In Baltimore County, the business editor of the Baltimore Sun died last week when the car he and his nine-year old daughter were riding in was involved in a Maryland truck accident with a UPS vehicle. Tim Wheatley, 48, died at the traffic site. His daughter, Sarah, was seriously injured and was transported to a hospital.
Police are investigating the truck accident to see if anyone involved ran a red light and if charges should be filed.
Truck Accident Cases
A Harford County woman has died after the sport-utility vehicle she was driving collided with a semi-truck on Sunday morning. Linda Buckland, 57, was pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma. Her husband, 62-year-old Charles Buckland, sustained critical injuries.
Buckland was reportedly driving a Chevy Tracker west on Pulaski Expressway when the semi-truck crash happened. The Kenworth tractor driver, Irvine Jones, was charged with multiple violations.
Involvement in any kind of large truck crash can be overwhelming and frightening. This is not the kind of Maryland injury case that you want to handle alone. An experienced Maryland truck accident attorney can help you explore your legal options. In the meantime, there are steps that you or your loved one can take to help your case, including:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports even though more car accidents happened in urban areas, 56% of the 37,261 traffic deaths that occurred in 2008 took place on rural roads. There were 20,905 rural traffic deaths last year.
One reason for the number of deaths that occur in rural areas is that people tend to drive faster on roads that are not as designed and engineered as well as they are in urban areas. Two of the other reasons that rural auto accident deaths happen is people failing to use seat belts or driving drunk. It can also take longer for medical help to arrive at a rural car accident site. 222 of the 591 Maryland traffic fatalities in 2008 occurred in rural areas.
Findings from another traffic accident study, recently discussed in ScienceDaily.com, affirmed the NHTSA’s findings that driving in rural areas is not safer than driving in urban areas. The study, conducted by researchers abroad, reports that:
In Maryland, Shannon Brown was awarded $1,063,807.37 for the Baltimore City truck accident injuries that she sustained on July 13, 2006. Brown fractured her leg and her right leg was crushed when a gas tanker truck ran a red light and struck the car that she was in. Fortunately, her baby, Elijah, was not injured even though he was in the car with her.
Brown had two undergo two surgeries for her fracture. A medical team inserted 18 screws and a plate in the leg that was crushed.
The Maryland truck accident lawsuit was filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court. The plaintiffs and defendants had disagreed over who was at fault in causing the Baltimore City truck collision. The jury, however, decided that an 11-year-old witness who testified that Brown was the one with the green light was the most credible. They also found the truck driver liable for causing the traffic crash. Prior to going to trial, Eastern Petroleum, the trucking company that was a defendant in the lawsuit, tried offering Brown a $25,000 Maryland personal injury settlement.
$1 million of the verdict is for pain and suffering. Brown’s noneconomic damages, however, will go down to under $729,000 because of Maryland’s cap on damages.
Traffic violations, such as running a red light, not stopping at a red light, failing to signal, and failing to obey the speed limit, can lead to catastrophic consequences if the driver ends up hitting another vehicle. As we reported earlier this month, on August 4, John R “Jack” Yates died when a truck struck his bicycle at an intersection in downtown Baltimore in a hit-and-run crash. Surveillance footage shows the vehicle making an abrupt right turn without signaling. The 67-year-old bicyclist got tangled under the truck’s rear tires and died at the Maryland truck accident site. Police are trying to find the truck driver.
Baltimore City Truck Accident Lawsuit Results in $1M Verdict, About Lawsuits, August 19, 2009
Attorney: Video of collision that killed cyclist shows truck at fault, Baltimore Sun, August 13, 2009
A 67-year-old Baltimore bicyclist is dead after he was fatally struck in a Maryland truck accident. Police are currently searching for the hit-and-run trucker, who left the crash site.
The deadly Maryland bicycle accident occurred at the intersection of West Lafayette and Maryland Avenues. Investigators say that the truck struck Yates as it turned left on West Lafayette. According to witnesses, the cyclist appears to have gotten stuck beneath the truck’s back wheels.
Yates’s fatal injuries included massive trauma to his left leg and abdomen. His wife Ellen said he was on his bike running errands when the deadly Baltimore truck crash happened.
Police are still searching for the box truck driver.
According to Maryland’s State Highway Administration, from 2005 – 2008 about 7 people a year have died in Maryland bicycle accidents.
Proving liability in any kind of Maryland motor vehicle case can be tough and you will need all of the legal help that you can get. Often, when a bicyclist is involved in a traffic crash with another vehicle, it is the cyclist who will have sustained the most serious injuries.
In many cases, these injuries will be catastrophic if not fatal. In addition to medical costs for hospital stays, medical procedures, and rehabilitation expenses, there will also be lost wages to consider for time taken off work, property damage, and possible loss of future earning potential and benefits. It is also impossible to disregard the mental and emotional anguish and trauma that can affect the victim as well as family members.
Whether the responsible party is a driver who remained at the scene or a hit-and-run motorist, you are entitled to the maximum Maryland personal injury recovery possible.
Bicyclist killed in accident identified, Baltimore Sun, August 5, 2009
Cyclist Struck And Killed In Baltimore, WJZ, August 6, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Bicycles, NHTSA
Maryland State Highway Administration
Findings released from a new study this week report that texting while driving increases the chance that a truck driver will be involved in a truck crash or near-accident by 23 times. Researches from Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute looked at commercial trucking information from two studies—one in 2003 and the other in 2007. 203 truck drivers who drove over 3 million miles took part in the studies. The institute studied 4,452 events considered “safety-critical,” including 197 near accidents and 21 truck crashes.
Video cameras were installed in large trucks that were used to shoot footage of truck drivers’ facial reactions in the final seconds right before a near miss truck crash or an actual truck accident. The footage showed that the main reason texting while driving is so dangerous for truck drivers is that they have to take their eyes off the road.
The institute’s Center for Truck and Bus Safety Rich Hanowski says that taking one’s eyes off the road when driving for more than two seconds is dangerous. Yet in the last six seconds right before these truck accidents and near collisions, a number of the truckers spent 4.6 seconds with their eyes on their communication device rather than the road. In that length of time, a truck moving at 55mph will have traveled a football field’s length.
Hanowski also said it was important to note that texting while driving isn’t just dangerous for truck drivers, it’s a safety risk for all drivers who do it. While it will be illegal for all Maryland motorists to text while driving October 2009—this isn’t always enough to get drivers to stop texting while driving. Yet the consequences can be catastrophic, such as when a large tractor-trailer ends up slamming into a small passenger car because a trucker was busy checking messages.
Texting while driving riskier than thought, study finds, Chicago Tribune, July 29, 2009
Texting and Driving Don’t Mix, The Washington Post, July 29, 2009
New Data from VTTI Provides Insight into Cell Phone Use and Driving Distraction, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, July 27, 2009 (PDF)
Related Web Resources:
Cell Phone Driving Laws, GHSA, July 2009
Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration introduced new braking standards for truck tractors. Whereas the old standard required tractor-trailers moving at 60 mph come to a full stop within 355 feet, the new standard mandates a complete stop within 250 feet.
The federal agency estimates that this new standard will decrease the number of US truck accidents each year, preventing 300 serious injuries and saving 227 lives each year while reducing property damage expenses by more than $169 million a year. The new standard will be phased in over a four-year period starting with 2012 models and will hopefully accelerate the implementation of the newest brake technology into the country’s freight hauling fleets. According to the NHTSA, truck tractors make up about 99% of the fleets.
The NHTSA says there are several simple solutions that truck manufacturers can put into place to satisfy the final rule requirement, including using air disc brakes, enhanced drum brakes, or hybrid disc systems. The new truck brake requirement will hopefully play a role in continuing the overall decline in US truck crashes that occurred last year when 4,299 people died in large truck crashes—a 12% drop from the 4,822 truck accident fatalities that occurred in 2007.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reportedly recommended as far back as 2002 that motorists not talk on cell phones while driving—unless in an emergency situation. The federal agency also recommended that drivers not use hands-held, as well as hands-free phones and even went so far as to note that establishing laws banning only handheld cell phones might not be enough to minimize the risks of using a phone while operating a motor vehicle.
The reason for this recommendation was that the NHTSA had in its possession hundreds of pages of research documenting the dangers associated with cell phone use while driving. Yet the recommendation and the research were never made available to the public. One reason for this was concern that Congress and other public officials would see the proposal as a form of lobbying.
The information finally became public after Public Citizen and the Center for Auto Safety, two public interest groups, managed to access the information via the Freedom of Information Act.
The question now being asked is how many lives could have been saved if people knew then what they know now about the risks involved with cell phone use while driving? When the NHTSA first made its proposal several years ago, there were more than 170 million people using cell phones in the country—now, there are more than 270 million cell phone subscribers. And now, more than ever, cell phone use while driving has become a bad driving habit that millions of motorist are finding hard to break.
Yet as more motor vehicle accidents are reported involving motorists that caused auto crashes because they were talking on a phone or text messaging, the consequences of cell phone use while driving can no longer be ignored. Even train operators have been found negligent for engaging in these bad habits and causing catastrophic train collisions.
While Maryland doesn’t have a ban on any kind of cell phone use for adult drivers—only for minor drivers—all drivers will be prohibited from text messaging beginning October 2009. The Maryland Highway Safety Foundation says it had been pushing for a hand-held cell phone ban, but with the latest revelations about the NHTSA’s suppressed findings, they may recommend a total ban on the use of all cell phones while driving.
U.S. Withheld Data on Driving Distractions, WBOC 16, July 22, 2009
Suppressed federal study having ripple effect in Md., Baltimore Sun, July 2009
The Truth About Cars and Cellphones, NY TImes, July 22, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs continues to destroy too many lives. Drunk driving and drugged driving are both careless acts that can be grounds for a Maryland car accident lawsuit if someone gets hurt or dies. On a positive note, however, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s new roadside survey reported that the decline in the percentage of legally intoxicated drivers is continuing. Per the new survey, just 2.2% of drivers had a BAC of .08 or greater—compare this figure to 1973, when 7.5% of motorists had BACs registering at the legal limit or exceeded it.
The survey, gathered from roadside locations in 2007, also screened for other substances. 16.3% of nighttime weekend motorists tested drug positive for marijuana (8.6%), cocaine (3.9%), as well as prescription medications and over-the-counter drugs (3.9%). Drivers for the survey were chosen at random and given the opportunity to volunteer while remaining anonymous.
Out of 11,000 motorists, 90% gave breath samples and 70% gave saliva samples. Any motorist that was impaired or appeared to be driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs was not arrested. However, he or she wasn’t allowed to get behind the steering wheel of the vehicle.
US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood noted that while he was pleased that the fight against drunk driving is making headway, it was imported to remember that 13,000 people a year still die in US drunk driving crashes. He also emphasized the importance of reducing drug abuse and drugged driving.
The NHTSA wants to figure out how drug use is connected to driver impairment—especially as some drugs can stay in the body for weeks.
Other survey findings:
• There were 42% more male drivers than female motorists with illegal BAC levels.
• Motorists were more likely to be driving with a BAC greater than the legal drunk driving limit between 1am and 3am than during other hours of the day.
• Motorcycle riders were two times as likely to be drunk than the drivers of passenger vehicles.
According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, drugs are a factor in 18% of motor vehicle driver fatalities.
Driver Survey Finds Less Drinking, More Drugs, NY Times, July 13, 2009
Results of the 2007 National Roadside Survey of Alcohol and Drug Use by Drivers, NHTSA (PDF)
Related Web Resources:
Impaired Driving, CDC
Drugged Driving
Nearly one week after a tragic Maryland truck accident on Route 32 killed her 13-year-old son and injured her 5-year-old daughter, 51-year-old Kyong Hae Kim has died.
Kim, her son Vincent, and her daughter Jacqueline were headed to a riding lesson on June 12 when the Sykesville family’s Mazda 5 minivan collided with a flat-bed tow truck driven by truck driver Tymothy Thatcher.
Vincent was pronounced dead at Howard County Hospital. His 5-year-old sister was treated at Children’s Hospital in Washington and released two days later. Kim was pronounced dead at Maryland Shock Trauma Center on Monday night. Thatcher was not injured in the truck accident.
Police are investigating the cause of the Sykesville truck collision.
Maryland Truck Accident Lawsuits
Pursuing your Maryland truck crash claim without the help of a Baltimore personal injury law firm representing you can get tricky. Trucking companies are equipped to combat liability claims filed against them, which is why you need your own truck crash legal team to look out for your best interests and protect your legal rights.
One common argument that a trucking company might use to combat a Maryland personal injury case is to place the blame on the injured party. The truck crash defendant may accuse the motor vehicle of unsafe passing, driving into opposing traffic, drunk driving, failing to stop, failing to yield, following too closely, speeding, distracted driving, or improperly merging. The trucking company might also claim that the truck driver was an independent contractor (rather than an employee) or blame the manufacturer of a specific truck part for a defect that caused the truck collision.
It is also not uncommon for a trucking company, a leasing company, the company that owns the cargo being transported, or another involved party to blame the other parties for the motor vehicle accident.
This is why you need to contact an experienced Maryland truck crash law firm as soon as possible.
Mother dies after crash that killed son, The Baltimore Sun, July 1, 2009
Route 32 crash claims 2nd life, mother of 13-year-old, Howard County Times, June 30, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Teen killed in Howard crash remembered as inspiration, Baltimore Sun, June 26, 2009
FMCSA
Maryland Accident Law Blog