Many wrongful deaths are the result of car accidents. This case was unusual as it involved a buggy.
There are many kinds of vehicles on the road today, and that includes a horse and buggy. More often than not, the horse and buggy transportation is usually found near areas where the Amish live. It is then not so unusual to expect to see them on the road and get around by this mode of transportation.
In this reported case, the driver who slammed into the back of a buggy came up over a hill and could not slow down. That begs the question of how fast the man was going, which is something the police are looking into further. The fact that the buggy was dragged so far down the road is a pretty good indication that the car was moving rapidly.
The accident happened when three young people were heading east on the highway. The driver of the car that hit them was also traveling east at a good rate of speed and ploughed into the slow moving buggy. While the car driver indicated that there was no slow moving vehicle triangle on the back of the buggy, you cannot miss a horse and buggy on the road in broad daylight at noon, which is when the accident happened.
As a result of being rear-ended, the buggy driver and his two passengers were ejected onto the road after being dragged several hundred feet. A 17-year-old girl was pronounced dead at the scene by responding emergency crews. The other two were taken to the hospital with the second female passenger being flown to an experienced trauma hospital. She has life-threatening injuries. The car driver did not sustain any injuries.
This will most likely become a wrongful death case. While there may be some question about the speed the car was going, ultimately the driver was handling the vehicle negligently or he would not have rammed into it. There are also two victims in this fiasco that will want to discuss their cases with a personal injury lawyer. Medical expenses these days are extremely high and both the victims that survived will have enormous bills and not have any way to pay them without suing the driver of that car.
In a personal injury case, the victims are entitled to recover compensation for their injuries, pain and suffering, lost wages, loss of consortium, and medical expenses. In a wrongful death action, the victim’s representatives may also recover expenses for things such as funeral and burial expenses, loss of wages and loss of inheritance. In both types of cases, there must be an element of negligence present and that negligence needs to have a direct link to the injuries sustained by the victims.
If you have been in an accident like this one, you will need compensation to pay your medical expenses and for other things such as therapy. Do not waste time dealing with an insurance company, whose only goal is to get you to reduce the amount of your claim. Call a skilled Arkansas injury lawyer and start asking questions. That is their job to get you the compensation you deserve.
Michael G. Smith is anArkansas personal injury lawyer and Arkansas business dispute lawyer, practicing personal injury law
and veteran’s benefits in Arkansas. Learn more by visiting Arkansaslawhelp.com
