Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

Family gathered recently to celebrate the life of 62-year old Hope “Anna” Vu, who died in a multi-vehicle crash on Tuesday evening. The driver of a white Mazda, pictured below, was weaving in and out of traffic at high speed on Highway 288 before he crashed into the rear of a black Acura sedan driven by Hope’s son. The Acura was then pushed into two other vehicles, including a red Volkswagen car. Hope was riding in the back seat of the Acura; Hope’s son was treated and released at Ben Taub Hospital but the son’s fiancee remained hospitalized with internal injuries.

The driver of the white Mazda, described as a Hispanic male around 20-years old wearing a red shirt and red jacket, jumped out of the wrecked vehicle and fled the scene. Despite searching with K-9s and a helicopter, the police were unable to track the driver down, including at the Pearland address of the registered owner of the vehicle. Call 713-222-TIPS if you have any information on the driver’s whereabouts.

You can tell from Channel 2’s interview that Hope was very close with her family and will be missed. Hope survived the Vietnam War and was brought to the United States by her family in the 90’s.

The hit-and-run driver’s white Mazda

The black Acura Hope Vu was riding in is pictured to the right

A violent car accident at 9:30 last night sent five people to hospital. Police say a Dodge Charger was speeding when it t-boned a red-colored Ford SUV on the passenger side. The crash happened at the intersection of Hiram Clarke Road and Brentwood Park Drive in Houston. The front passenger in the SUV was transported in critical condition, other occupants were transported with less life-threatening injuries. Police will attempt to determine whether alcohol was a factor in the accident (as is frequently the case with major accidents on the weekend evenings).

Photo credit: Channel 2 News

An umbrella insurance policy provides an additional layer of coverage above the coverage provided by an automobile insurance policy. An automobile insurance policy has three “pots” of coverage: (1) a per individual coverage limit for bodily injury or death; (2) a per accident coverage limit for bodily injury or death caused to more than one person; and (3) a per accident property damage coverage limit.

In the State of Texas all non-commercial drivers are required to carry a minimum of $30,000 per person for bodily injury, $60,000 per accident for bodily injury, and $25,000 per accident for property damage. See Texas Transportation Code Sec. 601.072. This is often referred to as a minimum limits policy, or a 30/60/25 policy. Anyone who has ever had any significant medical treatment will appreciate that $30,000 will not go very far given how expensive medical care is nowadays: you could easily spend twice that amount on a simple surgery for a broken wrist or arm.

Different insurance companies offer different policy limits that people can purchase, but the typical coverage increments aside from minimum limits are:
50,000/100,000/50,000
100,000/300,000/100,000
250,000/500,000/250,000
300,000/500,000/300,000

So someone with what would be considered a lot of car insurance may have up to $250,000 of coverage for bodily injury/death caused to one person. That sounds like a lot, and compared to what the average person carries it is a lot, but if the person insured under the policy causes a fatal accident or injures someone so severely they may not be able to work again, $250,000 is a drop in the ocean.

An umbrella policy typically provides an additional $1,000,000 of coverage above and beyond the coverage on an automobile policy. Relative to the cost of the primary automobile policy, umbrella policies are typically not too expensive. Depending on the demographics of the person buying the policy and their driving record, a $1MM umbrella may only cost a couple of hundred dollars for a year’s worth of coverage.

Having an umbrella policy will serve two important purposes: it will protect the assets and property of the person covered under the policy should they cause an accident resulting in very serious injury or death. It will also ensure that in the event of such an accident, the injured person or their family is more likely to be adequately compensated and the claim settled within the insurance policy limit.

A driver was ejected from his vehicle and fatally injured last night in a single vehicle accident on the Eastex Freeway. For reasons unknown, the silver-colored Honda Ridgeline pickup truck left the roadway around 11:45 p.m. on the Eastex Freeway near Keeland, striking some signs and poles before beginning to roll over.  The crashed pickup came to rest on the feeder road; the driver died at the scene.

A car accident early this morning at Crosby Freeway at Normandy Street has killed one person and injured another. Sergeant J.R. Roberts with Houston Police Department told local news that the driver of a Chevy Tahoe SUV was traveling on the U.S. 90 (Crosby Freeway) frontage road when the driver ran a red light and crashed into a Nissan Sentra passenger car on Normandy. The driver of the Tahoe was killed when the vehicle flipped and struck a pole; the driver of the Nissan was injured and transported to hospital.

Driver of this Tahoe was killed

Driver of this Nissan was injured

A Sunday morning crash on the Galveston seawall has killed a passenger and driver. A 2006 PT Cruiser, driver by 19-year old Kendall Reed from Crosby, left the roadway and struck a concrete pillar around 3:00 a.m. Sara Santana, age 20, was pulled from the vehicle by bystanders before it burst into flame with the driver still trapped inside. Mr. Reed died at the scene, despite emergency responders’ efforts to save him. Galveston P.D. are working to determine the cost of the fatal accident, including whether alcohol was a factor.

Scene of the Sunday morning car accident

19-year old Josey Scott of Shepherd, Texas was fatally struck by a hit-and-run vehicle while jogging eastbound on FM 2666, about four miles west of Shepherd. Texas Department of Public Safety investigators say there was minimal debris left at the scene of the accident, which happened around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday February 11th. Troopers think the hit-and-run vehicle may have been a teal or green-colored Chevrolet pickup truck, late 80’s model, with significant damage to the front of the vehicle. Anyone with information that may help law enforcement track down the driver who killed Josey and callously left her in the roadway should call Lufkin DPS at 936-699-7340.

15 Texas families who have lost loved ones to motor vehicle accidents involving texting while driving appeared at a briefing at the Texas capitol building to show their support for the Alex Brown Memorial Act. The bill prohibits drivers from using a cell phone to type, read or send a text message while operating their vehicle, though it would allow a driver to text if they were outside a travel lane and the vehicle was stopped. Fines would range from $25 to $200. The proposed ban on texting and driving would be statewide. There are already some localized bans on using cell phones in school zones. This is the fourth time that Senator Judith Zaffirini has proposed the ban.

Texas Dept. of Transportation data shows that cell phone use causing distracted driving killed 52 people in Texas in 2014, and in 2013 there were 459 fatal crashes involving a distracted driver, of which 56 deaths were caused by cell phone use.

A bill previously passed both chambers in 2011 but was vetoed by Governor Rick Perry. Critics of the proposed ban say that it won’t be effective and people will text and drive anyway. That’s not a very effective argument. You could say the same about speed limits on roads: why have speed limits when people are going to speed anyway. If speed limits were removed some people would drive dangerously fast because there would be no consequences to doing so. Perhaps if there was a consequence to driving distracted by texting, less people would do it and we’d all be safer.

A driver’s loss of control of his/her vehicle resulted in a single car accident on S. Brasewood at S. Rice early this morning. Police say the vehicle was heading eastbound when it left the roadway, traveled through the yards of several private homes, then crashed into a tree. The passenger was pronounced dead at the scene; police think excessive speed and alcohol were factors in causing the crash.

Update: the driver, 23-year old David Daniel Rodriguez, has reportedly been charged with a criminal offense in connection with the crash.

This morning's fatal crash

A man driving a newer model BMW SUV struck two male pedestrians outside a Houston bar, then tried to flee the scene of an accident. A group of people kept the man there until the police arrived; he failed sobriety testing and was arrested. He will be charged with DWI and failure to stop and render aid. On man was treated at the scene and the other, a 57-year old, was taken to Memorial Hermann in serious condition. The location of the accident was Fairview at Congress near downtown Houston.

2 pedestrians hurt by alleged drunk driver