Legal Matters
Presented by: Frank S. Buck, P.C., Personal Injury
This joyous time of year is full of excitement as we scurry around to the various holiday events of churches, friends, coworkers, and family. However, the holiday season is also a time of increased travel on the roadways, due to the hustle and bustle of wrapping up the end of the year.
Sometimes a person’s mind wanders off to checklists of the demands of the season, causing one to be more focused on the Thanksgiving grocery list rather than the road on which he or she is driving. If that person’s car veers into your lane and does not actually hit your car, but runs you off the road, causing you to crash and sustain injuries, but keeps driving and does not stop, you still have a valid auto insurance claim for personal injury if you have full coverage under your automobile insurance policy, including uninsured motorist coverage. In Alabama, if the identity of the driver cannot be determined for various reasons, including leaving the scene of a crash without someone obtaining the license tag number, and that driver causes injury, death, or damage to another person, that driver is called a phantom driver, driving a phantom vehicle in insurance terms. As in the example above, physical contact is not required between the vehicles to have a phantom vehicle claim.
Alabama law also allows pedestrians to have a phantom vehicle claim if they are injured by an unknown driver. Another example of a phantom vehicle claim is when a driver is injured when he or she hits something in the roadway that has fallen off a vehicle such as a mattress, boxes, trashcan lid, large pieces of trash, tire, air conditioning unit, or any other foreign object that came off a vehicle, but the vehicle or the driver’s identity of that vehicle cannot be determined. In a phantom vehicle claim, the injured driver’s own insurance coverage would kick in and pay any injury or property damage claims under his or her uninsured motorist policy. If the injured party has liability insurance only, not full coverage, including uninsured motorist coverage, he or she could not collect any compensation for injuries or property damage from a wreck caused by a phantom vehicle based on the terms of the policy.
Many people in Alabama have only liability automobile insurance but do not realize the importance of uninsured motorist coverage in case of an injury. Alabama law requires automobile insurance companies to automatically add uninsured motorist coverage to policies unless the insured specifically rejects the uninsured motorist coverage in writing when applying for a policy. Uninsured motorist coverage does not cost much and can go a long way if you are injured by a phantom vehicle.
-Rachel Buck, Frank S. Buck, P.C. Attorneys at Law have been offering professional legal services and serving Alabama citizens for over 49 years. We have experienced trial attorneys who have over 100 years of combined trial experience. You can reach us 24 hours a day at 205-933-7533. Please call us for a free consultation. Visit us at www.franksbuckpc.com.
