California Personal Injury Lawyers Blog
Edwin Jackson, a professional football player with the Indianapolis Colts, was killed in a car accident on Sunday with a suspected drunk driver. The wrongful death car accident occurred on the I-70 freeway. According to ESPN, Jackson was using a ride sharing service, possibly Uber or Lyft, when the accident occurred.
Jackson and the driver of the Uber or Lyft vehicle were apparently outside of the car, on the side of the road, when a man who was allegedly operating his Ford F150 pick up truck while intoxicated, drove onto the shoulder of the highway and struck them. Both the Uber/Lyft driver and Jackson were killed.
In a freak occurrence, an Indiana State Trooper who was responding to the incident, ended up striking one of them with his vehicle. The body was in the center lane of the freeway when it was struck by the police officer.
It has not yet been officially confirmed if the second impact contributed to the death or if the body was already deceased at the time it was hit by the police car. It appears the ladder is probably the case, but an autopsy will probably have to be done to confirm the cause of the death.
Typically, Uber and Lyft have one million dollars in insurance coverage for a situation like this. Since the driver who caused the accident probably has minimal or no coverage, as he was apparently in the country illegally and did not have a license, the wrongful death case will fall under uninsured motorist coverage. Uninsured motorist coverage is what covers a person if the other person does not have insurance at the time of the collision.
Uninsured motorist coverage also kicks in when the other person has insufficient coverage and you have more uninsured motorist coverage. In California, if the other person has $15,000 coverage and you have $100,000 in uninsured motorist coverage, you may be able to get the $15,000 coverage from the other party and $85,000 from your uninsured motorist coverage. This is referred to as underinsured motorist coverage.