Here in Atlanta we seem to have had a rash of very serious
hit and run car accidents during the last few weeks.
For example, on November 7, 2011, a black 2005 Chevrolet Impala critically
injured Nathan Powell, 25. Powell ended up on life support at Grady Hospital after he
got off a MARTA bus and was hit while crossing the street at the 1300 block of Joseph E. Boone Boulevard.
On January 3, 2012, just after a Falcons game, a car struck and
seriously injured a 5-year-old child after a Falcons game. Police charged a man with hitting the child and leaving the scene of
an accident, as well as driving under the influence.
Georgia law is clear that every driver should stop at the scene of an accident:
“The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident resulting in
injury to or the death of any person or in damage to a vehicle which is
driven or attended by any person shall immediately stop such vehicle at
the scene of the accident or shall stop as close thereto as possible and
forthwith return to the scene of the accident . . . ” O.C.G.A. §
40-6-270(a).
As a
Georgia hit and run car accident lawyer, I know why this requirement is so critically important. When a hit and
run driver leaves the scene of an accident, he leaves an absolute mess
in his wake.
One of my car accident clients – herself the victim of a hit and
run automobile wreck – explained to me that the fact that the man
who hit her left the scene of the accident caused her more trauma even
than the accident itself.
My client was hurt, and she sat in her car wondering how she would get
medical care because she knew she couldn’t afford it. She was worried
about the very things that Georgia law had tried to prevent her from worrying
about: car insurance, medical bills, and how to find the driver who hit her.
Georgia requires drivers to carry mandatory
automobile liability insurance so that people who are injured have some way to get money to pay their
medical bills and to compensate them for the injuries. When someone leaves
the scene of an accident in a hit and run car accident, the people who
are left behind do not have access to the insurance that the driver purchased
exactly for the purpose of giving some peace of mind to the people who
were hurt in a car accident the driver caused.
Worst of all, when someone leaves the scene of a car wreck, the people
who are left behind may well be in danger because no one calls the emergency
personnel. Under Georgia law, every driver who is involved in a car accident
in Georgia has a duty to “[r]ender to any person injured in such
accident reasonable assistance, including the transporting, or the making
of arrangements for the transporting, of such person to a physician, surgeon,
or hospital for medical or surgical treatment if it is apparent that such
treatment is necessary or if such transporting is requested by the injured
person.” Id. at (a)(3). Apparently people who flee the scene of
the accident do not realize how much critically worse their situation
becomes if someone dies or winds up very critically injured because they
did not get medical treatment in time. Even if they did not feel a moral
imperative to help the person who was hurt, they themselves would be better
off it they helped the person avoid a serious injury or death.
In addition, one of the things that bothered my client the most was a sense
that she had been violated. The person who hit her didn’t care enough
to stick around and exchange insurance information, much less worry about
whether she had been seriously injured.
Generally the police are able to track down the hit and run driver. Insurance
issues are complicated in a hit-and-run accident, however. Contact a
hit and run car accident attorney at the The Wallace Law Firm, L.L.C. to learn more about the car insurance
issues. We understand that the car wreck mattered a great deal to you,
and that the
car accident insurance company for the other driver needs to take responsibility for what happened.