The Kickham Comment - Boston Accident Lawyer Blog

Despite the new Massachusetts Universal Health Insurance law being in place for over a year now, a good number of people still don’t know how their medical bills are paid for if they are injured in a Massachusetts motor vehicle accident. Here’s a quick background:

Under the law governing Massachusetts motor vehicle accidents, the automobile insurance company that insured the car that you were in when the accident occurred, is the insurer that is responsible for paying for your medical bills up to an amount of $2,000.00. If you were not in a car when the accident happened, but were a pedestrian or riding a bicycle, then the first $2,000.00 in medical bills is paid for by the auto insurance company that insured the car that hurt you.

The section of the auto insurance policy which covers that first $2,000.00 in medical bills is known as Personal Injury Protection, or “PIP”. In the event your bills related to medical care exceed $2,000.00, those bills greater than that amount are submitted to your health insurance carrier, to be paid by them. This process is known as “Coordination of Benefits”. If you do not have any health insurance when the accident occurred, despite the mandatory Universal Health Insurance Law in Massachusetts, or if your health insurer denies payment for these bills, your “PIP” insurance should cover those bills up to a total of $8,000.00. This can be confusing, so if you’re injured in a Massachusetts motor vehicle accident, call us and we can help you sort these questions out. As a law firm that specializes in Massachusetts personal injury law, we can advise you as to the insurance specifics that apply to your situation, and assist you with the forms required to submit bills to the appropriate “PIP” carrier.

You don’t have to look far to see the terrible tragedies that occur every day as a result of motor vehicle accidents in Massachusetts.

This past Saturday (June 20 2009,) both a 3-year-old child and a man were killed when they were thrown from their sport utility vehicle in an accident on Interstate 95 in Attleboro, Mass. Shortly after 5:30 p.m on Saturday a green 1997 Ford Explorer, carrying four adults and two children, collided with a 1996 Chevrolet operated by a 19-year-old Pawtucket, R.I., woman in the center lane of I-95 between exits 2 and 3, according to a preliminary investigation conducted by Massachusetts State Police. The Explorer rolled over, fatally injuring the man and child and ejecting as many as three occupants, before coming to rest on the left lane of the three-lane highway. Rescue workers transported three adults and another juvenile to area hospitals with injuries. In addition to the two dead, a third person also suffered potentially life-threatening injuries, according to authorities. Ironically – and depending on who was responsible for this accident – the driver of the Chevrolet was not injured. While the crash remains under investigation with the assistance of the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and the State Police Crime Scene Services Section, no amount of investigation will bring back the dead from this tragedy, or console their families and loved ones.

This is a horrible story, made worse by the sight of children’s toys strewn over the accident scene from the car carrying the 3 year-old, as broken as the human bodies that lay at the scene. If stories like this can serve to do any good at all, it will be to: 1) First and foremost, urge drivers to drive defensively and carefully; 2) Always wear seat belts; and 3) Never, ever text or become distracted with PDA’s or cell phones (note: There is no evidence yet that cell phones, texting or PDA’s were involved.) Those inviolable rules will help you prevent or avoid a motor vehicle accident tragedy of your own. However, there is one other message that such an incident can remind people of, and that is of the paramount importance, if you are the victim of a motor vehicle accident, of choosing the best motor vehicle accident attorney you possibly can. No lawyer can turn back time and prevent that which has already taken place. But the right personal injury lawyer can and will make sure that your legal right to financial compensation for what you have lost or suffered, is maximized to the fullest extent possible under Massachusetts law.

Timing is often an ironic thing. Less than 36 hours ago, on Saturday June 13, I opened this new personal injury law blog, with a post noting the growing – and deadly – problem of Massachusetts motor vehicle injuries caused by elderly drivers in this state. In that post, I made the argument that too many elderly drivers are on the road in Massachusetts, that many of such drivers are as dangerous and deadly as drunk drivers, and I proposed tough new laws to test and monitor every two years, all drivers between the ages of 79 and 85, and to then draw the line at age 85: No one aged 85 or older in Massachusetts should be issued drivers licenses.

Later that same day, tragically, a 4 year-old preschool girl by the name of Diya Patel was struck by an 89 year-old driver while in a crosswalk on Route 138 in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Mortally injured, bystanders including a nurse did all they could to help, as did paramedics who arrived as fast as they could. Clinging to life, the girl was airlifted to Tufts Medical Center in Boston, as her family prayed and hoped for her survival. Diya Patel died yesterday, Sunday. Her family, including her grandfather Govind Patel, who watched the preschooler run down and tossed 50 feet by the 89 year-old driver of the Toyota Camry that struck her, is beyond devastation.

“My granddaughter, very, very loved,” said Patel, who lives with his grandchildren in a modest apartment on Bennett Drive in Stoughton. “Very, very loved. Very, very sad.” The dead child’s father, Sanjay Patel, was too overcome with emotion to speak.

Hello to my new readers! This site is a brand new blog connected to my law practice, www.kickhamlegal.com, and this post today is my ‘inaugural post,’ to open this blog. For almost a year now, I’ve already had a criminal law blog,and I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from my readers of that blog. It’s my hope that this new blog, dealing with only the legalities of personal injury actions in Massachusetts, and the legal rights of injury victims to recover damages for injuries they’ve suffered due to another person’s negligence, will bring my readers equally interesting and useful information.

So, let’s get to it: My first post on the subject of personal injury law in Massachusetts has to do with a fast-growing problem in this state, and across the nation: Elderly drivers and the often devastating injuries they (however unintentionally) cause in motor vehicle accidents. By the way, “elderly,” in the context of this post, means anyone 79 or older. (Sorry to any readers 79 or older, but a rose by any other name…)

Recently in Massachusetts, seven people were injured in Plymouth after a car driven by a 73-year-old woman jumped a curb and ran into a crowd gathered at a war memorial. It was the woman’s third accident since turning 70, authorities said. In Danvers, a 93-year-old man drove his car into the entrance of a Wal-Mart, injuring six people, after he mistook the gas pedal for the brake. Such Massachusetts car accidents can cause devastating injuries, including death. In my opinion as a Massachusetts car accident attorney, an elderly driver over the age of 85 poses just as deadly a threat when operating a motor vehicle upon the public roads, as does a drunk driver. That may sound severe, but it’s true. Road safety analysts predict that by 2030, when all baby boomers are at least 65, they will be responsible for 25% of all fatal crashes. In 2005, 11% of fatal crashes involved drivers that old.