Combee Road DUI Crash With Police Car January 2020
News EventsThe Ledger reported that India Williams’s pickup truck crossed the center line and crashed head-on into a Polk County Sheriff’s Office police cruiser on Combee Road on January 28, 2020. Williams was going the wrong way. The news report indicates that Williams had a blood alcohol level of 0.145 and 0.151. Two sheriff’s deputies were injured in the collision. One was treated and released with minor injuries while the other deputy sustained head and facial injuries, including a compound nose fracture, along with a concussion and arm injury.
Advice For Injured Deputies
Because the deputies were injured on the job, the sheriff’s office will provide them with worker’s compensation benefits to cover medical expenses and lost income from work. However, each deputy is also likely covered under a personal automobile policy which will provide personal injury protection (Florida no-fault) benefits.
These benefits are not exclusive of one another. Further, the deputies may get cleared to return to work through worker’s compensation even though medical providers outside of worker’s compensation may find that permanent injuries exist. Again, this is so because the two systems (worker’s compensation and liability) not mutually exclusive of one another.
The deputies should also have uninsured motorist coverage on their own auto policies to cover situations where they are injured in an accident but there is not enough coverage to pay for all of the damages. UM benefits, if available, will apply on top of any bodily injury liability coverage that Ms. Williams had on the auto policy for her pickup truck.
Further, the deputies may also claim punitive damages for the DUI accident as allowed under Florida law.
Talk To A Car Accident Attorney In Lakeland, Florida
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