A man who said his foot became entangled with the accelerator pedal of his SUV as he pulled out of a parking space outside Providence Square Shopping Center late in the afternoon of Christmas Eve 2012 is facing unspecified charges for hitting and killing a 74-year-old woman. The deceased woman’s husband was also injured in the crash and required hospital treatment.
WAVY-TV 10 identified the woman who lost her life as Dalisay Mariano Francisco. Neither the injured husband nor the driver being blamed for the accident was named in news reports.
The Virginia Wrongful Death Lawyers’ Perspective
Our deepest sympathies go out to Francisco’s friends and family members. Losing a loved one in a car crash or pedestrian accident caused by another person is never an easy thing to handle. Suffering that loss literally hours before Christmas can be nothing short of devastating.
While it is not clear why the man behind the wheel of the SUV could not stop before running into the couple at the shopping center at the corner of Providence and Kempsville roads, it is a sad fact that parking lot collisions leading to serious injuries and deaths for people outside their vehicles are all too common. Drivers get impaired by drugs or alcohol, they speed, they become distracted or, as may have happened in this case, they confuse the gas pedal for the brake. Each should be an avoidable mistake that need not be made nor have tragic consequences.
Potentially Helpful Info
If a member of your family was killed in an automobile accident due to another person’s negligence or recklessness, consider downloading this fee report written by experienced Virginia wrongful death attorneys to begin learning about your legal rights and options for filing claims for compensation.
Have Questions? Check Out Our Firm’s FAQs.
You can learn more by reading through our online library of lawyers’ answers to frequently asked questions about wrongful death cases.
EJL