Personal Injury & Accident Lawyer Blog

ATV’s, or All Terrain Vehicles, have for years been a source of fun and recreation, but they have also been the source of much controversy and legal scrutiny.  The reason for the latter is their tendency to lead to accidents, particularly those that involve young people.  Yet another ATV accident that involved multiple injuries to children occurred in Indiana last week.

The Times-Union in Indiana reported:

“According to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department, 1-year-old Dakota Garcia, Warsaw, and 14-year-old Dylan Lewis, Argos, were airlifted to Parkview Hospital, Fort Wayne, after an ATV accident at the intersection of Ind. 14 and CR 650E, Rochester.

Around 8:14 p.m. Monday, an ATV, driven by Angelita C. Garcia, 18, CR 250S, Warsaw, collided with a pickup driven by Morse Utter, 83, CR 700E, Rochester.

According to police, Angelita Garcia was northbound on CR 650E when she failed to stop at the intersection with Ind. 14 and hit Utter’s pickup.

Lewis and both Garcias were ejected from the four-wheeler. Lewis suffered fractures, and Dakota Garcia suffered unknown injuries, and both were flown to Parkview Hospital. Angelita Garcia suffered a broken leg and was treated at Woodlawn Hospital, Rochester, and released.”

While this accident did not involve a rollover incident, and it appears that the driver of the truck was at fault, it still brings to light the dangers of having these vehicles and these young drivers on the road.  If you or someone you love has been injured in an ATV accident, contact the personal injury attorneys at the Phillips National Injury Group today to schedule a free initial consultation.

The Las Vegas airport is undergoing a massive terminal construction project, and while it’s seen as a benefit to the local economy for many reasons, the project has already seen its share of serious problems.  In February, a pavement company employee was killed in an accident, and another report has surfaced that five construction workers were injured in another incident.

According to the San Jose Merucry News:

“Officials say two workers remain hospitalized after five men were hurt in a construction accident at the McCarran International Airport international terminal project.

Airport spokesman Glenn Gardner says one man was being treated for injuries including a punctured lung after the accident just before 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Gardner says Nevada Occupational Safety and Health officials are investigating why a horizontal structure of reinforced steel rods collapsed around the men as they were building it.

The five men work for Pacific Coast Steel, a subcontractor on the $2.4 billion terminal project. The terminal is expected to open in 2012.”

It could be some time before OSHA has completed its investigation regarding the cause or causes of this incident, but when it does, it’s likely that liability will attach to at least one entity.  These situations could be governed by personal injury law, workers’ compensation law and perhaps other realms of legal discipline depending on the nature of the injuries, the status of the workers who were injured and several other factors. 

What that means is that if you or someone you love has been injured in a construction accident, you need to seek the help of a construction accident attorney who will understand all of the different legal possibilities that could arise.  Contact the Phillips National Injury Group today to schedule a free initial consultation.

When a terrible incident occurs such as the one this week in Washington, D.C., there are often two levels of discussions that begin in earnest.  One level began today when the Mayor of Washington, D.C. blamed local and state officials for the failure to properly oversee the train system and for a failure to invest money in safety.  The other, more tangible level of discussion also began today when officials began to uncover what may have led to the crash that now leaves the death total at 9 with 76 injuries.

According to ABC News:

“The National Transportation Safety Board had twice warned that trains like the ones involved in the Monday wreck could be dangerous to passengers.

Fenty’s comments came as the NTSB learned that the operator of the D.C. Metro train that crashed into a stopped train ahead of it likely hit the emergency brake before the impact, but the breaks may have been behind schedule for maintenance.

“There are control positions that are consistent with the application of the emergency brake,” NTSB investigator Debbie Hersman told “Good Morning America.”

The NTSB is also looking into reports that the emergency brakes aboard that train were two months overdue for maintenance, but it has not been able to confirm those reports.

Officials said Metro trains travel above sensors along the rail that can automatically detect when trains are getting too close to one another. The computerized system is designed to stop them from coming within 1,200 feet of each other.”

If either of these two theories prove to be true, then an enormous amount of liability could be attached to several parties if wrongful death lawsuits are brought.  If you or someone you love has been injured in a train accident, contact the attorneys at the Phillips National Injury Group today to schedule a free initial consultation.

Train accidents always leave behind a wake of destruction in many different ways.  People are almost always badly injured, many are tragically killed and the property damage is also severe.  Sadly, this appears to be the case once again as a Washington, D.C. Metro train crash tore the city apart yesterday.  As of this writing, the death total sits at seven, while at least 76 people were taken to the hospital with injuries.

According to CNN:

“The crash occurred just before 5 p.m. on an above-ground track in the District of Columbia near the border with Takoma Park, Maryland.

Both trains were on the same track, and one of them was stationary when the crash happened, said John Catoe, Metro general manager.

The investigators “are going to look very carefully at the event recorder in the train that hit the stopped train,” he said. “Unfortunately, in a number of train accidents recently, both in Boston and in Southern California, you had the engineer being distracted. My hope is that’s not the case here.”

In a Boston trolley accident in May and a commuter train accident near Los Angeles last fall, the operators were sending text messages just before the accidents. Since then, the California Public Utilities Commission has banned train engineers from using cell phones on duty.

The Washington transit authority told investigators that trains normally operate in automatic mode at rush hour, Hersman said, adding that investigators were trying to determine whether that was true during the accident.”

Clearly, this is a story that will continue to be covered for days as new facts are uncovered.  Perhaps the most critical to many is the determination of how this accident occurred.  If you or someone you love has been injured or worse in a train accident, contact the attorneys at the Phillips National Injury Group today to schedule a free initial consultation.

Summer is a time when millions of people take some time to have some fun, especially in parts of the United States where the climate only provides a relatively short amount of time for warm weather.  One of those areas is Wisconsin, and unfortunately, four people paid a tragic price for one person’s bad judgment over the first official weekend of summer.  A 53-year-old man was killed, along with three other people in another vehicle, when his car crashed head-on with theirs after driving the wrong way down a highway.  Authorities suspect alcohol was involved in the crash.

According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

“Stephen Siebert, of Ashwaubenon, was driving a Jeep Liberty that hit a Chrysler Concorde, killing 20-year-old driver Paige Riley of Appleton and front-seat passenger Arielle Lewandowski, 17, Menasha. Samuel Goudy, 19, Neenah, who was sitting in the backseat of the Concorde, died later Friday.

Results of toxicology tests are not expected for 10 to 14 days, but authorities said they suspect alcohol played a role in the crash at 12:49 a.m. Friday.

Siebert, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the vehicle, which caught on fire, Brown County Medical Examiner Al Klimek said.

Siebert was involved in a separate traffic crash shortly before the fatal crash, the sheriff’s department said.”

When the toxicology reports return, it really won’t matter to those involved whether or not Siebert was drunk, as it certainly won’t change the tragic results for those killed in this accident.  However, it could help heighten awareness for everyone else.  If you or someone you love has been injured or worse in a DUI accident, contact the attorneys at the Phillips National Injury Group today to schedule a free initial consultation.