Distracted driving lawsuits against employers: a solution for victims

Our Houston car accident attorneys recently mentioned the emergence of distracted driving lawsuits as a strong feature in the legal landscape. The lawsuits are particularly noteworthy as they relate to employer liability for employee actions on the job.

Companies that allow their employees to talk on their cell phones or to text while behind the wheel are increasingly finding themselves of multi-million dollar claims for the injury and fatality accidents that result form employees’ distracted driving. And juries and judges, anxious to discourage a practice that threatens their own lives, are happy to oblige claimants with large damages awards.

An Alabama trucking company was ordered to pay $18 million after one of its truckers caused a serious accident reaching for a cell phone. An Arkansas lumber company paid $16.1 million after one of its salesmen crippled a 78-year-old woman in a distracted driving accident. The large liability awards are encouraging more and more corporations to ban cell phone use among employees.

Research has shown that drivers using cell phones to talk or text have a risk of causing an accident that’s four times higher than that of other drivers. Using a phone in company car, using a company-issued phone in your own car, or making a business call on any phone in any vehicle, are all acts that could put a company on the hook for a large liability award in a distracted driving lawsuit.

Consequently, many of the Fortune 500 companies have banned all use of cell phones by employees while driving, and more companies are joining their ranks every year. Shell, Chevron, Time Warner, CSX, Dupont, and UPS stand among those companies that have banned employee cell phone use. The U.S. NTSB recommended a total ban on cell phone use by anyone behind the wheel back in December 2011. Observers of the issue agree that this recommendation provided additional impetus to corporate efforts to ban employee cell phone use.

Of course, our Houston car accident attorneys realize that employees continue to violate the ban for personal convenience. Most people would like others to abide by the restriction against cell phone use behind the wheel even while continuing to use the phones themselves.

But the victim of a distracted driving accident, or the victim’s family members or lawyers, have the ability to obtain cell phone records regarding the driver that caused their accident. Those records could indicate that a distracted driving lawsuit implicating the employer might provide a victim with the ability to obtain the just financial recovery that they deserve after a needless distracted driving accident.

Contact our experienced Houston car accident attorneys to learn more about your eligibility for a full financial recovery after a needless distracted driving accident. Distracted driving crashes are 100% preventable. When they occur, our knowledge and experience could help you understand where an employer might be vicariously liable for the accident and what you could do to obtain a fair recovery. Call or email us today to schedule a free legal consultation. Our Houston car accident attorneys have the skill and the resources to help, and we don’t charge attorney’s fees unless you win your claim.

The unacceptably high toll of Texas wrong-way driving accidents

The Houston wrongful death lawyers at Denena & Points are deeply saddened by the Sunday death of a beloved Houston voice coach and opera singer in our state while on her way from the Grand Canyon. The Honda in which Houston soprano Laura Botkin rode in the back seat was struck head-on by a pickup truck in West Texas that was speeding the wrong way down a street in Lubbock.

The collision resulted in fatal injuries for Laura Botkin, and serious to critical injuries for the pickup truck driver and the others in the Honda with Ms. Botkin. The tragic death of this well-regarded Houston singer and voice teacher comes right on the heels of the untimely death of nationally known Houston lighting designer Jeremy Choate due to hit and run driver Shannon Garcia.

Laura Botkin was only 27 and just embarking on a promising career in Houston. Jeremy Choate was but 33 and already acclaimed nationwide for innovative lighting designs for dance, art installations, and theater. They represent two rare talents taken from our community by a negligent wrong-way driver in one case and a likely intoxicated hit and run driver in the other case.

News accounts of Laura Botkin’s tragic and untimely death did not report the cause behind the wrong-way driver’s behavior. Our Houston wrongful death lawyers note that in a sadly large proportion of wrong-way driving wrecks, intoxicated driving is behind the tragedy. In some cases, driver fatigue or driver distraction is the cause.

All of the accidents and tragic deaths from these causes are preventable. They all result from irresponsible and reckless drivers. We all know that driving while intoxicated is dangerous. Even those who choose to drink and drive, like Shannon Garcia, know the danger. But driving when you’re fatigued or distracted is also dangerously negligent and irresponsible behavior.

The law provides victims of negligent or reckless driving with recourse for the needless harm they have suffered. Their redress takes the form of a civil lawsuit to claim financial compensation for personal injury or wrongful death damages. Victims and families should take full advantage of this recourse to hold irresponsible drivers liable for their negligence and for the needless harm and suffering they have caused.

Learn what you could do after a serious accident has harmed you or a family member. Download our Houston wrongful death lawyers’ book with in-depth information on the steps you need to take following a serious Houston accident. The book is available free to our readers on this web page.

On the psychology of the decision to hit and run in a Houston accident

Houston accident injury attorneys: About 10% of traffic accidents in the United States each year involve hit and run collisions. This ranges from the clumsy, callous driver who runs into your car in a parking lot and leaves to the fatal collision with a bicyclist or pedestrian.

Despite the prevalence of the hit and run phenomenon in Texas and elsewhere, comparatively little serious research has been devoted to the topic. Part of the reason may be a lack of a consistent pathology.

Most hit and run accidents are just that: accidents. Unexpected accidents committed by ordinary people. And faced with the apparent ability to flee and never face the consequences, many people take that chance. Our Houston accident injury attorneys emphasize that these may be people who in usual circumstances are not so cowardly.

But the serious hit and run accident might be a once in a lifetime experience for which the driver has in no way prepared. And even though the consequences of fleeing and then getting caught are often much worse than just taking responsibility for the accident in the first place, many drivers will panic and run. And some drivers flee because they are drunk, in the possession of drugs, unlicensed and uninsured, or already have a warrant out for their arrest and want to avoid getting caught for their crimes.

The ubiquitous presence of surveillance cameras and cell phones, as well as recent advances in forensic sciences, make the driver’s chances of getting away with the crime slim at best.

Just recently in Houston, a horrific hit and run accident was featured in the news. On Thursday, a man who had just left Doctor’s Hospital by West Tidwell at West Montgomery was crossing the street to the bus stop when first one, and then another vehicle struck him and fled. The man, who had been released from the hospital, died from his double hit and run injuries.

The first vehicle to hit him, a Chevy S-10 pickup truck driven by an African-American woman described as being in her 50s, came back to the scene after striking the pedestrian and looked at the scene before then fleeing. Police believe that this driver at least was aware that she had struck someone.

Our Houston accident injury attorneys point out that the car that struck the man after the pickup did not stop. Police are asking anyone with knowledge of the deadly incident to call Crime Stoppers at 713-22-TIPS. Police are interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance tapes of the scene, so the drivers might well soon be caught if they haven’t been already. (Source: click2houston.com, 8/9/12)

By contrast, on Tuesday night, a car came around a corner without stopping at a stop sign and struck a pedestrian crossing the street at Bryant Road near I-45. The pedestrian received transport to the hospital in serious but stable condition. And the driver, who apparently did not flee, just received a Class C traffic citation for failing to stop at the sign and hitting the pedestrian. (Source: khou.com, 8/8/12)

The driver that takes responsibility up front for their actions often has a better chance of successfully defending them with minimal damage. An accident, after all, is just an accident. But the deliberate act of taking flight after an accident changes the picture considerably.

Learn about what you can do to obtain fair recompense for the harm you or a family suffers at the hands of a hit and run driver. Read this informative article on hit and run accident consequences by our Houston accident injury attorneys.

TxDOT says agency is seeing more fatal Texas accidents than previously

Houston car crash injury lawyers: Particularly in West Texas, which has seen a surge in activity and traffic related to oil and gas activity, TxDOT says that it is seeing more fatal accidents in Texas than in years past. Gene Powel, the TxDOT Odessa Public Information Officer, said that “more traffic, more people, people texting” all add to the risk of fatal wrecks.

A rash of fatal accidents in West Texas raised awareness and concerns about the problem and local drivers are looking for answers. TxDOT blames driver behavior for the problem, saying drivers drive much too fast and remain much too distracted on the roads. And at the same time the amount of traffic on West Texas roads in increasing, creating a recipe for disaster. (Source: Robert Guaderrama, cbs7.com, 8/7/2012)

The Houston car crash injury lawyers at Denena & Points understand that local West Texas residents want lower speed limits and more law enforcement patrol units on the roads to help prevent fatal accidents. But the most dangerous drivers chronically ignore speed limits and seek to avoid law enforcement vehicles, even initiating dangerous high-speed chases to avoid the law.

But even ordinary distracted driving can lead to disaster. Turning to speak to a passenger in your vehicle, correct a rowdy child, change the music in the car, reach for a phone or other object, and texting or speaking on the cell phone can cause a deadly wreck in an instant.

The NHTSA (National Traffic Safety Administration) recently released a study using 2009 crash data that revealed a disturbing nationwide trend of sharp increases in distracted driving-related traffic deaths. Specifically, the study showed that:

•  995 people died in cell phone-related accidents in 2009, accounting for 18% (nearly one in five) of all distracted driving fatalities.
• 16% of all car accident fatalities (5,474) in 2009 involved distracted driving, up from 10% in 2005.
• 16% of drivers younger than 20 years old that suffered deadly wrecks were distracted drivers.

Distracted driving can also be sorted into three main types of distraction:

• Manual – Taking your hands off the wheel,
• Visual – Taking your eyes off the road, and
• Cognitive – Taking your mind or attention off of your driving

Our Houston car crash injury lawyers note that TxDOT has been trying to address the dangerous problem of distracted driving in part through educational campaigns. Texas is now in the second year of TxDOT’s “Talk. Text. Crash” campaign. Overall, crashes in Texas caused by distracted drivers are said to be down, though West Texas has shown a recent trend in the opposite direction.

Thousands of distracted driving crashes occur each year in Texas. The state experienced more than 81,000 distracted driving crashes in 2011. Hundreds of these accidents were fatal. And yet Texas drivers, especially the young, still remain unconvinced that talking or texting while driving compromises their safety. Focus on your first priority behind the wheel: driving. Learn to understand the very real dangers of distracted driving.

Given current upward trends in distracted driving accidents in Texas, you may need to know what to do to protect your right to seek fair financial compensation after you have suffered an accident caused by a distracted driver. Download our Houston car crash injury lawyers’ free book on the steps you should take after a serious Houston crash. The book is filled with detailed information that you will be glad to have when you need it. And the book is free to our readers. Just click and download it from this web page.

Wal*Mart worker’s loss prevention strategy could prove costly to store

Our Houston personal injury lawyers were a bit shocked to hear about a July loss prevention incident at a local Wal*Mart store. An employee on the loss prevention team apparently utilized an innovative and dangerous new strategy to deter a shopper he believed might have been shoplifting.

Allegedly the employee, 33-year-old Lance Jason Ferguson, accused a customer that had been looking at DVDs and video games of stealing and threatened to whip him. Already, his actions sound well outside the scope of standard retail loss prevention practice.

When the customer left the store, Ferguson followed him. Wal*Mart’s own surveillance videos show Ferguson leaving the store’s parking lot in a vehicle that resembles the customer’s description of one that struck him as he was walking home.

The customer has reportedly stated that while he was in the 11500 block of the Gulf Freeway, a vehicle came up behind him and ran into him. The shopper rolled up onto the car’s hood, then back onto the ground. The customer has alleged that Lance Jason Ferguson then exited the vehicle and told him not to return to the store and that Ferguson stepped closer to him in a way that could have seemed threatening.

When the customer later made it home, his mother took him to the hospital to be treated for leg, back, and side injuries. Our Houston personal injury lawyers note that surveillance videos show Ferguson returning to Wal*Mart about 10 minutes after leaving. (Source: click2houston.com, 8/9/2012)

The Houston personal injury lawyers at Denena & Points generally support reasonable loss prevention efforts on the part of retail stores. After all, shoplifting ultimately costs all of us. But Ferguson’s rather innovative and overly enthusiastic approach to the job goes far beyond what we’d consider reasonable. The law does not permit store employees to deliberately run over even those individuals who have actually been caught and convicted for shoplifting.

Imagine if you had to face the threat of such aggressive loss prevention tactics every time you went shopping. I’d probably stop shopping and order everything online. For delivery to a P.O. box in another neighborhood.

And news accounts seem to indicate that the customer Ferguson followed didn’t even take anything from the store. Exiting the store, following a customer, and then running him down with a car does not deter shoplifting so much as it just plain deters shopping at the store.

Even if Ferguson’s exceedingly aggressive loss prevention strategy could have saved the cost of a few DVDs and video games, that savings could be far outweighed by the costs of personal injury litigation and judgments that the store might face after the employee has been shown to have deliberately run over a customer.

Our Houston personal injury lawyers emphasize that the unfortunate customer that drew Ferguson’s excessive wrath might be eligible for a full financial recovery for the value of the harms he suffered from the July incident. The monetary damages for which the customer might be eligible could include: his medical expenses, costs of further medical care and rehabilitation required, pain and suffering, emotional and mental distress, and other losses and injuries related to the traumatic confrontation, including punitive damages.

Lance Jason Ferguson has been charged with aggravated assault. His employer might ultimately be charged with the costs of the damages he caused with the July loss prevention incident. While we’re pretty sure Ferguson’s tactics were never part of his employee-training program, employers can sometimes be held vicariously liable for the damages their employees produce.

Indeed, employers increasingly are following a trend to ban cell phone among their employees while they’re driving. These employers want to avoid vicarious liability for damages caused by employees’ distracted driving accidents. Probably none of these employers has yet thought to add a ban against running over their customers to the employee manuals. We wonder how many of them might be drafting such prohibitions even now?

Learn more about employer vicarious liability for accident injuries. Click on this article by our Board Certified Houston personal injury lawyers.

How varying rates of alcohol absorption affect Houston BAC tests

The Houston DWI accident injury lawyers at Denena & Points emphasize that alcohol is a depressant that depresses or impairs a drinker’s physical reaction times and mental acuity. Due to this depressant effect, someone with a sufficient concentration of alcohol in their bloodstream cannot drive safely or react properly to traffic and traffic signals along the road.

When someone chooses to drink and then drive, the volume of alcohol that is absorbed into the bloodstream and the overall timing of that absorption into the blood are the critical factors that determine how impaired their your driving will be. Our Houston DWI accident injury lawyers point out that these are also the factors that determine the driver’s Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) level if they have an accident and receive a BAC test for intoxication.

After a person drinks, they generally go through an alcohol absorption phase during which their BAC rises and then an alcohol elimination phase during which their BAC gradually falls. The alcohol absorption phase shows an increase in BAC, or in the concentration of alcohol in the blood, over time. The driver’s BAC level rises to a peak before it declines again. Several factors can affect the rate at which alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream:

• Gender (women have a lower concentration of water in the body to dilute the alcohol),
• Amount of food in the stomach,
• Rate of alcohol consumption,
• Concentration of alcohol in the drinks consumed,
• Ratio of fat to muscle mass,
• Overall health and well-being, and
• Number of the blood vessels through which the alcohol can pass (people in better physical condition generally possess more blood vessels and will show a lower BAC than people of comparable weight, age, and gender who are in poorer physical condition).

Our Houston DWI accident injury lawyers note that a driver’s BAC will continue to rise so long as the amount of alcohol entering the bloodstream from the digestive tract is greater than the amount that the liver can process and eliminate through oxidation.

When a driver is still in the rising blood alcohol phase or the BAC level is peaking at the time of a BAC test, the test could show a higher BAC level than the driver had while they were behind the wheel. An average drinker shows a peak alcohol level about 1.5 hours after drinking, but there’s a great deal of individual variation in this rate depending upon how a person metabolizes their alcohol.

After a drinker reaches their peak BAC level, the concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream will begin to drop. But the many factors affecting the rate of a drinker’s alcohol absorption and metabolism mean that the BAC test may not be an accurate reflection of how impaired the driver was when they injured you. Just because a driver passes a BAC test just below the legal limit and avoids criminal liability does not absolve them of civil liability for your monetary damages from the accident.

An experienced Houston DWI accident injury lawyer knows what to look for to help you hold that driver accountable for the negligent behavior that injured you. Contact us at Denena & Points for a free and confidential legal consultation regarding your accident injuries.

We could help you learn the legal bases on which you could hold the drinking driver financially accountable for the needless harm you’ve suffered because of their impaired driving. Our Houston DWI accident injury lawyers’ more than 14 years of solid experience could guide you through your available legal options, help you understand your potential for financial recovery, and enable you to successfully achieve a favorable outcome to your claim. Call us today for your free case evaluation consultation.

Illegal immigrant, drunken wrong-way driver, causes fatal 4-car pileup

Our Houston injury attorneys note that on Sunday morning in Dallas, one person died and others suffered injury when a man named Santiago Gonzalez, identified as being in this country illegally, was driving the wrong way on I-35. Gonzalez apparently caused a fatal four-car pileup while driving the wrong way and allegedly while intoxicated.

According to news accounts, a driver named Maria Vasquez had to be extracted from the twisted wreckage of her vehicle by rescue crews responding to the pileup. The effort took more than an hour. Ms. Vasquez died an untimely death from her injuries at the age of 33 at the hospital. She had just dropped her 3-year-old child off with her parents when the 4-car pileup occurred. Her young son otherwise might also have lost his life in this horrific wreck caused by a heedless wrong-way driver.

Officers charged Santiago Gonzalez with intoxicated manslaughter with a vehicle and intoxicated assault with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury. But Gonzalez is being held for U.S. immigration authorities. Our Houston injury attorneys question the result. If Gonzalez is deported and he has no criminal convictions in his home country, he might remain free to reenter the U.S. illegally again at his convenience, never to suffer for the horrific crime he committed.

Statistics and news reports indicate that illegal immigrants are responsible for a high incidence of fatalities, crimes, and dangerous injuries. Crime reports tie many illegal immigrants to the Mexican drug cartels and gangs. Reports tying them to other crimes like assault and DWI are not uncommon. The high incidence of crime tied to illegal immigrants could result because those who commit a crime to enter the country might be less concerned about committing other crimes as well.

The act of entering and staying in the U.S. illegally serves to cheapen the diligent efforts of those immigrants who work hard and endure endless rounds of paperwork and examinations, as well as long waiting periods, in order to enter the country legally.

Our Houston injury attorneys notice that this fatal 4-car pileup in Dallas, resulting from a wrong-way, drunken driver in this country illegally, comes at a time when President Obama is relaxing prohibitions against illegal immigration in order to court the Latino vote. Media depicts illegal immigration as a purely emotional issue. But illegal immigration is actually a public safety issue. When our government turns a blind eye to crime, your safety is at risk on the roads and elsewhere.

Don’t be fooled by emotional manipulations of the media big dogs. Take a look at how your safety is affected by illegal immigrants as they drive unlicensed and under the influence on our roads. And take care; the 4-car pileup that took Dallas drivers unaware on Sunday morning could have happened anywhere in the U.S., to anyone.

Learn about another fatal DWI accident in Texas caused by an illegal immigrant in this article by our Houston injury attorneys.

TxDOT crash data for Texas paints a grim picture of traffic safety

Deer Park accident lawyers ask: did you know that in 2010, we all traveled more than 234 billion vehicle miles in Texas? If we had been in a NASA spacecraft on a single journey, we might have reached another solar system in that distance. No wonder drivers have problems with fatigue.

TxDOT’s traffic accident statistics for 2010, which the agency compiled from Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Reports, paint a startling and sobering picture regarding the dangers of ground vehicle travel throughout the state. (Statistically, a NASA vehicle would be safer, and you’d avoid traffic jams.)

Our Deer Park accident lawyers present some of the more interesting statistics regarding our travels on Texas roads in 2010:

• 59,660 serious injury crashes occurred in Texas in 2010 in which 82,685 victims received serious accident injuries. 215,593 injuries overall resulted from motor vehicle accidents throughout the state.
• Texas traffic fatalities declined a bit in 2010 to 3,023 from 3,109 in 2009.
• On average, 1 reportable motor vehicle crash occurred every 81 seconds in Texas. 1 person received injuries from those crashes every 2 minutes, 26 seconds. And 1 person died in those crashes every 2 hours and 54 minutes.
• 44% of motor vehicle occupants killed in fatal crashes were not wearing seat belts at the time of their accidents.
• 56% of motorcyclists killed in accidents were not wearing helmets.
• More than 56% of the state’s fatal traffic accidents occurred in rural areas.
• Single-vehicle crashes in which the vehicle ran off the road accounted for 1,226 deaths, or 41% of all fatal road accidents in 2010. Excessive speed, driver fatigue, driver distraction, and DUI are primary causes of single-vehicle crashes.
• Crashes resulting from a driver under the influence of alcohol killed 1,075 victims, or 35.6% of all fatal crash victims.
• There was not a single day in Texas in 2010 without at least 1 motor vehicle crash fatality. January 1st claimed the most victims: 25. May was the most deadly month with 280 victims.

The TxDOT compilation of annual crash data serves as a wake up call to remember your safety precautions on the road. Our Deer Park accident lawyers emphasize that many crashes are preventable. You can help yourself and your loved ones to avoid some of the common causes of road wrecks by reminding everyone not to drive fatigued, distracted, or under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Traffic safety is actually in everyone’s hands. So take a hand in lowering the Texas crash statistics numbers for 2012: drive safely. And consult our Deer Park accident lawyers’ guide to the essential information you need to know in the event of a serious Houston wreck. It’s available for free download on this web page.

Jury on illegal immigrant accused of killing HPD officer in DWI wreck

Houston DWI injury lawyers note that a jury in Harris County will decide the punishment of an illegal immigrant that struck an HPD officer at around 90 mph last year, killing him at the scene of the wreck. The suspect, Johoan Rodriguez, had been deported from the U.S. twice before when he ran into HPD Officer Kevin Will on I-610.

Officer Will had been engaged in the investigation of a motorcycle accident on the North Loop when the impact from Rodriguez’s vehicle severed both of his legs. The motorcycle accident occurred when a hit and run driver, identified as Francesca Cortez by a witness, struck two bikes and dragged one of them for a distance. Johoan Rodriguez, who disregarded police barricades and ran over the HPD accident investigator, was found to have blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit in Texas.

Rodriguez admitted guilt to the charge of intoxication manslaughter, which can carry a sentence as light as probation or as heavy as life in prison. Our Houston DWI injury lawyers could see justice in a maximum penalty here.

Johoan Rodriguez seems to be someone with no respect for the law, any law. He has entered the U.S. illegally at least three times. Then while here, he drives while intoxicated. And we don’t see how he could have held a valid driver’s license or insurance at the time of the accident. It’s best to keep him off our roads. He doesn’t respect the law, or other people’s rights to safety.

TX teen drivers can take steps to avoid increased summer road risks

Baytown accident attorneys note that AAA (American Automobile Association) states that the 100 days that run between Memorial Day and Labor Day present the most risks of fatal injury to teen drivers. Around 400 teen drivers die on our roads during the summer months on average, compared to about 340 during the school year.

Some of the heightened accident risk for teen drivers, compared to older drivers, is ascribed to lower seat belt usage. Wider cell phone usage while driving and a greater incidence of texting while driving are some of the other factors contributing to the large number of fatal summer crashes among teen drivers.

The Baytown accident attorneys at Denena & Points understand that teens want to enjoy their summers, that wonderful part of the year when they’re generally free from the burdens of school and able to spend more quality time with friends and family. But as you enjoy your summer, we urge you to be mindful of your safety and your future. A few small steps and extra safety precautions could help you ensure your chances of avoiding dangerous road accidents and of fulfilling your important future plans.

• Don’t text while driving, and don’t read or respond to others’ texts. Real friends interested in communicating with you won’t want to endanger your life. They’ll wait for you to be safely parked and off the road.

• Don’t drive impaired. Alcohol dulls the mind and the reflexes. Drinkers’ decisions aren’t reliable and their reflexes are just as impaired. Alcohol or drug consumption increases your chances of causing an accident, and substantially reduces your chances of being able to avoid a wreck.
• Be up-to-date on car maintenance. Check the tire for air, and check their inflation level. Make sure that your car has the proper amount of coolant and oil. Don’t head off on long road trips with a near-empty gas tank.

Get a good night’s sleep so that you don’t face the dangers of drowsy driving.

Our Baytown accident attorneys caution that drowsy driving, distracted driving, and driving impaired are among the dangers that all drivers face. Teen drivers experienced increased risks in part due to their lack of long-term experience behind the wheel.

So take sensible safety precautions. Your extra attention to your own safety could help you ensure your chances of experiencing a long and fulfilling future.

You can also learn about what to do if you or a friend experiences a wreck while out on the road. Download from this web page our Baytown accident attorneys’ free book on the essential steps you need to take to protect your rights and interests following a serious Houston wreck.