Motor vehicle crashes with injuries happen every day in and around Philadelphia, Sometimes, those crashes involve vehicles that have been stolen or carjacked.
That’s what happened to a woman on 17th Street in April 2020. A 23-year-old woman who was driving on 17th Street witnessed a crash behind her in her rearview mirror. A man fled that crash and jumped into the back seat of her car. She was then pushed out of her vehicle, and the man drove off. After the man fled the area, he struck a 20-year-old female pedestrian who suffered severe injuries. He then crashed the vehicle in a vacant lot and ran off. His identity remains unknown.
The Insurance Issue
When a driver is operating a stolen or carjacked vehicle, the driver obviously isn’t an insured person. That might leave the pedestrian victim without any legal recourse for the damages that she suffered. If the victim or a family member who she lives with had uninsured motorist coverage at the time that she was hit, she might still be able to obtain compensation for her injuries and damages.
Uninsured Motorist Insurance
The general rule is that Pennsylvania requires anybody behind the wheel of a motor vehicle to be covered by liability insurance in certain minimum amounts. Uninsured motorist coverage is also available, but it’s not mandatory like liability insurance. People who are otherwise insured must ask for it and pay a separate premium for it. Uninsured motorist insurance generally covers you or any member of your household who is a blood relative in the event that one of you are injured in a motor vehicle accident that was caused by an uninsured driver. In most cases, it even provides coverage for injuries suffered by a victim of a hit-and-run. Most policies even cover injuries when the victim was a bicyclist or pedestrian.
Making the Claim
An uninsured motorist claim is made with the insured person’s own insurer. Don’t expect to be treated fairly, no matter how long you’ve been loyally paying premiums to your insurance company. In its efforts to minimize what it will pay. it will do whatever it can to try and push some or all of the fault for the accident over onto you. You’ll quickly find out that you’re far from being in good hands or with a good neighbor. Your own insurance company will want to keep the premiums that you’ve paid over the years and not pay you a penny. That’s when you’ll realize that you should have retained a quality and effective Philadelphia car accident attorney from the start.
Contact a Philadelphia Auto Accident Lawyer.
There are many defenses that your insurer might confront you with in an uninsured motorist claim. Your best interests will be served by retaining an experienced and aggressive Philadelphia car accident attorney from the onset. After being injured or losing a loved one in an accident that was caused by the driver of a stolen or carjacked vehicle, contact a highly rated Philadelphia Auto Accident Lawyer such as Edith Pearce. Unlike the huge firms with dozens of attorneys and many different attorneys handling different aspects of your case, Edith Pearce is personally involved in every case that we handle. She genuinely cares about her clients and you will not be treated like just another case or file.