Police Cruiser Hits And Instantly Kills Young Boy

Atlanta, GA (Law Firm Newswire) August 9, 2011 – In this case, a police cruiser killed a 4-year-old boy. It was a wrongful death suit settled out of court.

“Unfortunately, it’s not just the average, random driver that may find themselves in the middle of a controversy over hitting a small child. In this reported case, a 4-year-old boy was hit and killed by a police cruiser. His mom filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city administration, initially seeking $8 million in damages,” said Stephen M. Ozcomert, an injury lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, who practices personal injury, accidents and malpractice law.

This was a truly strange case, where two cop cars were involved in the fatal collision. According to the evidence cited at trial, the two police officers were each responding to a call and slammed into each other, with one cruiser rebounding and hitting two other people. One of the hit people survived and the other, the 4-year-old boy, was killed instantly.

“Although this case initially happened in 2007, it took until just recently to come to some kind of resolution. The settlement offered by the city came in at $600,000 and the wrongful death lawsuit was dropped in consideration of that settlement. Part of the terms of the settlement were that the two officers involved admitted no fault and the city denied all liability. The settlement was offered to avoid the costs of litigation,” Ozcomert said.

Frankly, it is more than likely that the city, on review of its case, decided that if they did go to court, they may very well wind up paying a great deal more than the offered settlement amount. It would be fairly difficult to offer any kind of reasonable justification for two officers, hurrying to get to a call, ending up in collision that kills a young boy.

“Interestingly enough, evidence included in the lawsuit filing stated the city violated the victim’s civil rights by hiring one of the officers, who had numerous speeding violations on his driving record. That officer was fired after this particular accident, and the other one was not disciplined,” Ozcomert said. It turned out that the officer that was fired, ran a red light and slammed into the other cruiser, sending it onto the sidewalk, where it hit two people, killing the little boy.

Would this case have turned out differently had it gone to court? “Good question and chances are it may have turned out differently, in that a jury may have been far more liberal with a damage award. This is a case where a little boy died as the result of negligence on the part of a police officer. It would be amazing if the jury didn’t identify with the mother and take a dim view of cops breaking the law,” Ozcomert said.

To learn more, contact Atlanta personal injury lawyer, Stephen Ozcomert by visiting http://www.ozcomert.com.

Stephen M. Ozcomert
215 North McDonough Street
Decatur, Georgia 30030
Call: (404)-370-1000