Cobb County Accident Requires Emergency Personnel to Remove Passengers from Wreck
Five people are in the hospital after an auto collision in Cobb County last weekend, according to WSB-TV 2 Atlanta. Near Cobb Parkway and Barrett Parkway at about 3 am, a car and a pickup truck crashed into each other. The passengers were trapped in their vehicles, and emergency first responders closed lanes of traffic while they worked to remove the passengers. Emergency personnel transported five of the passengers to Kennestone Wellstar Hospital in Marietta, three of them in critical condition.
Accident Caused Serious Injuries but No Fatalities
ABC 9 Atlanta reports that the car accident did not result in any fatalities. Police reports indicate that the driver of one of the vehicles may have been under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. Video footage of the accident scene shows that the accident mangled both vehicles, caving in the sides of the bodies of the minivan and showering the roadway with shattered glass. There are currently no reports on the present status of the passengers who suffered injuries during the accident.
Georgia Law Bans Accident Response Fees
When a driver causes an accident and that accident requires emergency response personnel to respond to the scene, the municipality or local government who operates the emergency response agency may incur large expenses. It is more and more common for these municipalities and local governments nationwide to charge the person responsible for the accident a fee to cover the costs of their emergency first response, as The Insurance Journal explains. However, the Georgia Code specifically bans local governments from charging accident response fees to insurance companies for emergency response to a car accident. There are exceptions for services fee for which the driver has explicit coverage.
Driver Probably Won’t Have to Pay for Emergency Response
Could the driver responsible for the accident at Cobb Parkway and Barrett Parkway have to pay municipal accident response fees? It appears that the county probably incurred significant costs in responding to the accident, including firefighters and emergency medical personnel. Services by fire departments are the ones that municipalities are most likely to try and bill for.
If the driver was in fact under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident, it is likely that the driver is liable for negligence and that their insurance company is on the hook to cover the expenses of the accident. It’s possible then that the county will attempt to charge the driver’s insurance company for the costs of emergency response. However, they will probably not be able to hold the insurance company responsible for paying such a fee, since the Georgia Code bans this kind of billing. The only exception might be if the driver is already insured for the payment of municipal accident response fees, in which case the insurance company will have to pay out.
Get Legal Help
If you or someone you know has been involved in a car accident, you need legal assistance. Get in touch with a car accident lawyer at Williams Elleby Howard & Easter in Marietta to get the compensation you deserve.
