Hit and Runs Can Ruin Your Life
If I knew then what I know now…
The First Hit and Run
That morning is burned into my head forever. I was 11, and it was a typical day in my middle-school life.
I woke up early to eat breakfast and drink a can of Mountain Dew, then decided to head over to the bus stop to meet my two best friends. It was a hazy, cloudy day and the air was full to the bursting with the humidity that made its home in South Florida. I pulled on my backpack and headed out the sliding glass door to hop the fence behind my house.
Our house was right next to a busy neighborhood street, with only the fence bordering the in-between. I typically hopped the fence as a short-cut to get out of my neighborhood, since otherwise it would’ve been a 10 minute walk through row upon row of giant, cookie-cutter houses.
When I was in middle school, I had two best friends. Delia was shy and artsy and a bit quiet, while Lisa was more outgoing and sporty. Lisa lived in my neighborhood and Delia lived in the apartment complex across the street. Every morning, we met up at the bus stop, and our little group of three seemed able to stand against any threat that came our way. That is, until I got hit by a car.
As I hopped the fence, I spotted Delia and Lisa on the other side of the road. It was Delia’s birthday and she was carrying balloons that Lisa had gotten for her, a huge grin on her face.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion as I began to cross the street. A car zoomed around the corner, coming straight towards me. The driver slammed on the brakes and came to a stop a few feet away from me — I figured I had enough time to cross and that the lady had stopped for me. I tried to cross again, just as she stepped on the gas and slammed into me.
It was so strange. I hit the hood of the car with a sharp crack and rolled onto the windshield, then fell down hard onto the asphalt on my butt. I sat there, dazed for several seconds, as the woman got out of her car and my friends rushed towards me.
The year was 2005, so not everyone had a cell phone at the time. The woman decided she would run over to work and call the police, then come back to stay with me until they came.
She came back, of course, and the police filed a report about the incident. But I always wondered: what would’ve happened if she hadn’t come back? What if she’d hit me and left — would I have had any recourse? I was only 11 and obviously not well-versed in the ways of the law at the time, but even then it was common to see billboards for personal injury lawyers and so I wondered.
The Second Hit and Run
I was involved in another hit and run when I was 23 and this time it was even closer to being deadly. It was another typical morning and I was headed to my job at the vape shop. I normally took the highway from my house to the shop, as it was a straight shot to my job down the road.
Just after I merged onto a mostly-empty highway, I signaled my intent to change over into the middle lane. Unfortunately, a large black SUV came through the left lane at an insane speed and changed lanes at the same time as me — in my blind spot. The SUV slammed into the driver’s side of my car, caving in my door and breaking off my side mirror. The impact was like nothing I’d ever felt in my life and left me with whiplash and neck injuries that still persist to this day.
I pulled to a stop at the side of the highway, shaking a bit. Although the SUV slowed down after hitting me, they didn’t stop, and I was too shocked to be able to get the license plate number. The cops never found him, and to this day I get angry whenever I see a black SUV.
If I’d known the identity of the driver, things would’ve been a lot easier. I would’ve sued him for as much as I could and the law would’ve been on my side as far as awarding me damages. From the law encyclopedia at Nolo.com, “Many states will impose “treble damages” on [those involved in hit and runs]. What this means is that any damages awarded to the plaintiff are automatically tripled, mainly to punish the defendant’s bad behavior.”
What Should I Have Done?
Looking back, there’s not much I could’ve done differently to avoid these accidents. Neither were my fault, but both accidents left me with injuries that will probably persist for the rest of my life. While getting hit by a car when I was 11 was relatively minor, it left me with a tail bone that bruises incredibly easily.
The other hit and run is really what gets to me. I had so much anger after it happened that I wish I would’ve thought to hire a personal injury attorney to make the person responsible pay for their actions. It’s still difficult for me to turn my neck to the right and, when sitting at a computer screen all day, my neck gets sore much more easily than it used to, which has greatly impacted my career.
In the past few months of my freelance writing career, I’ve done quite a bit of work in the legal realm, and learned quite a bit about personal injury law as a consequence. If I had pushed the police to pursue the person who hit me or even found a private investigator, I could’ve sued that reckless SUV driver for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to LV Personal Injury Lawyers:
Aggressive driving is one of the leading causes of motor vehicle collisions. These types of accidents may occur due to:
Speeding drivers
Drivers who pass unsafely
Drivers who tailgate
Aggressive drivers are some of the worst people on the road. They do not care at all for anyone else’s safety and think that the road belongs to them. This is not the case under the law, however, which will vary depending upon what state you’re in. Regardless, every state has laws against aggressive driving, and if you’ve been hit by someone who is driving aggressively, you do have legal rights to sue for damages.
What I’ve Learned
In my work in the legal realm, I’ve learned just how many protections apply to those of us involved in hit and runs with aggressive drivers. If anything like those past two incidents ever happens to me again, you can be sure that I will find legal counsel to represent me and my interests.
If hiring an attorney means that I am compensated for my injuries, then I’ll do it in a heartbeat. You should too — don’t hesitate if you are involved in an accident, because the results could have catastrophic damages to your quality of life.
Informational materials used in this article provided by:
LV Personal Injury Lawyers,
400 S. 7th St #450,
Las Vegas, NV 89101
(702) 800–4660
