Alaska Driver Awarded $375K For Crash With Patrol Car

June 20, 2013

A man whose pickup was smashed by a patrol car driven by an Anchorage, Alaska police officer running red light was awarded $375,000 in damages.

The Anchorage Daily News reported the jury Friday chose not to award $2.5 million in punitive damages sought by Melvin Rush for the 2010 crash.

Rush’s lawyer, Jim Valcarce, says Officer Michael Wisel was looking at his in-car computer when he ran the red light. The attorney argued that jurors should have punished Wisel with a punitive damages award to make sure it didn’t happen again.

He called Wisel’s driving outrageous and reckless and said Wisel received only a verbal reprimand from his police department supervisors.

Topics Auto Personal Auto

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Latest Comments

  • June 21, 2013 at 4:15 pm
    Baxtor says:
    I'm sure glad Rush’s lawyer, Jim Valcarce, never has had one incident of distracted driving. The Insurance industry needs to hire him to train their customers on how he is a... read more
  • June 20, 2013 at 2:23 pm
    safetyguy says:
    I hope the officer got some points on his license for the distracted driving offense.

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