Bellaire police are reporting a wreck on the West Loop near Evergreen Street at about 11:00pm. The collision was shortly after the Houston Texan’s game ended Thursday night and caused a two-mile backup of traffic. Two vehicles were involved in the collision and two injured people were taken to Ben Taub Hospital — the extent of their injuries has not been released. The cause for the collision is under investigation. Click2Houston.com story here.
From the Texas Department of Insurance’s web site:
Texas law requires people who drive in Texas to be able to pay for the automobile accidents they cause. Most drivers do this by buying automobile liability insurance. Liability insurance pays to repair or replace the other driver’s car and pays other people’s medical expenses. It does not pay to repair or replace your car or for your injuries.
The minimum coverage amount required by the state’s financial responsibility law increased on April 1, 2008, to $25,000 for each injured person, up to a total of $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage. (The limits prior to April 1 were $20,000 for each injured person, up to a total of $40,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage per accident.)
The limits will increase again on January 1, 2011, to $30,000 for each injured person, up to a total of $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage per accident. Drivers will be required to comply with the new limits as their policies are issued or renewed on or after the effective dates.
This is good news for automobile accident victims. All too often the insurance coverage carried by a negligent driver is not sufficient to cover the injured person’s damages.
A 56-year old La Marque woman fended off an attempted robbery by a man in a Wal-Mart parking lot when she pulled a concealed handgun and opened fire. The woman struggled with the man shortly before 3:00pm as he apparently attempted to take her car. The woman, a concealed handgun holder, was able to grab the pistol from the console of her car. She pointed her gun at the man who fled toward a silver or gray SUV driven by an accomplice. The woman fired several shots at the fleeing SUV as it sped away, one of the bullets struck the rear of the vehicle. The attacker was armed with a pistol. Police are looking for a silver or gray SUV with a bullet hole and Texas license plate number NMG 714. The Houston Chronicle’s story is here and has drawn many reader comments, which are overwhelmingly in praise of the woman’s actions.
CNN is reporting that an oil rig owned by Mariner Energy has suffered an explosion this morning. The rig is located off the Louisiana coast. The site is 80 miles south of the Vermilion Bay and coast guard helicopters are responding. The Coast Guard is reporting that 12 oil rig workers are overboard. There was a total of 13 people aboard the rig at the time of the explosion and 12 have been accounted for thus far. It is unknown at this time if there are any injuries.
Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Tom Phillips (and his family) were sued yesterday over an automobile accident that followed a party last year at the Phillips’ home in Bastrop, Texas just outside Austin. A 17-year old girl became intoxicated at the party, held in the garage apartment of the Phillips’ son. Mrs. Phillips ordered everyone attending the party to leave when the noise level rose: the car accident happened as the girl drove away. The Phillips’ are being sued under social host liability: that they knowingly permitted alcohol to be served to a minor at their home, and that the minor became intoxicated as a result.
Houston lawyer Dax Faubus contends in the lawsuit on behalf of the parents of Audrey King, the 17-year-old who died in a drunken car crash shortly after leaving the party, that Tom and Lynn Phillips were “well aware that minors were getting drunk in their back yard.” Through their attorney, the Phillips say they didn’t even know a party was taking place in their son’s quarters in a carriage house behind their home.