It is a vacation any 9-year-old boy would dream about. He got to not only watch one of his favorite baseball teams battle it out with a worthy opponent, but he got to travel to one of the most amazing cities in the United States.
The San Francisco Giants played the Philadelphia Phillies at AT&T Park, a stadium with a breathtaking view of the bay. He no doubt had his fill of yummy stadium fare as he watched his favorite players. That was where the fun ended for the young boy when he became the victim of a pedestrian accident when exiting the stadium.
The young boy and his parents were walking out of the stadium when a pickup truck came careening towards them. The pickup truck struck the boy causing a broken pelvis, leg and ankle. It was later determined that the collision had also lacerated his liver.
The driver who struck the boy fled the scene, turning it into a hit-and-run crash. When police identified the driver, they learned that he had been drinking at the time of the crash. He pled guilty this past week to one count of felony driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and one count of enhancement of causing great bodily injury.
The boy is doing much better at this point, but the district attorney reported that “To say [the boy] is where he was before the accident is a stretch.”
When a driver negligently or recklessly causes injury to another person, criminal charges are not the only way to hold them liable for their actions. An injured victim can seek compensation in civil court for not only the physical and mental damages, but the financial costs of recovery as well. If you are injured in an accident where a driver has also been charged with a crime, an experienced attorney can discuss how the charges may or may not affect a civil lawsuit.
Source: Mercury News, “Man pleads guilty in SF crash that injured boy,” March 7, 2012
