Hit & Run Accidents
Video Transcript:
Cindy: What can a person do if they were struck by a hit and run driver in South Carolina-that’s our topic for today’s episode of Main Street Law TV News. I’ve asked South Carolina personal injury lawyer, George Sink of George Sink Injury Lawyers to be my guest today. So George, thank you for being with me.
George: Thank you for having me, Cindy.
Cindy: My pleasure. Well George, what can a person do if they were struck by a hit and run driver in South Carolina?
George: Well, the funny thing is they—in South Carolina, you must have an uninsured motorist coverage and that coverage covers you against people who either hit or run or they hit you and they don’t have any insurance, so it’s uninsured motorist coverage, but the legislature was wary of a situation where someone comes out of a bar and has too much to drink maybe and then drives off the road and hits a tree and says, “Someone made a pass at me and I swerved to avoid them and went off the road. I want to make a recovery against my uninsured motorist coverage.”
So in order to make a recovery, you have to do three things before you’re entitled to have a claim and those three things in our state are—you have to make all reasonable efforts to determine the identity of the car or driver. Second, you’ve got to call the police or the right authorities and report the collision in a reasonable amount of time and then it gets a little tricky, but if you have an impact between the two cars, ones that rules apply and if there is no impact, that’s the, “I went off the road, hit the tree,” thing. There is no impact, you have to have the right sort of witness to make the right sort of affidavit to allow you to have a UM claim—uninsured motorist.
So you’re not entitled to it even though you have the coverage. You have to go through this series of requirements and then you can proceed.
Cindy: Now uninsured motorist coverage that you speak of, is that mandated by state? In other words, would every person be carrying that in South Carolina?
George: Yes, it is required and everybody has it and it’s wonderful because it helps you. So I advocate everybody getting as much of that as possible. It’s really good!
Cindy: Okay and what about in other states, George?
George: The same thing. Because it covers that same contingency, but there’s the same set of policy constraints involved because the legislatures of the states which are influenced by the insurance companies and probably rightly so probably have some requirements that you have to meet before you’re entitled to file a UM claim properly and that’s to avoid people trying to trick them or I hit the tree, so I’ll get paid and most people think that’s not a good idea if you’d been drinking a lot and there really wasn’t anything. So you have to guard against that and that’s why these requirements are in place, these hurdles, you have to go over to allow yourself to legally file and process and collect from uninsured motorist coverage.
Cindy: Well, that makes sense and George, if someone comes to you, is that something that you can help them with?
George: We do this all the time, yes.
Cindy: Alright and how can they reach you for more information
George: George Sink Injury Lawyers is at 1-800-849-SINK. That’s toll free, 1-800-849-SINK and our website is www.sinklaw.com.
Cindy: Very good. Well George, thanks again for your time today.
George: Cindy, thank you for having me.
Cindy: This is Cindy Speaker reporting for State Law TV.
