Family Of Deliveryman Struck By Texting Teen Plan To File Suit

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Posted on 22nd September 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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 The survivors of a Brooklyn deliveryman, who was mowed down by a teenager who was distracted by texting, plan to sue and refuse to take him off life support, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday.

 http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/09/22/2010-09-22_kin_of_deliveryman_left_braindead_by_texting_driver_wont_pull_plug_vow_suit_stil.html

Tian Shen Lin, 53, sustained severe brain injury when his scooter was struck Sunday by a Camry driven by Nechama Rothberger, 19. She was texting on her cellphone when she struck Lin, who was making a delivey for his family’s Chinese restaurant. 

The family has already hired an attorney to file suit against Rothberger, according to the News, and they are still praying that Lin will recover. He is still undergoing tests, but quite frankly, it would be a miracle for Lin to recover.  

Why States Shouldn’t Be Too Hasty Raising Their Speed Limits

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Posted on 18th March 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Highway speed limits continue to get higher, with Virginia last week becoming the most recent state to raise its limit to 70 mph. In fact, now 34 states have speed limits of 70 mph or more, prompting The Wall Street Journal Wednesday to call 70 mph “the new 55.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704688604575125510326010610.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_lifestyle

Virginia’s new governor, Bob McDonnell, had made increasing the speed limit on rural roads to 70 mph from 65 mph one of his priorities. And 70 mph isn’t the top of the scale for speed limits. Idaho, New Mexico and Nevada have speed limits up to 75 mph on some rural interstates.

It seems to us that higher speed limits are a bad idea. People seem to want to behave foolishly behind the wheel, be it by using a cellphone, engaging in amorous behavior or trying to turn around and discipline an unruly child. And when foolish moves are made at 70 mph, the consequences are a lot worse than if a vehicle is traveling at 55 mph.

Proponents of the higher speed limits maintain that drivers should be trusted to use their own judgment as to what speeds they should be traveling at, depending on the weather and other conditions.

After the Arab oil embargo in 1973, 55 mph was set as the national speed limit in an effort to save gasoline. That limit was increased to 65 mph in 1987, but a GOP-controlled Congress totally scrapped the national speed limit in 1995.

There is data both for and against raising speed limits. The Federal Highway Administration, for example, blamed roughly 30 percent of the 37,261 highway fatalities in 2008 on people exceeding speed limits, according to The Journal.

On the other side of the argument, advocates of higher speed limits note that deaths and fatalities are down in the United States, even though speed limits are up.

We’ll end on this note. The GPS maker TomTom did a study that found that when cruising on an open highway, American drivers tend to clock in at about 70 mph – never mind what the posted speed limit is.

Nascar Gives Slap On The Wrist For Retaliation Crash

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Posted on 11th March 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Nascar officials promised this year to make racing more aggressive, “a full-contact sport,” to keep wavering fans interested. And they seem to be intent on fulfilling that mission, big time.

Tuesday the sport’s officials only gave probation, essentially just a slap on the wrist, to a driver who deliberately wrecked another driver’s car. The three-race probation was given to Carl Edwards over his retaliatory actions Sunday at the Atlanta Motor Speedway against Brad Keselowski. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/sports/autoracing/10nascar.html?ref=sports

Some had argued that Edwards’ actions warranted a suspension.

Edwards hit Keselowski’s car, sending it airborne and propelling it into a wall. Edward “took Keselowski out,” as The New York Times put it, following an earlier crash Sunday that took Edwards out of contention.

Veteran driver Kyle Petty called the probation penalty “a laughable punishment.”

But there are many who applauded what seems to be Nascar’s call to blood this season, including the mere probation penalty for Edwards. Some argued that Edwards had merely tried to take Keselowski out of contention in the race, not wreck his car.

Keselowski wasn’t hurt in the crash, but he had asked for Nascar to penalize Edwards for his retaliatory actions.

What on earth does a probation mean when you are talking about assault with a deadly weapon? Does NASCAR not realize that that is what they are dealing with when someone intentionally drives something with that much power into another human being? So if he kills someone in the next three races, then he is trouble? But after that, it is OK?

Michigan Is Considering Placing a Two-Year Moratorium on Digital Signs

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Posted on 3rd March 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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With state and federal laws being considered to ban motorists from using cellphones or texting, there’s a new driving distraction that’s drawing scrutiny and possible prohibition: digital billboards. The New York Times business section Tuesday did a story headlined “Roadside Marquee,” which talks about safety advocates worrying that fancy high-tech billboards will get people to take their eyes off the road and cause accidents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/technology/02billboard.html?scp=1&sq;=electronic%20billboards&st;=Search

These digital billboards change appearance and are flashy and bright, natural attention grabbers, it would seem. They are already in Times Square, and cities like Detroit. At least one group, Scenic Michigan, is trying to stop this new signage from being installed throughout that state.

And last week, Michigan legislators conducted hearings on a law, the reportedly the first of its kind, that would institute a two-year ban on construction of the digital signs. And The Times said that Minnesota is going to have hearings on a similar ban later in March.

Where’s the proof that digital signs distract drivers? Well, the Federal Highway Administration has started a study that is trying to gauge whether of not the signage is distracting. That study is set to be done this summer.

And there was one study, done in 2007 by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, that determined that digital signs were no more distracting than regular signs. But skeptics about that study’s results note that it was paid for by the billboard industry.

Some 2,000 of the 450,000 billboards in the U.S. are digitized, according to The Times.

Bus Collides With Metro Train In Houston

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Posted on 11th February 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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There is a cause of action in many accident cases called negligent entrustment. With respect to the kind of accident described here, the claim is that the owner of the vehicle should not have allowed the person who caused the accident, to drive the vehicle at all. This Houston bus accident will likely raise that issue.

A Houston bus driver who allegedly ran a red light and hit a Metro train Monday was suspended without pay, according to the Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6859080.html

Reginald Rideout, who was treated and released from a hospital after Monday’s accident, will be under suspension while a probe o the crash is conducted.

According to Metro officials, 50-year-o1d Rideout has had three accidents.

The crash earlier this week injured nine people, and Metro service was temporarily suspended.

Second D.C. Metro Rail Accident Went Unreported For More Than a Day

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Posted on 4th February 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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There was a second accident on the Metro Red Line in Washington this past weekend, less than a week from the first deadly accident, according to The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020203678.html

In the most recent crash 20 Metro workers were riding into a tunnel on a vehicle with a flatbed car attached to it. The work zone was near the Medical Center Station. The accident happened last Saturday, January 30.

The vehicle with the workers apparently hit some ice and sped out of control, hitting a pickup truck that was on the rails. That pickup truck then crashed into three vehicles, The Washington Post reported.

The newspaper questioned why accident wasn’t reported to the Metro’s safety office until 30 hours after it happened. The Washington Post said that under federal regulations, the Metro must notify the Tri-State Oversight Committee within two hours when there is a rail vehicle involved in any accident. The committee watches over Metro safety.

No injuries were reported in Saturday’s accident, but the man operating the vehicle that went out of control and a supervisor were given mandatory alcohol and drug tests.

On Jan. 26 there was another accident involving a so-called high-rail vehicle, which is a pickup truck on metal runners. In that accident, two Metro employees were struck and killed by a high-rail vehicle that was backing up on the Red Line, The Washington Post reported.

Porn plus Fatigue plus Truck Equals Murder

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Posted on 1st February 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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Sometimes the total reckless stupidity of those who drive big rig trucks is beyond belief. This story pushes the limits of sanity.

It’s a no-brainer that people shouldn’t drink and drive. Yet fatigue and/or distraction in the line of a driver’s sight are even more dangerous. Combine the two behind the wheel of a truck and the combination is lethal.

In a tragic accident, truck driver Thomas Wallace of Brook Park, Ohio, was watching pornographic movies on his laptop last week while driving on the New York State Thruway in Buffalo, N.Y., according to the Associated Press. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/27/AR2010012704463.html

Julie Stratton, 33, a mother of two from Snyder, N.Y., had hit a deer on the highway and her vehicle was disabled. She had called 911 for help right before Wallace hit her car with his rig. Stratton was killed.

Wallace, 45, was charged with second-degree manslaughter in Stratton’s death. He also allegedly broke federal trucking regulations by sleeping no more than four of 27 hours before the fatal accident, according to AP. Porn to keep him awake? See http://semi-accident.com for regulations on sleep requirements for truckers. Those law are there to protect the public safety. It is almost credible that Wallace did something so catastrophically stupid because he was so fatigued. No excuse, but a lesson to be learned by all. That the mother he killed wasn’t where he expected her to be is precisely why we have such laws. It is not the normal reaction time which is changed by fatigue, but the situation reaction, the reaction to that which isn’t expected.

Don’t waste time on the lesser included offenses. This is murder. Simply charge him with that.

New Federal Guidelines Bar Commercial Truck and Bus Drivers From Texting

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Posted on 31st January 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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This week the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a nationwide ban that prohibits commercial truck and bus drivers from texting while they’re on the job behind the wheel.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made the announcement about the ban, which is aimed at preventing accidents caused by distracted truck and bus drivers. The ban took effect immediately.

“We want the drivers of big rigs and buses and those who share the roads with them to be safe,” LaHood said in a press release, http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2010/dot1410.htm. “This is an important safety step, and we will be taking more to eliminate the threat of distracted driving,”

News of the ban was widely reported by the national media, including The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/technology/27distracted.html, and CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/26/trucks.texting.ban/?hpt=T1.

Truckers or bus drivers who violate the new guidelines will be subject to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750.

Right now 19 states bar drivers from texting behind the wheel, according to the Ventura, Calif., County Star, http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/jan/28/an-obvious-direction-to-go/?print=1.

Its story points out that a tragic 2008 Metrolink commuter train crash, which killed 25 people and injured 135, was mainly blamed on a train engineer texting just prior to the crash.

That story also cites a July study by the Virgina Tech Transportation Institute, which determined that drivers are six times more likely to get in an accident if they are talking or texting on their cell. That survey also found that truckers using a mobile device are 23 times more likely to have a collision.

DOT this week cited Research by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which found that drivers who send and receive text messages take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds while texting.
“At 55 miles per hour, this means that the driver is traveling the length of a football field, including the end zones, without looking at the road,” the DOT press release says. “Drivers who text while driving are more than 20 times more likely to get in an accident than non-distracted drivers. Because of the safety risks associated with the use of electronic devices while driving, FMCSA is also working on additional regulatory measures that will be announced in the coming months.”
During the September Distracted Driving Summit, LaHood announced that DOT would pursue regulatory action, as well as rulemakings, to reduce the risks posed by distracted driving.

President Obama also signed an Executive Order directing federal employees not to engage in text messaging while driving government-owned vehicles or with government-owned equipment. Federal employees were required to comply with the ban starting Dec. 30.

The regulatory guidance the DOT texting ban are now in the Federal Register.
DOT also has a Web site, http://distraction.gov, where it warns drivers about the perils of driving while using their cell phones, eating, adjusting their radio or text messaging.

Truck Driver Carelessness Severely Injures Man’s Face

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Posted on 12th January 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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The below story tells of serious injuries suffered by an Illinois man whose face was shattered by ice falling off of the top of a semi tractor trailer. It speaks as if this is not illegal in Illinois. See

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1978774,ice-shatters-mans-face-010710.article Regardless of whether it violates Illinois law, it is a clear violation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations pertaining to Inspection and Maintenance of Equipment.

In the Illinois wreck, according to the Sun Times:

A commercial truck — topped with about a foot-and-a-half of snow and ice — was westbound on Butterfield Road between Illinois Route 59 and Eola Road in Aurora about 10 a.m. Monday as Peter Morano was driving in the eastbound lane. When the truck passed under a viaduct, the ice on top of it became unlodged and was sent soaring toward Morano’s windshield.

“It was like an explosion,” Morano recalled while resting at home Wednesday after being released from the hospital.

Under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations each driver is required to make sure that his load is safe when he begins a trip, to inspect it after 50 miles and also at least every 150 miles. Slabs of ice on the top of a truck parked outside this time of year are foreseeable. Any reasonable driver would assure that such ice does not accumulate. This driver was clearly negligent. Fortunately it was not negligent homicide.

The Sun Times goes on to report that Morano suffered no brain injury. As I have stated repeatedly on other blogs, there is simply no way to tell in the first few hours after a blow to the head whether a brain injury has occurred, because brain injury is a process, not an event. See http://www.tbilaw.com/blog/2009/12/concussion-diagnosis-still-critical-for.html

Before brain injury can be completely ruled out in Morano, he must go back to a medical professional and be tested for amnesia. See my series of videos on this point at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney#p/u/13/x2EKaVHpVd0

AMERICAN AIRLINES STATEMENT REGARDING FLIGHT 331

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Posted on 24th December 2009 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

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AMERICAN AIRLINES STATEMENT REGARDING FLIGHT 331 Release #2 @ 1:25 (a.m.) U.S. Central Time

FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 23 /PRNewswire/ — On Tuesday, December 22, 2009, American Airlines Flight 331, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, overran the runway on landing at Kingston, Jamaica’s Norman Manley International Airport. The flight originated out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, operated into Miami International Airport, and then operated into Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport.

Preliminary reports indicate there are no critical injuries. The aircraft was carrying 148 passengers and a crew of six.

“The care of our passengers and crew members is our highest priority and we will offer all the assistance necessary,” said Gerard Arpey, American’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

American Airlines is in direct contact with officials from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration and is cooperating fully with appropriate authorities. American Airlines cannot speculate as to possible causes of the incident. At this point, no additional details can be confirmed.

Anyone who believes they have family members or friends aboard Flight 331 may contact American Airlines at the following toll-free numbers: (800) 245-0999 for calls originating in the United States; (800) 872-2881 for calls originating in Jamaica. Family members from other locations outside the U.S. may contact American through the AT&T; Direct Access system. Callers should dial the local AT&T; Access telephone number, which can be found at www.usa.att.com/traveler, for the country from which they are calling. Once in the AT&T; system, callers can then dial American toll-free at (800) 245-0999. Family members in Canada, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin islands can call the (800) 245-0999 number directly. Non-family members are asked not to call those numbers so the lines can be kept available for those who truly need them.

SOURCE American Airlines

Comment:

Compared to the catastrophe this could have been, everyone was extremely lucky. But clearly there were injuries on board and all injured deserve compensation. Those injuries may not just be the broken bones and back pain being reported now, but brain injury and PTSD. See our related blog at http://tbilaw.blog.com
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