Anonymous wrote:I forget which page brought up the health insurance question, but how does that work? Technically, won't the health insurances drop tomorrow since it's a new month?

I brought up the insurance question. Any insurance execs/lawyers here? How does it work? Every place I've worked, insurances renew on the first of the month, plus she was either on her mother or father's plans and technically they aren't employed by their employer now. I hope there is some "exception" for this -- this poor girl's hospital bills will be enormous and I really hope Aetna or whoever can't just say -- sorry, your granddaughter/niece isn't covered, good luck.

Anonymous wrote:I forget which page brought up the health insurance question, but how does that work? Technically, won't the health insurances drop tomorrow since it's a new month?

You have at least a month (maybe it's 3?) to claim COBRA, and before you renounce that claim or the clock runs out your coverage continues.

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Anonymous wrote:I don't get how all three died from a hit and ending up in a ditch. I'm assuming the other car only hit one side. They didn't crash after, only landed in a ditch. So the airbags killed them?

A side impact is the worst kind of crash. Most safety systems are designed for head on collisions. You don't have to be hit very hard for a side impact to be fatal. The NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt died in a crash that looked very minor -- but his car hit the barrier on the side. Some cars now have side airbags, but I don't think they are as effective as the front ones.

There's just more metal in the front of the car -- that can get crunched and take a lot of the impact headon before the impact reaches the driver and the steering column, and safety features are such that engines drop out etc. On the side, all you have is doors and side airbags. They take some impact but the impact reaches those passengers way sooner.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How soon until they know an official cause?

Maryland is a no fault state, so we might never know. The police aren't going to the press with the forensics now or later. BTW, they already have everything - witness statements, engine recorder info, spoke with survivors.

No forensics? Wow, that seems pretty incredible given that 3 people died in this crash. I would assume that accident reconstruction would be standard procedure in a tragedy like this.

PP is uninformed. The accident reconstruction team in MoCo does a full analysis every time there is an accident that involves a death.

BTW, the cause is failure to yield to oncoming traffic.

I was unaware that the cause had been determined. I am sure you would like to provide a reference to the official statement that thus proclaimed the cause, wouldn't you?

http://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2010/transportation/title-21/subtitle-4/21-402

Thanks for the law. But that says nothing about the cause.

And if the cause is found that the dad was at fault you would be fine with the BMW driver suing the estate? Why are you so intent on hoping the live person was at fault.

This is pretty close to an open and shut case. I hope they do toxicology on the dad too, what if he was drunk. The public should know, right?

I forget which page brought up the health insurance question, but how does that work? Technically, won't the health insurances drop tomorrow since it's a new month?

PP, as I'm sure you know perfectly well, a Maryland transportation law =/= a police determination of the cause of a crash.

Montgomery County police are still investigating the crash and have not determined a cause.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How soon until they know an official cause?

Maryland is a no fault state, so we might never know. The police aren't going to the press with the forensics now or later. BTW, they already have everything - witness statements, engine recorder info, spoke with survivors.

No forensics? Wow, that seems pretty incredible given that 3 people died in this crash. I would assume that accident reconstruction would be standard procedure in a tragedy like this.

PP is uninformed. The accident reconstruction team in MoCo does a full analysis every time there is an accident that involves a death.

BTW, the cause is failure to yield to oncoming traffic.

I was unaware that the cause had been determined. I am sure you would like to provide a reference to the official statement that thus proclaimed the cause, wouldn't you?

http://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2010/transportation/title-21/subtitle-4/21-402

Thanks for the law. But that says nothing about the cause.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How soon until they know an official cause?

Maryland is a no fault state, so we might never know. The police aren't going to the press with the forensics now or later. BTW, they already have everything - witness statements, engine recorder info, spoke with survivors.

No forensics? Wow, that seems pretty incredible given that 3 people died in this crash. I would assume that accident reconstruction would be standard procedure in a tragedy like this.

PP is uninformed. The accident reconstruction team in MoCo does a full analysis every time there is an accident that involves a death.

BTW, the cause is failure to yield to oncoming traffic.

I was unaware that the cause had been determined. I am sure you would like to provide a reference to the official statement that thus proclaimed the cause, wouldn't you?

http://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2010/transportation/title-21/subtitle-4/21-402

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How soon until they know an official cause?

Maryland is a no fault state, so we might never know. The police aren't going to the press with the forensics now or later. BTW, they already have everything - witness statements, engine recorder info, spoke with survivors.

No forensics? Wow, that seems pretty incredible given that 3 people died in this crash. I would assume that accident reconstruction would be standard procedure in a tragedy like this.

PP is uninformed. The accident reconstruction team in MoCo does a full analysis every time there is an accident that involves a death.

BTW, the cause is failure to yield to oncoming traffic.

+1

The left turn is bad news.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How soon until they know an official cause?

Maryland is a no fault state, so we might never know. The police aren't going to the press with the forensics now or later. BTW, they already have everything - witness statements, engine recorder info, spoke with survivors.

No forensics? Wow, that seems pretty incredible given that 3 people died in this crash. I would assume that accident reconstruction would be standard procedure in a tragedy like this.

PP is uninformed. The accident reconstruction team in MoCo does a full analysis every time there is an accident that involves a death.

BTW, the cause is failure to yield to oncoming traffic.

I was unaware that the cause had been determined. I am sure you would like to provide a reference to the official statement that thus proclaimed the cause, wouldn't you?

I assume they also pull cell phone records of all parties involved to see if anyone was texting, etc while driving.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How soon until they know an official cause?

Maryland is a no fault state, so we might never know. The police aren't going to the press with the forensics now or later. BTW, they already have everything - witness statements, engine recorder info, spoke with survivors.

No forensics? Wow, that seems pretty incredible given that 3 people died in this crash. I would assume that accident reconstruction would be standard procedure in a tragedy like this.

PP is uninformed. The accident reconstruction team in MoCo does a full analysis every time there is an accident that involves a death.

BTW, the cause is failure to yield to oncoming traffic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How soon until they know an official cause?

Maryland is a no fault state, so we might never know. The police aren't going to the press with the forensics now or later. BTW, they already have everything - witness statements, engine recorder info, spoke with survivors.

No fault for what? Maryland is contributory negligence, but that only applies for civil suits anyway, not criminal charges.

There will be accident reconstruction but all of that takes time. I suspect that they also want to speak to the daughter about what happened and she's probably in no condition to talk about the accident. They will also pull date from the computer systems of each vehicle and do a full inspection of both cars. That information can take weeks to get and the police aren't going to reveal their findings before they are ready to either bring charges or decide not to bring charges.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't stop thinking about this tragedy, perhaps because I know some of the players, or perhaps because I'm a parent. One very odd question...when someone is taken to the hospital unconscious, how are loved ones found? In the example of this poor child that lived, how do they track down her extended family to come care for her? So heartbreaking.

Usually in high profile cases like this the extended family reaches out to the hospital/police. Hospitals and police will also use phone records to track down someone and find out who next of kin is.

I'm wondering if the police got a hold of the school after checking the license/registration info to see if they could get emergency contact info there.

They looked at the license plate. And her purse if she had one.