Tyler, Texas — There was an accident reported in rural West Tyler this past Wednesday, March 4, that left a worker with the U.S. Postal Service with injuries. Police aren’t releasing much information right now, but they said that this happened west of Tyler on Old Chandler Highway, which is a two-lane road.
According to their reports, a woman in a U.S. Postal Jeep was headed eastbound on Old Chandler Highway when she started to slow down to deliver some mail. A driver behind her apparently didn’t see her in time and failed to brake, hitting the back of the U.S. Postal worker’s Jeep.
The accident left the U.S. Postal worker with injuries and she had to be taken to a hospital, though her condition hasn’t been upgraded yet. The driver of the other car wasn’t named either and it’s not clear if they’ll face any charges for failing to brake in time.
Map of the Accident (Approximate Location)
Commentary:
There’s something unique about Texas insurance law that most lawyer’s don’t know about. We’ve actually had cases concerning it, so let me explain a little bit. Commercial vehicles (aka, vehicles/cars/trucks owned by businesses) typically carry insurance policies with minimum coverage limits of $750,000 to $1 million. Now, vehicles and trucks owned by the state or the United States government are no exception, though not every single vehicle employed by the government (local or federal) has an liability policy.
What’s normally built into those policies is something called “Under-Insured Motorist Coverage,” which is essentially insurance that bridges the gap when you get hurt by someone who has very little insurance. $30,000 might sound like a lot of money, but with some serious injuries, one trip to the hospital will all but clean you out.
If your insurance policy has a UIM provision, then you can actually use those monies to fix the damage done. Of course, a larger commercial policy will have higher limits, which means there’s a much greater chance that all (or nearly all) of the damages can be taken care of. State and federal employees may be able to take advantage of this, but like I said earlier, not every vehicle owned by the government carries a liability policy.
— Grossman Law Offices
