Structural collapse lawyers note that firefighters receive a large proportion of their injuries and suffer a large number of fatalities from partial structural collapses that occur in burning buildings where they’re fighting fires. Fire investigators, the curious, and returning homeowners sometimes suffer the same fates when they’re inside buildings that have burned.
It probably belabors the obvious for our structural collapse lawyers to say that fire weakens structural connections and structural supports to an unpredictable degree. This is particularly true of wood and wood-framed structures. But stone and masonry can split, crack, and crumble under extreme conditions too. And not all metal supports withstand fir damage well.
Yet when curious children see a burned building on which some structural members still stand, they often boldly walk in not expecting any further damage to occur while they’re there. And returning building owners, concerned to see how much they’ve lost, often don’t immediately think of the possibility that further collapses could occur. Structural collapse lawyers know that even well trained fire investigators who’ve surveyed and tested a charred building’s remaining structural integrity before entering can’t predict with complete accuracy what will stand and what will fall.
In Copperopolis, CA, a Fire Captain forming part of a crew fighting a residential house fire at night received serious injuries from the partial structural collapse of an exterior wall. Two other firefighters received minor injuries. The Captain had 22 years of experience with Cal Fire. The partial structural collapse occurred about an hour after firefighters responded to the blaze.
If a Fire Captain with 22 years of experience can’t predict a partial structural collapse, neither can anyone else. So our structural collapse lawyers caution you to always be aware of the danger from burned and burning buildings and stay clear.
The dome of the Adirondack Sports Complex in Queensbury collapsed in February under the weight of heavy ice and snow from one of the winter’s major snowstorms. Our structural collapse attorneys note that it’s November, and workers are still digging out the complex.
Our structural collapse attorneys have spent many hours fighting insurance companies for the compensation justly due to our clients, so we understand the frustration of the owners and managers of the Adirondack Sports Complex. The owners and managers of the sports complex are still fighting with the insurance companies to obtain compensation to pay for the repairs. At the same time, customers who can’t use the complex are demanding refunds. There are more than 1,200 customers owed refunds.
The sports dome collapse ended the winter sports season at the sports complex and closed the complex for much of the spring season as well. No injuries resulted from the dome collapse, which was a blessing. We structural collapse attorneys understand that additional losses of revenue from closing the Adirondack Sport Complex for repairs added to the already substantial financial woes of complex owners and managers from the dome collapse.
And the Adirondack Sports Complex manager says that 2010, an unseasonably warm year in which business at the indoor sports complex was slow, might be what insurance companies use as a reference point for his lost revenue claim. He believes that it wouldn’t be fair to compare the potential revenues from the unusually cold and potentially busy year of 2011 to those of the unusually slow year of 2010. Insurers, for their part, are struggling under a deluge of claims from the year’s excessive winter snows, massive spring flooding, and Hurricane Irene. N o one wins.
Our structural collapse attorneys bring this story to your attention to caution you to have your buildings and structures inspected regularly. Make any necessary repairs and conduct any necessary maintenance and structural upgrades that could help keep your structure stable in the event of extra stress. The struggles at the Adirondack Sports Complex reveal that once a collapse has occurred, your ongoing battle to obtain insurance settlements, make repairs, and pay any liabilities you may have from the debacle can prove to be a costly challenge.
The Port of Houston is a massively busy international shipping hub, the largest U.S. port for foreign shipping tonnage and the 13th busiest port in the entire world. Our Houston maritime lawyers note that about 60 ships, carrying about $300 million worth of goods, move in and out of the Port complex every day. But the Port of Houston complex is only 25 miles long, and the inland waterway is rather narrow at certain points, so a single accident can disrupt shipping and economic activity on a broad scale for a number of days.
Indeed, in October 2010, the ironically named T/V Safety Quest, pushing a set of 3 barges loaded with scrap metal, smacked unsafely into an electrical tower and pushed it askew. Our Houston maritime lawyers remark that the tower was one of 6 at the waterway, and the closest to the navigable channel. Well-known to navigators familiar with the Port’s waterway, it was nearly toppled by the set of barges. The T/V Safety Quest and its barges held the tower up for several days and kept it from toppling completely across the water until utility crews could remove it. Fortunately, the tower had been shut down prior to the crash so that utility crews could perform maintenance.
The barge accident closed down 19 miles of the Port of Houston facility for more than 3 days, backing up Port traffic, delaying cargo operations, and forcing ships to anchor in place until they were free to move through the waterway again.
But shipping and cargo accidents don’t just disrupt schedules and economic activity. They can disrupt lives and change a family’s fortunes forever. A badly lashed cargo container might topple on workers while a ship is in transit. Or a cargo container with a mis-declared weight might overload and topple a crane or snap the lift cable. Workers can be crushed, permanently maimed, or suffer intensely painful injuries requiring months or years of therapies to heal.
The laws governing redress for seamen’s and dockworkers’ injuries are complex and can be difficult to understand. But to recover the fair financial compensation you need to help you and your family move forward after a catastrophic cargo or shipping accident, it’s essential you make the right steps, file with the correct agencies, and meet filing deadlines and requirements. The aid of an experienced Houston maritime lawyer could be your key to a successful financial recovery.
Learn more about the laws governing injuries at sea or at dockside in this article by our dedicated Houston maritime lawyers.
Building collapse lawyers note that a continuing wave of costly and deadly collapses of major Nigerian buildings, some before they’re even completed, has Nigerians outraged at builders and officials alike for their failure to observe or enforce building safety standards.
Babatunde Liade, General Secretary of the National Union of Civil Engineering, Construction, Furniture, and Wood Workers has called on the Nigerian government to establish a Specifications Board to do what builders and officials should already be doing. As a voice of organized labor, Mr. Liade asks the government to form this Board to set standards, particularly materials standards, for all construction projects.
Mr. Liade blames the rash of building collapses and road failures in Nigeria to builders’ failure to use good materials of an accepted safety standard for construction jobs. He negates the role of contractor and engineer incompetence in these structural failures and lays the blame squarely on the use of substandard materials.
Mr. Liade blames greed and corruption for the tendency of Nigerian contractors and engineers to use substandard materials in their work. He says that they want to maximize their profits at the expense of their works. Our building collapse lawyers remark that apparently these builders don’t allow hundreds of fatalities and thousands of injuries to stand in the way of their profit goals.
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Mr. Liade also accuses public officials charged with overseeing building safety with not doing their jobs. Mr. Liade contends that a Specifications Board would be able to fill the oversight role and do a proper job of overseeing safety and monitoring building firms.
It’s unclear to this writer though why the Specifications Board would be immune from the greed, corruption, and negligence that seems to plague the rest of the Nigerian building industry. Mr. Liade particularly accuses on-site engineers of failing in their duties. Yet the labor organization for which he is General Secretary includes these engineers.
Mr. Liade claims that the Specifications Board should be charged with:
All well and good if the Specifications Board can avoid the greed, corruption, and negligence that plagues the rest of the industry. Our building collapse lawyers hope that the Specifications Board doesn’t become just another entity to pay off on the way to reaping the profits from a Nigerian building contract.
1. Watch a ride in motion with your child before letting your child board. Our ride injury lawyers suggest that if the ride looks unsafe, or if it looks like it might present dangers or temptations to show off to your child, don’t let your child ride.
2. Be cautious and use your own judgment about whether to let your child on a ride. An attendant may assure you a ride is safe for your offspring, but you know your child’s fears and tendencies. Your child might be too young or too fidgety to safely ride a coaster or other ride, even if he or she meets the minimum height requirement.
3. Read warning signs aloud to your children and make sure they understand. If they need to keep hands and feet inside a ride at all times, make sure they understand why they must, and what could happen if they don’t.
4. Pont out the entry and exit points and the entry and exit procedures to your child, as well as the locations of ride attendants and amusement park attendants.
5. Instruct your children to hold on tight to the ride, keep their feet flat on the ride car if they can, and stay safely seated in their ride seat. Our ride injury lawyers point out that many rides’ restraint systems are designed primarily for teens and adults and won’t properly restrain younger children. So your child’s best prospects for safety lie in maintaining a tight hold on the ride and a secure seat in the ride car.
6. If your child is afraid of a ride, don’t let peers pressure them into riding it. Frightened children will often try to exit a ride in motion and serious hurt themselves.
7. Obey ride-loading instructions that indicate when a child is more safely seated on the inside or the outside of a ride. Our ride injury lawyers remind you that those instructions could help prevent serious injuries resulting from centrifugal forces or the tendency of smaller children to escape ride restraints on fast turns or changes in acceleration.
8. Teach your children what to do and whom to contact if they accidentally get separated from you at an amusement park or other busy venue. Make sure they know the information park authorities will need to find and contact you.
9. Supervise your children as they ride amusement park rides. Always ride the rides with younger children, and even with your older children if they will allow it. Rider horseplay and misconduct remains one of the top causes of amusement park ride injuries, and children are generally less inclined to misbehave or show off in a dangerous fashion if they’re under parental supervision.
10. Remember that amusement park rides, like any pieces of heavy machinery, present dangers of catastrophic injury if misused or if safety is disregarded. Our ride injury lawyers emphasize that amusement park rides move fast, and can sever limbs and crush riders if safety is disregarded.
If your child should suffer injury from a dangerous amusement park ride and you need advice regarding your legal rights and options in the matter, feel free to contact us. Our experienced ride injury lawyers provide a free initial consultation to discuss your problem and help you find solutions. Over more than 12 years, we’ve helped injured ride accident victims successfully achieve a full financial recovery for the harm they’ve suffered. We’re here to help you too.
Pearland engine defect lawyers remark that the U.S. NHTSA recently announced a recall related to a defect in the Chevy Cruze that could lead to a fire from leaking fuel in the event of a vehicle crash. That particular defect was the absence of necessary welds to help hold fuel tank brackets in place. So if the vehicle received sufficient jarring such as from an impact, the fuel tank could come loose and spill fuel. If the spilled fuel encountered an ignition source, as it just might during an unexpected wreck, that leaked fuel could ignite or explode.
The NHTSA has also announced another recall related to the Chevy Cruze. This recall affects more than 400,000 vehicles. The affected Chevy Cruze vehicles have manufacture dates from October 2, 2009 through May 31, 2012. That is almost three years of defective manufacture of that vehicle model.
This recall relates to the danger of spilled or dripping oil, such as you might experience after an oil change, collecting in the belly pan (engine shield). The engine shield sits near hot engine and exhaust system surfaces. The heat from those sources could cause the collected oil to ignite. The resulting fire could consume both the oil and the shielding, resulting in a dangerous engine compartment fire. A fire in your engine compartment could lead to injury and death among vehicle occupants.
General Motors Corporation has said that it will notify owners of affected vehicles. GM dealers will modify your Chevy Cruze engine shield so that fluid like spilled oil cannot contact the hot shielding. Dealers will also place protective tape on the electronic power steering wire harness. These repairs will be free of charge on affected vehicles. Concerned Chevy Cruze owners can reach GM through the Chevrolet Owners’ Center at 1-866-694-6546.
Note: Not all owners of affected Chevy Cruze vehicles will be currently registered with GM. If your vehicle has changed hands or if your contact information has changed since you bought the vehicle and you did not update it with GM, General Motors might not be able to reach you about the dangerous defect. You should check your Chevy Cruze’s manufacture date and contact the Chevy Owners’ Center with questions you might have. Your Pearland engine defect lawyers mention that your vehicle’s manufacture date can usually be obtained by contacting a deal with the VIN number, make, and model.
Learn more about the other dangerous defect affecting more than 50,000 Chevy Cruze vehicles in our Pearland engine defect lawyers’ news article.
Our Texas car accident lawyers had written previously about the tragic deaths of 28-year-old Jessica Rodriguez and her young daughter, Kaylee Flores, in a March wreck caused by a drunken driver. 26-year-old Christopher Lamar, with two previous convictions for DWI, slammed into the rear of a vehicle parked by the side of I-10 while the driver changed a flat tire.
The mother and daughter were sitting in that vehicle when Lamar struck it with his Jeep. They died from the injuries they received in the crash. Christopher Lamar has now been indicted on two murder counts for their needless deaths. (Source: WOAI, San Antonio News.)
Lawmakers have made some changes to Texas laws in the last few years in an attempt to curb the persistent problem of drunken driving in Texas and the many accident injuries and fatalities it causes. Under the tougher Texas laws, a person with two or more previous DWI convictions receives a felony charge if caught driving drunk again. If that person with the two previous DWI convictions causes a fatal accident while driving drunk, our Texas car accident lawyers caution that the felony charge can be upgraded to a felony murder charge.
Murder is normally a crime of intent. A person who chooses to drive drunk after having received punishment for the DWI crime on two previous occasions could be assumed to have made the choice to risk causing harm to others. Certainly the previously convicted drunken driver proceeds with wanton and willful disregard for the safety of himself and others.
Modern society has become more and more complex as the population has grown and increasingly urban cultures have brought us all into closer and more frequent proximity than ever before. Crimes that society was once willing to overlook are no longer acceptable risks.
Our Texas car accident lawyers feel that the tougher Texas DWI laws are a necessary step towards ensuring a safer living environment for everyone. Take heed of the potential punishments that await the drunken driver. Choose not to drink and drive. And don’t let family and friends get behind the wheel when they’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Make the responsible choice.
Andreaka Bell, 18, died in August 2011 in a fatal Deer Park crash when her friend, driving the vehicle in which she rode, lost control, hit a curb, and crashed. The force of the impact ejected Ms. Bell from the vehicle. Like about 75% of vehicle occupants who suffer ejection in a wreck, Ms. Bell dies from her injuries.
Our Deer Park accident lawyers point out that 10 months later her surviving family members are still asking why it happened. They found that the investigating officer, specially trained in accident reconstruction, did not complete the accident investigation of the wreck that killed Andreaka Bell. It’s not clear why he didn’t finish, and the officer has been suspended pending some answers.
Police admit fault in the matter, and have resumed investigation of the accident. But no blood alcohol test was conducted on the underage driver of the vehicle that crashed. And witnesses reportedly had said she had been drinking prior to the accident.
Convictions on DWI and related charges could be obtained on the basis of witness testimony and contemporaneous observations of objective signs of alcohol intoxication by officers. But blood alcohol content (BAC) test results that show a BAC of 0.08% or more are even more convincing and more objective. No accident reinvestigation can go back and obtain BAC test results when no test was taken near the time of the accident.
Unfortunately, the situation faced by the Bell family demonstrates why people who have suffered an injury accident or lost a loved one to an accident should hire an experienced Deer Park accident lawyer right away. A qualified lawyer could launch a separate investigation and also stay on top of a police investigation in order to ensure that necessary evidence is obtained and secured.
Don’t let an accident that changed your family’s life get lost between the cracks in a botched official investigation. Contact the experienced Deer Park accident lawyers at Denena & Points when your family’s future and peace of mind are on the line. Your initial consultation/case evaluation is free. And it could help answer your pressing questions regarding your rights, legal options, and effective strategies for seeking redress and financial compensation for the harm you’ve needlessly suffered. Call today: 877-307-9500 (toll free), or use our convenient online contact features to schedule your free appointment.
(Source: KTRK, abc13.com, Jessica Willey, 6/22/2012)
A study conducted through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) took an in-depth look at the relationship between the width of a highway’s median and the number and severity of accidents occurring on the highway. The study came at a time when in many cases median width on new highways was being reduced or eliminated to alleviate right-of-way costs and challenges. And median width on existing highways was being appropriated to create additional travel lanes to improve traffic capacity and flow.
Reduced highway safety was associated with reduced median width. A premise behind the study was that it is more cost-effective to build highways correctly in the first place than to have to go back and correct a safety deficiency caused by initial, misguided attempts to minimize cost. In effect, once the cost of the safety correction is factored in, the highway built around cost-effective concerns becomes more expensive that the highway built around safety concerns.
The study found that the total accident rate declined steadily as median width increased from 0 feet to 110 feet. The rate of multi-vehicle accidents declines steadily, while the rate of single vehicle crashes showed no significant change. The rate of decline ranged from a factor of 6 to a factor of 15 in differing locations. Until the median width reached 30 feet, the rate of decline remained fairly small. This suggested that medians should be at least 30 feet in width to enhance motorists’ safety. Around 70 feet in median width, the rate of decline flattened out.
This FHWA study and its results bolster the results of other studies regarding the dangers of head-on crashes on rural highways divided by just a painted centerline. Rumble strips and other safety features have been tested as a means of preventing these crashes, with varying degrees of success, as a means of reducing the crash rates on these highways. The FHWA study reveals that the best solution probably remains a median of substantial width to give drivers in peril more space to recover and avoid a crash. But budgetary and right-of-way considerations may continue to take precedence over the finer points of safety in some areas.
Should you be injured in a highway accident and in need of experienced legal counsel to help you understand your rights and options for obtaining fair recompense for your harm, contact our Katy, TX highway accident lawyers for a free and confidential consultation. We could help you identify the parties at fault for causing your accidents, and your available strategies for seeking just financial compensation from them for your losses. Call us today, or use our online contact features to schedule your free consultation/case evaluation.
Source: http://www.hsisinfo.org/pdf/rd93-046/rd93-046.htm, Summary Report FHWA RD-93-046, The Association Of Median Width And Highway Accident Rate
Texas truck driver Jim Harville of Waskom, 56 years old, died Wednesday in a tragic head on truck crash caused by a Louisiana trucker’s reckless driving. Sheriff’s deputies cited Larry D. Gatson II of Shreveport for reckless driving and following too closely. (Source: Associated Press, 6/21/2012.)
Larry Gatson, driving for Frac Tech International Services in a convoy trucking oil field equipment, rear-ended the company’s tractor-trailer ahead of him. That crash caused the truck ahead of Gatson to veer into the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 79 and impact head on with Mr. Harville’s rig. Larry Gatson received serious injuries from the truck crash caused by negligent, reckless driving. But it was Mr. Harville who paid the ultimate price.
A tractor-trailer in motion has tremendous momentum and requires some distance to stop. The faster the truck’s speed, the more space needs to be maintained between the truck and the vehicle ahead of it in order for the truck to be able to avoid a rear-impact crash in the event it needs to stop or slow suddenly.
Responsible truckers know to always keep a safe distance between themselves and the vehicles ahead of them, to observe a safe speed in relation to traffic, and to keep their attention on the road in case drivers ahead of them slow or stop suddenly.
As this tractor-trailer collision on U.S. Highway 79 reveals, a rear-impact crash can cause the driver of the impacted vehicle to lose control and the vehicle to veer off course. A moment of recklessness or inattention in the following driver can injure not just the drivers and occupants of those two vehicles, but other innocent parties as well.
You could help protect yourself from injury by maintaining safe speeds on the road, avoiding distractions while behind the wheel, and following the vehicles ahead of you at safe distances. For passenger cars, the traditional rule is to add one car length of distance for each additional 10 mph you add to your speed. Of course, maintaining a safe gap between vehicles is not always possible in heavy traffic. Other rushed drivers will just jump into the gap you create. But in those situations, it’s more important than ever to keep your focus and reduce your speed.
To learn what you could do to protect your rights and interests in the event you suffer injury in a truck collision, feel free to download our book on the essential steps you need to take to make a successful truck accident claim. The book is available free on this web page for your convenience. Just click and download.