Someone Hit My Car and Injured Me and Left the Scene of the Accident. What Can I Do?
On occasion, a person driving in the Jacksonville, Florida area will be hit by another car and injured and not know who caused that accident. For instance, another car may hit your car, injure you and drive away while you are too injured to determine who hit you. Or, for example, you may be driving on a multi-lane road, a car in another lane may swerve into your lane causing you to drive off of the road and crash and the at fault vehicle drives away whether that driver knew he/she caused you to crash or not. In those crashes, you may have been involved in a serious accident and injured but not know who caused the crash.
Typically, when someone causes an accident and injures you, you can make a claim against that person's insurance company for your damages. But how do you recover damages if you do not know who caused you to crash? Well, you can only sue a person and recover damages from his/her insurance company if you can identify the person and show that person negligently caused or contributed to the accident which resulted in your injuries (you can also file a lawsuit and recover damages against the owner of the at fault vehicle and possibly the employer if the driver was working at the time). If you do not know who that person is, you can still make a claim with, or file a lawsuit against, your own insurance company if you have uninsured motorist coverage. This insurance coverage protects you and provides compensation when you are involved in an accident with another person who is uninsured, has less insurance coverage than the amount of your damages or leaves the scene without identifying himself/herself.
Ideally, if another driver causes a car or truck accident and injures you, that person will remain at the scene and provide his/her insurance and contact information to the police officer as the law requires. If that does not happen, you still may be able to recover your damages from your own insurance company pursuant to your uninsured motorist coverage.
