Fatal Semi Truck Wreck on I-35 Closes Highway & Damages Bridge

Truck driver Hugh Christopher Newbury died early Saturday, just one day before his birthday, when his semi truck crashed into a support column for the FM 2837 overpass above I-35 near Lorena, Texas. Witnesses said the truck had been weaving on the road shortly before the fatal truck wreck. Authorities suspect truck driver fatigue or a medical problem may have led to the tragic wreck. Mr. Newbury would have turned 53 years old today.

Need Information after a Serious Truck Wreck Injures You or Your Loved One? Download our FREE Guide on the Key Steps You Need to Take Following the Accident

Click the icon on this web page to download your free guide from the Texas Truck Accident Attorneys at Denena & Points. The book provides the tips you need to take proper steps to preserve your rights and avoid mistakes that could lead to denial of your claim for accident injury compensation.

Download our free guide and begin your journey down the road to financial recovery after an accident. And call or contact our Texas truck accident attorneys online anytime to get your free, no obligation legal consultation. Call 281-369-4363 or fill out our online “Get Help Now” contact form today.

Southbound I-35 Closed for 12 Hours due to Fatal Truck Wreck and Overpass Damage

The tragic, fatal truck wreck occurred just before 4 a.m. on Saturday in the southbound lanes of I-35 at Lorena, Texas. Those lanes did not reopen again until Saturday afternoon due to damage to the bridge over I-35 that carries FM 2837. Traffic apparently didn’t flow normally again until Saturday evening.

Hugh Christopher Newbury’s semi truck had drifted over to the right of the highway and crashed into a support pillar for the bridge. Newbury died at the scene of the crash, just a day before he would have turned 53. Our Texas truck accident attorneys note that in addition to ordering an autopsy, accident investigators will examine Mr. Newbury’s truck driver’s log to try and determine if fatigue or medical issues were behind the fatal truck wreck.

A bridge inspector had said that the damaged overpass was safe to drive under, but not on. So drivers wanting to use the bridge were diverted onto the access road via north and south crossovers. Repair crews have already poured a new support column for the damaged bridge. They expect the pillar to be cured and functional by Monday morning. (Source: Don Bolding, Waco Tribune, 11/11/12)

The deepest sympathies of our Texas truck accident attorneys go out to the friends and family of Mr. Newbury in their time of grief, on a day that should have been one of celebration rather than mourning.

Have You been Injured by a Drunken Driver in Harris County? Call Us

Contact the Harris County Injury Lawyers at Denena & Points to Report Your DWI Accident Injury and Discuss Your Potential for Financial Recovery

The Harris County injury lawyers at Denena & Points want to see lower numbers of drunken drivers and DWI accidents in our county. We make it our mission to help the needlessly injured victims of DWI accidents and the families that have tragically lost loved ones to drunken drivers. When people choose to drink and drive, heedless of your safety, we want to help you hold them financially accountable for the devastating harm they case.

Contact us toll free at 877-307-9500 or “Get Help Now” by filling out our online contact form to obtain your FREE, confidential legal consultation. You have no obligation to hire an attorney. The Harris County injury lawyers at Denena & Points have the resources to thoroughly pursue your case from start to finish. And we take our cases on a contingency fee basis, so you don’t pay an attorney’s fee unless you win your case. Let us help; call today.

Harris County’s Trend in the First Half of 2012 for Lower Numbers of DWI Accidents may be Coming to an End

Harris County authorities earlier this year had been announcing that we looked on track to have our lowest number of fatal DWI accidents in five years. Our Harris County accident lawyers had seen this as a hopeful sign that things were finally turning around and Harris County would no longer stand undisputed as the nation’s DWI leader.

Unfortunately, recent weeks have shown what seems to be an unusual number of serious injury and fatal DWI accidents. And the winter holiday drinking and driving accident period hasn’t even begun yet.

Serious and Fatal Crashes from just the past few Days that may be Linked to DWI

• A woman crashed a Chrysler Sebring convertible into a construction site on Tuesday afternoon in Clear Lake and injured a city inspector and an off-duty deputy. She was arrested as a DWI suspect. Shortly after the Sebring wreck, another car almost crashed into the site on Bay Area Blvd near Highway 3. The male driver was arrested on suspicion of DWI and his female passenger was arrested for public intoxication.
• On Friday night, a rollover wreck in nearby Montgomery County that killed Tori Nichole Tabor and Kevin Hansen was attributed to speed and possibly DWI. Another victim was seriously injured in the crash.
• On Sunday morning, a pickup truck T-boned a sedan in a crushing impact on Highway 249 in NW Houston that killed the male and female occupants of the sedan. The driver of the pickup, in her 20s, is suspected of DWI.

These three tragic accidents represent just a small selection from this past weekend’s alarming number of serious and fatal accidents. There were also multiple severe and fatal wrecks attributed to speeding and street racing.

The Holiday Season is Approaching: Be Alert for Drunk Drivers

The period from Thanksgiving through New Year’s traditionally represents the most deadly time to be on the roads. As this past weekend’s raft of severe accidents points out, many drivers already seem to have abandoned safety in favor of speed and alcohol. So we caution you to drive safely and be especially alert for drunken, distracted, and speeding drivers as the holidays approach. Our Harris County injury lawyers think that our county might not be yielding its title as DWI capital of the nation this year after all.

Will my Houston injury case settle out of court or go to trial?

Houston personal injury attorneys realize that the fact is that most lawsuits, including Houston personal injury cases, do settle out of court. One reason is that both parties usually want to avoid the high expense of a lengthy court trial. But even where cases settle before trial, the settlement usually only takes place after both sides (the plaintiff’s and the defendant’s) are certain of the strength and value of the other side’s case.

This means that settlement usually only follows a lengthy pre-trial Discovery period where both sides exchange relevant information about the strength of their claims or defense. This lengthy period of pre-trail preparation also ensures that each side is prepared to go to court if one side remains unconvinced that it should settle with the other.

But in many personal injury lawsuits, the plaintiff (you) is an individual without deep pockets, high-paid corporate legal teams on staff, or endless years of experience pursuing injury cases.

And the plaintiff’s opposition might be a large corporation with a well-paid and well-trained legal defense team on staff. Or a large insurer and the insurer’s defense team might represent your opposition. That insurance defense team is going to have years of experience litigating every angle of a personal injury case.

If your opposition, whether a big insurance company, manufacturer, trucking company, or some other entity, is not completely convinced of the strength of your case, they might refuse to settle with you. Seeing no value or merit in your claim, your opposition (who can afford a trial much more easily than you can) will insist on taking your case to court and litigating it at great expense.

A Plaintiff needs a Good Houston Personal Injury Attorney to Ensure the Defendant doesn’t Undervalue the Case

So the plaintiff, to even the odds, must have an experienced and trial-hardened personal injury litigation firm on their side. A plaintiff should carefully select their attorney based on trial experience, a successful track record, and the firm’s willingness to go to trial if needed.

Some injury lawyers and firms are historically unwilling to step into the courtroom. We call them “settlement mills” and caution that they will simply tend to take whatever settlement they can get for you without a trial. Insurers and corporate defendants know these lawyers and their firms, and they will tend to offer a minimal settlement amount that grossly undervalues the worth of your claim because they can get away with it.

What to Look for in an adept Houston Personal Injury Attorney

When you need a good Houston personal injury attorney to help you win fair financial compensation for your injuries, you need one that insurers and defendants know are willing and able to go to trial and who won’t accept an undervalued settlement on your behalf. One way to help distinguish adept trial lawyers from settlement mills is to check whether they have their Texas Board Certification in Personal Injury law.

Contact the Texas Board Certified Houston Personal Injury Attorneys at Denena & Points when You need Strong and Effective Legal Help

Texas Board Certification is awarded based upon a demonstrated higher level of achievement, continuing legal education, dedication to client service, and successful trial experience. The Texas Board Certified Houston personal injury attorneys at Denena & Points have more than 14 years of experience representing injured clients and advocating for their rights to proper compensation after someone’s negligence has caused then needless harm.

At Denena & Points, we have a solid track record of winning complex cases and multi-million dollar awards for our clients in some of the most difficult areas of personal injury law. Click on our Case Results and Client Testimonials and see how we’ve been able to help other victims needlessly injured by negligence.

Then contact us toll free or online to get your FREE, no obligation legal consultation to discuss your case and eligibility for financial compensation. Our firm has the extensive resources needed to fully investigate and prepare your case. At Denena & Points, our Houston personal injury attorneys, Chad Points and Tony Denena, generally take our cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that you won’t be charged any attorney’s fees unless we win your case for you. There’s no risk and no obligation, so call us for your free consultation today.

Do you want to share SH 130 with 40-ton trucks driving 85 mph?

Last year, our Texas truck accident injury attorneys had discussed the proposal to raise speed limits in areas of Texas up to 85 mph. In just a few weeks, a stretch of toll road forming a new 41-mile length of SH 130 from Austin to Seguin will open with the highest speed limit in the United States, 85 mph.

The goal is to divert traffic from other heavily congested stretches of central Texas highway like the I-35 corridor to alleviate the traffic burden and reduce travel times. In April, another stretch of SH 130 opened with a speed limit of 80 mph. TxDOT indicates that traffic along that stretch of road has increased, including commercial truck traffic, and the higher speed limit so far has been a success.

But some trucking associations apparently have argued against the higher speed limits, preferring to keep the maximum speed limit at 65 mph. The reason isn’t so much safety as you might expect, though that is a factor, but fuel economy. For instance, our Texas truck accident injury attorneys note that a semi truck traveling at 75 mph uses more than 25% more gas than one traveling at 65 mph.

In addition to increased fuel consumption, trucking companies whose drivers use the high-speed stretch of SH 130 could also face increased risks of serious or fatal high-speed truck accidents and the attendant costly liabilities.

Reportedly, some trucking companies already install devices on some vehicles to prevent the vehicles from traveling too fast. Whether the companies will install such technology on additional vehicles or forbid drivers from using the high-speed routes remains a question. The Texas truck accident injury attorneys at Denena & Points realize that truck drivers facing pressures to make deliveries in shorter periods of time and under federal regulations limiting driving hours could be sorely tempted to take the higher speed alternative routes.

It’s an issue to watch. As road speeds increase, the severity of crashes occurring on those roads also increases. And differences in mass between the opposing vehicles in a crash also enhance crash severity. A car impacted by a semi truck traveling at 85 mph will be demolished and its occupants most likely killed or severely maimed.

At higher speeds, your braking distance is also greater to come to a stop. And faced with an impending collision, you have a shorter space of time in which to react and avoid the collision. Learn about the steps you could take to help your chances of a recovery after a serious accident. Download our Texas truck accident injury attorneys’ free book from this web page.

Economic Boom: The South Texas Eagle Ford Shale Play by the Numbers

Our Houston truck accident injury lawyers have been focusing a lot of attention lately on the deteriorating roads and mounting number of deadly truck crashes in the South Texas region defined by the Eagle Ford Shale play. The region runs from Webb County near the Mexican border for hundreds of miles to the northeast, ending just south of San Antonio.

The once-sleepy area of South Texas that relied mostly on agriculture and cattle to get by now enjoys an economic boom from the oil and gas extraction that’s providing restaurants, RV parks, retail stores, and housing providers with massive new revenues. Some businesses can barely keep up. And local towns are finding new revenue opportunities in things as seemingly unlikely as selling “gray water” from their wastewater treatment plants to the oil and gas companies desperate for the water to sustain their profitable hydraulic fracking operations in the eagle ford Shale play.

Our Houston truck accident injury lawyers point out that hydraulic fracking, as its name implies, requires quite a bit of water. Hydraulic fracking became a viable technology for use on the shale play about 3 years ago. With the new technology, the Eagle Ford Shale play has become the hottest in the nation, producing up to several thousand barrels of oil per day at some wells, in addition to huge amounts of natural gas. (Source: John McCormack, San Antonio Express-News, 4/6/11)

The oil and gas extraction operation in the region has become a huge economic engine for Texas. Let’s take a quick look at some of the numbers:

• Texas issued 33 drilling permits for the Eagle Ford Shale play in 2008, 94 permits in 2009, and 1,229 permits in 2010.
• Texas expects the shale play to produce close to $11.6 billion in gross state product by 2020, with $21.6 billion in total economic output impact.
• By 2020, Texas expects that the shale development will support almost 68,000 full time jobs in the region.
• Bank deposits in a Karnes County bank, for example, were rising by $2 million per month in 2010-2011, and have continued to increase.
• Mineral leases that rented for a few hundred dollars an acre just before the boom now command $10,000 and higher.
• Monthly royalty checks on oil and gas leases can be over $100,000.
• Lease bonus checks have made numerous people millionaires.

On the down side, our Houston truck accident injury lawyers note that the Eagle Ford Shale region experiences constant heavy traffic both day and night over roads never designed to carry endless streams of heavy commercial traffic. Laden oil tankers, massive equipment trucks, and 18 wheelers “run wild” on local roads according to residents, and bring dangerous new safety hazards along with economic prosperity.

Counties are facing enormous costs because of road damage, and the revenue influx hasn’t yet caught up with the infrastructure repair and improvement price tag. Indeed, it may never quite catch up. Some of the oil companies apparently have been good about working with the affected counties to find funds to address bridge and road damage. Other companies have turned a blind eye to the problem.

Residents’ complaints about safety prompted officials in Karnes County to call in a Texas DPS police task force to help curb the problem of truck drivers ignoring signs, speed limits, traffic regulations, and safety. But even with an increased police presence, our Houston truck accident injury lawyers realize that the growing numbers of heavy commercial trucks crowding local roads will continue to result in large numbers of serious and fatal truck crashes.

Oil and gas companies are desperate to add more truck drivers to their payrolls in order to take full advantage of the economic opportunities the Eagle Ford Shale play presents. Read more in our Houston truck accident injury lawyers’ linked article about the South Texas need for additional truck drivers and how you might be affected by the large numbers of additional trucks likely to be added to regional roads over the coming year.

More on dangerous South Texas truck crashes, injuries, & fatalities

Our Texas injury lawyers have been examining the economic growth in South Texas and the accompanying growth in the number of truck crash injuries and fatalities in the area. The great generator of all this activity is the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas development. The shale extraction boom there in South Texas has added thousands of jobs and millions of revenue dollars to the Texas economic equation.

A lot of the new jobs are trucking jobs. Drivers are needed to pilot the oil tankers, water trucks, sand trucks, heavy equipment trucks, and heavy-duty pickup trucks that keep the Eagle Ford Shale economic engine going. Apparently there are so many trucks needed that companies can’t always find enough drivers.

And the congestion from the heavy truck traffic has considerably slowed down travel times in some of the more dominant Eagle Ford Shale counties. Some TxDOT data indicates that the slowdown may be a blessing in disguise. Our Texas injury lawyers note that at faster speeds, even more serious truck crash injuries and fatalities might occur.

The soaring increase in the number of truck-related accidents has already caught the attention of authorities and government agencies concerned with traffic safety. TxDOT says that in McMullen County, for instance, commercial vehicle crash numbers have increased over tenfold since 2008. From 4 in 2008 to 46 in 2011.

TxDOT attributes the causes of the crashes predominantly to truck drivers ignoring signs in construction zones and to defective headlights. With so many trucks pressed into service for the oil and gas boom, some trucking companies have been ignoring basic maintenance, such as headlight and tire issues, to try and maximize productivity and profits.

Our Texas injury lawyers point out that failure to yield right of way is another common cause of fatal accidents in the Eagle Ford Shale, just as it is all around the state. Not long ago, a young tanker truck driver perished in a fiery crash on a Sunday morning when another tanker truck driver failed to yield the right of way. That crash happened on Texas 16 around F.M. 624.

Truck driver fatigue continues to cause many accidents. The oil and gas trucks are exempt from many federal regulations that limit drivers’ consecutive working hours. So some truck drivers take to the road for long drives at the end of shifts that have already lasted more than 20 hours. Some weeks back, for example, in a fatal accident that claimed two lives, a semi truck veered over the centerline of Texas 72 by Tilden and smashed into two other oncoming trucks.

The danger of truck crash injuries and fatalities in the Eagle Ford Shale region only seems to be growing as roads continue to deteriorate and more vehicles get added to the already congested roadways. Learn what to do if you suffer injuries from a collision with a truck. Download our Texas injury lawyers’ free guide to making a successful truck crash injury claim from this web page.

Neglect of truck safety & maintenance in the Eagle Ford Shale region

The Texas truck accident attorneys at Denena & Points note that in the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas development region, time is money and profits and Texas revenues are soaring. But the region is finding the unprecedented economic boom comes with a price tag. And the price is paid in lives from work accidents and highway accidents caused by fatigue, some companies’ failures to observe safety precautions and basic maintenance, and the rush to profit.

Just since 2011, around 1,200 18-wheeler crashes have been recorded for the 19-county Eagle Ford Shale development region. At least 25 of those accidents were fatal ones. County law enforcement offices, which might have only a single call per day prior to the oil and gas boom, now face at least a dozen calls per shift and now find themselves perpetually understaffed to deal with the increase in calls generated by the regional growth in both population and accidents.

Local infrastructure is also taking a beating. Our Texas truck accident attorneys point out that many of the local roads are narrow, rural highways that until recent years might have seen the passage of just a few vehicles per day. Now these same roads might be filled bumper-to-bumper, primarily with 18-wheelers and other heavy trucks related to the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas boom.

Gravel trucks, tanker trucks, equipment trucks, pickup trucks, water trucks, you name it. They’re all plying these low capacity regional roads. And the unaccustomed heavy loads are taking their toll on the regional infrastructure and making the roads increasingly dangerous to travel.

The 19 counties of the Eagle Ford Shale development are seeing an unprecedented increase in fatal traffic accidents to accompany the increase in economic activity. LaSalle County has seen a 418% increase in fatal traffic accidents since 2008. McMullen County has seen a 1,050% increase. Much of this sharp increase in fatal traffic accidents is attributable to the oil and gas industry truck traffic related to the shale development. And to a profits over people attitude among some trucking fleet owners who provide little or no safety inspections or maintenance on their truck fleets.

This negligent attitude among greedy trucking company owners endangers the truck drivers as much as other users of the Eagle Ford Shale area roads. Our Texas truck accident attorneys understand that most truck drivers are aware that the federal safety regulations regarding trucking help ensure their safety. But the oil and gas trucks that ply the shale development have exemptions from many of these safety regulations. And profit conscious employers take advantage of these exceptions to require long and dangerous work shifts of their truck drivers and to neglect basic safety and maintenance that could save lives.

A single oilrig could require as many as 1,500 individual truck trips. Trucks must deliver sand, water, equipment, and workers to facilitate the fracking activity that extracts the valuable energy from the shale. Other trucks haul away the oil and gas produced by the development.

The trucks that service these rigs travel over narrow, damaged highways, gravel roads, and open brush to do their work. In addition to the wear caused by travel itself, the merciless heat and sunlight of the South Texas region takes an enormous toll on truck’s tires. Tires age and wear faster here than in other areas, and some of the fatal traffic accidents attributable to the oil boom can be traced to poorly maintained and worn tires.

Truck drivers and local residents can’t do much to push the infrastructure upgrade that the Eagle Ford Shale area needs to keep up with its booming economy. But employers and truck owners can do their part to enhance everyone’s safety on the local roads by ensuring thorough and attentive maintenance to the trucks that ply the roads every day.

Our Texas truck accident attorneys call upon these employers and truck owners to do their part for safety and take a more proactive role in the maintenance and safety precautions that could save additional South Texas lives. Read more about the traffic safety issues and increasing number of truck accidents in the linked blog post by our Texas truck accident attorneys.

Eagle Ford Shale, economic boom, and fatigue-driven truck accidents

South Texas truck accident lawyers: The oil and gas industry has been booming the last few years in the 19 counties of the Eagle Ford Shale development in South Texas. Since about 2008, while most industries and economic segments have declines in the state and nationwide, Eagle Ford Shale developers have added thousands of trucking jobs to their payrolls and still more trucking jobs remain to be filled.

And the truck driving jobs pay well. A starting salary can be around $50,000. But the truck drivers earn their money and sometimes pay with their lives. The oil field trucks are exempt from many of the safety regulations that govern other truckers on U.S. roads.

Companies commonly ask their drivers to drive after long shifts that might last around 20 hours. The truck drivers pilot huge, heavy commercial trucks often on narrow, rural roads never designed for extensive heavy truck traffic. Several fatal truck crashes have occurred when these truck drivers were driving themselves and their fellow employees home from the field after long shifts of 20 hours or more. Our South Texas truck accident lawyers point out that in some cases, fatigue got the better of the drivers and they suddenly veered from the roads and crashed.

The Eagle Ford Shale region contains about 270 operating oil and gas rigs. The primary extraction activity involves fracking. And fracking requires huge infusions of water and sand, which must be trucked in. Then there are the heavy trucks that haul drilling equipment. And other trucks that haul away the oil and gas. The endless stream of truck traffic, with drivers often in a hurry and/or fatigued, has some residents fearful.

Until recent years, the 19 counties of the Eagle Ford Shale region were somewhat sleepy and the narrow roads carried only occasional traffic. But the local population has boomed along with the oil and gas development. The industry has added huge numbers of jobs and tax dollars to the Texas economy. Our South Texas truck accident lawyers note that the local infrastructures haven’t caught up yet with the economic boom. And the number of fatal truck crashes is growing at an alarming rate.

McMullen County, one of the dominant locations for Eagle Ford Shale extraction activity, has seen a 1,050% increase in the number of fatal traffic accidents since 2008. The majority of these accidents involve commercial trucks related to the local oil and gas activity. And a substantial number of the fatal truck crashes can be linked to truck driver fatigue.

Our South Texas truck accident lawyers emphasize that chances are that even with a huge expenditure on local roads and infrastructure, those alarming numbers will continue to rise. A boom in the domestic oil and gas industry means that hundreds of thousands new wells are expected to be drilled nationwide over coming years. And the Eagle Ford Shale development stands as the most productive, all things considered. So the region will probably see more than its share of hose new rigs and the large numbers of additional trucks required to service them. An average well generates between 500 and 1,500 additional commercial truck trips.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention calls insufficient amounts of sleep a public health epidemic increasingly linked to fatal truck crashes and work accidents generally. The U.S. NHTSA has issued a report called Drowsy Driving and Automobile Crashes. The report links insufficient sleep to impairment of drivers’ ability to adequately perform the complex tasks associated with driving. The NHTSA report specifically links driver fatigue with impaired reaction times, attention to the road, vigilance, and information processing, as well to vastly heightened risks for falling asleep at the wheel and veering off course into a crash.

For a variety of reasons, professional truck drivers also tend to experience sleep apnea more than the general population. Sleep apnea only adds to the potential for driver fatigue and fatal truck crashes. For more information, read our South Texas truck accident lawyers’ in-depth article on the problem of sleep apnea in truck drivers. It’s linked to this page.

Effects of variances in ownership & usage on railroad crossing safety

The Texas truck crash injury lawyers at Denena & Points realize that you might not worry much about the possibility of being hit by a train at a railroad crossing. It may be that you only cross rails in urban centers equipped with automatic gates, flashing lights, and loud warning bells.

Our Texas truck crash injury lawyers point out that many rural railroad crossings only have a stop sign to warn you of impending danger. At night or an unfamiliar road, this warning might go unnoticed. Private railroad crossings, such as those that lead into a family farm, often don’t even have stop signs. And they aren’t eligible for the federal funds that often help provide gates and warning lights at crossings. Equipping a railroad crossing with the gates, bells, and lights you’ve come to expect at urban rail crossings can cost well over $100,000.

Owners of the property on which a railroad sits are generally responsible le for putting in any safety warnings at the crossings. Absent federal funds to help defray the cost, they don’t usually install a full set of warning features at private rail crossings.

So a private railroad crossing dubbed “widow woman’s crossing” on the outskirts of Arlington, TX will likely remain a danger to motorists for some time to come. The rail crossing leads into Howell Family Farms, which the owner runs as a special events site, Union Pacific owns the property on which the railroad tracks sit. And traffic through the crossing is rare except during special events. Without prominent rail crossing warnings, our Texas truck crash injury lawyers emphasize that the site presents continuing dangers to the unwary.

Back in October, two freight trains collided near widow woman’s crossing, blocking exit from a special event held at Howell Family Farms. And in late June, the driver of a flatbed truck delivering sod dies when Amtrak’s Texas Eagle slammed into the truck at the crossing. The truck became wedged beneath the train and got dragged some 300 feet. Amtrak and its employees were cleared of wrongdoing in an internal investigation into the incident. It appears the truck drove in front of the oncoming train, perhaps trying to beat it through the crossing. Our Texas truck crash injury lawyers sadly note that the driver left behind a wife and 6 children.

The very builder of the private rail crossing was killed almost 100 years ago at widow woman’s crossing, just two years after building the crossing, by an Interurban trolley. Discussions are underway between Union Pacific Railroad and the owner of Howell Family Farms regarding safety enhancements at the rail crossing. (Source: Gordon Dickson, Fort Worth Star Telegram, 7/22/2012)

Union Pacific emphasizes the private nature of the railroad crossing. Apparently, the special public events now held at the farm aren’t necessarily always conducted with the proper permits necessary for a public venue. The owner of Howell Family Farms has begun taking additional safety precautions at the site and is looking into alternative exits from the property for guests.

The ongoing controversy about what to do at the private railroad crossing reveals the danger to all motorists’ safety at such private rail crossings. Easy solutions to such safety gaps at private rail crossing elude property owners and the public alike due to the expense of installing a full suite of warning devices at little-used crossing sites.

Our Texas truck crash injury lawyers caution that once outside of high traffic urban areas, your safety at railroad crossings largely depends upon your own care and alertness to danger. If you or your loved ones become the victims of injury at a dangerous railroad crossing and you need help recovering fair financial recompense from those responsible for your harm, contact us for a free legal consultation. We’ve been successfully representing innocent injured parties for almost 15 years and helping them to obtain the full financial recoveries they deserve.

We could help you understand your available legal options based upon the unique facts of your case, and guide you to a favorable outcome in your claim. Call our Texas truck crash injury lawyers toll free at 877-307-9500 or use our online contact features to schedule your complimentary initial consultation case evaluation.

U.S. Roadway Fatality Dangers Posed by Poorly Maintained Trucks

A young girl was killed today just outside of downtown Atlanta, GA when heavy truck parts flew off of an oncoming 18-wheeler and crashed through the windshield of an SUV driven by her mother. The 8-year-old girl was in the back seat and her mother was behind the wheel when parts of the truck’s transmission flew through the SUV’s windshield.

The truck debris injured the mother’s arm, but she was able to bring her SUV to a stop near the median wall of the highway. The mother, 29, received transport to the hospital where her arm had to be amputated below the elbow. Our Pearland truck accident attorneys were saddened to hear of the loss of this little girl’s life and of her mother’s grievous injury in the bizarre accident.

Our Pearland truck accident attorneys emphasize that innocent victims receive catastrophic injuries more often than you might realize because of debris flying from poorly maintained equipment. In many cases, it’s flying steel and rubber from a ruptured truck tire. In other cases, it’s spilled cargo from a poor loading job or old cargo fasteners that have given way. And in some cases, like this one, large metal parts from an engine or transmission might fly off into other vehicles.

Trucks are massive and complex machines with thousands of parts. These parts must be well maintained for the truck to function safely. But the pressures of competition and the need to make the most deliveries in the least time possible means that sometimes routine or necessary truck maintenance gets overlooked. Once parts from a poorly maintained machine give way and cause a wreck, you’re left with costly and unanticipated injuries and losses.

Feel free to contact us for help when you’re faced with such a difficult situation. We’ve been helping innocent victims of truck-related injuries to obtain just compensation for their losses for more than 14 years. Our Pearland truck accident attorneys know the evidence you need to prove your claim and where to find it. We could help you identify all of the parties potentially liable for your accident costs and hold them financially accountable for their negligence. Let us help you help your family after a tragic truck-related accident. Contact us today for your free initial legal consultation.