SS: My Friend's Wife Being Sued

[johnnymk]

About a year ago, she was driving on a street 3 or 4 blocks from where she lives. The speed limit is 20 or 25 MPH. As she is heading toward her home, a 4 year old kid on a bicycle with training wheels flies through a side street which has a stop sign into her car, breaking his leg. BTW, the kid had no helmet on his head.

The mother claimed that she thought her son was nearby and that he usually wears his helmet.

So a year later, she gets this notice.

Is personal responsibility totally dead in America today?

I already know the answer.

[Thesifer]

It's only dead if the other lady wins the case. She should be able to send that to her insurance in the "Bodily Injury" claim and have them fight It.. I would think?

[oblongmelon]

counter sue with charges of mental distress..you know, from the nightmares she has every single night of her life of the kid flying at her car...

[dbax791]

Is personal responsibility totally dead in America today?



Oh, definately.

How long have you lived here johnny? Nothing that goes wrong is ever your fault. There is always someone else to blame.

e.g. burn yourself with hot coffee - McDonalds fault

4 years old riding a bike on a public street with traffic? That is insane. Crap, I am more protective of my dog than that lady sounds with her kid.

Maybe UF can chime in, but my guess is that most of these cases never see trial - just lawyer-to-lawyer, insurance-to-insurance and settle.

[Kevster]

Is her insurance going to defend her? I have friend who is a lawyer for AAA here in California and he has to deal with this kind of stuff for AAA clients all the time. How much are they asking for? I'm curious if they're just trying to play 'settlement roulette'.

[johnnymk]

Is her insurance going to defend her? I have friend who is a lawyer for AAA here in California and he has to deal with this kind of stuff for AAA clients all the time. How much are they asking for? I'm curious if they're just trying to play 'settlement roulette'.

I will find out soon. Since it's Saturday today, I doubt that my friend's wife has contacted the insurance company about the matter.

[RoniMan]

About a year ago, she was driving on a street 3 or 4 blocks from where she lives. The speed limit is 20 or 25 MPH. As she is heading toward her home, a 4 year old kid on a bicycle with training wheels flies through a side street which has a stop sign into her car, breaking his leg. BTW, the kid had no helmet on his head.

The mother claimed that she thought her son was nearby and that he usually wears his helmet.

So a year later, she gets this notice.

Is personal responsibility totally dead in America today?

I already know the answer.
it's not necessarily dead, but i think it's on it's on it's death bed. some people still take responsibility for their actions. but it's the ones that don't that makes the news.

something similar happened to me. except i didn't break the kids legs. i came to a stop sign, stopped, checked for oncoming traffic. when i saw that it was clear, i proceeded to make a right turn, and BOOM!!! i hit the brakes, and turned to see a kids on his bike. i thought i killed the kids. long story short, the mom was VERY polite (i thought she was gonna bite my head off, and sue me). she explained that the same thing happened to her son, and they found out that since the bicycle is considered a vehicle, it has to follow the same laws. since it was on the wrong side of the street, it was the bicyclist at fault.

the funniest part of the story was that the EXACT same thing happened to me AGAIN one week later. (different boy, in fact, it was a 16 yr that was drinking vodka...yup, you read that correctly) :disa:

anyhoot, the moral of the story is that personal responsibility is not all dead, but it's close. and hopefully your friend's wife can argue that the bike should still follow the rules of the road. gl with all that

[johnnymk]

So my friend took the paperwork to his insurance company today. He also decided to countersue for the damage done to his car (approx. $500). It appears that his insurance company will not lie down and pay anything to the kid's parents without a fight.

It will probably take a few years before the matter is resolved.