Delaware Personal Injury Attorney Ben Schwartz explains to a viewer what could happen in a personal injury lawsuit involving a motorist with an unsecured load.

Hi, I’m Attorney Ben Schwartz,

Today we’re going to do a quick video on a motorist with an unsecured load. I got an email from Ted in Newport, Delaware and he says, “I was driving on I-95, there’s a truck in front of me with a toolbox and the tools are falling out all over the highway. I swerved to avoid them and the pickup truck kept ongoing. Is that a case?”

So, I guess the first question that I have, Ted, is was there an accident where you were injured? What happened? Did you just swerve to avoid the tools and you kept going and it scared you? Or is this a situation where you swerved to avoid them, you hit the guardrail, spun-out and broke your neck? What happened? What are your injuries? What are your damages as a result of this accident?

Once you move past that question, the driver who had the toolbox that was unsecured in the back of the truck just kept on going; he never stopped. So, the question comes up, how are you going to sue that guy if you don’t even know who he is? Who would you name in the lawsuit complaint? Maybe the police investigated and maybe that guy was identified or maybe another motorist followed him up the road and got a tag number or was able to pull him over and get his information, we don’t know.

But let’s assume that he drove up the road, never to be seen or heard from again. You have no idea who it is; nobody knows who it was. The guy just has gone now, what do you do? Well, Ted, that is what’s called an uninsured motorist claim. In Delaware, on your auto policy, if this happened in Delaware if you are a Delaware resident, which I’m assuming you are, on your auto policy you probably carry what’s called uninsured motorist benefits. If there’s an accident caused by a driver who flees the scene and is never heard from again, your uninsured motorist insurance coverage will pay you whatever you would have gotten from that at-fault driver. If you’d been able to locate them, identify them, and file the lawsuit against them. So, this is sounding to me like an uninsured motorist or a UM case. I hope that proves helpful and I hope that you make a successful recovery with your UM case.

If you would like to have help in regard to a car accident personal injury case, an uninsured motorist case resulting from a car accident or any other personal injury case, please feel free to contact me. If you have an interesting question about some quirk in the personal injury law or criminal law in the Mid-Atlantic region, shoot me an email. If you have a question, chances are other people out there on the internet are trying to figure out the answer to the same exact question. We can do a video and we’ll learn more about the law together.

Thanks for watching, I appreciate you and send me an email and let me know what you think.

You can also visit our Delaware DUI Website at https://www.schwartzandschwartz.com.