Articles Posted in Car Accidents

Baltimore city police say that two people were hurt after a GEO Prism traveling in the fast lane on the North Avenue overpass on the Jones Fall Expressway rear-ended a 1997 Chevy van and subsequently became involved in another collission.

The two drivers had agreed to move to the shoulder of the road to exchange details when the van was hit by a Mitsubishi Montero. The van then swung into the Geo Prism, which then struck the Jersey wall and partially fell over the barrier before resting on the roadway. The passenger and the driver of the Geo Prism both had to be rescued, and the driver was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with severe head wounds and in reportedly critical condition. The cause of the collision is being investigated.

Head, neck, and back injuries are among the more common kinds of injuries that can occur during a car accident.

If you have sustained an injury in a car accident, it is important that you speak to a personal injury attorney right away. The insurance company of the other party will likely want to speak with you, and you will not be able to accurately judge how much it will cost for you to recover from your injury without the help of an experienced lawyer.

In addition to the costs of current treatment, surgery ,or other types of medical care needed for your recovery, there may be lost wages (from time taken off work) and future therapy or surgery that will have to be factored into consideration. A personal injury attorney can protect your rights and make sure that your interests are protected if you have been injured because of another’s negligence.

You will also want your own attorney to investigate the cause of the accident and provide evidence that can help your case. A good personal injury lawyer will work with top experts to investigate the accident scene, assess the damage to your vehicle, estimate what it may cost for you to recover, as well as figure out how many negligent parties are liable for your accident and injury.

You will also want to work with an attorney who is successful at winning trials in the event that your lawsuit ends up in court. A good personal injury attorney will help you obtain the maximum recovery possible for your case.

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Nicholas Sabath and his 17-year-old daughter Sylvia were killed last Wednesday night on Leitersburg Pike near Antietam Creek Bridge.

According to police, Sabath was driving westbound on Md 60 in a 1989 Honda Accord when he tried to avoid a Pontiac Sunfire that crossed the center line east of Lehman. Sabath lost control of the car and drove into the path of a 1992 Jeep Wrangler driven by Hagerstown resident John C. Pangborn, 19, who was headed eastward.

Pangborn was treated at Washington County Hospital for injuries.

Police say that the driver of the dark blue Pontiac Sunfire, which fled the accident scene, caused the car collision.

A hit and run charge is a very serious charge—especially if a person has been injured as a result.

Hit and Run Laws in Maryland

§ 20-102. Driver to remain at scene – Accidents resulting in bodily injury or death.

(a) The driver of each vehicle involved in an accident that results in bodily injury to or death of another person immediately shall stop the vehicle as close as possible to the scene of the accident, without obstructing traffic more than necessary.

(b) The driver of each vehicle involved in an accident that results in bodily injury to or death of another person immediately shall return to and remain at the scene of the accident until the driver has complied with § 20-104 of this title.

[An. Code 1957, art. 661/2, § 10-102; 1977, ch. 14, § 2; 1986, ch. 472, § 1; 1988, ch. 6, § 1; 1991, ch. 346, § 1; 1998, ch. 781; 2001, ch. 483; 2002, chs. 461, 462.] § 27-113. Violation of § 20-102 of this article.
(a) Serious bodily injury defined.- in this section, “serious bodily injury” means an injury that:
(1) Creates a substantial risk of death;
(2) Causes serious permanent or serious protracted disfigurement;
(3) Causes serious permanent or serious protracted loss of the function of any body part, organ, or mental faculty; or

(4) Causes serious permanent or serious protracted impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ.

(b) Penalty for serious bodily injury.- A person who violates § 20-102 of this article (“Driver to remain at scene – Accident resulting in bodily injury or death”) and who knew or reasonably should have known that the accident might result in serious bodily injury to another person and serious bodily injury actually occurred to another person, is guilty of a felony and on conviction is subject to imprisonment for not more than 5 years or a fine of not more than $5,000 or both.

(c) Penalty for death.- A person who violates § 20-102 of this article (“Driver to remain at scene – Accident resulting in bodily injury or death”) and who knew or reasonably should have known that the accident might result in the death of another person and death actually occurred to another person, is guilty of a felony and on conviction is subject to imprisonment for not more than 10 years or a fine of not more than $10,000 or both.
[2002, chs. 461, 462.] § 5-106. Prosecution for misdemeanors; manslaughter by automobile, motorboat, etc.; homicide by motor vehicle.

(p) Manslaughter by automobile, motorboat, etc.; homicide by motor vehicle; stopping at scene of accident.- A prosecution for an offense under Title 2, Subtitle 5 or § 2-209 of the Criminal Law Article or § 20-102 of the Transportation Article shall be instituted within 3 years after the offense was committed.

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David Helms of Bethesda, Maryland, will serve seven years in jail and three years probation. The sentence was issued following his guilty plea last month to one count of DWI and manslaughter related to the July 11 car crash on an Interstate 70 ramp that killed Northwest High School teacher Leonard Cave, 61, and critically injured Carolyn Gype, also a teacher at the school. Gype had to learn how to walk again.

Helms’s blood alcohol level at the time had registered .14—nearly twice the state’s legal limit, and many Maryland residents have expressed anger that the charge was manslaughter rather than murder. Under Maryland law, however, killing someone because of drunken driving is consider manslaughter and not murder. 10 years in prison is Maryland’s maximum sentence for a vehicular manslaughter conviction.

The 44-year-old Bethesda resident had been driving his Dodge Ram pickup truck on the I-70 ramp to Route 355 when he lost control of his truck. His truck struck the driver’s side of the Sienna minivan that Cave and Gype were riding.

Helms’s license had already been suspended prior to the fatal accident. He also had prior convictions in Florida for burglary, battery, and larceny, as well as a controlled and dangerous substance conviction in California and a conviction for resisting arrest.

Here are some statistics on drunk driving:

• Forty-one percent of 1,672 motorcycle operators who died in single-vehicle crashes in 2004 had BAC levels of .08 g/dl or higher. Sixty percent of those killed in single-vehicle crashes on weekend nights had BAC levels of .08 g/dl or higher. (NHTSA, 2005 )
• The majority of those who reported alcohol-related DUI in the 12 months prior to a national survey are not alcohol dependent or alcohol abusers. In 2000, 37% of the Blacks, 38% of the Hispanics, 29% of Whites, 44% of the Native Americans/Alaskan Natives, 39% of Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, 22% of the Asians and 28% of those of Mixed race who report committing DUI in the past year are alcohol abusers or dependent; all the others who drove under the influence are not. (Caetano and McGrath, 2005)
• In 2004, 30 percent of all fatal crashes during the week were alcohol-related, compared to 51 percent on weekends. For all crashes, the alcohol involvement rate was 5 percent during the week and 12 percent during the weekend. (NHTSA, 2005)
• For fatal crashes occurring from midnight to 3:00 AM, 77 percent involved alcohol in 2003. The next most dangerous time period for alcohol-related crash deaths were 9 PM to midnight (64 percent of fatal crashes involved alcohol), followed by 3 AM to 6 AM (60 percent of fatal crashes involved alcohol). (NHTSA, 2004)
• The rate of alcohol involvement in fatal crashes is more than 3 times as high at night as during the day (60 percent vs. 18 percent). For all crashes, the alcohol involvement rate is 5 times as high at night (16 percent vs. 3 percent). (NHTSA, 2005)
• The impact of alcohol involvement increases with injury severity. Alcohol-involved crashes accounted for 10 percent of property damage only crash costs, 21 percent of nonfatal injury crashes; and 46 percent of fatal injury crash costs. (NHTSA, 2002)

• Alcohol-related fatalities are caused primarily by the consumption of beer (80 percent) followed by liquor/wine at 20 percent. (Runge, 2002)

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Carson Daniel Fehner, 12, was seriously injured last Tuesday when the minivan that his mother was driving turned left into the path of a tow truck. He sustained critical head trauma and was airlifted to Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C. His mother, Terri, was not hurt in the car accident, and police say that side airbags may have saved the boy’s life.

Terri, 51, had turned left from Germantown Road in front of the path of a truck that was towing another vehicle. Both vehicles had green lights. The tow truck’s driver, Earl Jobe, 48, did not sustain injuries.

In the United States, about 5 million Americans suffer from traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injuries are caused by car accidents, motorcycle accidents, sports injuries, falls, and truck crashes.

Kinds of Head injuries:

· Concussions
· Brain damage
· Cerebral contusions
· Indirect trauma
· Diffuse axonal injury
· Hypoxia
· Direct trauma
· Hematoma
· Edema
· Intercerebral hemorrhage
· Hygroma
· Hydrocephalus
· Epidural hematoma
· Subdural hematoma

Signs that a brain injury has taken place:

· Loss of consciousness
· Post traumatic amnesia
· Concussion
· Encephalopathy
· Focal Neurological Signs
· Seizure

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The Maryland State Police regularly put together a record of traffic accidents that occur on Maryland roads and categorize them by routes. Routes most often cited for where accidents often occur include the following areas:

· Interstate 695 in Baltimore County
· Maryland 2 in Anne Arundel County
· U.S. 40 in Harford County
· U.S. 140 in Carroll County
· Interstate 95 in Howard County
According to David Buck, a spokesperson for the Maryland State Highway Administration, 90% of traffic motor vehicle accidents are caused by driver error, and “a road is only as dangerous as a driver makes it.”

In order to avoid unnecessary driver error, a number of driving experts offer a number of recommendations, including the following:

· Signaling before turning
· Merging carefully
· Staying within the proper speed limit
· Changing lanes safely
· Following the laws
· Not driving under the influence

Careless driving can lead to injuries and death if a driver is not careful while on the road. If a driver hurts or kills someone because of their negligent or careless actions on the road, he or she may be liable for personal injury or wrongful death damages filed on behalf of the victims or their surviving family members.

A number of kinds of serious physical injuries can occur to a person during a car crash, motorcycle accident, or truck collision, including the following:

· Nerve damage
· Dislocated or broken limbs or bones
· Spinal chord paralysis
· Limb amputation
· Severe burns
· Head injuries
· Neck injuries

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Kadri Atalay, a 42-year-old man from Gaithersburg, Maryland, was charged with committing second-degree murder, after driving his Mercedes SUV on the wrong side of Wisconsin Avenue, NW, in Washington D.C. and hitting a Chrysler Sebring that was being driven by a 29-year-old DC man. The 29-year-old man was later declared dead at the Medstar trauma unit of the Washington Hospital Center.

Atalay is also being treated at the Washington Hospital Center for injuries that are non-life threatening. Preliminary reports say that speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol may have caused the collision. The speed limit on Wisconsin Avenue is 25 miles/hour.

Damages From Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Accidents

If you have a loved one who has been killed in a car accident due to someone else’s negligence, you may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit. In Washington D.C., you have one year from the time of the accident to file a wrongful death claim. Unlike many states, the District of Columbia does not have a wrongful death cap for the amount of reward damages that may be brought.

Fatalities In Car Collisions

Every year, thousands of people in the United States are killed in car accidents. In 2003 alone, over 38,000 fatalities involving car accidents occurred on U.S. roads, killing 42,643 people. Fatal car crashes are a major cause of death for people 5-27 years of age. When these fatalities occur because someone else on the road was acting negligently or carelessly, the surviving family members of the person who has been killed have a right to be financially compensated for their suffering and loss. Over 5,000 pedestrians are also killed every year because of fatal car crashes.

Main Causes of Fatalities Occurring During Car Crashes:

· Speeding
· Driving under the influence
· Tiredness
· Recklessness
· Aggressive driving
· Not paying attention to roads or driving conditions
· Not wearing a safety belt or helmet
· Not stopping at red lights
· Faulty design of the vehicle
· Vehicle malfunction

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Three Elkton-area men were seriously injured last week in a single-car crash after a night of alleged heavy drinking.

William Ross Hawkins III ran a Dodge Intrepid off Cayots Corner Road near Route 213, where he struck a culvert and flipped his vehicle at least twice.

Hawkins and Christopher James Hunt, the passenger in the front seat, were thrown from the vehicle. Robert Clayton Hunt, the passenger sitting in the rear of the vehicle, became trapped in the car.

All three men were not wearing seat belts and according to police reports, Hawkins had been speeding. Beer cans and beer bottles had fallen onto the ground near the overturned vehicle.

Hawkins and Hunt were flown in separate helicopters to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Robert Hunt was driven by ambulance to Christiana Hospital in Delaware.

A motor vehicle crash qualifies as an alcohol-related accident if at least one driver or nonoccupant of the vehicle that was involved in the accident has a BAC of .01 grams or higher.

In 2005, According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

-16,885 people died in alcohol-related crashes.

-The national rate of alcohol-related deaths in motor vehicle crashes was .57 per 100 million vehicle miles that were traveled.

The Loyola University Health System offers a number of facts related to drunk driving:

· Nearly two out of every five Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related traffic crash in their lifetime.

· Nationally, each year, about 534,000 people suffer injuries in alcohol-related traffic crashes, an average of one person injured every minute. About 40,000 of these are serious injuries.

· Each year, in the U.S., about 600,000 – 10 percent – of all police-reported motor vehicle crashes are alcohol-related.

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