Clocks Fall Back Nov. 1. In NC, 1% of Fault Ends a Case

This is a paid post contributed by a Patch Community Partner. The views expressed in this post are the author's own, and the information presented has not been verified by Patch.

On Sunday, November 1, clocks across North Carolina fall back one hour. Most people think about the extra hour of sleep. Ann Groninger thinks about the following Monday at 5:30 p.m.

Subscribe

That is the moment the evening commute moves into the dark. Sunset in Charlotte drops to roughly 5:20 p.m., and it keeps getting earlier through December. The same people are still walking home from the bus stop, riding the greenway, and crossing East Boulevard or Ninth Street. The same drivers are fighting traffic, anxious to get home after a long day. And now the same people who are walking, bicycling, or riding scooters home no longer have daylight to help protect them from the drivers who chose to be less vigilant than they should be.

The safety numbers shift every year with the time change. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 76 percent of pedestrians killed nationally in 2024 died in dark conditions, compared with 20 percent in daylight. In North Carolina, the state Department of Transportation counted 281 pedestrians killed in 2024, a 12 percent jump over the 250 killed the year before, along with 767 reportable crashes involving bicycles.

Groninger, a founding attorney at Johnson & Groninger PLLC who has represented people hurt in bicycle crashes across the state for more than two decades, says the darkness does something in North Carolina that it does not do in most states. It not only raises the odds of a crash. It raises the odds that the injured person walks away with nothing.

North Carolina is one of a small handful of jurisdictions that still follows the law of pure contributory negligence. In most states, fault gets divided, and a person found 20 percent responsible for a crash still recovers 80 percent of their damages. North Carolina does not divide anything. If the defense convinces a jury that the injured person's own carelessness helped cause the harm, even slightly, that person is barred from recovering at all. There is no partial award. The recovery drops to zero.

The rule reaches further than most people expect. It applies to personal injury claims, the wrongful death claims families bring after a fatal crash, and nearly every other ordinary negligence case in the state.

"In 46 states, a small mistake costs you a percentage," Groninger said. "Here it can cost you the entire case. A driver can run a red light at 45 miles an hour, and if the insurance company convinces a jury that you contributed evenone percent to the crash, that driver's carrier pays nothing."

That rule is why she pays attention to the calendar. Darkness helps insurance companies make their favorite argument more convincingly that they can in July: the driver could not see you.

Bicyclists can make this argument harder by following North Carolina's law on required lighting for bicyclists. Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-129(e), a bicycle "operated at night on any public street, public vehicular area, or public greenway" must "be equipped with a reflex mirror on the rear" plus "a lighted lamp on the front thereof, visible under normal atmospheric conditions from a distance of at least 300 feet in front of such bicycle," and "a lamp on the rear, exhibiting a red light visible under like conditions from a distance of at least 300 feet to the rear of such bicycle, or the operator must wear clothing or a vest that is bright and visible from a distance of at least 300 feet to the rear of the bicycle." The part most riders have never heard is what happens when that equipment is missing. North Carolina treats a violation of this statute as negligence in itself. The violation supplies the negligence, and from there the defense only has to tie it to the crash.

"I've seen teens riding to school with no lights on their bikes," Groninger said. "I can see them because I'm looking, I have headlights, and streetlights provide additional lighting. However, thanks to North Carolina's draconian contributory negligence law,I have seen a twenty-dollar light decide whether a family could pay for a spinal surgery."

She is careful to add that a missing light does not end a case automatically. The defense still has to prove the violation actually contributed to the crash. A bicyclist missing a rear light won't be contributorily negligent if hit head-on by a driver who crossed the center line. A rider without a rear light who is struck from behind on an unlit road has a harder fight. In catastrophic injury cases, where the medical bills run into seven figures and someone may need care for life, that fight is the whole case.

The rules for people on foot are not the same, and Groninger says they are confusing for most people. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-174 requires a pedestrian crossing outside a crosswalk to yield the right of way to vehicles, and where there is no sidewalk, to walk on the extreme left of the road facing oncoming traffic. However, violating the statute is not negligence in itself. The question goes back to the jury, which decides whether a reasonably careful person would have done the same thing under the same conditions; the same question they are asked in any ordinary negligence case. The statute does not let drivers off the hook either. Subsection (e)of the statute requires every driver to use due care to avoid hitting any pedestrian on the roadway, regardless of what the pedestrian was doing.

"The adjuster will tell you that the pedestrian was crossing illegally and that they are closing their file," Groninger said. "That is a position, not a ruling. The law still asks what the driver did, and that question gets answered by a jury, not by an insurance claims department."

Two legal doctrines also help overcome contributory negligence. Last clear chance can rescue a claim when the driver had a real final opportunity to avoid the collision and did not take it. And contributory negligence is a defense to ordinary carelessness, not to conduct that was willful, wanton, or grossly reckless, so a driver who was street racing or impaired cannot hide behind a victim's small mistake.

Her advice for the first 48 hours after a nighttime crash is mostly about evidence that disappears fast. Call 911 and make sure a report gets written, even when the driver wants to settle it privately. Photograph the scene while the lighting still matches, including street lamps that were out. Keep the bike, the helmet, and the clothing exactly as they are, unwashed and unrepaired, because the lights and reflectors on that bike may become the central fight in the case. Get names and numbers from anyone who stopped. See a doctor the same night, since adrenaline hides injuries for hours. Much of these tasks are incumbant on friends or family members of the injured person, who is often unable to perform them themselves.

And one more, which she says is the step people skip most often.

"Do not talk to an insurance adjuster, yours or theirs, before you talk with an experienced lawyer," Groninger said. "They are trained, they are friendly, and they are recording. In a contributory negligence state, one sentence about what you think you might have done differently can end a legitimate claim before anyone has looked at the evidence."

The time change arrives November 1. The rule that turns a small mistake into a complete loss is something we have been fighting for decades. .

About Johnson & Groninger PLLC

Johnson & Groninger PLLC is a North Carolina law firm representing injured people and their families in bicycle crash, personal injury, workers' compensation, and wrongful death matters. Ann Groninger has practiced law in North Carolina since 1995 and has represented cyclists across the state for more than a decade. The firm works from offices in Durham and Charlotte and serves clients statewide, with Spanish-speaking staff available.

To learn more, visit jglawnc.com.

This post is an advertorial piece contributed by a Patch Community Partner, a local brand partner. To learn more, click here.