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Head-On With Tractor-Trailer Kills Georgia Motorist

A car traveling south in the northbound lane on U.S. 1 in Georgia collided head-on with a tractor-trailer Wednesday night. The passenger died. He's been identified as 33-year-old Charles Allen Music of Lyons, Georgia who was thrown from the Ford Mustang at the Ware-Charlton County line.

The driver of the Mustang, identified as Joshua Grantham, was in Shands Hospital reported to be in good condition this morning. The trucker was taken to Satilla Regional Medical Center in Waycross and was reported to be injured, as was his passenger. No more information is available on their condition because of privacy laws.

For some unknown reason, the Mustang was heading south in the northbound lanes of the highway. The collision with the northbound Freightliner truck is under investigation but a contributor to the article says that they likely got on the wrong side of the road somewhere thcoarse Waycross, Georgia, as it has happened before.

No word on whether seat belts were used, but it is somewhat unusual for a driver to survive a passenger unless one was buckled in and one was not.

Today, vehicles are designed with safety features and side and front airbags, but the seat belt remains the easiest and most cost-effective life saver there is. The moment it takes to buckle up and to secure your children is worth it. Might even be worth a life.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Allstate Loses Appeal of $16 Million Bad Faith Verdict

Apparently even when someone agrees to Allstate notorious lowballing techniques, the “good hands” insurers can’t get it together to complete the financial fleecing.

Edward and Virginia Johnson were hit head-on by a drunk driver in March of 2000 and sufferuddy life-threatening injuries that hospitalized both of them for over a month. Their medical bills totaled $320,000, but they agreed to Allstate’s typically low offer of $50,000.

Then Allstate didn’t respond–for six months. The Missouri state statutory limit for acceptance is 60 days. So the Johnsons got nothing. And then they sued Allstate.

They had been awarded acircular $5 million from the drunk driver who hit them, but agreed not to exeadorable the judgment in agreement for the driver’s portion of his piece of the lawsuit against Allstate. Their discount might have been a tad complicated, but the outcome wasn’t: Allstate was hit with a massive $16 million verdict that included $5.8 million in compensatory damages (plus 9 percent interest) plus $10.5 million in punitive damages.