Two people, one of whom was a two-year old child, were taken to hospital today after a crash involving a preschool bus. The two-year old student was the only passenger on the bus. The accident occurred at approximately 8:00am in North Houston. The two-year old was seated in a child restraint at the time. According to initial reports the bus rolled over onto its side in the collision. The Chronicle’s story is here.
The American Association of Justice has released a top ten list of the worst insurance companies in America. Admittedly trial lawyer who represent injured plaintiffs, either in third party claims or in first party claims against insurance companies, have an interest in turning the public against insurers. By the same token, trial lawyer deal with insurance companies daily and have first hand experience of how different insurers handle claims. The ten worst insurance companies from the AAJ’s 2010 list are as follows:
1. Allstate click here for CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s report on Allstate’s claims practices
2. UNUM
3. AIG
4. State Farm
5. Conseco
6. WellPoint
7. Farmers
8. UnitedHealth
9. Torchmark
10. Liberty Mutual
The AAJ’s full report on the 10 worst companies is available here.
A motorcyclist died in a collision on the North Freeway near FM 1960 at around 6:00am Thursday October 7, 2010. Witnesses told law enforcement officials that the motorcyclist Joell Herrera had been traveling at high speed and changing lanes prior to colliding with a Ford Explorer. After the collision Herrera was thrown from the motorcycle and the bike exploded. Herrera was wearing a motorcycle helmet but died at the scene from his injuries.
A 2-year old girl in Santa Fe, Texas is lucky to be healthy after being rescued by her mother when she became stuck in a car’s electric window. A spokesperson for Galveston County rescue services said the girl had been playing in the back seat of a parked vehicle and had leaned out of the window. The little girl was apparently distracted by a dog outside the car. Her mother walked to the rear of the vehicle to retrieve something from the trunk and got distracted speaking with a neighbor when the little girl got stuck. It is believed the mother revived her child possibly by performing CPR. When rescue crews arrived the girl was conscious and crying. The girl was transported by ambulance to Clear Lake Regional Hospital. The Galveston Daily News story is here. A 2004 Washington Post article reported that power windows were thought to be responsible for 2 to 4 child deaths per year, a relatively small portion of the 43,220 people killed annually in car accidents in the U.S. Some safety advocates argue any such deaths are unnecessary and avoidable: U.S. made cars typically use a rocker style switch that can cause a window to close if someone accidentally leans on the switch. Most Asian and European manufactured vehicles use a switch that must be pulled up, rather than pushed down, to cause the window to raise, reducing the risk of accidental closure.
Many people wonder if they have to or should get a police report made when they are involved in an accident. The answer to the question “Should I get a police report if I am in an accident?” is usually yes. The purpose of a police accident report (sometimes referred to as a crash report) is to document who was involve, record important information and to document the officer’s investigation and conclusions as to who (if anyone) was at fault. In no particular order, a police accident report will include the following information:
* names of the drivers involved, driver’s addresses, driver’s license numbers, date of birth, driver’s license status (valid, invalid, etcetera), any restrictions (e.g. corrective lenses)
* year, make, model, color, license plate, VIN of the vehicles involved
* street(s) where the accident happened and applicable speed limits
* insurance company for each driver
* the road conditions, weather conditions, lighting
* witness information (if any)
* location and severity of the damage to the vehicles, where the vehicle were towed and the towing company
* who was injured and the apparent severity of their injuries
* statements of the drivers and witnesses
* not-to-scale diagram of the scene of the collision
* the officer’s opinion on who was at fault
* who was issued a citation, and what they were cited for
* the officer’s patrol area, badge number and name
The list above is not exhaustive, there is other information within a police report that is not included here. Police officers are trained to investigate accidents and gather information that is important, so having a police officer make a report for your accident saves you the worry of trying to get all the necessary information yourself. Police officers should also investigate the accident in a neutral way, not favoring one side over the other, and witnesses may feel more comfortable telling the neutral police officer what they saw rather than telling their story to the drivers involved.
Police officers in Texas now have the ability to verify at an accident scene whether a particular vehicle has valid liability insurance. Having a police report can also speed up the claims process and give the other driver’s insurance company information they need to make a liability decision and decide whether they will pay a claim.
While people often want to be nice to the other driver and feel hesitant to get the police involved, particularly when the other driver is at the scene saying they are at fault, unfortunately sometime people who have caused an accident get home, have a chance to cool off and start rethinking whether they were really at fault. If there are no witnesses and no police report, you may be faced with a swearing match situation (your word against the other driver) which can get messy.
Some clients have told us in the past then when they called the police to request a report be made, they were told that if the vehicles can be moved from the roadway the drivers should swap information and go on their way. You may need to politely push to have an officer sent to make a report, and it may mean you have to wait. Section 550.062 of the Texas Transportation Code says that an officer who investigates an accident resulting in injury to or death of a person or damage to property to the apparent extent of $1,000 or more must make a report and file that report with their department within 10-days of the date of the accident.