In Smithsburg, Maryland two children were seriously injured this week in a car accident at the intersection of Smithsburg Leitersburg Road and Rowe Road.
Audrey Marie Partlow, 41, was driving the car that the children, along with another juvenile passenger, were riding in when their vehicle collided with another vehicle, driven by Douglas Allen McCall II, 34.
Partlow, McCall, and the three juveniles, a 5-year-old, a 10-year-old, and an 8-year old were treated at Washington County Hospital.
A recent AAA Mid-Atlantic Report says that the number of motorcycle accidents have increased over 70 percent in the last five years and have tripled over the last decade.
The recent increase in motorcycle accidents is due, in part, to the increase in motorcycle riders taking the street. In the last ten years, millions more people have joined the ranks of registered motorcyclists.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers the following national statistics regarding motorcycle riders:
In Maryland last week, Baltimore police officer Channon Rankin sustained a concussion and a fractured leg when the police car that she was driving collided with another vehicle at Belvedere and Beaufort avenues in the Pimlico section in Northwest Baltimore. The driver of the other vehicle, Omar Mooring, sustained the same types of injuries. Ranking was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center for treatment, while Mooring was attended to at Sinai Hospital. Both cars were severely damaged.
According to Baltimore police, Officer Rankin had been rushing to a call at the time of the accident, and her car lights and police siren were activated.
Whether you were involved in a vehicle-related accident where someone was injured or if you witnessed an accident where someone was injured, here are some suggestions for what you can do.
Last week, two Crisfield ambulance attendants and their patient were injured on the way to Peninsula Regional Medical Center when the ambulance they were riding in was hit by another vehicle at the Cedar Lane intersection on U.S. 13.
Lower Somerset County Ambulance and Rescue Squad’s ambulance 802 had just come from Marion Station where they had picked up their patient who had been involved in a vehicle-related accident. The ambulance workers, Angela Cvetko and Tim Collins, were also treated at Peninsula Regional Medical Center.
Common causes for vehicle-related accidents:
The family of Mary Jones, a mother who was killed when a police officer ran a red light on Northern Parkway on November 13, are worried that they could lose a lawsuit they filed against the city of Baltimore.
Police reports say that Baltimore City Police officer Antonio Reyes-Rodriguez was traveling between 62-82 miles per hour in a 30-mile zone when he ran a red light. Witnesses say that they did not hear a police siren during this time. The report concluded that Officer Reyes had violated Maryland Criminal Law by driving in a grossly negligent manner, which caused Jones’s death.
Just two months ago, however, the Assistant State Attorney wrote Jones’s family to say that there wasn’t any negligence involved on the part of Reyes-Rodriguez—who had been dismissed from the police force after the incident—and that the manslaughter charges were being dropped against him.
In Anne Arundel County’s Maryland City, a white pickup truck hit a pedestrian at the corner of Brock Ridge Road and Route 198 on the night of Monday, October 30 and fled the scene soon after. The victim was taken to The University of Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
According to a USA Today analysis, the number of pedestrians killed in hit-and-run accidents since 2005 is now 20% greater.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that in 2005, 974 out of 4881 pedestrians who were killed died in hit-and-run accidents.
Crash data from a new AAA Mid-Atlantic report says that licensed, underaged drivers, ages 16-17, are just as likely to get into deadly car crashes from Monday through Friday between 3 and 5 p.m. as they are between 9 p.m. 2 a.m on weekend nights.
Data shows that between 2002 and 2005:
· 1,100 underaged, teen drivers were killed in the hours right after school.
In Maryland last week, attorneys for both sides in the wrongful death suit of Baby Caleb rested their cases. Caleb Taylor’s obstetrician, Dr. Jason Evans, is accused of negligence during the baby’s delivery in 2004. The prosecution claims that Dr. Evans waited too long before performing a c-section on Caleb’s mother Casey. A jury will be asked to determine the amount of compensation for the suffering and loss caused by Caleb’s death. He was born with severe complications and died nine days after his birth. The defense claims that Evans could not perform the c-section until the anesthesiologist arrived at the hospital.
The state of Maryland has a wrongful death cap of $885,000.
A birth injury or trauma is an injury that happens to a baby during birth. A delay in delivery of a baby can cause profound injury to a child due to oxygen deprivation. These injuries include damage to the brain, cerebral palsy, erbs palsy, and other physical and neurological injuries.
Last week, nine school kids were treated and released at the Carroll Hospital Center in Sykesville, Maryland, after their school bus and a 1992 Buick collided with one another near Linton Springs Elementary School. The bus had been 100 yards away from the unloading zone at the elementary school when the Buick pulled out in front of the bus from a side parking lot. About 50 school kids were on the bus at the time of the accident.
· There are 585,000 school buses in the U.S.
· 20 students are killed in bus accidents each year (5 while on the bus and 15 are run while getting off or on buses).
The Maryland Transportation Authority says that, according to the latest statistics, the bright pink panels that have been placed along the eastbound span of the Bay Bridge are decreasing auto accidents by helping drivers keep their distance from one another.
According to the MdTA, previous studies had shown that:
· 58% of the auto accidents that occured on the Bay Bridge were rear-end collisions.
Maryland Accident Law Blog
