District of Columbia Personal Injury Blog

Woman Killed in Motor Vehicle Collision by Driver Fleeing Police

David Tompkins — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:51:37 GMT

Police Chase, Montgomery County, Maryland, Death of Mother, Automobile Collision.

Yesterday, a 32 year old mother of two was killed by a 19 year old man fleeing police. The collision occurred in Montgomery County, Maryland on Maryland Route 355 at Goshen Road. Police indicate that they pulled over the driver of the negligent vehicle for not having its headlights on at night. The vehicle then sped off, without headlights, running red lights, and ultimatly killing a woman and devestating her family.

This type of police chase seems so unnecessary. A normal traffic stop of a young, teenage driver, who's tags, vehicle and description have all been recorded by police, ends in the death of an innocent mother. Now, there are two children without a mother and a husband without a wife raising two children. For what? Another traffic ticket? Did police really need to chase that vehicle?

This type of police chase should not happen. Innocent motorists should not pay with their lives because the police can't stand to give up a ticket or an afront to their authority.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Tompkins

First Serious Winter Weather Causes Numerous Car Wrecks

David Tompkins — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 16:15:50 GMT

Icy road in the Washington D.C. area contributed to a number of car accidents this week. Car accidents are not caused by snow, but by inexperienced drivers. People who don't know how to drive on snow go too fast for conditions and hurt other people and themselves. Insurance companies never find their driver negligent for driving too fast for snowy or icy conditions. Adjusters will always blame the snow, and pay injured people nothing.

Icy conditions, really the first of this year, contributed to numerous car accidents this week. According to NBC4, at least one fatality in the area can be attributed to the weather.

According to this article, one person driving an SUV died when he lost control (going to fast for conditions), was hit by a semi, then pushed off the road on Route 15. The driver died of very serious injuries caused by the collision. The driver of the semi suffered what the article describes as minor injuries.

The article goes on to describe accident after accident caused by snow, ice and weather.

But let's get seroius here. The SNOW did not cause the collision. Poor, unsafe driving causes these collisions. In our society, we just have to get there as fast as we can!

Even more telling is how many of these collision involved SUVs. These large, 4 wheel drive trucks are driven by inexperienced drivers on our roads. What I mean by inexperienced is that the drivers are those who don't really understand how to drive in the SNOW, not how much they drive in general. Driving a 4 wheel drive vehicle will get you moving, but does not help you stop on the snow (at all) and does not really help that much at steering. The person with little experience in the snow will get their large, top heavy vehicle going forward, but can't stop. They become a cannon-ball on the road.

So please, DC drivers, take your time when it is snowing. If you are late, be late and stay alive.

When one of these snow-speed-demons hits you or a loved one, contact an attorney to assist you. Almost guaranteed the insurance company for the other person won't find their driver negligent for driving too fast. The adjuster will blame the snow, and pay you nothing.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Tompkins

Intersections in Maryland Can Be Dangerous

David Tompkins — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:09:22 GMT

NBC reported that another pedestrian has been killed in Prince George's County. On January 12, 2008, Rosario Gonzales was killed at the notoriously dangerous intersection of New Hampshire Avenue and University Boulevard.

The sad part of this story is that the person that struck and killed Mr. Gonzalez did not have the human decency to stop. The person who hit Mr. Gonzalez fled the scene, and police are looking for him now.

Our roads have been designed for automobile traffic only. Our roads were not designed to help pedestrians, nor where they designed to help bicyclists get where they need to go. When you need to cross the street, you have to be extra careful, because the road designs and intersection designs are working against you.

Serious personal injuries are routine in pedestrian and bicycle accidents. Unfortunately, Maryland follows the principle of contributory negligence, where if you are partly at fault, you cannot recover any damages from another person.

Insurance companies routinely mislead their insureds about what insurance is available, and always threaten to "raise your rates" if you use your insurance. When you hear something that just does not sound right, it is probably time to call a lawyer.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Tompkins

SUV Rollovers: A Persistent Crucial Problem

David Tompkins — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:35:40 GMT

Steps to take when you are involved in an SUV Rollover:

1. Take pictures of the SUV and all vehicles involved in the collision.

2. Take pictures of location where the accident took place. These pictures should show the layout of the road and include any scrapes on the road, tire marks or skid marks.

3. Keep the SUV even if it is totaled.

4. Take the names, addresses and phone numbers of any witnesses at the accident scene.

People believe that the bigger their vehicle, the safer they are. That perception has propelled the SUV industry into one of the fastest growing car markets in the United States. Unfortunately, that perception is not correct. SUV's, have a disturbing tendency to roll over which results in more serious accidents. Just about every make and model of SUV's have this problem.

The government requires SUVs to display a warning label telling drivers that the vehicle may rollover when they make a sharp turn which is exactly the type of a maneuver a driver may take in order to avoid an accident. According to the National Highway Safety Administration, SUVs roll over more than twice the rate of other vehicles. Warning drivers that their vehicle may rollover if they make a sharp turn is not enough, the basic flawed design needs to be changed.

What causes SUVS to flip and rollover? SUVs have a higher center of gravity because they are taller, have higher ground clearance and a narrower distance between their wheels. This higher center of gravity makes it easier for SUVs to tip over. In fact, the heavier the vehicle, which SUVs tend to be, the more likely the vehicle will tip over. A roll over bar provides some protection in the event of a roller yet many SUV manufacturers have taken them out of the SUVs since they are predominantly driven by families.

Don't be fooled by ratings given to SUV. The tests provided by the manufacturers were conducted by professional drivers with lightly loaded SUVs which have little to do with how an ordinary driver with a car full of kids would react in the same situation. Even an SUV with a five-star crash rating still has a 10% chance of rolling over in a single-vehicle crash. When drivers of SUVs lose control their vehicles, their vehicles tend to flip over more often than passenger cars; their passengers can be ejected which likely results in death. More than half (53%) of passenger deaths in SUVs occurred in rollover accidents.

Litigating SUV roller cases can be complex and involves knowledge of not only state laws governing negligence but also federal safety regulations and laws of corporate liability and products liability. If you or someone you love has been involved in an SUV rollover accident, please click the link on the right hand side of the page.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Tompkins

Family to Sue Health Insurer for Fatal Delay in Treatment

David Tompkins — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 23:11:16 GMT

While not a typical automobile post, I'd like to draw your attention to this weeks story about a health insurer who denied a liver transpant to a young insured girl. It seems that liver transplants, to the health insurer, is still considered an "experimental" procedure, so they denied coverage for the procedure.

The young girls family hired a well known TV lawyer to get some media coverage. They call legislators, held press conferences, wrote letters, did the whole "blogosphere" routine. Put some heat on the health insurer, and see if you can move them.

It worked, the carrier changed their position, a few hours before the young girl died. I believe there is a song about this: "Isn't it Ironic."

Now there are calls for criminal charges against the health insurer, civil suits for negligence against the health insurer, and so on. But let's look at why this girl died: MONEY.

The procedure costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Who gets that money? Doctors, for profit hospitals, pharmacutical manufacturers (for the crazy priced anti-rejection drugs) and so on. NONE of these people (I include the doctors here) woudl help this girl, unless there was money in it for them. Think about that for a bit, no one would help her unless the health insurance company (or the girl herself, or her family) coughed up the dough. While we look for money, the girl dies.

Also look at the health insurer. The call now is for a criminal complaint to be filed against the health insurer. A corporation. Corporations cannot go to jail. But there are PEOPLE at the health insurance company who delayed this girl's treatment. If these people knew they would cause this girl's death by delaying her treatment, is that manslaughter. I doubt any district attorney would touch that case. It is morally reprehensible, but probably not a "crime" as such.

I feel badly for the family that lost their beloved daughter. She was killed by our capitalistic, money-grubbing health care system that feeds on insurance company pay-outs and the wages of the poor. The outrage leveled at the health insurer, while deserved, is misplaced. No one is going to cure any disease in America for free.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Tompkins

Doctors Protect Drug Addict Physicians so they Can Treat You!

David Tompkins — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:40:38 GMT

I take a lot of static from doctors who say I am too hard on their profession. "All professionals make mistakes," I have been told. True, but a professional fixes mistakes, or makes their client, patient, etc. whole. That is the nature of a profession, a self-regulating trade.

Doctors don't want to help victims of medical malpractice. Doctors want their injured patients to accept their miserable lot in life and leave them alone. Doctors, you see, are special. Doctors believe they should not have their mistakes (assuming one would even admit a mistake) should be public.

Lawyers self-regulate. Check the D.C. Bar website, and see how many lawyers have been disciplined, reprimanded, or disbarred in the last year! In Public! There are bad lawyers out there, and the legal profession goes after those bad lawyers, and disciplines them publicly, or removes them from the profession, if necessary.

The medical profession, however, has no such regulatory entity, and certainly not one that functions in public.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Tompkins

Allstate Tells Missouri Courts to "Kiss-Off"

David Tompkins — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:22:08 GMT

Allstate Insurance Company was ordered by a Missouri trial court to produce documents related to its "McKinsey Study" program, and Allstates relatively new claims handling program.

Allstate, refusing to make public just how shady its claims handling processes are for automobile accident victims, has accepted as a business proposition a $25,000.00 per day sanction from Judge Michael Manners.

While I am a licensed Missouri attorney, graduate of Mizzou Law in 1996, I have never had the pleasure of practicing before Judge Manners. However, I believe the Court is in for a rude awakening when dealing the Allstate. The level of abuse and arrogance Allstate is willing to shell out to victims of automobile negligence is legendary.

In the middle to late 1990s, Allstate figured out a few things about how they handled automobile collision claims. Foremost, they figured out that lawyers representing automobile accident victims were used to "easy settlements." They also figured out that lawyers made claims settle for two to three times higher than claims where a victim handled a claim without an attorney

In an effort to "change the game," Allstate developed a program designed to specifically to reduce the rates at which victims retain an attorney. The program was comprehensive, ranging from quick, low offers to those who were in desperate need of money, lawyer-bashing (all too obvious and easy), and a program to make lawyer's lives miserable by shifting costs and delays to the victims burden.

Some people argue that, when you are suing another person, in an adversarial system like the US legal system, this is ok. And to a point, I would agree. Allstate takes the program WAY beyond that point.

Besides, Allstate does not limit its practices to third-party claims. If you are an Allstate insured and you have to make a claim on your own policy, you are up against the same onerous process. Yes, your own insurance carrier, to whom you have paid premiums diligently for years and years, will put you through the ringer in an effort to get you to abandon your claim, or take less to make the onerous process stop.

In the case I just read about in Jackson County, rather than comply with the Court's order, Allstate has accepted as a business expense a $25,000.00 per day fine. The arrogance of this is astounding.

Remember, if you have a car accident where you were injured, pray that Allstate is not the company you have to deal with. If it is, get yourself a lawyer right away! You're going to need one!

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Tompkins

Hospital Operates on the Wrong Side of the Brain -- For the THIRD TIME!

David Tompkins — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:01:42 GMT

Rhode Island Hospital has been cited for a THIRD incident this year for performing brain surgery on the wrong side of a patient's brain. Two of the victims survived, one did not.

According to Yahoo News, the hospital is reviewing its policies and training of doctors. This is a disturbing trend, and one that indicates significant problems with this hospital.

One question that jumps to my mind is this, "How many other hospitals or clinics have this same problem?" Also, I wonder about the victims. What about the man or woman that had a hole drilled into the wrong side of his or her brain? What damage has been done? What are their rights?

In these cases, is it fair to say to the person with lifetime disability that their pain and suffering is worth only $250,000.00. What will that be when he is 60 years old?

What is being done to protect the public? There are no signs posted at the hospital entrance that state "We operated on the wrong side of a person's brain three times this year." Doctors don't tell patients when they are being evaluated that they have made these mistakes repeatedly in the last year. Consumers of medical care cannot protect themselves from this shoddy care. Imagine, your brain surgeon telling you this before you have surgery, would you still let him do the procedure or have the procedure at that hospital? I believe the answer is no.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Tompkins

Teens and Driving: Parents Need to Protect Their Kids

David Tompkins — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:41:42 GMT

Some of the most tragic cases that I see involve young people. On November 12, 2007 another teenager died in a single car accident. This brings the total teen death rate for suburban Montgomery County to seven in a single week!

We strongly encourage parents to take a leadership role with their children. What our experience has shown, and what all emperical data we have seen supports, is that the single leading contributors to teen deaths are:
1. Alcohol
2. More than one non-family passenger in a vehicle
3. Driving after 9:00 pm (we believe basically after dark)
4. Bad weather
5. Vehicle engines with greater than a 4-cylinder engine.

One or more of these factors are involved in EVERY SINGLE death case we have handled for a dead teenager's grieving parents.

There is some talk of restricting teen driving privileges. I am not sure that this is the solution, as practically speaking, teens need to drive to work, school activities and so on. However, parents can take an active role in protecting their children. Do not let you child drive other teens in their car. Do not buy you child a car with a large engine. Put and enforce a curfew on you child and enforce it with driving privileges. NEVER LET YOUR CHILD CONSUME ALCOHOL EVER. Restrict drivng during inclement weather, especially after dark.

We feel for all families that lose a child. We hope we never see another grieving parent in our office. We encourage everyone to take these basic steps to help keep their learning drivers safe.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Tompkins

Another "Made in China" Toy Recall

David Tompkins — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:46:53 GMT

File this one under ,"No longer surprising." The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of AQUA DOTS. News of the recall has been widely reported, like at Reuters.

I wish I was surprised by this, but after the last few months, I can't be. What makes me so mad is that MY kids got these stupid bead toys!

When these first got to the house, I KNEW these were trouble. At first, the beads were a mild choking hazard (small, sticky) but that was the extent of it. I should have trusted my parental instincts. I should have KNOWN that the MADE IN CHINA label was trouble. I just thought, "Hey, the kids like the toy." Boy was I wrong! This isn't just about a little lead paint that will make a generation of our kids stupid, this chemical laced plastic candy looking thing will KILL your kid. Wow. Ponder that one!

DON'T BUY CHINEESE MADE TOYS AT ALL!

For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Defective and Dangerous Products.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Tompkins