Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

An 18-year old male driver and his 17-year old female passenger miraculously survived a crash with an 18-wheeler that ripped the roof completely off their vehicle late Monday evening. The couple’s pickup went under the trailer of an 18-wheeler that had pulled out onto the roadway at Decker near Oakland in Baytown, Texas.

Houston personal injury attorneys Smith & Hassler have been helping injured Texans get compensated for serious injuries from 18-wheeler accidents since 1989.

One person is dead after a car accident on Almeda Road and Reed Road at 11:30 p.m. last night. A black-colored Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck crashed into the rear of a silver colored sports car, possibly a Nissan 370ZX. Law enforcement told the media that the pickup was traveling at a very high rate of speed; the impact propelled the sports car forward into the front bumper of a Houston Rodeo bus that was parked and unoccupied at the time. The driver of the pickup appeared disoriented after the crash to bystanders who rendered aid, and there will be an investigation to determine if alcohol played a role. The driver of the Nissan died at the scene.

The crash victim’s vehicle

One person died and several others were injured early Sunday morning in a two vehicle accident on Honea Egypt Road in Lake Conroe. A 17-year old male was driving a Dodge pickup truck and pulling a flatbed trailer. He took a turn too wide and collided with a silver passenger car occupied by a family. A woman in the passenger car was killed and a man and two women were transported to hospital for treatment.

Channel 13 News recently published a story about a couple in Houston, Dr. David Perucca and his fiancee Sherri Witt, who were injured in a collision with a vehicle that was fleeing law enforcement. Apparently the fleeing suspect made a U-turn to avoid a spike strip and crashed into the couple’s BMW Z4, totaling it, and sending them to the emergency room where they’ve accumulated about $15,000 in medical bills (in our experience, that is far from an unusually high amount…it is actually pretty typical).

The main theme of the story though was that Mr. Perucca says he got a less than enthusiastic response from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office when he contacted them about getting restitution from 50-year old Douglas Pittman, the driver of the other vehicle. Sometimes victim restitution is made part of a plea agreement in a criminal case: the criminal is required to pay money compensation to the victim. Dr. Perucca told Channel 13 that the DA’s Office’s response to his request was, essentially, deal with it yourself.

Smith & Hassler has been handling motor vehicle collision cases since 1989 and has handled tens of thousands of auto cases. The best way to protect yourself, your vehicle and your family from injuries or damage caused by an uninsured person is to make sure you have uninsured motorist insurance on your auto policy. Many auto insurance policies contain a coverage exclusion when the vehicle is being used in the commission of a crime, and if a vehicle is stolen and in an accident, there is never coverage because the thief was not a permissive user of the vehicle.

Unfortunately we have to sometimes tells clients: “The other driver did not have valid insurance.” The question that follows is frequently: “Well can’t I go after the other driver to pay my damages?” The answer technically yes, you can sue the other driver, but as a practical matter there is usually no point. That’s because you can’t collect money that a person doesn’t have, and if the other driver doesn’t have the money to pay for car insurance they probably don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to pay your damages.

Certainly nobody would fault Dr. Perucca and his fiancee for wanting the guy who caused their damages to pay them. But the best protection any Houston-area driver can have is to be sure there is uninsured motorist coverage on your auto policy.

The inbound Gulf Freeway was closed this morning after a collision involving an 18-wheeler and a pickup truck. The 18-wheeler was hauling concrete barriers when the driver noticed the big rig was starting to catch fire. He attempted to pull over onto the shoulder, but when he did, struck a pickup truck parked in the shoulder lane. The 18-wheeler then traveled an additional 1/4 mile or so according to Channel 13, before it stopped and was engulfed by flames. The injured driver of the pickup truck was taken to Clear Lake Regional Medical Center.

Crews work on the burned 18-wheeler

The afternoon of Wednesday January 4, 2017 a Cleveland ISD school bus traveling on FM 1050 near Highway 105 left the roadway and entered a ditch. According to Channel 2’s story, the bus driver swerved to avoid an incident ahead involving other vehicles. The bus was carrying 4th and 5th graders from Eastside Intermediate School at the time. While many children were taken to the hospital to be evaluated, it sounds like, fortunately, serious injuries were avoided.

An early Sunday morning crash in Tomball claimed the life of a motorcyclist when a woman driving a Mercedes G Wagon SUV pulled in front of the biker.

HCSO lists the time of the crash as around 2:00 a.m. The woman’s SUV was traveling eastbound on Spring Cypress Road near Highway 249 when she commenced a left turn in the path of the westbound motorcycle. The motorbike struck the passenger side rear door of the Mercedes causing extensive damage. The motorcyclist died at the scene.

Damage to the Mercedes SUV

KHOU’s news story indicates that HCSO believe alcohol was a factor in the crash for the woman driving the Mercedes. If she is determined to have been legally intoxicated at the time of the collision she could face a charge of intoxication manslaughter.

A chain reaction car accident injured two drivers in the Cypress area last night, including a Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy. According to KHOU the crash started around 10:20 p.m. when a red Toyota Camry traveling eastbound on FM 1960 crashed into the rear of a Chevy Cruz. The Chevy was left disabled with its lights off in a travel lane when seconds later the HCSO patrol vehicle struck the Chevy from behind, knocking it into opposing lanes.

Both the driver of the Chevy and the Deputy were taken to hospital, the Deputy with possible broken bones. At Smith & Hassler we always advice against persons without legal representation giving statements to insurance companies, but that is particularly true of chain reaction collisions like these.

According to witnesses a serious accident was caused by a pickup truck that ran a red light on FM 2920. A male driver and female passenger were heading southbound on Meadowhill traveling approximately 50-60 MPH when the pickup collided with a Chevy Tahoe SUV traveling on FM 2920. The female passenger in the pickup was taken to hospital in critical condition and two occupants in the SUV were also transported to the hospital.

A man was loading a lawnmower onto his truck when a speeding driver struck a parked car, pushing it into the man and seriously injuring him. The accident happened late Wednesday evening in the 10,000 block of Pine Cone Lane in Houston, and was witnessed by the man’s son David Mena, who was interviewed by Channel 13. The 20-year old driver who was at fault for the crash fled the scene, leaving the victim unconscious. The victim was transported by Life Flight helicopter in critical condition, and police were able to arrest the suspect who had been chased by the victim’s neighbors.