Articles Posted in Motor Vehicle Accidents

How can you read a story like this and not want to weep? The Post-Standard reports that a couple and their 4-year old son were returning home via Route 31 in Elbridge, New York Saturday evening when their Chrystler PT Cruiser left the road and hit a tree, killing the father-passenger, leaving the mother-driver in critical condition with head injuries, and, miraculously, sparing from any harm their 4-year old child in the backseat.

As a Central New York auto accident lawyer, I can’t help but be concerned for the future of the seriously injured mother and her child. In large part, their fortunes turn on insurance coverage. There are several types of auto insurance that are triggered in a case like this: (1) no-fault insurance; (2) no-fault death benefits; and (3) liability insurance.

Number (1), no-fault insurance, pays for basic medical coverage and lost wages regardless of whose fault the accident was, up to $50,000 for each injured person. Here, the only surviving injured person is the mother-driver. But she will surely run through her $50,000 no-fault insurance quickly (hospitalized for critical brain injuries). There will be nothing left to cover her lost wages, or her additional medical expenses. Bad news.

I was in Court the other day on a Central New York motorcycle accident lawsuit we filed some time ago. The motorcycle accident happened when a car, which was parked on the side of a highway in Lansing, New York, suddenly pulled out across the highway to make a u-turn, and in so doing, forced our motorcyclist client to drop his bike to avoid a collision. Our client was blameless — he had only a second to avoid a collision and did he best he could.

What position does the car driver’s insurance company take? A typical insurance defense position: “It was your client’s fault. He shouldn’t have dropped his bike. He should have steered around the car. He should have done this, he should have done that, Yadayadayada.” We tried to settle with them early on, but they stuck to their position that our guy was “at least 70% at-fault”. Our position never wavered: Our client was 0% at fault and the car driver was 100% at fault.

The defense was completely frivolous. All the case law in New York says that when a motorist is confronted with an emergency situation caused by another driver’s negligence, and has only a few seconds to react, he can’t be found at fault for having failed to react better. This is called the “emergency doctrine”. And it makes sense, right? How can you hold an innocent driver liable for reacting as best he can in a split second to avoid crashing into a car driven by some crazy fool who cuts him off?

As a Central New York auto accident lawyer, I know first hand what kind of automobile insurance people should buy, but don’t. Yesterday I blogged about the BIGGEST MISTAKE people make when choosing auto insurance. Today I am addressing the SECOND BIGGEST mistake they make. What is it? They don’t buy “spousal liability coverage”. What’s that? Let me explain.

Let’s say you are taking a road trip with your wife (or husband), your child and a friend. That makes you and three passengers. You make a mistake and cause a car crash (for example, you failed to see a stop sign, or you dosed off at the wheel). Everyone in your car is seriously injured. Of course, everyone is entitled to basic “no-fault” coverage for basic medical costs and lost wages, but that is very limited and can run out quickly when serious injuries occur. But your “liability” auto insurance should pay to compensate everyone in your car for their losses beyond no-fault, including pain and suffering (at least to the policy limit), right? Wrong! Everyone gets compensated EXCEPT YOUR SPOUSE.

Holy mackerel! How come? Because you didn’t buy SPOUSAL LIABILITY COVERAGE. You see, traditionally New York barred spouse-against-spouse liability claims. The idea was that a marriage makes one person out of two, so a spouse-on-spouse claim was like suing yourself, which was not acceptable. When that notion fell by the wayside, and New York began allowing spouse-against-spouse personal injury lawsuits, including car accident lawsuits, the auto insurance industry in New York did not keep pace. Automobile insurance policies universally continued to provide an exclusion of coverage for claims brought by one spouse against the other.

Most people I represent in Central New York auto accident cases have made a big mistake. (No, it’s not hiring me, really!). They did not buy the right insurance. I blog on this subject in the hopes that some of my readers will avoid this mistake. Let me explain.

I represent victims of car, truck and motorcycle accidents in Syracuse and Central New York every day. One of the first things I do when I am hired is to carefully examine all the relevant insurance policies. In a typical two-car accident, with no passengers, where my client was not at fault and the other guy was, I look principally at two insurance policies: my client’s and the other guy’s (there could be more policies applicable, but let’s keep this simple).

What am I looking for? In the other guy’s policy, I am looking for the liability (also called “bodily injury”) policy limit. This tells me the maximum amount of money the other guy’s insurance will pay to my injured client for his injuries. The minimum liability coverage in New York is $25,000 per injury and $50,000 per accident. Thus, in a minimum policy, my client would be entitled to a maximum of $25,000. It doesn’t matter how hurt he is — paralyzed, dead, whatever — $25,000 is the most he can get from that insurer.

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that a Syracuse University student was driving home to Albany in the dark hours of the morning (about 4:30 a.m.) when her car slid off the Thruway and onto the median. She then apparently got out of her car and tried to cross the westbound Thruway to make her way to the onramp in Herkimera a couple of miles west. Unfortunately, a westbound hit-and-run vehicle struck and killed her as she crossed.

When I read this report, the pressing question I had was, “where was her cell phone?”

The nearly ubiquitous cell phone has caused alarm among many, including myself, because of an epidemic of cell-phone distracted driving wreaking havoc on our roadways. I have personally brought several Central New York car accident lawsuits against drivers too busy yapping on their cell phone to pay attention to traffic signals, stop signs, or cars stopped in front of them.

Yesterday New York’s Appellate Division, Fourth Department handed one of our clients, a motorcycle accident victim, a great victory. Here’s the story: Our client was riding his motorcycle in a rural area of Ontario County when a farmer in a pickup truck failed to see him, failed to yield to him, and caused a car/motorcycle collision that ended up costing our client a leg and a life-time of excruciating pain.

The pickup truck was insured by an auto policy to the tune of $300,000, but that wasn’t nearly enough to cover the medical expenses, lost wages and permanent, unremitting pain and suffering. After a little hunting, we discovered that the farmer, in addition to the $300,000 auto insurance policy, had a $ 1 million farm insurance policy. Since the farmer was actually conducting farm business when the accident happened (had been checking on some crops and picking up a part for farm machinery) we figured the farm policy should be on the table.

Of course the insurance company disagreed. After all, insurance companies make their profit by disclaiming coverage whenever they can. Yes, I mean it; hanging their insured clients out to dry is how they grow their bottom line.

The Syracuse Post Standard today reported that a sleepy tractor trailer driver on the Thruway, near Bethlehem, was dozing at the wheel when he crashed into the back of a second big rig at 1:20 a.m. Only twenty minutes later, when police and rescue workers were on the scene to respond to the tractor trailer crash, a car, whose driver had also dozed off, slammed into the rear of the line of traffic stopped for the first accident, creating in the most literal sense a “double whammy”. Several injuries were reported.

So here’s our legal quiz question for the day: If you prove that the driver that struck your car had fallen asleep at the wheel, do you automatically win your case? The answer? . . . .(drum roll — Jeopardy music — whatever) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . ..

The answer is “NO”, but almost. Here’s how the rule works in New York: