Warning: Don’t Get Hit By a Taxi

If you’re going to commit insurance fraud by attempting to injure yourself, please, don’t ever consider jumping in front of a taxi.  Besides getting seriously hurt, you won’t get much of a payout, either. It seems the maximum insurance payout by the Taxi and Limousine Commission is only $200,000. 

Donna Smith of Manhattan found out the hard way two years ago after a taxi jumped a curb and hit both she and her husband, Paul.  Donna is now crippled while Paul was pronounced dead at the scene.

"You have family that was destroyed, and a financial situation where this woman’s going to struggle to pay her bills for the rest of her life,” said their lawyer, John Zaremba. 

John also noted that if a tractor-trailer had hit the couple, the insurance payout would have been millions.

No charges were filed against the driver, Mohammed Chowdhury, who, according to their lawyer, apparently is still driving a cab.

There are plenty of ways, however, to get money out of the legal system.  Try lying and say you found something strange in your fast-food sandwich. Or beat yourself up and claim a co-worker did it.

Photo courtesy of boclcown on Flickr.