• 05
  • January
    2012

Seldom do accidents like these occur: A woman, 58-year-old Edith McFarland, is injured 25 years ago, losing her leg in a hit-and-run car wreck that put her in a wheelchair. Now, as Teresa Masterson reports for NBC 10, the same woman is killed from another hit-and-run.

In fact, no fewer than three drivers hit McFarland and fled the scene, after McFarland attempted to cross the street in her wheelchair. Unfortunately, she lost her life. McFarland was apparently returning home - she was living in a motel room with her son - after a trip to the grocery store.

As Masterson reports, McFarland's son said, "We didn't have very much anyway, but she would give anyone what she had, you know."

Though this hit-and-run incident happened in the state of Delaware, the laws against hit-and-run, or leaving the scene of an accident, are similar across the nation. In Texas, hit-and-run can result in felony charges, depending on the circumstances of the case, not to mention significant liability for civil claims.

McFarland's son, for example, could bring a lawsuit against the hit-and-run drivers for wrongful death, allowing him to recover compensation for the loss of his mother. Wrongful death claims - and other motor vehicle accident claims involving personal injury - never make anyone 100 percent whole, but they can go a long way toward improving the claimants' lives.

Source: NBC 10, "Woman Hit, Killed by 3 Cars Was in Wheelchair Because of Prior Hit-and-Run," by Teresa Masterson, 1/4/12