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…
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety says most of the victims killed in teen driving accidents are people other than the teen drivers. The AAA compiled this information based on its analysis of 10 years of crash information. According to its findings: • Between 1998 and 2007, 28,138 victims died…
In Washington DC, the father of eight-year-old twin boys is suing the DC Water and Sewer Authority for $200 million. John Parkhurst says that his children have learning and behavioral problems because they were affected by the high levels of lead present in the city’s waters from 2001 through 2004.…
In Maryland, there is a new bill that proposes the automatic six-month driver’s license suspension of any underage driver who is convicted of the illegal possession of alcohol. It would also then take the offender six more months than usual to get his or her license back. According to Maryland…
In a deadly Maryland motor vehicle crash that left the vehicle split in two, one Montgomery County high school student is dead and the other has serious injuries. The accident occurred on Sunday afternoon in Rockville. The driver of the vehicle, 17-year-old Silver Springs resident Johvanny Garmendez, reportedly lost control…
A new peer-reviewed study to be published in the Environmental Science and Technology raises worries that some 42,000 Washington DC kids, now ages 4 to 9, may have been exposed to high levels of lead during the 2001 water crisis. Many of these children were two years of age or…
The family of a 7-year-old boy who suffers from cerebral palsy because of a brain injury he allegedly sustained during his birth will receive a $6.5 million medical malpractice settlement. Roberto Morales Jr. was born at Provena Mercy Medical Center on April 7, 2001. According to the family’s medical malpractice…
This year, the Court of Appeals of Maryland will hear Kelly v. N.B.S. Inc., a lead-paint lawsuit involving serious injuries to a now 13-year-old girl. In 2007, a Baltimore jury issued a Maryland personal injury verdict ordering the family’s landlord to pay the family of Kelly Green $2.3 million. Because…
A 5-year-old Maryland boy sustained critical injuries after the seat belt he was using got caught around his neck. The incident occurred in Prince George’s County on I-95 at around 6p on Monday evening. The child, DeAndre Harris, is in very serious condition at the Children’s National Medical Center in…
A new study shows that starting the school day a little later may reduce the chances of teen car crashes, personal injuries, and death. A later school start time allows teens to sleep more in the morning, which, researchers say, leads to more alert driving. By moving the beginning of…