Examples Of 2 Pedestrian Deaht Cases With Recoveries Greater Than $1,000,000
By: J. Hernandez
Submitted: 2010-10-28 01:56:07 | Word Count: 641
Pedestrian accident matters frequently cause fatalities. According to a study from a few years ago, a pedestrian is killed in a motor vehicle accident roughly every 111 minutes. That turns out to be four thousand five hundred killed pedestrians each year. Attorneys who regularly litigate motor vehicle accident claims involving the death of a pedestrian should have the experience and the skill to understand the damages to the victim's family and need knowledge of insurance factors to be able to fully pursue different sources of recovery.
Look at, for example, the reported lawsuit in which the driver actually admitted to being at fault for the motor vehicle accident. The driver was making a left hand turn when he hit and killed a 62 year-old man crossing the street on a walk signal. These facts were not disputed by the defendant. There was no dispute that the driver's full coverage would be paid out. The defendant only had fifteen thousand dollars worth of insurance. The law firm that handled the claim achieved a settlement for the victim's adult children that included both the defendant's policy limits plus $1,000,000 from the driver's employer. They were able to do this by demonstrating that at the time of the accident the driver, even though he was driving his own automobile, was heading to a store to buying starter fluid for his employer's truck. They established that the driver was acting within the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident and therefore reached the employer's insurance policy for the additional $1,000,000.
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In the other case, a pickup truck hit a ninety year old male pedestrian while he was walking on a sidewalk. The pickup, which weighed a ton, was backing out of a construction site when it hit the pedestrian. The truck did not just strike the man, it actually ran over him, went forward and then ran over him again. The victim did not survive the accident. The law firm that handled this case on behalf of the victim's adult children brought claims against the driver, he driver's employer, the developer at the site, and the contractor. Two of the defendany settled. The developer for two hundred thousand dollars and the contractor for an additional one hundred fifty thousand dollars. While the driver's employer did not deny liabity if the driver were liable, the employer claimed that the driver was not liable since the real cause of the accident was the developer who did not have a lookout person at the scene of the accident as the driver was backing up. After the trial, the jury found against the driver and the employer and ordered that they pay $1.3 million to complensate the victim's family for their loss.
These two cases show one of the most important lessons that lawyers helping the families of victims of motor vehicle accidents should learn and apply. Attorneys need to investigate the case in order to identify all potential defendants. In addition to the driver, other possible defendants include (1) employers as well as anyone who (2) owns any of the vehicles involved in the accident, (3) contributed to the accident or who can (4) be vicariously liable. Applying this lesson could make a major difference in the amount recovered on behalf of the family of a pedestrian killed in a motor vehicle accident.
Author Resource:-
Joseph Hernandez is an Attorney accepting fatal car accident cases. To learn more about how a pedestrian accident attorney can help you and about other vehicle accident cases including fatal car accident cases visit the websites
