I was prompted to start my standard Summer Safety Tips series by hearing today’s tragic news of Alex Rovello.

Alex, a tennis player at the University of Oregon, tragically died this weekend after diving near the water fall of a popular Oregon swimming hole.

Sadly, Alex’s story is not unique.  Each year, thousands of people are injured from jumping off of cliffs or rock formations into popular swimming areas around the country.  People just don’t realize the forces involved in high jumping.

According to the US National Park Service, if you jump from 20 feet above the water, you’ll hit the water at 25 miles per hour.  The impact is severe enough to compress your spine, break bones or give you a concussion — and that’s if you enter the water properly.  If you slip or mistime your jump, it is almost like hitting concrete. If you jump from 10 feet, you can reach speeds of 17 miles per hour — fast enough to damage a car in a car wreck, and fast enough to hurt you.

But in most of our Texas lakes, rivers and creeks, there are additional risks.  With our drought and fluctuating water levels, it’s very difficult to know what hidden dangers lurk below the surface.  It’s difficult to know what rocks, stumps, or other dangerous items lurk just beneath the surface.

In many ways, I’m a bit hypocritical on this issue.  When I was a kid, my dad lived on a lake, and we were always happy to jump off small rock formations.  But doing this job, I’ve seen too many seriously injured, including a good friend of mine, trying to have a little fun.  None of that fun is worth a life-time of problems.

I’ve written this before, but few things cause me as much stress as walking in a parking lot with my kids.  I am scared to death that a car backing out of a parking space won’t be able to see them.  They’re 12 and 9 now so they’re getting older and bigger, but even for them, there are still a number of large trucks or SUVs that are designed so that their drivers, when looking out the back window, can’t see my kids, much less younger kids.

Unfortunately, it’s often a deadly problem.

Today, Yahoo had a cover story about the issue.  The story centers on the tragic case of Judy Nieman, who accidentally backed up in a bank parking lot and ran over her 9 year old daughter, killing her.  Sadly, Ms. Nieman isn’t alone.  Every year, there are an estimated 228 fatal backing crashes every year with another 17,000 other injuries.

That’s too many.

The government has passed laws mandating that new vehicles have backup cameras, which are generally effective at reducing these wrecks (when the cameras are actually used — that’s another problem).  Unfortunately, federal regulators have repeatedly pushed back the deadlines for the effective date of the laws.

That means its up to us to protect our kids.  We have to be vigilant about watching for backing up cars and walking next to our children so that at least we’re visible to drivers.  And when we’re driving, we need to be cautious about backing up ourselves.

Because for now, our vigilance is the only thing that will prevent future backing crashes in parking lots.

Many times, how we proceed in a case and the value of the case are governed by the amount and type of insurance available.  Thus, it’s important to know some basic information about auto insurance so you can understand how those decisions are being made.

Keep in mind that this is basic information.  There are a number of complex issues within each one of these areas.  For example, I’ve spoken around the state to lawyers regarding issues with uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, one of the areas below.  Lawyers could listen to day long seminars (maybe even staying awake) on each of these areas because there are so many intricacies that affect claims.  If you have questions, ask your lawyer about it.

WHO IS COVERED:

When you’re hit by someone, you need to know whether the person driving the car is covered by the insurance on the car.

Generally, a person’s automobile insurance covers that person, regardless of whether they are driving their car or someone else’s car, and anyone who is using that person’s car with that person’s permission.  For example, if Mr. Smith has an insurance policy covering his Ford Fiesta, the insurance would protect Mr. Smith while he was driving the Fiesta or any other car.  It would also cover anyone else driving the Fiesta as long as they have Mr. Smith’s permission to drive the car.

There are some policies that exclude particular people from coverage.  For example, if Mr. Smith had a son that had a bad driving record, the policy could specifically provide that the insurance was not covering Mr. Smith’s son.  These types of provisions can be especially troublesome when the other driver in your wreck has a low-cost policy, many of which have long lists of people who might normally be covered but who are excluded under the particular policy.

These coverage questions are particularly important when the driver of the car isn’t the owner.  One potential benefit in such a situation is that it might open up the possibility of two policy limits (one for the policy covering the owner of the car and one for the policy that the driver bought to cover his/her own car).  The importance of policy limits are explained below.

POLICY LIMITS:

Every insurance policy has a maximum amount that the insurance company will be required to pay, regardless of the severity of the injuries suffered by people in the wreck.  This maximum amount is referred to as the “policy limits.”

In most instances, you will see or hear policy limits referred to with two numbers — the per person and per occurrence limits.  For example, current law requires Texas drivers to carry insurance with limits of at least $30,000 per person and $60,000 per occurrence.

The first part of that is fairly easy to understand — in an example like that, the most the insurance company could be required to pay any single person in a wreck is $30,000.

The second part is more tricky.  The “per occurrence” limit is that maximum that the insurance company could be required to pay in total, regardless of the number of people injured in a wreck.

For example, if two people are injured in a wreck, the insurance company couldn’t be forced to pay either of them $30,000 and couldn’t be forced to pay a total to them of more than $60,000.

This applies regardless of the number of people hurt.  If someone with a $30,000/$60,000 policy causes a ten car pile-up that injures fifteen people, the insurance company is not required to pay more than $60,000 in total to all of the injured people.

While $30,000/$60,000 is the minimum allowed by law, those amounts may increase.  It is not unusual to find policies that are $50,000/$100,000 policies or even $100,000/$300,000 policies.  But policies much higher than that are very rare except in cases involving commercial vehicles.

PERSONAL INJURY PROTECTION (PIP)/MEDICAL PAYMENTS (MED-PAY):

These are two coverages that you might have purchased on your own auto insurance.

PIP can cover you two ways.  If you are in a car whose policy has PIP, then you are eligible for the PIP benefits if you’re in a wreck while in that car.  Similarly, if you own a car and your insurance has PIP coverage, then you qualify for those benefits whenever you’re in a wreck no matter whose vehicle you are in.

PIP will pay for your medical expenses and 80% of your lost wages up to the policy limits of the policy.

One benefit of PIP is that, unlike health insurance or many other types of insurance, you don’t have to reimburse the insurance company if you make a recovery from the person who hit you or some other third party.

Med-Pay is a poor substitute for PIP.  It only covers medical expenses (and not lost wages), and you do have to pay your insurance company back for your Med-Pay benefits if you make a recovery from someone else.

As a lawyer, I think PIP is a very important insurance.  I’ve seen a number of clients who find themselves unable to work due to a wreck, and their PIP benefits are the only thing that help them pay their bills while their case progresses. It is not expensive so I urge everyone who can afford it to buy it.

UNINSURED/UNDERINSURED MOTORIST COVERAGE:

This is another type of coverage that you buy when you purchase your own auto insurance.  It protects you if you’re in a wreck and the driver who causes the wreck either doesn’t have insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance.

If you bought UM/UIM insurance for your car, it covers you and anyone in your car when a wreck happens.  It also covers you if you’re in any type of auto accident, whether you’re in your car or not.  This includes providing coverage if you’re hit by a driver while you’re a pedestrian, riding a bicycle, or even sitting on your front porch.

Like PIP, I think it’s critical that you purchase UM/UIM insurance.  Despite laws to the contrary, there are a significant number of drivers out there who don’t have any insurance at all.  And when drivers have insurance, most only carry the state minimum of $30,000.00.  If you’re hurt and need even minor surgery, that $30,000.00 won’t even be enough to reimburse your health insurance company for your medical expenses.  You pay a lot of money for insurance to protect others; you should spend the money to protect yourself also.

I’m sure most of us have heard studies complaining about America’s traffic and how much it costs Americans to sit in congestion.  While that’s bad, it’s not nearly the cost of car wrecks.

Earlier this month, the American Automobile Association  (AAA) released a study, Crashes v. Congestion — What’s The Cost To Society?    The study found that the annual societal cost of car wrecks is $300 billion, more than three times the $98 billion cost of congestion.  That comes out to $1,522 annually.

Some of the more detailed findings were even more surprising, particularly the findings regarding traffic fatalities.  In 2009, traffic crashes killed 33,808 people in the US — 93 per day or nearly 4 every hour.  While we’ve made improvements, motor vehicle accidents are still the leading cause of death among ages 5-34 and, in terms of years of life lost, rank third, behind heart disease and cancer.  And based on Federal Highway Administration data, which assigns values to 11 components (including property damage, lost earnings, lost household production, medical costs, legal costs, and pain and lost quality of life), the average cost of a fatality is $6 million.  These are huge costs indeed.

But we owe thanks to AAA for going further than just making the findings.  The report is designed to bring awareness to the problem and to help advocate for increase traffic safety.  That means helping encourage drivers to be more safe, but also advocating to our legislators and other government officials to quit ignoring how big a problem this is.

We’ve represented people in a number of roll-over accidents, and I have made several posts, many of which emphasize the undiscovered potential claims that arise in roll-over cases.

Today, my friend Steve Lombardi, a Des Moines, Iowa personal injury lawyer, has a good blog post that talks about investigating roll-over accidents. 

Steve’s post walks you through a number of the things that are important to many investigations (such as measurements of skid marks, speed, road condition, etc). 

The only part of Steve’s post that really isn’t applicable to Texas law is his commentary on complicity as it relates to passengers who may have been drinking with a drunk driver.  In Texas, we don’t have a complicity defense — where the passenger’s claim might be completely barred.  Instead, we have a comparative responsibility defense — where the jury is asked to give a percentage of fault to all involved (driver, passenger claimant, etc.) and then the claimant’s damages are reduced by his own percentage of fault.

Other than that, he’s spot on.

If you’ve been involved in a roll-over collision and would like some help, please call us at (512)476-4944 or submit the case using the case inquiry form on this website.

Earlier this week, I had a post about rollover accidents and recognizing product defect claims.  In the post, I talked about how one of the biggest dangers of being in a rollover accident was being ejected or partially ejected from the vehicle.  If you are wearing a seatbelt and the seatbelt works properly, you should stay in the protected crush zone, minimizing your injuries  (you’ll be hurt, but you’ll likely survive).

Last night there was a rollover accident  on Hamilton Pool Road that might help prove my point.  There were three occupants in the vehicle.  One was ejected.  I’m guessing that the two drivers in the front seat were wearing their seatbelts and they remained in the car.  The driver in the backseat was probably the one that was ejected and probably suffered the most severe injuries of the three.  Fortunately, the report says that none of them suffered life-threatening injuries.

Now, the wild-card on my speculation of what happened is that the car caught on fire.  That’s unusual in rollover accidents, but it does make it possible that the people still in the vehicle could have suffered burns, which are horrific injuries.

Whatever happened, it’s another example of why it’s important to wear seat belts.  None of us ever plan to be in a wreck, but those things happen.  And hopefully you’re prepared to minimize the risk that you’re seriously injured.

Today’s video answers the question, “If you can’t work following a car wreck, who will pay your lost wages?”

Who Will Pay My Lost Wages If I Can’t Work After A Car Wreck? from brooks schuelke on Vimeo.

Today’s video answers the question, “If I’m entitled to a rental car following a car wreck, whose insurance will pay for it?”

If You Are Entitled To A Rental Vehicle Follow A Car Wreck, Whose Insurance Will Pay For It? from brooks schuelke on Vimeo.

As always, these are generalizations based on Texas law.  If you need specific information about your claim, please call a lawyer.