Auto Insurance, a very important and widely used insurance policy covers various expenses and gives compensation for damages in cars. But the question of concern arises by many is that does auto insurance policy give coverage to those who crash their vehicles in a high speed chase?
Texas Supreme Court
The answer to this question is still being decided on by the Texas Supreme Court. They are currently deciding whether to give coverage to such a damage or not. It is on the court to decide whether an auto insurance company should give coverage to such damage and pay medical for the driver who got injured in a high speed chase of the police.
Richard Gibbons Car Accident
Recalling an incident that took place in 1999, the scholar Richard Gibbons was running his car and speeding away from the law officers in San Marcos, Texas that resulted into a smash of his pickup truck into Greg and Maribel Tanner’s vehicle. This incident caused such an effect that the accident left their 7-year-old son Roney Tanner in a coma for a week. He continued to be in hospital for a month and undertook physical therapy for the next five years.
In this case, the Tanner’s expected Gibbons’ auto insurance policy amounted to a coverage of $300,000 for damages. They expected this to pay the medical bills of their son’s injury. Their expectations were crushed as it did not happen the way they expected it to be. This happened because the auto insurance company refused to pay to them saying that the auto insurance policy was violated by Gibbons as he had led police on a high-speed follow up that exceeded 100 mph that also against oncoming traffic.
Thus till now the courts have sided and agreed to rely on the terms of the auto insurance company. In Ohio, the state laws void coverage for deliberate and willful acts of reckless driving that result into crashes.
The lawyer hired by the Tanners’ says that it is not enough for an auto insurance policy to void due to reckless driving. It was also clear and also reported by the police that Gibbons had tried to clam his brakes to avoid any crash and thus it was not an intentional harm caused to the Tanners.
Who Is At Fault
The question that rises again that who is at fault in this case as the damage is caused to both. The Tanners are definitely not at fault as they were peacefully driving and following all the local traffic laws. It is unfair that the Tanner family be stuck with the excessive medical bills for a damage that was caused because of someone else’s carelessness.
If the Tanner family is innocent than even the auto insurance company is not rightly to be held liable. It is not the company’s fault at all if Gibbons was running in front of a police chase and driving recklessly.
The company however can pay to the Tanner family out of ethics and human compassion but it is difficult in this tight financed time and recession on it’s peak.
Therefore, the Texas Supreme Court is still debating on this issue and are expected to give their decision next year.
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