Hit by a car

In September of 2020, I was driving on my motorcycle to help my wife (then girlfriend) with a flat tire. Traveling west on Ceasar Chavez steet, I approaching the intersection with Chicon. As I began to enter the intersection, Jimena Tangassi, 18 year’s old at the time, driving her sisters car, attempted to accelerate into a left turn. Instead of yielding and waiting for oncoming traffic, that action caused an immediate collision. I woke up in the Hospital hours later, paralyzed from the chest down. I had sustained T3 complete spinal cord injury.

The People that hit me

I wanted to bring up Jimena Tangassi and her sister Gabby Tangasi. Gabby was the passenger and vehicle owner at the time of the accident. It is unknown why she wasn’t the one driving at the time. To this day, I have not received an apology, nor did they reach out to check on my wellness while I spent months in the hospital. I’ve even attempted to reach out, because I at least wanted them to know what happened to me. But, any attempts have been ignored. Obviously I harbor quite a bit of resentment. While their careless actions had no long term effect on them, and I doubt they think much about the accident at all. Yet for me, it affects every aspect of my life, and will for the rest of my life. I suppose it’s difficult to confront the person who’s life you destroyed, but it’s a small price to pay to just utter a simple apology.

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t sue them. My attorny talked me out of it. This accident took place in Austin, Texas. The minimum liability converage required on a vehicle is 30k. We see these billboards that advertise millions of dollars in personal injury claims. That only happens if you’re hit by a commercial vehicle with a massive insurance policy. The insurance company only has to pay out up to what the policy covers. You can sue the person that hit you in civil court. But, if the person doesn’t have any assets, there’s no way to collect on future earnings. Texas doesn’t allow for garnished wages when it comes to personal injury; with maybe the exception of DUI. There’s also a significant amount of assets that are pretected too, like a home. This makes personal injury lawsuits against individals, mostly worthless. So ultimately, even though they are a at fault, I am expected to cover the lifetime costs of injury they gave me.

I’m lucky. As an Army veteran that served in Afganistan during ‘01/’02, the VA has a provision for catastrophic injuries. The VA also has centers that specialize in spinal cord injury. Their care and services have been top notch, with providers that are knowledgable. Without it I’d be stuck trying to get assistance from the state. While the state has services like Texas workforce, which provide assistance, the approval times can be quite lengthy. Imagine needing a wheelchair to get out of bed, but waiting months to be approved. So if you live in Texas, or a place that doesn’t have provisions for medical coverage being provided as a result of an accident, make sure you carry signficant under insured drivers insurance.

No consequences

The barrier to driving is rather low, and it’s not difficult to obtain a drivers license. The roadtest is conducted away from traffic and partially conducted in parking lots. What is troubling to me though, is that if someone proves themselves to actually be a poor driver, there doesn’t appear to be a system in place for taking away their license. From my search, I found that in order to get your license suspending for driving related infractions, it would most likely require multiple DUIs. In the case of my accident, I would think that turning into an oncoming car, would be clear indication that they likely don’t possess the mental faculties to drive safely. That driving may be too overwhelming of a task, and they are a risk to others. Even if someone was completely ignorant of traffic rules, they should clearly be able to see that there is a vehicle coming towards them. There really is no excuse for not being able to see the things directly in front of you, with an unobstructed view.