A San Antonio driver was charged with intoxication assault on November 12, 2009, following an automobile accident that injured five people, including 3 children. The crash occurred on SE Military Drive, in San Antonio, when the driver of a van attempted to turn onto Curtis St. and failed to yield the right of way to an oncoming vehicle. It was reported at the scene that the driver of the van had a cooler and more than a dozen beer cans in the van. The three children injured were the children of the van operator.
Driving while intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol or drugs is a major factor in injury accidents in San Antonio and throughout Texas. Intoxication impairs a driver’s ability to fully grasp and react to driving situations and can be the cause of serious, if not fatal, results. Under Texas law, the children of the driver, if he is proven to be at fault, are entitled to recover under the driver’s insurance policy for injuries sustained and financial losses incurred. Likewise, the injured persons in the other vehicle are entitled to make a claim for their losses. However, depending on the amount of liability insurance carried by the alleged drunk driver, there may be limited funds available to be used for compensation for all injured individuals. It is important to make timely claims to be considered by the insurance company, before the potential funds are exhausted paying other claimants. This is also why it is important to carry uninsured/underinsured coverage on your own vehicle insurance – so in the event another driver causes a wreck and either has no insurance, or too little insurance, your coverage will provide additional protection.
In the event there is no available insurance, the only potential for recovery may be to investigate and determine whether the driver of the van purchased the cooler and beer from a local store, at a time when he was already obviously intoxicated – in other words, at a time when a store clerk should have realized that selling alcohol to an already intoxicated person would create danger.
