“I can't work right now. I can't stand for long periods of time and stuff like that so it's really eating into my pocketbook,” said Joe Montgomery.
On Monday, Sept. 2, Montgomery was on his bicycle at Oltorf and I-35 heading to work when witnesses said a pickup cut him off, hit him, dragged him for a distance and kept going.
“I just don't understand what their thought process was like. I mean, were they intoxicated? Did they know they didn't have insurance?,” asked Montgomery, who doesn’t have medical insurance.
He said when he called the driver’s insurance company, as directed by Austin police, an insurance employee told him the driver in question was not covered at the time of the accident.
“She was like 'When were you hit?' and I told them Sept. 3, and she said, 'Well that person doesn't have, they didn't have a policy, they don't have insurance on that date,' said Montgomery, who now has a broken vertebrae in his back and several broken chips out of his legs.
Victims of uninsured drivers do have more options than they think.
Victims can take legal action against an uninsured driver’s blood relatives or spouse if they live together.
It is a myth that personal injury attorneys won’t take a case without money up front.
“Most people don't pursue uninsured motorist coverage because they think it's going to count against their insurance rates and it's not supposed to,” a lawyer said.
He added that an uninsured driver with a judgment against them can lose their license if they don’t pay.
“The DPS has a long-standing policy of not allowing that person to renew their license without having satisfied that debt,” said the lawyer.
Austin police confirmed a detective has been assigned to the case. Witnesses turned in his license plate number. However the driver has not been arrested as of yet.
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Source: WFAA (Green, 9/12)
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