Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
A Chicago area pedestrian accident has resulted in injuries to an eight-year-old boy from Chicago and criminal charges against an Oak Park man. Trib Local is reporting that the incident took place just after 4:30 PM on Saturday in Oak Park.
Police are stating that a vehicle turning on the 1000 block of S. Taylor Ave. hit the child after failing to stop for stop sign. The driver then fled the scene.
Approximately 20 minuntes after the accident, a 29-year-old Oak Park resident was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving injury, a felony. He was also ticketed for driving on a suspended license and disobeying a stop sign. Luckily several witnesses saw the accident which enabled police to track the driver down.
The boy was taken by ambulance to an area hospital, but the exact nature of his injuries are not known. However, his injuries are not supposed to be serious.
As far as a civil claim is concerned, the boy’s family will be able to pursue a negligence claim against the at fault driver. However, in my experience as a Chicago injury lawyer, most hit-and-run drivers do not possess valid auto insurance. If this is true here, the attorney that gets involved will look to pursue an underinsured motorist claim against the boy’s parents’ auto insurance policy (assuming his parents are insured).
Click here to read more about Illinois uninsured motorist claims.
That being said, the newspaper story did not indicate the driver was uninsured, so hopefully the vehicle is covered.