Francisco Espinoza Charged In Drunken Driving Death

22-year-old Franciso Espinoza was recently charged with involuntary manslaughter after he caused an accident fatally wounding Anita Lozette. Lozette was riding as a passenger in the Yukon driven by Espinoza. Just shortly after 1:00am, police officers attempted to pull Espinoza over in downtown Joplin. However, Espinoza did not stop but kept on going. However, officers said Espinoza suddenly turned into an alleyway and began speeding. After doing so, he hit the railroad tracks in front of Missouri Gas Energy Operations. This caused the Yukon to lose control and run into ditch. It then caught fire.

It has not been reported where the two were coming from prior to this accident. However, Espinoza has also been charged with Drunken Driving and driving without a license which was apparently revoked.

Certainly this is a very tragic accident and my heart and prayers go out to Ms. Lozette’s family. As a Missouri Personal Injury Attorney, I know that there are a number of issues that can arise in accidents such as this. First, being that Espinoza was driving with a revoked license, we can assume that he did not have insurance. However, if the Yukon belonged to someone else who gave him permission to drive, then their liability insurance would provide coverage. Additionally, if the Yukon was another person’s car, there is another avenue to pursue which is for negligent entrustment. Negligent entrustment means that the owner of the car should have known better than to let Mr. Espinoza drive. This is generally an open-and-shut case if the car owner knew he had either been drinking or had a revoked license.

In fatal car accident cases, the best approach is to try and set up the opposing insurance for a bad faith lawsuit. Generally, the insurance coverage for the responsible person is far too inadequate. It may be as little as $25,000 and generally no more than $300,000. However, we can often send a demand for settlement to the insurance company for the full policy limits with a small window to accept. If they do not do it, then it is possible they failed to protect their insured and that they did so in bad faith. In those cases, the policy limits go out the window and we can hold the insurance company responsible for the full amount of what a jury believes they should pay.

Joshua P. Myers is a Missouri Car Accident Attorney exclusively practicing injury law all across the state.  If you would like to speak with him about a possible case, feel free to call at 888-956-2487.  It’s always free to talk about a potential case and there’s no fee until we collect on your behalf.