Identifying a driver who causes a fatal accident and then flees the scene can be one of the police’s most difficult tasks. In a recent truck and car accident on I-15 just north of San Diego County, however, the driver of the vehicle that caused the accident gave police a present by hiring a tow truck to haul his car home after he left the scene of the collision.
The accident occurred in the early morning hours on southbound I-15 at the Scripps Poway Parkway exit. A Cadillac crashed into a Honda carrying a mother, her two children and the mother of the driver. The Honda was disabled and remained in the traffic lanes. The driver of the Cadillac stopped momentarily on the right shoulder and then fled the scene. Moments later, while the driver and her three passengers remained in the vehicle, the Honda was struck by a pick-up truck. The Honda was so mangled by the two collisions that police had difficulty extricating the family. The driver’s mother and one of the driver’s two children – a two-year-old girl – were pronounced dead at the scene. The driver and her other daughter were taken to nearby hospitals with what police described as “major” injuries.”
Meanwhile, the driver of the Cadillac left the freeway and stopped at a nearby filling station, where he called a towing company to tow the damaged Cadillac to his home. When the driver of the tow truck later heard the story of the accident on television, he called police and said that he had driven the suspect to his residence. Police arrested the driver the next day and charged him with DUI, felony hit-and-run and vehicular homicide.
Hit-and-run accidents cause problems for the victims of the collision, as well as the police. In this case, for example, the family of the grandmother and young girl have claims against the Cadillac driver (and perhaps against the pickup driver) for wrongful death, and the mother and her other daughter have claims for their injuries. But for the driver’s decision to call a tow truck, the family might never know who was at fault for the accident. With the help of an experienced attorney, the survivors of the accident can pursue claims for their medical expenses, lost income, loss of companionship and pain and suffering.
Source: NBC San Diego, “Grandmother and Toddler Killed in I-15 Hit-and-Run, DUI Suspect Arrested,” Elena Gomez and Monica Garske, Sept. 10, 2016
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