is completely barred from recovery, while a plaintiff at 50% or less fault recovers proportionally reduced damages.

Rhode Island's statute of limitations for personal injury claims is three years from the date of the accident (R.I. Gen. Laws sec. 9-1-14). Rhode Island's mandatory auto liability insurance minimums were set at $25,000 per person/$50,000 per accident for bodily injury and $25,000 per accident for property damage under R.I. Gen. Laws sec. 31-47-2 -- minimums that are widely regarded as inadequate for the actual cost of serious accidents and that make underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage critical for Rhode Island drivers. The Rhode Island Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co., 570 A.2d 1067 (R.I. 1990) established key principles for UM/UIM coverage interpretation in Rhode Island, and more recently Hebert v. Ventetuolo, 480 A.2d 403 (R.I. 1984) addressed the duty to disclose policy limits in RI accident claims.