Politics and Traffic Don’t Mix…It’s Not Worth Getting Injured!

One thing I rarely ever do is talk about politics or political campaigns. I just don’t think it belongs in the legal realm. However, what I’m seeing lately is a general disregard for common sense in order to get those political messages across.

You see I’ve read about groups of people who are protesting against a certain candidate by banding together to stop traffic. These groups proceed to walk onto major highways which have vehicles traveling at speeds exceedingly 60 miles per hour for the purpose of creating human roadblocks. Not sure who thought this was a good idea. How they were able to get a bunch of people to think this was safe is beyond me. But it seems to be happening more frequently.

Hi, my name is David Holub, as an Indiana personal injury attorney these situations, these politically motivated stunts, don’t bode well for the injured. Why? Well, simply…those leading these traffic stops using you or your friends as human shields don’t usually care if you get hurt, in fact they want you to get hurt just for the added press that will follow. And sadly, some insurance companies may refuse to cover an incident if deemed preventable or part of a force majeure, which in legal terms is an out of control event such as a protest that devolves into what might be called an out of control riot. Many insurance policies exclude force majeure events. And, worse, health insurance companies often exclude coverage for injuries suffered during the commission of what might be characterized as a criminal act (think disturbing the peace, reckless endangerment, etc.).

But more importantly, becoming a human barrier for someone else’s political gain (even if you are paid as a protestor for hire) may sound heroic, but if you’re injured who pays the hospital bills? Who covers your lost wages? Who buys your groceries or pays your rent or covers your heating expenses? Sadly, it’s not the political party that you thought would be there for you. No, those injuries are all on you.

Now, let’s say you were alone walking alongside the shoulder of a road, facing opposing traffic as is required, and you got clipped by an oncoming car in most cases you would be able to sue the driver to access their insurance to address your injuries. But, volunteering yourself to act in such a manner as to invite injury upon yourself, those injuries would be your responsibility and the chances of proving that it was someone else’s fault would be slim at best.

This type of activity falls under frivolous and vexatious claims (an article I covered a few months ago, here’s the link if you’d like to read it… https://www.davidholublaw.com/frivolous-and-vexatious-claims/ ) and would not be something that our law firm would be able to help you with. It has nothing do to with the political candidates involved…but as I stated it has to do with common sense and the fact that the injured put themselves in harm’s way.

Look, I’m all for standing up against what is wrong in the world, but understand your battles. Standing in the middle of the road playing chicken with oncoming cars may sound good on paper, but in reality people can get hurt or killed. Is your political belief worth risking injury to yourself or another person?

Here at the Law Offices of David W. Holub our mission is to provide top quality legal representation, which includes an uncompromising pursuit of our client’s legal interests, while being accessible and attentive to our clients during times of personal challenge. That means that those clients we accept to represent receive our fullest attention.

If your injuries were caused by the negligence of another and you would like to know if your case has merit give us a call at (219)736-9700 and one of our legal professionals will listen and let you know if we can help. Our team considers it a high honor to be called upon to serve our clients whom we often come to regard as our friends.