Maryland Accident Law Blog

According to AAA Mid-Atlantic, about 83% of the 609,000 Marylanders traveling 50 miles or more over the Memorial Day weekend will travel by car—that’s 508,000 motor vehicle riders. A decrease in local gas price is one of the reasons cited for an increase in road travelers from last year. Air travel is also expected to increase this year by 7%. Another reason cited for this rediscovered travel bug is that a poor economy has forced hotels, cruises, airlines, and car rental companies to lower their prices.

With more people getting into their cars and heading toward vacation destinations and family reunions, the roads will likely be more crowded this weekend. Traffic and the excitement and rush to arrive at a specific location can create a less relaxed travel climate that can increase the chances that a motorist might become involved in a catastrophic Maryland car accident.

Here are a number of safe driving tips to help you navigate your way through the Memorial Day weekend:

• Make sure you have your maps organized and travel routes planned before leaving.
• Check the Internet, listen to the radio, or watch TV to see where there may be traffic backlogs that you can avoid.
• Make sure that your car is in proper working condition before you head out.
• Have a roadside emergency kit with you.
• Get plenty of rest before you drive.
• Give yourself plenty of time to arrive at your destination.
• Take periodic breaks while driving so you don’t get lethargic or drowsy.
• Don’t speed.
• Obey traffic laws.
• Don’t talk on the cell phone or text message or read maps while driving.
• Drive defensively.
• Don’t drive drunk.
• Keep emergency numbers at your disposal.

More Marylanders to hit the road this weekend, Baltimore Sun, May 21, 2009

Related Web Resources:
AAA Mid-Atlantic
MD Roads

Continue reading "Maryland Car Accident Lawyers: 508,000 Marylanders Will Drive 50 Miles or More This Memorial Day Weekend, Says AAA" »

This week, the Maryland Senate approved by a 43 to 4 vote a bill banning drivers from text messaging whenever they are operating their motor vehicles. If the bill becomes law, it would make reading, composing, sending, or receiving text messages a misdemeanor crime punishable by a $500 fine. Maryland would also join a growing list of states and jurisdictions, including Virginia and Washington DC, that are banning text messaging—whether on a cell phone, PDA, or IPod Touch or another device—while operating a motor vehicle.

Sending short messages via cell phone or other electronic devices is a bad habit that has grown more popular in recent years—especially among younger, more inexperienced drivers. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, one of its studies last year found that about 50% of young drivers, ages 18 – 24, text message while driving. The study found that among drivers ages 45 and older, less than 5% engaged in text messaging while operating a motor vehicle.

Text messaging is a type of distracted driving, and like all other forms of distracted driving, including talking on a handheld cellular phone, applying making, or reading the newspaper, can lead to deadly auto accidents. ABC News says that a 2006 study showed that 65% of near-motor vehicle collisions and 80% of auto crashes occur because of distracted driving.

For example, one Maryland child lost her right forearm in a catastrophic bus accident that occurred while the bus driver was texting on his cell phone. 30 people were injured in this Maryland motor vehicle accident. In another traffic accident, a 26-year-old woman died last year in a truck accident when she was struck by a tractor-trailer while the truck driver had been texting.

These kinds of catastrophic motor vehicle collisions could have been avoided if the drivers had not been engaged in distracted driving.

Md. Is Latest State to Target Text Messaging by Drivers, Washington Post, March 18, 2009

Texting While Driving Could Spell Trouble, ABC News, May 8, 2007

Driving and Dialing Bus Drivers May Case Accidents, ABC News, Feb 7, 2007

Related Web Resources:
Examination of Maryland Senate Bill 98 (PDF)

Cell Phone Driving Laws, Governors Highway Safety Association

Continue reading "Maryland Senate Votes for Text Messaging While Driving Ban" »

The National Safety Council wants all US states to ban motorists from using cell phones while driving. NSC CEO and President Janet Froetscher noted that talking on the phone while driving increases a driver’s chances of becoming involved in an auto crash by four times more than if he or she were driving without using one.

Currently, six US states have laws banning the use of hand held cell phones while driving:

• District of Columbia
• Washington
• California
• Utah
• New Jersey
• Connecticut

Seven US States have a ban on text messaging while driving:

• District of Columbia
• Connecticut
• Alaska
• New Jersey
• Washington State
• Minnesota
• Louisiana

While some localities within US states that do not have statewide bans have imposed their own cell phone restrictions, including bans on hand-held phones and text messaging and bans affecting teen drivers and school bus drivers, the states of Kentucky, Florida, Nevada, Louisiana, Oregon, Mississippi, Utah, and Louisiana prohibit their localities from imposing any such bans.

The NSC is quick to point out that just because someone is using a hands-free phone does not mean that he or she is now operating the vehicle safely. According to a Harvard Center of Risk Analysis 2003 study, cell-phone use while driving is a contributing factor in 6% of auto accidents each year. Some 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries result from such collisions.

According to a Nationwide Insurance public opinion poll, 81% of US drivers use a cell phone when driving. Froetscher notes that cellular phone use while driving is more dangerous than talking to a passenger who is in the same vehicle. While talking to a real person makes the driver aware that lives are at stake if he or she doesn’t drive safely, talking on the cell phone places the motorist’s attention not on the road and in the present moment but elsewhere.

In addition to pushing for a change in current driving laws, the NSC is advocating more education about the dangers that come from driving with a cell phone, as well as better training.

National Safety Council Calls for Nationwide Ban on Cell Phone Use While Driving, NSC.org, January 12, 2009

Safety council urges ban on cell phone use while driving, CNN.com, January 12, 2009

Related Web Resources:

Maryland Cell Phone Law, DMV.org

Washington D.C. Hands-Free Law, Driving Laws.org

Cell Phone Driving Laws, Governors Highway Safety Association

Continue reading "National Safety Council calls for nationwide ban on cell phone use while driving" »

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration needs more time to revise its auto roof standards. The deadline to toughen the current regulation setting standards, which are 35 years old, is July 1, but the NHTSA is allowed to ask the US Congress for an extension.

The NHTSA’s current proposal, introduced in 2005, requires new roofs to be able to endure a force equal to 2.5 times the weight of a vehicle, while allowing for enough head room protection for the average adult male. It also calls for testing both sides of a roof. The current standard calls for a roof to withstand 1.5 times it’s vehicles weight and the testing of only one side of the roof.

The auto strength regulations are designed to provide safety protection for people that are involved in rollover accidents, which account for 1/3rd of all motor vehicle fatalities. About10,000 people are killed in rollover accidents each year.

The NHTSA has said that increasing the weight standard to the proposed regulations should save 13-44 lives and prevent some 800 injuries annually. Opponents of the current proposal, however, say that the new proposed standard is not enough. Some critics also want the NHTSA to get rid of a provision in the new proposal that prevents injured plaintiffs from filing state injury lawsuits if the vehicle involved in the accident had met the new roof safety standards.

While motor vehicle rollover accidents can happen because of driver negligence, there are rollover crashes that do occur because of defects in the design or manufacture of a motor vehicle, including a poorly designed roof structure, an auto designed with a gravity center that is too high, and defective tires.

Our Maryland and Washington DC law firm has helped drivers and passengers injured in accidents obtain compensation from negligent auto manufacturers. We have the resources and experience to successfully take on your case.

New auto roof rules delayed, DetNews.com, June 23, 2008

`Roof Crush' Rule for Rollovers Faces Deadline, Bloomberg.com, June 17, 2007

Related Web Resource:
Roof Crush Resistance Proposal, NHTSA

Continue reading "NHTSA Wants to Delay Deadline for New Auto Roof Standards" »

Test results conducted by the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety found that the stronger the SUV’s roof, the lower the risks of serious injury or death.

The IIHS tested 11 sport utility vehicles and found that the stronger roofs had a 39%-57% lower injury risk than SUVs with weaker roofs.

The IIHS says that over 200 lives could have been saved in 2006, during rollover accidents, if the SUVs had better roofs. 35% of motor vehicle deaths involve rollover crashes, with 60% of these rollovers involving SUVs.

The SUV’s roof that received the highest strength rating was the 2000-2004 Nissan Xterra. The SUV’s roof that received the lowest strength rating was the 1999- 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

A roof that crushes in during a rollover can cause serious injuries to passengers, who can sustain traumatic brain injuries or traumatic brain injuries when struck by the crushed roof.

Examples tragic SUV rollover accidents involving crushed roofs:

• Tyler Moody, 18, died of "positional asphyxiation “during an SUV rollover crash. His family’s wrongful death attorneys said the crushed roof cut off his breathing.

• Recently, a California appeals court ordered Ford to pay a paralyzed woman $82.6 million for injuries sustained during an SUV rollover also involving a crushed roof.

A trade group that represents Toyota, GM, Chrysler, and a few other auto makers, called the study flawed.

SUV Accident Facts from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

• Over 90% of SUV rollover crashes are single-car accidents.
• The most common kind of injury sustained in rollover crashes is head trauma.

In Maryland and Washington D.C., our personal injury law firm represents clients in SUV rollover accidents and other kinds ofproducts liability and car accident cases.

Report Says Weak SUV Roofs Are Deadly, U.S. News, March 13, 2008

Crash-test report backs stronger roofs on SUVs, USA Today, March 12, 2008

Related Web Resource:

Roof Strength and Injury Risk in Rollover Crashes (PDF)

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Continue reading "Insurance Institute For Highway Safety Says Making Stronger SUV Roofs Could Save Lives During Rollover Accidents" »

Five teenagers died in a fiery motor vehicle collision on Tuesday when the SUV they were riding in struck a tractor-trailer. Bailey Goodman, Hannah Congdon, Meredith McClure, Katherine Shirley, and Sarah Monnat had been members of Fairport High’s varsity cheerleading squad in New York, although Shirley left the team following her freshman year.

The girls were headed to a vacation home along Keuka Lake when the sports utility vehicle that they were riding in swerved into ongoing traffic and crashed into the tractor-trailer. Both vehicles then crashed into a fence next to a bed-and-breakfast outside East Bloomfield. The five girls died in the fiery collision. Four friends traveling in another motor vehicle witnessed the deadly crash. The driver of the tractor-trailer was not hurt.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

An investigation to determine who is at fault will have to take place anytime there is a motor vehicle collision and someone is seriously injured or killed.

A person who sustains serious injuries from an SUV, truck, car, or motorcycle accident because someone else was at fault may have grounds to file a personal injury claim. If someone was killed in a traffic accident because another person was negligent, the victim’s family members may have grounds to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

A good personal injury lawyer can determine who was at fault for causing the accident. He or she also has the knowledge, tools, and experience to figure out if a defect in the vehicle caused the accident and a manufacturer or distributor is to blame. Common grounds for a motor vehicle product liability claim include defective tires, defective airbag, defective seatbelts, and defective breaks.

Recovering from an accident is stressful enough without having to worry about medical or recovery costs.

Continue reading "Five High School Cheerleaders Die When SUV Crashes Into Tractor-Trailer" »