It’s a beautiful warm night. A young female picks up her high school aged son from his shift at the mall. They pull out of the parking lot to head home. They begin taking a left onto a side street. They feel a bump. They have been side swiped. The damage isn’t that bad -just a paint exchange. The young female and her son pull over to the side of the road with the other vehicle to wait for the police. So far, everything seems routine. Nothing is out of the ordinary.
The young female and the other driver get out of their vehicles. As I mentioned, it’s a beautiful night. Their cars are safely parked on the shoulder in a well-lit low traffic area. The young female leans up against her hood while her son sits unbelted in the back seat. That other driver sits down on the curb.
In an instant- metal crunches, glass shatters, bodies go flying. The son is thrown about in the back seat. The young female is trapped under the car. The other driver is pinned between her vehicle and a light post. What happened?
A reckless driver speeding down the road crashed into their vehicles, forever changing their lives. The young female is freed from under the vehicle and rushed to the hospital for emergency procedures. The other driver is lifestarred to the hospital with life threatening injuries.
That young female that was trapped under the car was my client. Forever disabled by someone else’s reckless conduct. She will never work again. She will be in constant pain- whether she is sitting or standing. No amount of treatment or medication will help.
To make matters worse, the young man who caused these devastating injuries did not pay his insurance premiums, so he has no coverage to help the people that he hurt.
What happens in situations like this? This is why you have your own insurance with uninsured motorist benefits. Everyone in Connecticut with an auto insurance policy has it. It’s the law. Sadly, this young female had the minimum uninsured motorist benefits. Today, that minimum coverage is $25,000.00. That’s a drop in the bucket when you will never work again.
We do the best we can for our clients. We got that minimum uninsured motorist benefits settlement. We sued the reckless driver. And we proceeded to get a judgment against that reckless driver. We secured a judgment for over a million dollars. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to collect from this reckless driver. It’s unfair. It’s not justice. But it happens.
I will continue to pursue this reckless driver. But in the meantime, we all have to protect ourselves. The two takeaways are:
- After a collision, make sure you are in a safe spot. And even after you have made sure you are in a safe location, stay in your vehicle. Wear your seatbelt and wait for the police.
- Check what your coverage is for uninsured motorist benefit. It doesn’t cost that much more to increase your coverage to protect yourself and your family.
And as always, give me call if you need help or have questions.
