Student drivers are sometimes a nuisance on the road, their inexperience being as blatant as the big yellow sign on the top of their car. On July, 15, 2011, one student driver became more than a nuisance when she lost control of her car and crashed into a tree in Williamsburg, Virginia (VA), killing her DMV instructor passenger
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This tragic single-vehicle accident, which happened at the intersection of Page Street and Penniman Road, highlights the danger that driving instructors face when taking inexperienced drivers out on the road. As a Virginia car accident attorney, I recently wrote about a similar case where the driving instructor was injured by a student driver. In that case the court ruled that a driving instructor could sue for injuries she sustained while administering a driving test.The decision by Missouri’s Western District Court of Appeals overturns the ruling of a lower court, which held that the driver’s license examiner took on the risk of injury when she accepted the job.
I don’t think any driving instructor thinks he or she will be killed while administering a driving test. Even student drivers should operate vehicles with the highest degree of care. I would think that student drivers would be more cautious than normal while taking a driving test. There is no word yet if speed was a factor in this fatal accident but single vehicle accidents are more common than one would think and often it’s the passenger who is injured or killed.
Our thoughts go out to the family of the DMV instructor that was killed and if you’d like to learn more about the legal options available in a Virginia wrongful death case, take a moment to view our in-depth library articles on wrongful death, video library on fatal accidents caused by negligence/carelessness, and wrongful death case results.
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