Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

Two people were killed and several others injured in a four vehicle accident at the intersection of Beltway 8 feeder and Antoine. According to media accounts of the accident, it started when a 17-year old driving a Dodge Ram pickup truck ran through a red light, colliding with an SUV occupied by a family of four. A 34-year old woman and a 15-year old boy in the SUV lost their lives; the father, driving the SUV, and a daughter, riding in the rear seat, were transported to hospital.

After it was struck by the pickup truck the SUV rolled onto two other vehicles causing additional injuries to those occupants.

An article that recently appeared on the Houston Chronicle’s web site states that Houston leads the entire nation in red light runner fatal accidents. T-bone type crashes have perhaps greater potential to cause serious injury or death than any other type of motor vehicle collision because of the proximity of the point of impact to the occupants of the vehicle.

Running a red light to try and get where you are going a few minutes sooner is simply not worth the risk and, as in his tragic case, endangers the lives of other innocent drivers.

The victim’s SUV and the Dodge Ram that ran the red light

The victims’ Tahoe where it came to rest

A car accident early this morning at Crosby Freeway at Normandy Street has killed one person and injured another. Sergeant J.R. Roberts with Houston Police Department told local news that the driver of a Chevy Tahoe SUV was traveling on the U.S. 90 (Crosby Freeway) frontage road when the driver ran a red light and crashed into a Nissan Sentra passenger car on Normandy. The driver of the Tahoe was killed when the vehicle flipped and struck a pole; the driver of the Nissan was injured and transported to hospital.

Driver of this Tahoe was killed

Driver of this Nissan was injured

A Houston police officer and a driver he pulled over were injured this morning when their vehicles were hit by a suspected drunk driver in a Chevy Tahoe. The accident happened at around 1:45 a.m. on the North Freeway (I-45 N) near Airline Drive. The officer was out of his vehicle and the police cruiser was parked behind a motorist the officer had just pulled over when the Tahoe came from behind and crashed into the police cruiser, propelling into into the officer and the stopped driver’s vehicle. The driver of the Tahoe was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, and the officer and the other motorist were taken to the emergency room to be checked out. Channel 11’s story is here.

Photo credit" KHOU Channel 11 News

Photo credit: KHOU Channel 11 News

Channel 13 News is reporting a police chase last night involving a 7-year old and 3-year old child. The sequence of events began just before 9:00pm at an apartment complex on Blackhawk. According to investigators, a husband and wife were arguing so the wife went to a friend’s house to escape the situation, but she still felt threatened by the husband so she called for help. When police approached the husband in his SUV he took off with his three and seven year old children in the back seat. Instead of stopping for deputies, the man fired shots at them. This then turned into a vehicle pursuit on the Gulf Freeway: during the pursuit the man was on the phone with his wife, threatening her. After briefly evading police the man’s black Chevrolet Tahoe SUV was spotted about 20 minutes later. The man had flipped the SUV at the Gulf Freeway and Clear Lake City Boulevard. The news report indicates the children were not seriously injured in the rollover accident.

Did you know…? In a single-vehicle accident where one family member is driving and another family member is injured, the injured family member can still make a claim under the insurance policy on the vehicle, however under the terms of the insurance policy, the amount the injured family member can recover is typically limited to the state required minimum liability limits for bodily injury. In the Texas the current minimum liability insurance all driver’s must carry for bodily injury or death caused to another person is $30,000. If you have been injured while riding in a family member’s vehicle and your family member was at fault, call Houston injury attorneys Smith & Hassler for an explanation of how such an insurance claim against a family member works.