The Houston truck wreck lawyers at Denena & Points mention that James Layland stands accused of felony charges in connection with the death of Ming-Yueh Bixler in a Fort Worth, TX truck crash. Initially, another unfortunate man had been accused of the crime. Why? Because James Layland, while posing as a friend to the hapless man, had stolen his ID some time back and was not at all forthcoming about his real identity. Layland had also stolen the man’s truck, trailer, and a dog, among other things.
Our Houston truck wreck lawyers point out that the truck that Layland was driving at the time of the fatal crash also was stolen, but from a different source. On the day of the tragic fatality of Ming-Yueh Bixler, police had initially stopped Layland to question him about a counterfeit $100 bill he had passed.
Layland sped off in his truck, struck a parked car, and continued on until he fatally crashed into the SUV containing the Bixlers. After the crash, Layland took off on foot and was found hiding in a nearby garage.
So far James Layland faces charges of aggravated assault of a public servant, evading arrest, and failure to stop and render aid. Upon receipt of toxicology results, James Layland might also face charges of intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter, crimes that can carry heavy penalties.
The man whose identity had been stolen remained named in the crime until the mistake was discovered and verified. Our Houston truck wreck lawyers find that this unfortunate case demonstrates how the path to justice following a fatal truck wreck might be far more complicated than it appears.
After a reckless truck driver has harmed you or your family, you want the correct trucker convicted of the crime. You also need to be able to correctly identify the liable party and prove the connection between his actions and your harm in order to win any financial compensation for the harm and the loss you’ve suffered.
In the case of this Fort Worth truck crash, diligent police work and private detectives were necessary to pin down the identity of the trucker responsible for the wrongful death of Ming-Yueh Bixler. A dedicated and skillful lawyer would be necessary to help the Bixlers obtain proper compensation for their tragic loss. James Layland might have hidden any assets that he might possess, and any assets that he currently appears to possess may well belong to someone else. A challenging claim should the bereaved family members choose to bring one.
Our Houston truck wreck lawyers understand that sometimes the difficulty involved in obtaining just compensation after a tragic truck crash might deter grieving family members who only want to come to terms with their loss. As an initial step to learning about what you could do to protect your rights and interests after a truck wreck, you can download from this web site our free guide to the essential elements of making a successful truck accident claim.
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.
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.
Galveston maritime accident lawyers note that in early March, Miroslaw Pozniak, master of the cargo ship Union Moon, made a series of bad piloting decisions that led his cargo ship to collide with an inbound ferryboat, Stena Feronia, just outside of Belfast Harbor. Almost 100 people were on board the ferry at the time of the collision. 6 people were aboard the merchant ship.
The two diverse ships had been nearing the location of the Fairway buoy that marks the start of the main channel into the Harbor. Shipmaster Pozniak should have sent his ship to starboard and an eastward heading. Instead, he suddenly altered course to the port side and plowed his ship into the port side of the ferry.
Both ships were heavily damaged in the Harbor collision incident. Our Galveston maritime accident lawyers emphasize that fortunately no one was lost in the ships’ wreck, but such a disaster could easily have ended in multiple fatalities.
Reportedly, Pozniak’s blood alcohol content (BAC) was four times more than the legal limit. So it’s really no wonder he couldn’t distinguish port from starboard. It’s a wonder he could attempt to direct the ship’s course at all.
His elevated blood alcohol content presented the court hearing his case with a clear violation of the 2003 Railways and Transport Act. Pozniak was also charged with causing the severe damage to his own ship and to the ferry, and with failing to keep a proper lookout. We wonder: with a BAC four times the legal limit, can one keep any sort of lookout at all? Or does everything simply spin and resolve into a murky haze? (Our Galveston maritime accident lawyers are not intending to try it to find out.) Pozniak ruined and effectively ended his 30-year career when he crashed his cargo ship into the ferry. He also faces a year in prison for his crime.
Officials of the court and of Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) expressed some concern that alcohol abuse continues to generate numbers of potentially deadly maritime accidents. Part of the intent behind the prison sentence is to emphasize the strong importance to maritime safety of carefully following applicable regulations, not just with regards to alcohol, but also with regard to charting a course and sticking to prescribed shipping routes.
Let’s hope that Pozniak’s prison sentence puts a curb on alcohol consumption among other ship’s pilots. Around the world each year, news media generally report more than one deadly ferry disaster, and multiple merchant marine accidents. And whether you’re a seaman injured in the accident, an injured ferry passenger, or a grieving family member of someone lost to the collision, holding negligent parties accountable for the accident and obtaining fair financial compensation to help you through the harm you suffered is often much more challenging and complex than for a land-based accident. Jurisdictional issues can complicate your quest for justice. And seemingly applicable laws might not apply to the specific facts of your case at all.
If you’re facing the aftermath of a maritime accident near the Texas coastline, you probably need the help of an experienced Galveston maritime accident lawyer to get you started on the correct path to financial recovery for your injuries. Feel free to contact our dedicated Galveston maritime accident lawyers at Denena & Points for a complimentary initial legal consultation/case evaluation regarding your accident. We can be reached toll free at 877-307-9500 or you can use our online contact forms to schedule your free consultation. Let us help; we’re here to effectively counsel you through your various options to a successful financial recovery.
The structural collapse lawyers at Denena & Points remark that the façade of the venerable TD Bank building on Haddon Avenue in Collingswood, NJ collapsed in a rush of sound and rubble around 4 a.m. last Wednesday morning. The bank building had fallen into disuse some time ago and was being offered on the local real estate market.
While some interest had been expressed in the building from time to time, no contracts or serious offers were yet in place at the time of the sudden structural collapse. The TD Bank building has since been retracted from the market and the leasing agent says that it will remain unavailable until work has been completed to ensure the building is safe.
Later into Wednesday morning, bits and pieces of the façade were reportedly still falling away from the edifice. The building had been cordoned off after the collapse for safety, but it took some time for responders to assess the situation and assemble teams to begin deconstructing the building the hard way: section by section with cement saws and hammers. Workers in the foyer have piled parts of the venerable façade judged worth saving for the building’s reconstruction as work proceeds.
Our structural collapse lawyers point out that speculation as to the cause of the structural collapse remains just that: spec. Building and code enforcement authorities appear to be refusing to comment on the accident or to release records regarding the building’s inspection history. Some people attribute the façade’s weakened state and sudden collapse to damage from last year’s eastern Seaboard earthquake. Others cite the possibility of water intrusion.
But poor initial construction, weakened materials, and compromised connections between the TD Bank façade and the primary structure could also have caused the dangerous façade failure. Indeed, our structural collapse lawyers stress the point that weak or inadequate connectors are the primary cause of structural failures in buildings both old and new. Decks, balconies, railings, walls, higher floors, and entire buildings fall from rotten, rusted, loosened, poorly made, inadequate spaced, and just plain weak structural connectors.
One local business owner expressed his profound relief that the collapse occurred in the wee hours of Wednesday morning when no one was around to be injured by the sudden descent of the mountain of building rubble. He pointed out that had the accident occurred just a few days later, on Saturday, the structural collapse might not only have injured, but killed, quite a number of innocent victims.
The town’s well-attended May Fair was scheduled for the following Saturday and would have included the very street and sidewalk where the rubble fell so precipitously. Our structural collapse lawyers also find relief in the fortuity of this timing. Because tragedy was averted by the off-hours timing of the façade collapse, we can examine the incident as an interesting study in structural failure rather than as a depressing tragedy.
Read about another sudden collapse of a venerable, old building in our article on the fatal NYC warehouse collapse in Harlem.
Galveston accident lawyers note that Dr. Nicholas Moore and a team of researchers from Le Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire de Bordeaux in France have released results providing further strong support for the thesis that sleep-deprived drivers are just as likely to cause dangerous wrecks and catastrophic injuries as drunken drivers.
A U.S. researcher not involved in the study commented that while the dangers of drowsy driving have long been known, the results of the French study provided further interesting evidence. He mentioned that previous studies have indicated that losing just 4 hours of your sleep will impair you behind the wheel as much as a 6-pack. And that losing a full night of sleep equates to a blood alcohol level of 0.19, more than twice the legal limit.
Our Galveston accident lawyers well know that the pace of modern life often requires that we choose between sleep and productivity. Think about how often you might have chosen to lose a little sleep in order to accomplish a necessary task. Perhaps as a student you pulled “all nighters” to prepare for important tests. Or maybe after a long day at work you went out with friends or family thinking that losing a couple of hours of sleep here and there wouldn’t do any harm.
Well, the French research study adds to the body of evidence that indicates a great potential for harm from sleep loss. You probably realize that when you are drowsy from a sleep deficit, you aren’t at your best. It’s hard to focus. Your attention wanders and you don’t notice or remember as many details as usual. And you might be sufficiently dazed from lack of sleep to not really care. So you might just slip up on the tasks you attempt. You might miss an appointment or an answer to a test. You might forget a work task. Or our Galveston accident lawyers caution that you might run a red light or doze off behind the wheel of your vehicle and crash.
The French study, which analyzed data from police reports and 679 drivers hospitalized in southwest France after accidents, received publication as a letter in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The majority of the drivers were male and less than 55 years of age. Over half were riding motorcycles at the times of their wrecks, approximately 33% were behind the wheels of cars, and another 10% were on bicycles. Dr. Moore and his team concluded from their research that among your increased risk factors for causing a vehicle accident are the following:
So our Galveston accident lawyers remind you: don’t drink and rive, and always try to get a good night’s sleep. Sufficient sleep improves your health and resistance to disease. It helps you perform well on tests and at work. And it might just save you from a catastrophic or deadly accident. Good night, and sleep well.
When the weather is hot in Texas, many residents seek relief from the heat with a fun trip to a water park. Water-themed amusement parks cool off their guests while offering them thrilling rides and refreshing fun – and in recent years, their waterslide offerings have become steeper, faster, longer, and arguably more dangerous. In fact, according to the non-profit group Safer Parks, 86 percent of water park accidents take place on and around waterslides.
How do Texas waterslide injuries most commonly happen?
• Riders collide with one another on the slide or in the pool.
• Riders impact the side of the slide or the bottom of the pool at high speeds.
• Riders slip and fall from high slides or platforms.
• Riders flip or fall off of their inner tube.
• Riders become trapped on part of the slide, sometimes under water.
• Riders are struck by a foreign object on the slide or in the pool.
• Riders drown in or around the waterslide pool.
Injuries include lacerations, head injuries, spine injuries, broken bones, dislocated joints, and even death.
Why do waterslide injuries take place?
Water slides and water parks are still fairly new amusements, and much of the slides’ design and engineering is either theoretical or based on other types of rides. Unfortunately, water slides are dangerous for the same reasons that they are thrilling: their high-speed, slip-and-slide nature can be fun, but also hazardous. Some accidents take place because of the design of the slide, while others take place because of the negligence of the water park. Still other waterslide accidents occur because of rider behavior or carelessness.
What are the world’s most thrilling & most frightening waterslides?
Our Houston water slide injury lawyers just came across a list of the world’s most frightening, or perhaps thrilling, water slides. A Brazilian slide called Insano takes top honors. It is insane for a reason: riders begin by essentially dropping off a 14-story near-vertical drop at a speed of roughly 65 mph. Then thrill-seekers end with a dive into the swimming pool. Look out below, those already in the pool!
It is easy to imagine some of the other dangers of this terrifying and Insano drop: falling off of the slide, getting caught on the slide on the way down, a bad impact with the surface of the slide, hitting the bottom or side the swimming pool, or colliding with another rider. The safety precautions the slide operators must take to ensure rider safety undoubtedly require careful attention to detail and constant vigilance.
Another dangerous waterslide on the list is The Mammoth in Indiana. This water ride is about one-third of a mile long and takes riders through seven different drops. The slide is seven stories high and riders traverse the length of the ride in a spinning, multi-passenger raft. Other waterslides that topped the most thrilling list include the Leap of Faith, Summit Plummet, and Scorpion’s Tail.
Texas water slide accident attorneys
We want you to enjoy your summer. Beat the heat in water parks if that’s your inclination, but be sure to approach amusement ride thrills with proper safety precautions in mind. If you or one of your children has suffered a serious injury on a water slide or amusement park ride, call one of our experienced, knowledgeable personal injury attorneys for assistance. We offer free, private legal consultations to injury victims that can help you understand whether you should take action against park owners and operators to get the financial compensation you deserve.
Call us today at 713-807-9500 and be sure to read our free report about Amusement park dangers.
Pearland accident injury attorneys remark that vehicle accidents represent the primary cause of life-changing spinal cord injuries and their complications. The spinal cord is your body’s central communications system, carrying signals to and from your brain throughout your body. The nerves in the spinal cord tell the brain how to react to input, and your body how to respond to your commands.
When an injury damages your spinal cord, you might face major changes in your life and your capacity. You might lose your ability to walk, move, or care for yourself. You might lose some or all feeling and movement capacity below the site of the injury, either temporarily or on a permanent basis. Medical science does not yet offer ways to effectively treat all types of spinal cord injuries.
Alcohol-related vehicle accidents lead to many of these serious spinal cord injuries. Our Pearland accident injury attorneys point out that these injuries might necessitate costly treatments, special equipment to help you continue with your life, and ongoing medical care throughout your lifetime. They also result in major psychological challenges as you struggle to cope with a changed worldview and a major alteration in your relation to the world.
Surgeries, long-term physical therapies, and the services of rehabilitation specialists might help you cope with the injurious consequences of your vehicle accident. Surgery can sometimes repair some of the physical, mechanical damage. And physical therapists and rehabilitation specialists could help you build up your strength and range of motion and help you learn about new ways to perform daily tasks. They will also help you learn how to avoid some of the pitfalls of your new limited mobility, like how to avoid sores from sitting in a wheelchair for extended periods of time. Setting personal goals could help you receive the maximum benefit from your therapies.
Our Pearland accident injury attorneys note that when you’ve received a serious injury from a vehicle accident, you need to identify the parties at fault for causing your accident and hold them financially accountable for the harm they’ve caused you. The financial compensation you might win from them could help you to cope with the burdensome financial costs of you injury.
Contact the experienced Pearland accident injury attorneys at Denena & Points when you have questions about how to proceed with your financial compensation claim following a serious wreck. We offer a free initial consultation, and more than 12 years of skill, personal injury expertise, and successful experience to back up your quest for justice.
Conroe truck crash lawyers note that you might be surprised to learn that there could be more than one party at fault for causing your devastating accident. If your 18-wheeler crash attorney can prove your claim against those defendants, you could hold them all liable and financially accountable for your injuries.
Then each defendant would owe you a share of your financial compensation award. Each party’s share of the damages award would be proportional to their degree of fault in causing your accident as found during trial. Some of the parties potentially at fault in your Conroe 18-wheeler accident might include:
The truck driver: The driver in charge of the 18-wheeler at the time of your accident can almost always be found liable for a share of your damages. A truck driver might make driving mistakes just like any other driver. He might run a stop sign or a traffic light, exceed safe speeds, lose control of the truck on a curve or a turn, or miscalculate when trying to avoid other drivers on the road.
The truck driver might even fall asleep behind the wheel. Long-haul truckers might drive many consecutive hours and hundreds of miles in a single day. Our Conroe truck crash lawyers point out that rules mandate that long haul truck drivers take adequate rest breaks to avoid fatigue. But delivery deadlines and incentive rewards for quick deliveries sometimes encourage them to skip their required breaks.
Some drivers have been known to take amphetamines or other drugs to enhance their alertness on the road. Others might have a few drinks before taking the wheel to resume their journey. If the truck driver that caused your accident was intoxicated at the time of the wreck, you might also be able to hold the establishment that served him alcohol liable for your accident damages under the Texas dram shop. Proving dram shop liability is quite challenging and requires the services of an experienced Conroe truck crash lawyer.
The trucking company: Trucking companies hold responsibility for the conduct of their drivers based on the legal doctrine of “respondeat superior.” Therefore the trucking company that employed the truck driver who caused your wreck generally might be a named respondent in your accident injury lawsuit.
Sometimes the trucking companies stand directly liable for your damages in their own right. The company might have sent the driver out in a truck that was inadequately serviced or maintained. The trucking company might have sent the driver out with a flawed route plan to follow.
The company might use negligent hiring practices and put drivers on the job who already have a string of bad accidents behind them. The trucking company might be negligent in conducting regular drug and alcohol testing of drivers. The company might encourage the drivers to drive excessive hours by providing inappropriate incentive rewards or unrealistic delivery targets.
You need a thorough investigation by a Conroe truck crash lawyer that is well versed in trucking accidents in order to discover all of the parties at fault for causing your 18-wheeler accident. The Conroe truck crash lawyers have 12 years of successful experience in such cases behind them and they know where to look to obtain the evidence you need to prove liability in your case.
Continued in Part 2.
Our Conroe truck crash attorneys continue this discussion from Part 1. In the initial distraught reaction after a serious truck crash, most injured victims do not think of the many parties that might have contributed to causing the wreck and their resulting injuries. But multiple people might have been involved in causing the sequence of events that led to the crash.
For instance, the truck’s route planner might have overlooked overpass heights, road weight limits, temporary blockages or detours, and other factors in preparing the route that the truck driver was supposed to follow in delivering his load to its destination. Our Conroe truck crash attorneys emphasize that the truck’s route planner is the person responsible for developing a safe route for the truck driver to follow to his assigned delivery point.
The truck route planner needs to know which routes prohibit truck traffic, which roads are off limits to trucks carrying hazardous cargos, and which routes remain zoned for specific truck weight limits. This trip planner needs to avoid routes with low overpasses that the truck can’t clear as well as bridges that are too narrow or too weak to carry the truck and its load.
A good truck route planner must absorb and update lots of information in order to do a proper job. The Conroe truck crash attorneys at Denena & Points note that continuous changes to the driving landscape because of construction detours, road repairs, natural disasters, and major accidents can make a truck route plan that was accurate one day into a route to be avoided today.
A trip route planning failure might result in a truck becoming trapped in a narrow tunnel, falling through a bridge inadequate for supporting its weight, or crashing into a low-hanging overpass. Such dangerous planning failures and the accidents resulting from them endanger not just the truck and its driver, but also the surrounding vehicles and pedestrians on and near the roads. A diligent accident investigation can help determine if a route planning failure played a role in causing your accident. If so, you can name the route planner and his employer to your lawsuit.
The truck route planner behind a flawed trip plan that led to a wreck could be a trucking company employee. Or the planner might be a third party contractor. And the truck driver also bears responsibility for reviewing any trip plan for accuracy before starting on his way.
The truck’s cargo loaders might also be at fault. A truck’s cargo needs to be evenly distributed, well balanced, and carefully secured with the truck in order to avoid causing problems while the truck is in transit. Our Conroe truck crash attorneys point out that regulations permit most 18-wheelers to carry up to 40,000 tons in cargo. If that weight isn’t properly balanced, it might fall or overbalance on a turn, a stop, a curve, or at speed. The imbalance could cause the truck to suddenly topple over, lose control, or up-end. The results can be deadly for any nearby drivers or pedestrians as well as for the truck’s driver.
And if the cargo handlers failed to adequately secure the cargo when they loaded it onto the truck, the cargo might suddenly spill out of the truck while it’s in transit. Whether the cargo suddenly obstructs the road, or falls directly onto nearby vehicles, it presents an unexpected and deadly hazard.
Conroe truck crash attorneys remind you that heavy cargo could crush other nearby vehicles sharing the road with the big rigs. Cargo falling suddenly into the roadway could result in massive collisions or in multi-vehicle pileups. And traffic authorities often must close the roads for long periods of time while cargo spills are cleaned away, inconveniencing and sometimes endangering other drivers confronted with an unexpected detour. Occasionally live cargo must be rounded up and captured.
Lost cargo lying in a roadway at night where it can’t be seen in time to be avoided can result in multiple casualties. Some cargo spills result in the evacuation of entire neighborhoods. If spilled cargo resulted in your truck accident losses, your Conroe truck crash attorney could help you track down the responsible parties so that you could hold them financial accountable for their costly negligence.
See Part 3 of this post for further discussion of other parties that might be financially liable for your accident injuries.
Our Conroe truck wreck injury lawyers continue this discussion from Part 2. From the earlier parts of this discussion, you might have begun to realize just how many different people might be involved in contributing to your truck accident injury through their negligence. Other potentially liable parties whom you might not have considered as contributing to your losses are the manufacturers of the truck and its parts, including the cargo fasteners.
Manufacturers: The massive commercial trucks rely on the predictable and dependable interplay of thousands of working parts in order to operate safely on our roads. Sometimes an inherent defect within a truck component part causes an accident once that component becomes stressed and fails.
A manufacturing flaw in just one of the many layers of a truck’s tire might cause a blowout and deadly loss of vehicle control. A flaw in the truck’s suspension system could result in the sudden unbalancing of a truck’s weight load, and the truck could them overturn or flip over. Defects in cargo fastening mechanisms might cause sudden shifts or spills of a truck’s cargo. Our Conroe truck wreck injury lawyers point out that defects anywhere in the truck’s enormously complex drive shaft can be dangerously problematic.
If an inherent defect in the truck or one of its parts contributed to causing your truck accident injuries, you might be eligible to hold the manufacturer financially accountable you’re your harm under a products liability claim.
Other drivers: Drivers of smaller vehicles often don’t seem to recognize the dangers of reckless driving in the presence of heavy 18-wheelers. These drivers might drive at excessive speeds, weave in and out of traffic, disregard stop signs or traffic lights, or make sudden turns or lane changes without signaling.
The actions of such reckless and heedless drivers endanger not only themselves but also everyone else on the roads surrounding them. The Conroe truck wreck injury lawyers at Denena & Points understand that it’s the more careful drivers who must try to compensate for reckless drivers’ ill-considered actions. But it’s not always possible to safely avoid the consequences of erratic driving on busy roads. There are just too many other vehicles around. And large trucks simply can’t respond as quickly to changes in speed and direction as smaller, more maneuverable passenger vehicles. When another driver has caused an 18-wheeler wreck that has injured you, you might have a valid legal claim for financial compensation against that other driver for his negligence.
As our 3-part discussion has revealed, multiple parties might be at fault for causing your Conroe truck accident and resulting injuries. The interplay of several negligent acts might have combined to cause your accident.
While your accident itself might have occurred in a mere second or two, it may actually have resulted from the interaction of many factors that came together in one unfortunate sequence to cause catastrophic injury or fatality. This type of accident event is not as unusual as you may think. Indeed, most accidents result from multiple negligent acts coming together at once to form the final calamity.
If you’re suffering because of a serious truck accident, contact the experienced Conroe truck wreck injury lawyers at Denena & Points for a free and confidential legal consultation. Over our more than 12 years of practice, we’ve helped countless truck accident injury victims to recover the full financial compensation to which they’re entitled by their undeserved injuries. We could help you too.