Fatal Car Accident Lawyers in Summerville

Section 56-5-1210(B) keeps the vehicles from a fatal crash in place until the investigating officer authorizes moving them. Once officers release the cars, a tow lot or an insurer controls them. A car sent to salvage takes its crush damage and paint transfer with it. A preservation letter to the tow lot and both insurers can ask them to hold the vehicles. Picture a sedan struck broadside on Ladson Road. Its bent door pillars and frame can show the angle and force of the impact long after the road is clear.

South Carolina follows an at-fault system, so the insurer for the driver who caused the crash answers first. The family's own policies can matter just as much. Frost Law Group collects the declarations page, the summary page that opens each policy, for every vehicle in the household. Those pages list the coverage limits, meaning the most each policy will pay for one crash.

The Other Driver's Bodily Injury Limits

Section 38-77-140 sets the minimum at $25,000 for bodily injury to one person in one accident. For two or more people hurt in the same accident, the floor is $50,000. A driver who bought only the minimum leaves $25,000 of liability coverage for one person's death. Section 38-77-250 lets the family's attorney send a sworn request for the limits on a private passenger policy, and the insurer has 30 days to answer. What a policy pays depends on fault and on its terms, which a lawyer reviews first.

Underinsured Motorist Coverage on the Family's Own Policies

Underinsured motorist coverage, called UIM, can pay when damages run past the liability limits on the other driver's policy. Insurers must offer UIM up to the policyholder's own liability limits, according to Section 38-77-160, though no one has to buy it. Section 38-77-30 treats relatives who live in the named insured's household as insureds even outside the insured car. In its 1998 Concrete Services decision, Opinion No. 24773, South Carolina's highest court described two classes of insureds.

Household Relatives Who May Stack Coverage

Class I takes in the named insured, along with a spouse and any relatives who share the household. Concrete Services allows only a Class I insured to stack. Stacking means drawing on UIM carried for a second vehicle on top of the first. Section 38-77-160 still limits how far stacking reaches, and the answer depends on the policy language. Each household declarations page shows whether that added coverage exists.

Passengers and Guests in Someone Else's Car

Class II covers people using the insured car with the named insured's consent and guests riding in it. They may claim under that car's UIM, but Concrete Services bars them from stacking. Think of a 19-year-old who lived at home and died riding with a friend on Ladson Road. The friend's policy may cover the teen as a guest. The parents' policies may cover the teen as a household relative, under different rules.

Inside town limits, a crash may fall to the Summerville Police Department at 108 North Cedar Street. The department's Traffic Safety Unit has officers trained for scene and technical collision investigation and for collision reconstruction. Outside town, the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office or the Highway Patrol may take the crash. For Dorchester County crashes, Troop Six of the patrol works from its post in Walterboro. The patrol also fields Troop Nine, its Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Team, or MAIT. Whichever of these agencies wrote the report is the one that holds its photos and measurements.

When the other vehicle was a loaded tractor-trailer, Frost Law Group handles the matter as one of its fatal tractor-trailer crash claims. Federal carrier records then join the police file.

A fatal crash can generate several records, and a family may reach them by different routes. Section 56-5-1270 gives the investigating officer 24 hours after finishing the investigation to send SCDMV a written report. That report lists the participants and witnesses the officer interviewed. Frost Law Group asks for every version the family can lawfully obtain, since later records can add what investigators learned after the scene.

The Initial Incident Report, Free to a Victim's Family

Section 16-3-1510 defines who counts as a victim of a criminal offense. When the person died, the definition reaches a spouse, parent, child or lawful representative. The offenses it names include leaving the scene, reckless vehicular homicide, reckless driving, DUI and felony DUI. Section 16-3-1520 then requires the law enforcement agency to give a victim a free copy of the initial incident report. For a crash, that is the uniform traffic accident report completed at the first response. It does not include supplementary reports, investigative notes, measurements, sketches or diagrams kept outside that report. Whether a given crash qualifies turns on the offense involved, which a lawyer checks.

The Full SCDMV Collision Report and Form FR-50

SCDMV's collision report instructions say the official report is more detailed than the one drivers receive on the day of the crash. A family can order it online, at a branch office or by mail with Form FR-50, for $10 per report. A copy becomes available only after SCDMV receives and processes the officer's report. The online system may not accept a relative's out-of-state license, so a mailed FR-50 can be simpler.

Section 38-77-30 includes the personal representative of an insured in its definition of an insured. So the representative who files the wrongful death action may also present a claim under the family's own underinsured motorist coverage. Section 38-77-160 forbids any UIM policy from requiring the carrier's consent before a settlement with the at-fault party. If a lawsuit follows, the UIM carrier must receive copies of the pleadings and has 30 days after service to appear. When the at-fault driver's insurer pays its full limits to settle, the UIM carrier may take over the defense for its own benefit. A lawyer at Frost Law Group can send each insurer the papers the statute calls for.

Suppose a husband is driving on Bacons Bridge Road when another car crosses the center line. His wife dies in the passenger seat. That can leave him with three roles. He may serve as personal representative. As a statutory beneficiary, he also shares in the wrongful death recovery. His own injuries give him a separate claim that belongs to him alone. That claim runs on its own three-year clock under Section 15-3-530(5). Frost Law Group can pursue his car crash injury claim alongside the death case and keep each file separate.

What investigators learn about the driving shapes the charge. Two statutes address a death caused by the way someone drove, and both carry felony penalties. Dorchester County felony cases go to the Court of General Sessions at the county courthouse in St. George. The county belongs to the First Judicial Circuit. A driver who flees a fatal crash faces a third statute, Section 56-5-1210.

Reckless Vehicular Homicide Under Section 56-5-2910

Section 56-5-2910 covers a death that follows within three years of a crash. The fatal injury must result proximately from driving in reckless disregard of the safety of others. Proximately means directly, in a way the law recognizes. A conviction or plea brings a fine of $1,000 to $5,000, up to 10 years in prison, or both. SCDMV must also revoke the driver's license for five years. If the driver later asks a circuit court to restore it, the solicitor must notify the victim's representative. Reinstatement also requires that the driver served the prison term or paid the fine, assessment and restitution in full.

Felony DUI Resulting in Death Under Section 56-5-2945

Section 56-5-2945 reaches an impaired driver whose unlawful act, or failure to perform a legal duty, proximately causes another person's death. A conviction carries 1 to 25 years in prison and a mandatory fine from $10,100 to $25,100. No part of that sentence may be suspended. When alcohol substantially impaired the driver's judgment, the punitive damages cap in Section 15-32-530 does not apply in the civil case. A court decides whether that exception applies.

The victim definition in Section 16-3-1510 also opens rights inside the prosecution itself. Under Section 16-3-1545(D), the prosecuting agency must tell each victim about the right to a lawyer and about any civil remedies. To use these rights, a family gives the agency handling the case its legal name, mailing address and phone number. Section 16-3-1515(A) requires that step. These rights run alongside the family's civil claim and do not replace it.

Notice of the Arrest, Bond Hearing and Plea Talks

Section 16-3-1525(A) requires a reasonable attempt by the arresting agency to notify each victim of an arrest and the bond hearing. A victim may attend that hearing and make recommendations to the judge. If timely notice did not go out, the judge must delay the hearing for a reasonable time. The Troy Knight Judicial Complex, 212 Deming Way in Summerville, houses Dorchester County's Central Bond Court. Section 16-3-1545(H) also requires the prosecutor to confer with each victim about how the case ends, including plea negotiations.

Victim Impact Statements and the Restitution Hearing

Before sentencing, the circuit court must hear or review any victim impact statement, written or spoken, under Section 16-3-1550(F). The same subsection bars the statement and its contents from use as evidence in any trial. After a conviction for a crime that caused money losses, the court must hold a restitution hearing under Section 17-25-322(A). The one exception is a defendant who agrees to the amount in open court.

A victim seeking restitution gives the prosecutor an itemized list of losses under Section 16-3-1515(B). It covers items such as medical bills, lost income and insurance payments received. Frost Law Group helps families build that list, since the same bills support the civil claim.

A town, county or state vehicle can bring the claim under the Tort Claims Act, a separate South Carolina statute. Its two-year clock under Section 15-78-110 generally starts when the family knew of the loss or should have known. A verified claim filed with the agency before suit can stretch that clock to three years. The stretch works only if the agency receives the claim within one year of that same date, under Section 15-78-80(d). The Act also limits recovery to $300,000 for one person's loss and $600,000 for a single occurrence, with no punitive damages. What those limits mean for one family turns on the facts. Frost Law Group checks who owned the other vehicle before counting on three years.

Under Section 15-3-40, the years a person spends under 18 generally do not count against that person's own deadline. That extra time stops, at the latest, one year after the person turns 18. Families with young children sometimes assume that rule stretches a wrongful death claim. Yet the action belongs to the personal representative under Section 15-51-20, and Section 62-3-203(e) does not let anyone under 18 serve. Think of a Ridgeville mother killed on her way to work, survived by two young sons. Frost Law Group does not assume the boys' ages add time and counts three years from her death.

Filing the lawsuit starts one more clock. Section 15-51-42(F) covers a wrongful death or survival action filed in any court other than the probate court. The person bringing it must notify the probate court within ten days after filing. A suit in circuit court, where the Court of Common Pleas hears civil cases, triggers that notice. Frost Law Group can send it as part of the filing.