A DUI accident caused a pregnant woman to miscarry her fetus. The drunk driver has been charged with murder.
The accident happened on August 24, 2011 at 9:20 p.m. 35-year-old Moorpark resident Francisco Xavier Martinez-Amezcua was traveling on Spring St. near Los Angeles Ave. Martinez rear-ended a vehicle occupied by Agha and Khadija Mirza of Moorpark, and their one-year-old son. Martinez then fled the scene.
As a result of the car accident, 23-year-old Khadija Mirza suffered internal injuries and 32-year-old Agha Mirza suffered minor to moderate injuries. Their fetus was pronounced dead on August 28th, four days after the accident at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks.
Toxicology test results revealed that the drunk driver had a blood alcohol level of 0.25%. Martinez was charged with murder, drunk driving, inflicting great bodily injury, hit-and-run, resisting arrest, and driving without a license. Martinez had prior drunk driving convictions in 2006 and 2007.
According to Martinez's defense attorney, they are trying to determine whether blunt-force trauma killed the fetus.
If you have suffered a miscarriage as the result of a car accident, you should speak with a personal injury attorney about your right to compensation for the loss of your fetus. Connecting a miscarriage to a car accident can be difficult. The further along in the pregnancy you were, and the closer in time the miscarriage was to the accident, the easier it will be to legally connect the miscarriage to the accident. You should seek out representation by a lawyer who has handled miscarriage-caused-by-accident claims before. The personal injury attorneys at McGee, Lerer and Associates are experienced in handling these types of claims. They know that it is critical that you have a medical expert who will give you "causation," i.e., who will connect the accident to the miscarriage.