Birmingham Injury Blog

The Chicago Personal Injury Blog has posted an article about a car crash that resulted in a lawsuit and then a settlement of $2.5 million.

According to Robert Kreisman, author of the article, in November 2006, three minors were drinking beer at one of their homes and the minor's parents were present. The parents then allowed two of the minors to drive themselves home. The car crashed into a utility box and injured both of them...of the passengers is now paralyzed from the chest down.

The parents that were present and allowed the drinking to take place were sued with the claim that their lack of involvement in stopping the drinking and driving is negligence.

The lawsuit was brought under the 2004 Illinois Drug or Alcohol Impaired Minor Responsibility Act, which allows for civil penalties against adults who serve alcohol to minors and then injure someone else.

While we can certainly question the judgment of minors drinking, the law does impose strict penalties and standards on adults who serve alcohol to minors or to those who are intoxicated. Hopefully these kinds of settlements or verdicts will stress the danger of alcohol and minors and save innocent lives as most often those who are drunk injure and kill others, not just themselves.

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Posted In: Car Wreck

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The Tennessee Injury Lawyer Blog has a blog post that discusses the dangers of trucks on the road. According to this post, nearly 4,000 accidents have occurred in Tennessee that resulted in "serious bodily injury or death" to the people in the other vehicle because of trucks.

The blog post has these suggestions to keep in mind when driving near trucks:

Truckers Have Large Blind spots. Truckers have gaping blind spots around the front, back, and sides of the truck. When cars are in these blind spots, the trucker can’t see them. Truckers Make Wide turns. Truckers often have to swing wide to the left to make a right turn. If a car attempts to go between the truck and the curb, the driver may get squeezed by the tractor-trailer. Truckers Require Longer Stopping Distances. If there is a sudden stop on the highway, tractor-trailers may not have enough stopping distance to prevent a rear-end collision due to their heavier weight.

Some factors that contribute to truck accidents are also included:

Driver fatigue, long hours and unrealistic schedules. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) blames driver fatigue as a probable factor in 20 to 40% of truck crashes. • Intoxicated driving. The NTSB recently reported that one or more drugs was detected in 67% of fatally injured truck drivers. • Driver error. When operators fail to adhere to speed limits set for trucks, the likelihood of a jackknife or rollover significantly increases. • Substandard inspection. According to the FMCSA, there were over 2 million roadside inspection violations last year alone.

We should certainly let this serve as a reminder to be extra careful when driving near trucks!

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Posted In: Truck Wreck

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John Gamprell of Associated Press has written an article discussing how a day care outside of Little Rock, AK accidentally gave 10 children wiper fluid to drink.

The wiper fluid was accidentally confused with Kool-Aid because of its bright blue color and placed in the refrigerator where it was then served to the children. The 10 children were hospitalized after drinking about an ounce of the fluid. Their conditions never became critical and are expected to make a full recovery.

Carolyn Bynum, the day care owner, voluntarily surrendered her license and must re-apply to open the day care again. No charges were filed because there had been no prior complaints about Bynam's child care.

Let this serve as a warning to us that brightly colored drinks can be confused with hazardous chemicals!

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Posted In: Interesting News

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The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has a number of articles and videos related to child safety related to car seats. Check these out and make sure that you are properly using car seats - something we all need to do when dealing with our kids....

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The Alabama Product Injury Lawyer Blog posted an article discussing the correlation between the drug Raptiva and a rare brain infection. The infection, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy... or PML for short, has occurred in 3 patients who were taking Raptiva for cases of plaque psoriasis that varied in severity.

In October 2008,the FDA issued a black box warning for the drug, asserting that it was related to several life-threatening illnesses. The European Medicines Agency intends to pull the drug from the market, stating "the risks outweigh the benefits."

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Posted In: Drug Cases

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The Alabama Product Injury Lawyer Blog posted an article, originally from Bloomberg.com, about the drug manufacturer AstraZeneca. Craig P. Niedenthal says that the company, which manufactures the medication Seroquel (an anti-psychotic drug), has agreed to make documents available to the public which discuss unfavorable results from the drug during the clinical testing period.

Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk, writers of the article, cite that more than 150,00 people have sued AstraZeneca for withholding "information of a connection between diabetes and Seroquel use from doctors and patients. Many of the lawsuits also claim AstraZeneca promoted Seroquel, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, for unapproved uses."

AstraZeneca, prompted by the same court hearing, also agreed to include a warning on the label that will inform the consumer of the link between diabetes and this medication.

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Posted In: Drug Cases

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Discovery is just what the word implies. It is a chance for both sides to discover what evidence the other side has to support their case. During this process, each side submits questions to each other to obtain that information.

These questions are in the form of Interrogatories (written questions trying to discover what facts a party has) Requests for Documents (written questions trying to discover the documentation a party has to support his or her case) Requests for Admissions (questions designed to narrow the facts in dispute by getting the other party to either admit or deny a specific fact) and depositions (oral questions where parties or witnesses testify live and under oath as to what facts they know).

The absolutely most important thing about answering discovery is to be as complete, accurate and truthful as you can be. While most people wouldn't lie under oath, some people do get caught up in exaggerating what happened to make their case seem a little stronger. This will usually backfire. The lawyers for the other side will be prepared and will know if you are exaggerating. As lawyers are trained to do, they will then turn this on you to make you look like a liar. We have seen more good cases lost or severely diminished in value due to mistakes like this.

There are a lot more specifics for each type of discovery that are beyond the scope of this article. But, the important thing is do not ever put yourself in a position where what you say could be interpreted as anything other than the truth. Stick to this and you should come out ok.

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Posted In: Litigation Process

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The Maryland Injury Attorney Blog posted about the dangers of teenagers' driving. This post (written by Jeff Butschky) links back to an article from WBLTV.com, a Baltimore TV station.

The article is based off a study done by AAA, which cites10 years of crash statistics.The study shows that one-third of car wreck fatalities involving drivers ages 15-17 are the drivers. "That means nearly two-thirds of the victims are passengers, occupants of other vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and other road users."

However, "AAA's analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data showed a drop in both teen driver deaths and a larger drop in deaths of others during the past decade." This shows that steps and programs to educate teens are effective.

AAA believes that a graduated license system will greatly assist in teen road safety...a 38% drop in teen 16 year old driver fatalities has been noted in states with a graduated license program.

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Posted In: Car Wreck

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The Utah Personal Injury Law Firm Blog posted an article about the dangers of drowsy driving. Kenneth L. Christensen, who posted this blog, says that "nearly 51% of drivers in America, roughly 100 million people, admitted to feeling drowsy while behind the wheel, according to a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation. The same poll found that an astonishing 2 out of 10 of those drivers have actually fallen asleep while driving!"

While people are likely to not drive after having a few drinks, few take into consideration that driving when drowsy can be equally as dangerous. The post also says that men are twice as likely to fall asleep behind the wheel as opposed to women, and drivers ages 18-29 are the most likely to drive when "drowsy or fatigued."

Thanks to this article for reminding us that drinking and driving isn't the only dangerous activity that can be done behind the wheel!

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Posted In: Car Wreck

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In a bizarre event, a Colorado man was issued a $22 ticket for jaywalking as he helped two older ladies cross the street on February 20. The man, Jim Moffet, was struck by an oncoming vehicle and sustained rather severe injuries- broken bones, bleeding in the brain, a possibly ruptured spleen, and a dislocated shoulder. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/good_samaritan_ticketed;_ylt=AgWmisK7pH22AlcaCdP8iJ0DW7oF
The ticket was later withdrawn by the State Patrol “after examining…the circumstances.” The patrol also said that jaywalking, while for a good purpose, was a large contributor in the accident. The other people involved in the incident, another man who helped and the two ladies, were also initially ticketed for jaywalking. Those citations have also been dropped, but the suit Moffet filed against the driver of the vehicle that struck still stands.

We understand the law is to be enforced but it strikes us as ludicrous to ticket a man who helped two older ladies across a street and almost died – glad some common sense appeared and the tickets disappeared.

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The Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog posted an article involving the minimum vehicle standards that auto makers are made to comply to. The article , by Robert Kreisman,attributes relaxed vehicle standards to the increase of fatalities in rollover auto accidents.

The same standard was in use from 1973 to 2005 and required that the roof of a car had to withstand 1.5 times its own weight, or 5000 pounds, whichever is less. Either way, the roof was so weak that a person inside the vehicle in a rollover crash would have been severely injured or killed.

A proposition was raised in 2005 that the standard be raised from 1.5 times the vehicle’s weight to 2.5 times. The limit on the amount of roof crush was also eliminated from the previous 5 inches. The complete new standard was expected to be completed by Fall 2008, but the NHTSA filed for an extension until December 15, 2008. No rule has been adopted, as of yet. We will keep you posted on any further developments on this important issue.

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Posted In: Car Wreck , Interesting News

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Our friend Gerry Oginski has a new video that describes how he helped a client who was injured on a slippery parking lot due to the negligence of the parking lot owner and a snow plow operator. We think you'll enjoy watching this video:

If you have been injured in Alabama, feel free to contact us for a free consultation on your rights and whether litigation is appropriate for your situation.

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Posted In: Slip and Fall , Video

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We recommend you look at the Alabama Injury Attorney Blog - good information for Alabama residents. There is a fascinating post about seat belts and air bags - they reduce spinal injuries in car wrecks. Not a surprise but interesting to see the Journal of Neurosurgery report this.

Bottom line - we need to wear our seat-belts. Most of our cars have airbags but we still get to make the choice every time - no matter how short the trip - to wear our seat-belts. No one wants to be in a car wreck but if we are we will be thankful to have taken all the action we can to protect ourselves.

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Posted In: Car Wreck

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