Channel 13 News is reporting a police chase last night involving a 7-year old and 3-year old child. The sequence of events began just before 9:00pm at an apartment complex on Blackhawk. According to investigators, a husband and wife were arguing so the wife went to a friend’s house to escape the situation, but she still felt threatened by the husband so she called for help. When police approached the husband in his SUV he took off with his three and seven year old children in the back seat. Instead of stopping for deputies, the man fired shots at them. This then turned into a vehicle pursuit on the Gulf Freeway: during the pursuit the man was on the phone with his wife, threatening her. After briefly evading police the man’s black Chevrolet Tahoe SUV was spotted about 20 minutes later. The man had flipped the SUV at the Gulf Freeway and Clear Lake City Boulevard. The news report indicates the children were not seriously injured in the rollover accident.
Did you know…? In a single-vehicle accident where one family member is driving and another family member is injured, the injured family member can still make a claim under the insurance policy on the vehicle, however under the terms of the insurance policy, the amount the injured family member can recover is typically limited to the state required minimum liability limits for bodily injury. In the Texas the current minimum liability insurance all driver’s must carry for bodily injury or death caused to another person is $30,000. If you have been injured while riding in a family member’s vehicle and your family member was at fault, call Houston injury attorneys Smith & Hassler for an explanation of how such an insurance claim against a family member works.
An early morning crash Tuesday on Boone Road at Beechnut Street nearly took a turn for the worse but for a guardrail preventing a pickup truck from plunging into a bayou. The white-colored Ford Ranger pickup truck was hauling a trailer and traveling southbound on Boone Road when the driver veered the truck into oncoming traffic and caused it to crash into the rear of another pickup truck. The truck then crashed into a guardrail that was over a bayou. Firefighters had to cut through the truck to rescue the driver. Both drivers involved in the accident were taken to hospital for treatment. FOX News’ story is here.
Channel 13 News posted a brief report this morning of a collision involving an HPD police cruiser. The accident happened around 3:00 am on West 34th Street at Ella Boulevard near Houston Heights. There was heavy rain at the time of the crash. The officer was alone in her police cruiser heading westbound when another driver in a white-colored Toyota sedan made a u-turn in front of her. The officer was unable to stop in time and rear-ended the Toyota. The driver who pulled out in front of the officer said the heavy rain made it impossible to see the police cruiser. The officer’s airbag deployed and injured her arm, she was transported to nearby Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital to be treated.
Under the Texas Tort Claims Act (TTCA), there are limits placed on the amount of financial liability of a unit of government for death or injury caused to another person. Depending on the type of governmental unit, the maximum damages that may be recovered in a claim for personal injury or death may be either $100,000 or $250,000. In March 2009 a lady named Leigh Boone was involved in an intersection collision between two City of Houston fire trucks in the Montrose area. Ms. Boone was standing at the corner of the intersection with her bicycle when one of the crashed fire trucks rolled onto her. She died after spending two weeks in the hospital. The City of Houston settled with Ms. Boone’s family members for $225,000, just under the $250,000 maximum damages that can be recovered from a municipality under the TTCA.
The video below shows a collision between a passenger car and a man walking on a freeway: the video was shot in Russia. The man was walking close by a vehicle that appears to have broken down in a freeway travel lane. He was not looking in the direction of approaching traffic when the car came from his right side and struck him, throwing him many feet into the air. Despite how severe the accident looks, the man was fortunate to escape with only a broken leg. This video provides a powerful reminder of why Texas has a “steer it and clear it” law. Chapter 550.022 of the Texas Transportation Code governing accidents involving damage to a vehicle says: “If an accident occurs on a main lane, ramp, shoulder, median or adjacent area of a freeway and each vehicle can be normally and safely driven, each vehicle operator shall move the operator’s vehicle as soon as possible to a designated accident investigation site, a location on the frontage road, the nearest suitable cross street or other suitable location to complete the requirements of Section 550.023 and minimize the interference with existing freeway traffic flow.”
Sometimes there is a tendency for people involved in an accident not to move their vehicle from a travel lane until the police arrive so the police can determine who was at fault. If your vehicle is still driveable and there is a lot of traffic passing by, the safer approach would be to move the vehicles out of the roadway. If you have a cell phone with a camera, as almost everyone does these days, you can always take a couple of quick pictures to show the position of the vehicles before you move them.
Students from Seguin, Texas were injured in a school bus accident on Friday and law enforcement officials are thankful there were no fatalities. The school bus was on its way to Barnes Middle School and Seguin High School with nine children on board when the crash happened on State Highway 123. DPS troopers say a Chrysler PT Cruiser moved over to the shoulder to allow an 18-wheeler to pass. At that time the 18-wheeler clipped the PT Cruiser sending it into the northbound traffic lane and causing the PT Cruiser to hit the school bus head-on. That set off a chain reaction collision followed by a fire which spread to the four vehicles involved. All 13 people involved were injured, but thankfully survived what could have been a multiple fatality accident.
On Wednesday at around 6:15pm 42-year old Steven Louis Hunt of Galveston and a friend were walking a dog along the Galveston Seawall when they were struck and killed by a car. The car was driven by Matthew Green Shelton, age 27, and it was announced this morning that Shelton has been charged with intoxication manslaughter. Alleged drunk driver Shelton and his passenger remain in stable condition at UTMB Galveston after the accident. Police say Shelton’s bond has been set at $100,000 and Shelton will be booked into Galveston County Jail when he is discharged from the hospital.
