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
One person is dead as a result of a head-on crash early this morning between a Chevy Suburban and a Chevy Silverado pickup truck. The accident caused authorities to shut down FM 1960 in both direction near Farrell Road as they worked the scene. There’s no indication in the news media at the moment about what caused the crash.
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.
The male driver of a white colored Mazda Miata was seriously injured when he crashed into a Hyundai SUV after losing control of his car on Westheimer. The Mazda was eastbound on Westheimer before crossing the median and striking the westbound SUV. According to Channel 13 News, the driver of the SUV was not injured in the accident. Last night’s heavy rain in Houston may have contributed to the crash.
A pedestrian was killed in an accident in downtown Houston the afternoon of Tuesday October 4, 2016. The accident happened on Commerce Street near North Hamilton Street. The truck, which belonged to Texas Outhouse, hit the pedestrian at around 3:30 p.m. First responders were unable to revive the pedestrian using CPR. A witness named Charla Pickett interviewed by Channel 13 News said the victim was a homeless man and the truck driver didn’t realize he had run over the man until she told him.
Friendswood Police Department investigated a motorcycle accident around noon yesterday on W. Bay Area Boulevard in Friendswood. Aerial photographs taken by Channel 11 News’ helicopter showing a collision between the motorcycle and a red-colored Ford Mustang. The motorcycle appears to have t-boned the Mustang on the driver’s side front fender. A wider camera angle of the vehicles suggests that the Mustang pulled out of a driveway and was attempting to cross the motorcycle’s lane of travel, and the motorcyclist swerved to his or her left to try and avoid the crash.
TEXAS CITY, TX: Authorities have not released the name of a worker who died today after a fall into the water while working at the Marathon Galveston Bay docks. The worker, a scaffolding contractor, fell around 11:15 a.m. today, September 12, 2016. His body was recovered by the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office dive team around 4:00 p.m. Channel 2’s news story reports that the worker fell when the scaffolding collapsed, and describes him as a Marathon Petroleum Corp. contract worker. According to the news story, four other contract employees were on the scaffolding at Dock # 34 at the time of the collapse. Another workers attempted to dive in and save the man who drowned.
A pickup truck driver somehow ended up driving into oncoming traffic on the Hardy Toll Road in Houston last night, eventually crashing head-on into a tow truck. The pickup was driving northbound in the southbound lanes, the crash happened right around midnight. Fortunately both drivers are injured but expected to survive.
The alleged wrong-way driving pickup
