Western Washington Personal Injury Law Blog

Waiting at a bus stop is generally not considered to be a dangerous activity, but a Bellevue woman recently had a different experience. While waiting for a bus, the woman was struck and pinned to the bus stop bench by a pickup truck trying to make a left turn against traffic. Given the nature of the accident and the potential for catastrophic injury, the victim has proclaimed herself to be "lucky."

The woman was sitting on a bench waiting for a Rapid Ride B Line bus near a filling station in Bellevue. At the same time, a pickup truck towing a boat attempted to turn into the filling station adjacent to the bus stop. The truck driver elected to attempt the turn without waiting for traffic in the oncoming lane to clear. As the truck turned into the oncoming traffic, it was struck by a vehicle that caused the truck and trailer to jackknife. The truck struck the woman waiting for the bus and pinned her between its bumper and the bench. The driver of the truck was arrested on suspicion of vehicular assault, but police do not believe that he was impaired by alcohol or drugs.

There is a certain trust among Washington drivers. You and other motor vehicle operators mutually trust that each other is carrying the proper level of auto insurance. Auto insurance doesn’t exist with the expectation that you will have an accident; it exists in case you have an accident.

A 2015 study showed that roughly 1-in-8 Washington drivers were uninsured. That figure ranked 10th worst among the 50 states. Drivers know the risk of driving without insurance and this still happens too often. Why do people drive without insurance despite knowing the consequences? A couple reasons include:

When residents of Seattle visit their friends, legal liability is probably not in the forefront of the guest's or homeowner's mind. Nevertheless, serious injuries often occur in the context of a social visit, and an overview of the law of homeowner liability may provide either comfort or a warning to the homeowner.

Like most rules of tort liability in the common law, a homeowner's duty to social guests is based upon the concept of due care. The law of negligence requires each person to use due care in dealing with others. But what is "due care"? In Washington, an owner or occupier of real estate has a legal duty to inform visitors to the premises of any dangerous conditions of which the owner has actual knowledge or about which the owner can reasonably be expected to have knowledge. In other words, the owner must notify all guests of a dangerous condition, such as a loose handrail on a stairway or a missing step. The law charges the owner or possessor of the premises with knowledge of such defects. The occupier of the premises is also charged with a duty to notify any guest of such defects and the danger they pose.

An accident between a large truck and a passenger vehicle can be a deadly event. When an Edmonds resident is involved in a collision with a semi or other large commercial vehicle they may suffer serious injuries that impact the long-term quality of their life. Recovering from a truck accident can be a time consuming and expensive process and victims can decide to sue for their damages to aid them in their recovery pursuits.

Knowing how to plead a truck accident case can depend greatly on why the accident happened in the first place. There are a number of different causes of truck accidents and not all possible causes will be discussed in this post. Readers should always speak with their own personal injury attorneys to determine how best to address their pending legal claims.