As soon as you are old enough to speak full sentences, you learn that you should look both ways before crossing the street. Pedestrians use caution when walking beside the road, especially in places where there are no sidewalks, and keep an eye out for moving vehicles in parking lots. One place where you should not have to keep your eyes open for cars is inside a store. Seeing a car on display inside a mall is disorienting enough. A car driving into a store is a classic example of a freak accident, the traffic collision equivalent of a never event. In the rare event that a car drives off the road and hits bystanders, the injured people have the same right to file a personal injury claim as they would have if the accident had involved one vehicle hitting another. If you got hit by a car when you were somewhere that cars have no business being, contact a Santa Fe motor vehicle accident and lawyer.
Driver Mistakenly Pressed Accelerator Instead of Brake
In today’s economy, thrift stores are the place to go. One morning in April 2024, the Savers thrift store in Las Cruces was packed with customers. The parking lot of the shopping center where it is located, however, still had some vacant spaces. One of them was directly in front of the front window of Savers.
At about 10:00, a 69-year-old woman pulled her 2015 Ford SUV into the parking space in front of Savers. She meant to press the brake so that the car could come to a complete stop, but instead, she stepped on the accelerator and kept her foot there long enough that the car jumped the curb and crashed into the store. As a result, 13 customers and two employees suffered injuries. The injured people ranged in age from 30 to 90. One of the customers later died of injuries she sustained from the SUV crash. She was 67 years old. The driver of the SUV was not injured.
Who is Legally Responsible When a Car Crashes Into a Store?
Medical bills can tank anyone’s financial stability, and thrift store customers are unlikely to be able to pay for the treatment of serious injuries out of pocket. In most accidents where a car strikes a pedestrian, the logical course of action is to file a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance. The injured people probably do not have grounds for a premises liability lawsuit against Savers since simply operating a store near a parking lot cannot be considered a hazard. The company’s commercial liability insurance may pay for the injured customers’ treatment, though, even though the store’s negligence did not contribute to the accident.
Contact Slate Stern About Car Accident Lawsuits
Slate Stern is a personal injury lawyer who represents plaintiffs injured in pedestrian accidents. Contact Slate Stern in Santa Fe, New Mexico, or call (505)814-1517 to discuss your case.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash