Almost two weeks ago, the former deputy chancellor of Texas A&M University, Jay Kimbrough, was critically injured in a motorcycle crash on Texas Highway 6 south of Navasota. Mr. Kimbrough, an advisor to Governor Rick Perry, reportedly lost control of the bike, flipped it over in a grassy median, and was ejected from the motorcycle. He has undergone surgery for several cracked vertebrae in his neck. Investigators from the Texas Department of Public Safety are looking into the possibility that gravel on the highway might have caused him to lose control of his motorcycle. (kbtx.com, 5/22/14) The thoughts and prayers of our Texas motorcycle accident injury attorneys are with Jay Kimbrough and his family as he recovers.
Two wheels are inherently less stable than four wheels in a moving vehicle. Almost anything can go wrong. And if one wheel slips out from under the bike, it’s almost certain that the operator will lose control of the vehicle and the motorcycle will spin or slide into a crash.
Things that will not affect a car in the slightest as it passes along the road can easily represent a fatal crash risk for a motorcyclist. A patch of loose gravel, debris, a small animal, a minor oil slick, or a puddle of water could all result in a sudden crash for a biker. Motorcyclists traveling at highway speeds will not always have time to avoid a crash by the time they notice the small obstacles in their path.
And if that’s not enough to contend with, bikers must remain alert for drivers of larger vehicles who fail to yield the right-of-way and suddenly turn in front of their oncoming motorcycles.
Click the link to learn about accident liability issues involved in a motorcycle accident caused by loose gravel.
TxDOT launched a campaign in recent weeks to try to teach other drivers to look out for motorcycles and yield proper right-of-way to motorcyclists. The campaign was partly prompted by the increase in the numbers of fatal motorcycle accidents over recent years.
But failure to yield the right-of-way by drivers of other vehicles remains a primary cause of fatal motorcycle accidents.
For example, on a recent Sunday the driver of a Hyundai Accent failed to yield the right-of-way to the operator of a Suzuki motorcycle at the intersection of Dumas and Galveston Roads in Houston. The driver of the Hyundai turned in front of the oncoming Suzuki, which crashed into the car. The 27-year-old motorcyclist was pronounced dead the next day at Ben Taub Hospital. The HPD Vehicular Crimes Unit was continuing to investigate the case. (www.yourhoustonnews.com/bay_area/news, 5/21/14) The Houston motorcycle accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC express their deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the motorcyclist.
Over the last couple of decades, the popularity of motorcycles and the numbers of bikes on the road have increased slightly. But motorcycles still represent less than 5% of total vehicles on the road and only about 0.6% of all vehicle miles traveled. Yet motorcyclists accounted for 14% of driver deaths and 16% of passenger traffic deaths in 2010.
In that year, 4,502 motorcycle riders died and 82,000 were injured in bike crashes in the United States, an increase over the numbers of the prior year. Over the prior decade, motorcycle crash deaths increased by a full 41%. This increase occurred even as car accident fatalities were beginning to decline to their lowest levels in decades.
Part of the reason for the disparity in fatal accident rates is that bikers don’t enjoy the protection an enclosed vehicle can provide in a crash. As a result, motorcyclists are 30 times more likely than car occupants to die in a wreck.
A full 39% of the fatal motorcycle crashes in 2010 happened because the driver of an enclosed vehicle failed to the yield right-of-way and suddenly turned left in front of an oncoming bike, similarly to what occurred in the collision at Dumas and Galveston Roads.
All drivers have a legal duty to take due care for the lives and safety of others on the roads with them. If a driver has breached that duty and harmed you or your loved ones, you might be eligible for a full financial recovery for your needless injuries and losses. Contact the experienced Houston motorcycle accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC to learn how.
We always offer you a free initial legal consultation to discuss and evaluate your case. And you have no obligation to hire an attorney. Contact us today to start your FREE consultation by calling 713-807-9500 or filling out our online contact form. Get the help you need now.
Just before midnight on Wednesday, a car pulling out in front of flatbed truck led to a major 4 vehicle crash involving 3 trucks. The collision occurred in a construction zone on the Southwest Freeway of Houston near the Beechnut exit.
The impact caused the driver of the flatbed to lose control of the truck, which then crashed into the rear of an 18-wheeler. Then a pickup truck hit the tractor-trailer too. The flatbed truck driver was hospitalized in stable condition due to injuries from the 4-vehicle collision. (khou.com, 5/22/14) The thoughts and prayers of our Harris County truck accident attorneys are with the injured flatbed driver and his friends and family as he recovers.
The Texas legislature enacted a new law last year to protect TxDOT workers due to the rash of injuries and deaths occurring in work zones because of speeding, impatient, and distracted drivers. Impatient driving can be deadly driving, as demonstrated by a recent fatal crash in Longview where a pickup truck driver passing a slower truck slammed head-on into a car with deadly force.
We realize that sudden slow-downs due to traffic bottlenecks caused by construction zones can be frustrating. But trying to force your way through without slowing down can easily lead to a crash that brings your journey to an abrupt halt altogether.
Almost 85% of the people who die in construction zone crashes are the impatient or negligent drivers. Where the drivers cause fatal accidents to others, they often find themselves arrested afterwards, which happened to the driver in the fatal Longview wreck.
About 45% of all highway construction zones are the sites of crashes. And in Texas last year, more than 3,500 people sustained serious injuries and over 100 died in TxDOT work zone wrecks. So drive carefully, slow down, and stay alert as you head through those highway construction zones. Work zone crashes are 100% avoidable if drivers take extra care.
We believe that needlessly injured accident victims deserve strong advocacy and protection of their rights against negligent drivers and the powerful insurance companies that seek to minimize the value of their losses. Our Texas Board certified personal injury attorneys could help you hold those drivers and insurance companies financially accountable for your needless injuries and losses from a crash.
Head-on crashes are more frequently fatal than many other types of wrecks due to the high speeds and impact forces usually involved. Many head-on crashes are caused by people driving the wrong way down the road, as happened in a fatal Houston collision on Memorial Day weekend. Statistics show that more than 60% of the wrong way drivers are drunk at the time of the fatal accidents they cause.
But head-on crashes also result from driver distraction, speeding, and driver impatience, among other things. For example, one recent collision that claimed the life of Mattie Jones, 82, occurred because a driver in a Dodge pickup truck tried to go around a slowing vehicle pulling a Meals on Wheels trailer. The Dodge sideswiped the Meals on Wheels truck before crashing head-on into Ms. Jones’s car. Another vehicle also became snared in the crash, and reportedly one victim was trapped in a vehicle at the scene.
The fatal crash in Longview, Texas happened on FM 1844. 31-year-old Leon Gearhart, the driver of the Dodge pickup truck, reportedly was being charged with criminally negligent homicide. (Michael Cavazos, Longview News-Journal, 5/20/14) The Pearland car accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC express their sincere condolences to the family and friends of Ms. Mattie Jones.
Click on the book icon on this web page to download your free book from the experienced Pearland car accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC. The book provides the information you need to understand what steps to take after a serous wreck injures you or claims the life of a loved one Learn what to do to safeguard your rights after a serious crash. And don’t hesitate call us at 713-807-9500 or reach us through our simple online contact form for a free, no obligation, initial legal consultation if you have questions. Let us guide you down the road to a full financial recovery for your needless injuries and losses caused by a negligent driver.
The Houston Police Department has warned that its officers will be out in force this holiday weekend. The goal is to help ensure public safety by getting drunken drivers off the road.
In recent years, many Texas law enforcement agencies have stepped up officer presence on holidays in an effort to deter drunk driving. Our Houston car accident injury attorneys emphasize that no refusal weekends have become the norm for major holidays. So if you are arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, you can almost certainly look forward to having your blood tested for alcohol content.
Yet stepped up enforcement and stronger DWI penalties in recent years don’t seem to have deterred Houston drivers. Harris County still leads the nation in the number of drunken drivers. And this holiday weekend kicked off with two suspected drunken drivers driving right into HPD patrols.
Around midnight on Thursday, one driver suspected of intoxication crashed right into an HPD officer on patrol. The officer was turning onto the Gulf Freeway frontage road from Park Place when a driver ran a red light and smacked into the patrol car. The man failed a field sobriety test, and was arrested on suspicion of DWI. (Field sobriety test #1: Avoid crashing into law enforcement vehicles.)
A second HPD officer responding to that crash was then almost hit by another driver. That driver was also arrested on suspicion of DWI. (khou.com, 5/23/14)
For your safety and the safety of others, we remind you to drive sober this holiday weekend and always. But for those who do drink and drive, the Houston car accident injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC ask that you please continue to make yourselves conspicuous to the HPD so that they can remove you from the roads more quickly. Fewer drunken drivers on our roads mean fewer needless injuries and deaths.
Reach our Board Certified Houston car accident injury attorneys by phone at 713-807-9500 or anytime through our convenient online request form. Our goal is to help make your accident recovery as quick and as painless as possible. Contact us and let us help you.
You might have seen the recent video that was shown on TV news reports and all over the Internet where a family cat chased off a large dog that had attacked and bitten the family’s young son as he was riding his bike. But our Houston dog bite injury attorneys note that not everyone has a fearless superhero cat to protect them and their family from deadly dog attacks.
DogsBite.org says that in the period from 2005 through last year, dogs in the United States killed 283 people. 176 of the victims (62%) died from pit bull bites. Rottweilers accounted for another 12% of the bite fatalities. Just in 2013, pit bulls accounted for 78% of the deaths, yet they only make up 6% of the U.S. dog population. Rottweilers, by comparison, only accounted for 3% of the deaths in 2013.
To look at it another way, pit bulls kill someone about every 18.5 days, while Rottweilers kill someone every 99.5 days.
56% of the victims of the fatal dog attacks in 2013 were children. 61% of those children were 4 years old or younger. The American Humane Society indicates that approximately 66% of child victims are bitten in the face, head, or neck.
47% of the dog attack deaths in 2013 involved dogs attacking in concert. 78% of fatal dog attacks occurred on the dog owner’s property. And 22% resulted in criminal charges. California, Texas, Arkansas, and South Carolina were the four states with the highest number of deadly dog attacks.
The Houston dog bite injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC have more than 15 years of experience helping victims and their families obtain the fair financial recoveries to which they’re entitled after a vicious dog attack. Call us at 713-807-9500 or reach us anytime through our online contact form to schedule a free and confidential legal consultation. You have no obligation to hire an attorney. Our Board Certified Houston dog bite injury attorneys will review the facts of your case with you and help you evaluate your potential eligibility for financial compensation for the needless injuries. Contact us today. And let us help put you on the road to recovery.
You might know that vehicles occasionally roll out of their supposedly secure “park” and “off” positions to damage property, and kill or maim their drivers or innocent bystanders. Such an accident happened just this week in Houston where a Ford truck ran over its elderly driver as he was stopped at an ATM machine.
Our Houston car accident injury attorneys point out that in postal delivery companies, where drivers might make dozens of stops per day, drivers sometimes become complacent or simply pressured by delivery deadlines and don’t always take all necessary steps to secure their vehicles. And their trucks are even more likely than yours to have worn parking gears that might not fully engage.
A document I noticed online, which was apparently intended as internal document for one of these postal delivery entities, indicated the heavy financial liabilities that the company might suffer as its trucks ran over employees, other persons, and property. The document mentioned that the company was experiencing at least one unintended rollaway accident per delivery day. That statistic no doubt becomes quite expensive. And the document begged drivers to take all possible precautions to secure their vehicles before they exited to deliver their mail.
Some Tips for Preventing a Fatal Rollaway Accident:
Click the link to read about the recent fatall rollaway accident in Houston that took the life of an unsuspecting Ford pickup driver.
Well, it’s May and the beginning of the busy summer entertaining season. For many, that means large gatherings of friends and family at home on outdoor decks. And Memorial Day, a traditional holiday weekend for families to get together, is just a few weeks away.
As the sudden collapse of an elevated deck in Evans Mills just reminded us, now is a good time to get out there and inspect your deck for any weaknesses that might lead to a sudden deck collapse and serious injuries to your family, friends, and neighbors. These injuries aren’t just troubling; they’re costly. And if you’re the homeowner whose deck collapses, you and your insurance company could be facing large financial payouts.
In Evans Mills, 5 of the 7 people on the deck when it fell had to be rushed to the hospital. Firefighters responding to the scene reported that the wood of the deck was rotten and the connections to the home were unstable. Our deck collapse injury lawyers note that timely inspections and repairs could have prevented the deck collapse. Even if the 5 injured victims had all been treated and released the same day, the homeowner at fault for the collapse could still be liable for tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
The deck collapse injury lawyers at Denena Points, PC remind you to regularly inspect your backyard deck for safety issues and to make needed repairs to avoid the dangers of deck collapse, injuries, and heavy financial liabilities.
Check the deck thoroughly at least once per year; twice yearly inspections are even better. If you see any signs that your deck might be in need of replacement or repair, you might want to have a professional inspector experienced with outdoor structures take a look, confirm your opinion, and make professional recommendations regarding needed repairs.
Unfortunately, not all home inspectors are sufficiently familiar with deck and balcony safety to help you. If that’s the case in your local area, check whether the local university’s architecture or engineering department has any recommendations to make regarding locating qualified inspectors.
Always hire a licensed, reputable contractor to make any needed repairs or to rebuild the deck. Don’t try to do it yourself. And get the proper permits before you begin. The permitting process usually includes required inspections that help to identify safety hazards or risks that you might not otherwise recognize.
Older decks, even if properly constructed, weather and deteriorate over time. These structures can pose serious hazards of deck collapse, injury, and death.
After a deck collapse, you could face a horrific accident scene with distressed friends, family, and neighbors, and multiple catastrophic injuries or even fatalities. In addition to the costs of repairing or replacing your fallen deck, you might face the legal liability of paying for your guests’ costs from the accident, possibly over the course of their lifetimes if they received permanent injuries. Your own injuries from the devastating deck collapse accident might add to your burden.
Our FREE deck safety report could help you learn how to safely inspect and maintain your deck and avoid sudden deck collapses. But if a deck collapse occurs and you or your loved ones are injured, don’t hesitate to contact our experienced deck collapse injury lawyers at Denena Points, PC for afree, no obligation legal consultation. We’ll review the specific facts of the accident with you and help you evaluate your eligibility for fair financial compensation for your injuries.
Chad Points and Tony Denena are among the relative handful of attorneys nationwide with practical, successful experience involving complex structural collapse injury cases. We’ve helped injured victims obtain the fair financial recoveries they deserve after a needless injury in a collapse accident. We could help you too.
Call us direct at 713-807-9500 or fill out our online contact form to schedule your free legal consultation today. Put our veteran deck collapse injury lawyers’ 15 years of practical experience to work for your family’s benefit.
Around 6 a.m. on Tuesday, a Houston Metro light rail train struck a pedestrian at Main and Lamar. Reports say the victim was conscious and breathing when transported to the hospital. (khou.com, 5/6/14) Our Houston Metro accident attorneys’ wishes for a safe recovery go out to the victim.
Is this latest pedestrian crash just another example of an unnaturally high accident rate for the Houston Metro rail system? Or within the context of our traffic congestion and other traffic related numbers, are we actually experiencing a lower than average statistical risk of crashes?
Because so many political agendas could benefit from one answer or the other, we suspect a true answer might be hard to come by. The numbers our Houston Metro accident attorneys usually see indicate that Houston’s light rail project does pose a higher accident risk than comparable rail projects elsewhere in the nation. But we also seem to have a substantially higher ridership rate and a greater urban growth rate in Houston. All of these numbers are intimately related.
During the beginning period of our Houston Metro rail system’s operations, the train line, concentrated at that time in the downtown center, averaged 11 crashes per track mile per year in contrast to an average of 0.55 crashes per track mile per year for comparable rail systems nationwide. And in its first two years, Houston Metro rail experienced a crash nearly once in every 12 days. Indeed, the start of 2009 saw the 245th collision since the rail line began operating in 2004. That set an annual record of 69 train crashes with cars.
And that was even though the city had responded to the high number of crashes by altering the timing of traffic signals in favor of the trains. But cars continue to drive in front of trains. Even Metro buses disregard the trains and drive into them. Pedestrians too cross in front of trains or walk too near them. They don’t actually have much choice as there isn’t a great deal of separation between the rail tracks and other traffic thoroughfares.
Houston Metro rail officials and police have consistently blamed these crashes on driver error and pedestrians getting too close to the trains. The Houston Metro accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC note that this is understandable as a strategy to try and avoid City financial liability for collision injuries and deaths. But the truth may not be so clear-cut. Many critics have pointed to poor signage and unclear signal layouts as a cause of the high crash rate. And in fact a new signal and signage system decreased the accident rate by 75% by 2005.
Another problem is that the rail system is at-grade, similar to the light rail system in use in downtown Dallas. This means that all traffic is on the same level, competing for right-of-way priority particularly at intersections and turns.
But the fact remains that Houston traffic of all types is unusually congested and is getting more so as the city continues to grow and lure new businesses and residents. In turn, the high accident rate contributes to expansion of the medical facilities downtown, which might fuel additional accidents, and so on. Houston’s premier position as the fastest-growing U.S. urban area and center of the largest U.S. shipping hub come with a price. Part of that price is greater traffic with greater accident risks.
The bottom line is that if you live in Houston, you need to be prepared to deal with serious accidents and their aftermath. Download your free guide to learn the steps to take to protect your rights and build a strong and successful accident claim.
The FMCSA oversees truck safety on our U.S. roadways. A raft of regulations exists governing truck maintenance, inspections, and driver behavior. But the Houston truck injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC know that negligent truck maintenance continues to be a problem. When a critical piece of truck equipment fails, the vehicle can go out of control and leave a trail of serious injuries or deaths in its wake, as well as road damage and frustrating traffic delays for hundreds of other road users.
For example, Friday morning on the 610 East Loop in Houston, the rear axle of a tractor-trailer truck broke off, sending the truck into a spin. The semi ended up in the middle of the freeway facing oncoming traffic. Another 18-wheeler and an SUV were also involved in the crash. The accident shut down all lanes of the East Loop near the Port of Houston until about 1 p.m. (Dale Lezon, Houston Chronicle, 5/9/14)
The news report didn’t mention what had caused the axle to separate from the semi. It will likely require a thorough investigation before the cause can be determined with certainty. But our Houston truck injury attorneys note that negligent maintenance or a failure to conduct a proper pre-trip truck inspection could easily have contributed to the major 3-vehicle wreck.
These 7 steps actually represent only a few of the specifics that must be checked before a tractor-trailer truck pulls out into traffic. The tractor must be fully inspected, and the trailer and its parts must be inspected for safety too. Proper inspection could ensure that the truck’s tires won’t blow out, the cargo won’t spill, the trailer won’t separate, and the axles won’t break off while the truck is in transit.
But truckers and trucking companies are under strong pressure to make as many deliveries as they can in a short period of time. And companies can never seem to find enough qualified truck drivers to haul their cargo, so they try to make do with fewer drivers. Our Houston truck injury attorneys point out that this pressure could easily lead to missed or negligent inspections and truck maintenance.
At the Law Firm of Denena Points, PC, we believe that needlessly injured accident victims deserve strong advocacy and protection of their rights against big trucking companies and the powerful insurance companies that would try to minimize the value of their losses. Insurance companies and trucking companies working to protect their bottom lines could leave you hurting and incapable of meeting the heavy financial burdens you face after a serious truck accident injury.
We could help you hold them financially accountable for your losses from negligent truck maintenance, inspection, or driving. Call us today at 713-807-9500 or fill out our online contact form to schedule a FREE initial legal consultation to discuss your injuries. We will meet with you face to face to hear your story. You have no obligation to hire an attorney. And our Board Certified Houston truck injury attorneys’ in-depth knowledge of 18-wheeler accident cases could help you make informed decisions about your future following a serious crash.