Our Houston crash injury lawyers were stunned to learn of the extent of the negligence involved in the Monday van crash that injured 16 children. Several rather alarming safety issues emerged as additional news coverage revealed the details relating to the Alpha Kids Center van crash:
The day care center clearly overlooked some serious safety issues in transporting the 16 children, aged 6 o 12 years, to and from a field trip. Officials from the Department of Family and Protective Services are now investigating the Alpha Kids day care center in the wake of the van crash. These officials have barred the Center from transporting any children on vans. (Sources: Andrew Horansky, khou.com 7/11/12 and Vicente Arenas, khou.com, 7/11/12.)
Concepcion Coronado and Darryl Freeman, the owner of the Alpha Kids day care center, are facing charges of injury to a child and of child endangerment because of the van crash and the safety violations surrounding it. Our Houston crash injury lawyers note that Coronado remains in jail on an immigration hold.
The seemingly rampant disregard for the safety and well being of the children in the care of the Alpha Kids Center leaves us in a state of some shock. Aside from all of the other safety issues, running a red light full of young children, at least some of whom probably aren’t even seat-belted in, poses such a grave risk as to be wantonly negligent.
Our Houston crash injury lawyers can’t emphasize enough that parents leaving their children in day care should check the credentials and safety practices of the day care center they have chosen. The 16 children from the Alpha Kids Center were lucky. Those 16 kids sent to the hospital for their injuries following the crash are all expected to recover. In a van prone to rollovers, driven by an unlicensed driver who ran a red light, and without enough seatbelts to prevent ejection from the vehicle, it’s almost unbelievably fortunate that all involved escaped more serious injury.
If you or your child suffers injury in a crash and you need help recovering for the harm done to your family, contact our Houston crash injury lawyers for a free and confidential legal consultation. We’ve dedicated our professional lives over the past 14 years to helping unjustly injured accident victims make full financial recoveries for their harm. Let us help you and your loved ones hold negligent parties accountable for your injuries. Call or email us today.
Texas highway accident attorneys note that the Eagle Ford Shale development, underlying several formerly somewhat sleepy counties in Southeast Texas, is now the center of Texas’ economic boom. The shale deposit is the center of fracking activity to extract oil and gas. And fracking requires lots of water.
So roads in the area that formerly saw traffic of one or two trucks a day, now see up to 500 commercial trucks. Many of those trucks are heavily loaded with water, gas, or drilling equipment.
And long shifts in the oil fields mean that many of the drivers behind the wheels of those trucks are too fatigued to pay proper attention to the roads as they drive. Our Texas highway accident attorneys point out that the rate of traffic fatalities has increased by a factor of 12 in Karnes County since 2008, when the Eagle Ford Shale development really took off there. And LaSalle County has experienced a 418% increase in crashes related to commercial vehicle traffic since that time. McMullen County has suffered a 1,050% increase in that same time period. (Source: Hailey Konnath, San Antonio Express-News, 7/9/2012)
Some of the increase in vehicle crashes and fatalities gets blamed on the poor conditions of roads worn down by the unexpected and massive increase in the loads they must carry. Others blame the increase in the enormous number of oil industry trucks or on the hurry of industry workers as they drive.
Local government officials, the oil and gas industries, concerned locals, and traffic authorities are all scrambling to find solutions to the problems of increased crash injuries and deaths tied to the economic boom in the Eagle Ford Shale. Many local residents fear for their lives if they have to take to the roads. And one stretch of highway has even earned the nickname “death trap” from the sharp increase in traffic fatalities.
But local residents aren’t the only ones suffering the effect of the rise in fatal traffic accident statistics. Recent years have seen highway traffic crashes rise to the number one spot as a cause of death for oil field workers. Learn more about the dangerous occupation of oil field drilling in the linked article by our Texas highway accident attorneys.
If you’ve been injured in a highway crash, contact our Texas highway accident attorneys for a free and confidential legal consultation to discuss your case. We’ve been helping injured victims successfully obtain full financial recoveries for their harm for more than 14 years.
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.
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.
The Houston workplace injury lawyers at Denena & Points remark that the domestic drilling industry has grown enormously over the last decade, bringing welcome, high paying jobs to economically depressed areas during a time of great economic distress. But the economic boom has its price. Worker fatality rates within the industry have soared to 7 times the national average for other industries. And almost 33% of those worker fatalities relate to highway crashes, many caused by severely fatigued industry drivers who have attempted long drives after shifts lasting 20 hours or more. Industry workers aren’t the only ones at risk from these fatigued drivers. Anyone who shares the roads and highways with them stands at risk.
The oil and gas industry benefits from many long-standing exemptions that create different rules than the rest of us must follow. For instance, our Houston workplace injury lawyers note that the oil and gas companies aren’t required to inform OSHA when they commence drilling at a site or when their truckers crash on public roads. And how can the agency conduct timely site inspections if it doesn’t even know drilling has begun there? How can it investigate and deter safety shortcomings if it doesn’t investigate industry highway crashes?
Mining companies on the other hand must alert the federal Mine Safety & Health Administration about new sites where it commences work. This difference in industry regulatory requirements tracks a startling difference in fatality statistics as well. Even though there are fewer active U.S. oil & gas drilling sites than mining sites, more drilling industry workers than miners die each year, about a third of them in road crashes.
Not only are a high proportion of oil & gas field trucks in severe disrepair, but also the companies operate under safety exemptions that don’t affect other industries. Recent years have seen federal and state officials tighten up rules governing how many hours truckers may drive in a given period and how many rest breaks they must take. Our Houston workplace injury lawyers emphasize that the oil & gas industry truckers are exempt from these safety requirements. And oil service companies often work to avoid even those rules that do affect them. Some companies operate under registrations belonging to associated companies or shell companies to continue operating after regulators have taken their licenses for repeated safety violations.
Two months ago, the U.S. GAO (Government Accountability Office) chastised federal highway safety regulators for failure to detect “chameleon carriers,” commercial truckers that use shell companies to dodge safety rules. But the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) stands fast in its defense of oil & gas industry exceptions. It strives to reassure with the statement that the exemptions don’t apply to all of the industries’ trucks, and that the exemptions have been in place 50 years and are clear enough. Our Houston workplace injury lawyers ask, “Clear enough for what?” Are you reassured regarding your safety in the presence of these trucks?
Continue to Part 2.
(Continued from Part 1.) Safety advocates maintain that the oil & gas industries use the existence of the exemptions, the lack of clarity even to regulators regarding which trucks they cover, and the low risk of getting caught to apply the exemptions to industry trucks to which they do not belong. The Houston work injury lawyers at Denena & Points note that the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, an association composed of police and highway enforcement authorities, states that enforcing even existing regulations is challenging due to a lack of clarity because federal regulators won’t provide a list of the industry vehicles that qualify for the exemptions.
Federal authorities proposed some revisions to the existing highway regulations in 2010. But numerous outraged executives of trucking, oil, and gas companies pounced on the regulators, submitting comments opposing the changes. The executives argued that the changes would require them to hire additional, inexperienced drivers that would greatly add to industry costs and road safety risks. But oil field workers, along with safety advocates, disagreed with the advocates. Those on the ground know and flatly state that requiring workers to drive additional hours after shifts lasting nearly a full day or more is patently unsafe and heightens the risks of dangerous truck crashes.
Our Houston work injury lawyers point out that oil & gas industry exemptions allow industry drivers not to count the time they’ve spent waiting at the well site for crews to finish their tasks before driving their hauls. And these waits can sometimes last as long as 36 hours, with no place for the waiting driver to catch any comfortable rest.
Other commercial truckers that work 60 hours over 7 consecutive days must take at least 34 hours off to get two full nights of sleep. Oil and gas truckers that work the same hours are only required to take 24 hours off for rest. Oil & gas industry lobbying has assured the maintenance of the exemptions in the face of strong government and safety advocate calls for change. Our Houston work injury lawyers realize that it’s hard to argue with an industry offering an economic boom and growing numbers of industry jobs during a time when almost all other industries are in sad decline. Even if an unnecessary number of worker fatalities and collateral casualties from excessive driver fatigue stand as a clear secondary result of the exemptions.
The worker fatality statistics in comparison with other industries speak for themselves. And industry workers, government safety advocates, and other concerned safety specialists also speak for the need for change in the oil and gas industries’ regulations. They say it’s time for the half-century-old safety exemptions to finally go away. And they’re right. But only continued, strident calls for change might have a chance of bringing about increased safety in the industries offering shining examples of prosperity in dark economic times. But safety risks aren’t the only costs of oil and gas industry arrogance. Our Houston work injury lawyers suggest that you might also want to look at unnecessarily high gas and energy prices and disproportionate oil industry profits.
If you or a loved one has been injured because of unsafe oil & gas industry practices, feel free to contact us for a legal consultation and case evaluation regarding your accident. Your initial consultation is free, and could provide you with the information you need to make sound decisions leading to a full financial recovery for your undeserved injury.
The problems of sleep apnea and the resulting fatigue in professional long haul drivers on our U.S. highways are critical. But our Houston truck accident lawyers haven’t discussed the problem in a while because clean solutions continue to elude government regulators, truck industry officials, and concerned accident lawyers alike.
The profession of long haul driving is one that almost inescapably leads to fatigue and sleep apnea problems. To make money, the drivers must get up early, oversea loading of their cargo, drive endless, monotonous hours on the highways, and spend most of their nights away from home and the comfort of their own beds. You might know from personal experience how sleeping away from home while traveling can easily disrupt your sleep patterns.
And the long hours in the drivers seat combined with generally unhealthy truck stop meals and little time for exercise tend to lead to weight gain which in turn leads to sleep apnea problems. Sleep apnea interrupts a driver’s sleep continuously throughout the night, which can leave him almost as fatigued in the morning as if he had not slept at all.
Of ongoing concern in the trucking industry is the problem of sleep apnea and its role in causing truck accidents. Our Houston truck accident lawyers emphasize that discussions of sleep apnea tend to revolve around several central questions.
The answer to the 2nd question remains inconclusive. Some contend that truckers with sleep apnea have a risk of causing truck accidents that is seven times higher than that of those without sleep apnea. Yet the authoritative government study on the subject indicates that only those drivers with severe sleep apnea are at risk and only for severe accidents. Somehow that doesn’t comfort me.
The government has formulated some regulations to limit truck drivers’ consecutive hours on the road. The federal regulations require regular rest breaks and maintenance of a logbook setting forth a driver’s hours and miles traveled.
Our Houston truck accident lawyers note that truck drivers aren’t the only drivers with sleep apnea and consequent fatigue problems. Much of the general population possesses a sleep apnea disorder. There exist 3 distinct types of sleep apnea disorder. OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea) is the type that provides a focal point for the controversy regarding long haul truck drivers. And medications like sleep aids used to combat sleep-related disorders can cause as many problems as the disorders themselves.
The problem of sleep-deprived drivers and resulting wrecks remains. You can do your part to help prevent such wrecks by becoming aware of problems that might cause your own fatigue behind the wheel and taking steps to combat the problems.
If you suffer injuries from a truck wreck and you need to know what to do to seek the financial compensation to which your injuries might entitle you, download our Houston truck accident lawyers’ free book on how to pursue a successful truck accident injury claim.
The Board Certified Texas personal injury lawyers at Denena & Points know that there are few worse situations that a parent can face than when a child has been grievously injured in a traffic collision. Your child might suffer long-term disabilities and ongoing medical costs that you never planned for. You need to know what to do and where to turn as you make an injury compensation claim against the negligent parties that caused the wreck that injured your child.
Your first step in making a successful claim on behalf of your injured child involves locating an experienced, Board Certified Texas personal injury lawyer to help you file your case as soon as possible following the wreck. Timely action presents your best chance of obtaining and preserving the evidence and the witness testimony you need to enable you to win your claim on your injured child’s behalf.
When you file a personal injury claim on behalf of a minor child injured in a crash, the court might appoint a third-party attorney, called an ad litem, to help you protect your child’s interests in the matter. The court appointment recognizes that under the law, your child is presumed to lack the capacity to make informed decisions in the matter. And so an adult ad-litem could be appointed to help make the adult decisions regarding legal options and strategies on behalf of the child.
The ad litem does not advocate case particulars on either side of the claim in court. The ad-litem’s sole duty is to ensure that the child’s best interests are observed and that no party (even the child’s parents or guardians) takes advantage of the child in the legal injury claim proceedings. The ad litem also works to structure any settlement so that the benefits of the compensation received go to benefit the child’s welfare, and do not just become extra spending money for the parents or guardians.
Hiring your own Board Certified Texas personal injury lawyer, having the court appoint a third-party ad litem, and taking the case to court as soon as possible after the accident while the child is still a minor generally offers a more winning strategy than waiting to make the claim until the child legally becomes an adult. Waiting to present your child on his or her 18th birthday with a claim that he or she could possibly win at that late date would be a poor birthday gift. At that point, evidence would either be stale or long gone. And witnesses to the accident, if they could still be found, probably could not dredge up accurate or convincing memories of the incident to present before the court.
Help your child address the consequences of a painful accident injury. Contact the dedicated, Board Certified Texas personal injury lawyers at Denena & Points for a free and confidential case evaluation/legal consultation to help your child get started down the road to recovery. Let us help you make a successful financial compensation claim on behalf of your injured child against the negligent parties who caused the traumatic accident.