Insurance Options

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Greenberg & Bederman

 

Washington Post, 1/5/11-A man has died in an area hospital several days after he was in a Christmas Eve car crash that also killed his father, Loudoun officials said.

Timothy D. Doane, 49, of Harpers Ferry, W. Va., died Tuesday. His father, David Doane, 76, of Tennessee also was killed in the three-car crash. A third man is in critical condition at an area hospital, authorities said.

The accident happened at 3:30 p.m. at Route 9 just west of Creamer Lane.

George Radston, 58, of Ashburn was driving eastbound in a Pontiac when he lost control on a curve, crossed over the roadway centerline and struck a 2010 Toyota Prius with the Doanes inside.

After striking the Toyota, the Pontiac continued to roll, ejecting Radston. He remains in critical condition. The Pontiac also struck a 2003 Volkswagen Jetta, and the 22-year-old driver and her passenger sustained minor injuries.

This is about as bad a scenario as you can get. It appears that the man driving the Pontiac simply lost control. It doesn’t say whether or not he was speeding or driving recklessly, or if he was driving while intoxicated. Sometimes, things just happen. Roads get icy or slippery or tires can lose traction. Not every accident is a cut and dried case of negligence or irresponsibility.

Those situations are the difficult ones to handle. If there isn’t a mistake or a miscue, or if nobody was texting while driving or playing with the radio, what do you do? How is this handled?

 

Generally speaking, the answer is that your insurance company and the insurance company of the other driver get together and hammer it out. In many cases, the solution ends up being that your insurance company handles your damages and the other driver’s insurance company handles their driver’s damages. This usually isn’t a problem if it’s a no fault accident with no injuries, but things get tricky if people get hurt.

Each state has minimum levels of insurance for drivers. This basically means that there is a minimum amount of coverage that you can have before you are allowed to drive. In Maryland, the minimum is $20,000 worth of coverage for one person injured in the car, with a $40,000 total for all passengers injured. In Virginia, its $25,000 for one person injured, with a $50,000 total for all passengers injured. In Washington, D.C, the minimum is the same as Maryland’s. That might seem to be a perfectly reasonable amount, but you should remember that $20,000 is not a lot of money when it comes to emergency room treatment. You should also remember that in Virginia, the “minimum” is actually just the insurance level. Virginia is one of the few states in the Union where you can simply pay a fee every year to the Department of Motor Vehicles and drive with no insurance whatsoever.

So what do you do? What happens if the accident is just one of those things, but the insurance doesn’t cover all of your physical damages? What happens if the car accident is in Virginia and the driver simply doesn’t have insurance? It has been our experience that insurance companies are profoundly hesitant to even get close to the maximum of what they are supposed to spend, and they often delay and deny payment in the hopes that their claimant will simply give up.

The smartest thing that you can do is contact an attorney for legal advice before it even gets to this point. Insurance companies are quite good at making it seem as if you have no options, when in fact you have several. An experienced attorney can help you determine the best course of action for you, and can also help you avoid the standard tricks of the trade of the insurance companies.

Greenberg and Bederman is a personal injury law firm located in Silver Spring, Maryland. We are currently offering legal assistance to people who have been injured in car accidents in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. We also help people who have been hurt in motorcycle or trucking accidents, as well as bicycle and pedestrian accidents. If you or a loved one has been injured in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington, D.C, contact car accident injury lawyers Greenberg and Bederman for a free legal consultation today.

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