Texas Motorcycle Insurance Tips | Houston Accident Lawyer – Attorney
No one expects to be injured in a motorcycle accident Texas, but dangerous wrecks happen all the time. In over 96 percent of all crashes, the rider involved sustains some sort of injury. Many of these injuries are serious or even life threatening in nature.
For health and property reasons alone, motorcycle insurance is a must for all riders. However, if you or a family member has ever tried to actually purchase motorcycle insurance, you know that the process can be dizzying.
The important thing you have to remember when buying motorcycle insurance is that not all policies are alike. Your task is to find the one that works best for your needs.
Just like everything else, you get what you pay for when it comes to motorcycle insurance. Don’t just buy the cheapest policy you can find – you may end up regretting it later.
There are numerous personal factors that help determine your insurance quote. These can include your age, where you live, your driving history, past claims, value of your motorcycle and your gender and marital status.
Another factor is the type of coverage you want. Everyone is required to carry coverage that protects them against injuries and others against injuries and property damage. But you can also choose to add coverage that protects your own property in a wreck, depending on the value of your bike.
You can also choose to carry uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, which protects you if you are in a wreck with an uninsured person who does not have the money to cover your costs. These choices, along with the amount of your deductible, will combine to determine the price of your policy.
If you or a loved one has sustained a Houston motorcycle injury in a wreck with a negligent driver, and you want to know what is and is not covered under insurance, call us at (877) 307-9500. We may be able to help you file a personal injury claim and recover the financial compensation you deserve.
You can also download our FREE Houston motorcycle accident book for more information about your legal rights.
Side Curtain Airbags could protect you in a Rollover Crash
Side curtain airbags are designed to deploy when your vehicle detects an imminent rollover crash. The NHTSA mentions that your car’s rollover sensing system might trigger the response when the roll angle is quite small and the tires are all still in contact with the ground. The Houston rollover injury lawyers at Denena Points, PC note that these airbags typically deploy in conjunction with safety belt retractors that are designed to remove any slack from your seatbelt restraints and to hold you more securely in your seat.
The side impact airbags to protect your head generally deploy downward, like a curtain dropping, from an overhead roof rail by the side windows. Because those side curtain airbags exist to protect you in the event of a rollover, they’re also designed to stay inflated longer than other airbags, so that they’re still in place to cushion your head as the vehicle rolls and you get thrown towards the side or roof of the vehicle.
The other advantage of these airbags is that they can, especially when you’re wearing your seatbelt, help prevent you from being thrown out of the vehicle as it rolls. Our Houston rollover injury lawyers caution that vehicle ejection is the source of most severe injuries and deaths from rollover wrecks. People ejected from their vehicles during crashes suffer fatal injuries about 75% of the time, so safety devices that help you remain inside the protection of your car or light truck during a wreck provide a distinct benefit.
But not all side impact airbags to protect your head are designed as rollover protection. Some are designed more with T-bone and sideswipe crashes in mind. These airbags would usually already have deflated again by the time you hit the worst part of a rollover. So when you’re considering buying a vehicle, our Houston rollover injury lawyers urge you to find out what type of airbags you have and what they’re designed to do. You could check with dealers and automakers to find out which of their products offer side curtain airbags that will deploy as rollover airbags.
Learn more about what you can do in the event of a serious wreck: download our free report.
60% of U.S. Side Impact Collisions lead to Traumatic Brain Injuries
Side impact, or T-bone, collisions cause more injuries and fatalities than other types of vehicle wrecks because the side “crush zones” are smaller than the front and rear crush zones. Crush zones are the areas between the outside of your vehicle and the inside of the passenger compartment. Vehicle designers generally try to extend the crush zones where they can because it lengthens your ride-down time in a crash, which reduces your chances of severe injury or death.
Because of the smaller side crush zones, T-bone crashes are 3 times more likely to cause traumatic brain injuries than other types of wrecks. The Pearland car accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC emphasize that approximately 60% of victims injured in side impact crashes receive traumatic brain injuries. And the severity of high-speed side impact crashes also frequently results in broken bones, spinal injuries, and paralysis. Around 10,000 people die in side impact crashes each year in the United States. This number represents about one third of all fatal U.S. road accidents annually.
Safety advocates praise side airbags for their effectiveness in preventing injuries and deaths in side impact collisions and in rollover wrecks. During a rollover, side airbags can help keep the occupants inside their vehicle, which reduces their risk of vehicle ejection and death. Our Pearland car accident attorneys note that about 75% of vehicle ejections during a crash end in fatal injury.
But standard airbag design doesn’t fully protect everyone. Standard airbag designs don’t always protect: children, senior citizens in “out of position” postures due to pain or medical conditions, and adults less than 5 feet tall or weighing 100 pounds or less. And sometimes vehicle defects, like one that just led to a major GM recall, mean that airbags won’t deploy at all, increasing your risks in a wreck.
Side impact crashes are frequent at intersections and might be caused by a driver who’s run a red light or a stop sign, or by a drunken or distracted driver. The negligent driver often is speeding as well, which adds to the severity of the T-bone collision.
If a negligent driver has hurt you or someone that you know in a side impact collision, you may be able to claim financial compensation for your injuries and the needless harm you’ve suffered. Contact the Board Certified Pearland car accident attorneys at Denena Points, PC to learn how.
Our experienced Pearland car accident attorneys offer a free, no obligation initial legal consultation to evaluate your case and answer the pressing questions you may have. Call us today at 713-807-9500 or just fill out our simple online contact form to schedule your free consultation and begin the process of financial recovery after a serious accident.
Fatal Single Vehicle Accidents in Houston and Their Causes
When we think about car accidents and how to avoid them we usually have in mind the possibility of a crash with another vehicle. But our Board Certified Houston car accident injury attorneys point out that around one third of all wrecks, and one half of fatalities, might involve only a single vehicle.
An NHTSA extract from the U.S. FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) data shows that in 2012, Texas had 3,398 traffic fatalities. 1,880 of those deaths, or more than half, occurred in single vehicle accidents. Another NHTSA report discusses the large proportion of single-vehicle accident fatalities caused by running off the road and crashing. Some of the most common factors found to be behind these wrecks were: speeding, driver fatigue, DWI, adverse weather, and curves in the road. (Factors Related to Fatal Single-Vehicle Run-Off-Road Crashes, NHTSA, November 2009)
Another study by the NHTSA of crash causes focused on 5,471 wrecks nationwide. Of those accidents, 1,444, or 30.8%, were single-vehicle crashes. The factors behind these wrecks included distracted driving and poor driver decision-making. (National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey, Report to Congress, NHTSA, July 2008)
A Houston Chronicle report noted that in just one night, four people died in single-vehicle accidents in the Houston area alone. (Dale Lezon, Houston Chronicle, 2/14/14) One man hit a curb on his motorcycle and was fatally ejected from the bike. Another driver lost control of a vehicle at high speed while driving over some railroad tracks. Both he and his passenger were killed when they crashed into a concrete culvert. And another man died when he suddenly veered from the road and landed in a ditch. Investigators speculated that a medical condition might have led the man to go off the road. Our deepest sympathies are with the families and friends of the four victims of these tragic single-vehicle wrecks.
Some single-vehicle accidents are caused by inherent defects in the car. And if you’re injured or your loved one dies because of that flaw, our Board Certified Houston car accident injury attorneys note that you have recourse against the manufacturer in a lawsuit.
But as the NHTSA reports and the four overnight accidents around Houston reveal, many single-vehicle accidents result from driver error, driver impairment, speeding, medical conditions, road design, or weather conditions. If you’re injured in a wreck resulting from these factors and you were the driver, it might be tougher to hold someone else financially liable for your injuries.
Learn How to Protect Your Rights and Maximize Your Chances for Fair Compensation after a Crash Injury: Contact the Board Certified Houston Car Accident Injury Attorneys at Denena Points, PC
We offer a FREE, no obligation initial legal consultation to discuss the facts of your case and evaluate your potential eligibility for a full financial recovery. Call us at 713-807-9500 or fill out our online contact form to schedule your free consultation. Put our more than 12 years of experience successfully resolving complex personal injury and wrongful deaths cases to work for your family’s benefit.
3 Ways that Walls can Collapse
- Curtain fall: Our wall collapse injury attorneys mention that this is just what it sounds like. The wall comes straight down like a curtain dropping in a theater. The fall leaves a mass of debris at the base of where the wall stood. The debris can fall either inward or outward.
- 90-degree angle fall: This is when the wall drops away from the building at a 90-degree angle and falls in a footprint the full height of the wall, similar to how a tree falls. When the wall hits the ground, the impact can throw out a shower of debris. And a single brick can weigh 6 pounds, so you don’t want to be in range of the debris shower.
- Inward or outward collapse: This sort of fall occurs when the wall begins to lean either inward or outward. The tilt at the top of the wall will generally force the lower part of the wall in the opposite direction.
The 90-degree angle fall generally represents the worst-case scenario as it hurls debris to a greater distance, which can potentially injure a larger number of people. So firefighters and other authorities creating a collapse zone around a building they believe might fall usually plan for the worst case and make the zone one and one half times the height of the building. (Captain Homer Robertson, FireRescue, February 2011)
The wall collapse injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC emphasize that it’s important to know about the dangers of falling walls and buildings as weather conditions this winter have been causing an unusual number of roof cave-ins and building collapses. Click the link to learn about some of the signs that a structure might be in imminent danger of collapse.
Atlanta DAR Collapse Reiterates what can Happen to Adjacent Buildings
The building collapse attorneys at Denena Points, PC emphasize that when a building collapses either partially or completely like the DAR house in Atlanta, it’s not just the people inside that structure that are in danger. It’s also people in adjacent buildings and in the “collapse zone” area around the building. A collapse zone is generally as wide as one and one-half times the height of the building.
On Wednesday night in midtown Atlanta, Georgia, the house belonging to the DAR (Daughters of the Revolution) collapsed. Authorities indicated that the weight of the ice and snow piled on the building by the recent crippling winter storm might have been the cause of the structural failure.
The DAR house was an historic structure, built in 1911. It stood proudly on Piedmont Avenue across from Piedmont Park. The owner of the collapsed DAR structure mentioned that he would like to save at least the historic façade. Firefighters stated that the rest of the remaining structure would probably have to be torn down.
Our building collapse attorneys note that no one was inside the DAR building when it collapsed. But the effects of the collapse also damaged the duplex next door and trapped a person there who had to be extracted from the debris. (News 11alive.com, 2/13/14)
High-Profile Example of a Building Collapse Crushing an Adjacent Structure
You might remember that when a four-story building undergoing demolition collapsed in Center City, Philadelphia last summer, it wasn’t the work crew in that building who were harmed by the structure’s sudden fall. It was the group of shoppers and employees inside the one-story Salvation Army store next door who suffered the worst effects of that collapse. 6 were killed and 14 were injured. Of the survivors, one woman lost both her legs.
The deadly toll resulted from the huge mass of debris from a 4-story brick wall suddenly raining through the roof of the one-story thrift shop. When buildings topple or buckle, their mass often falls outward onto other buildings or onto nearby cars and people. The problems with predicting the direction of a fall, or which part will weaken and topple first, present great risks to firefighters responding to building fires or explosions.
Indeed today in Dallas, Texas, firefighters were on a ladder fighting a 4-alarm blaze at the Stone Ranch Apartments when a sudden flare of smoke and flame forced them back down to the ground. The blaze spread quickly, and firefighters were called back out of the building due to the potential danger of structural collapse. The fire, possibly caused by a candle left to burn too long, ultimately consumed two entire apartment buildings and displaced at least 90 residents.
Collapse sequence unpredictability is why good demolition companies will, when the nature of the building permits it, make careful preparations in order to bring large buildings down all at once and within their own footprint. But some buildings, older historic structures and severely weakened structures for instance, often have o be brought down by hand, brick by brick.
This type of demolition is what the 4-story brick structure in Center City required. But that wasn’t what happened. Instead a hasty demolition using heavy equipment and inadequate safety precautions was done. And before the collapse, our building collapse attorneys reiterate that a contractor had done the unthinkable: he had removed key support members for the structure in order to re-sell them, endangering everyone who might come near that building
Attaching a Child’s Car Seat using a LATCH System in Your Car
A recent article mentioned that child crash injuries and fatalities had decreased by around 45% over the last 10 to 15 years. Authorities attribute the substantial decline in serious injuries and deaths largely to the increased usage of proper child safety restraint systems like car seats and booster seats.
But many parents still find these essential child safety devices complicated and difficult to install (because they are). If your vehicle has a LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren) system in the car, it is often easier to attach a car seat with the LATCH than to the seat belt system. Our Pearland car accident injury attorneys caution that LATCH systems usually aren’t in place for the middle seating position, so you will need to choose on which side of the vehicle to install the car seat.
The lower anchors on the LATCH system can be used to attach and install the car seat, while the upper tethers improve safety and stability. The upper tethers should always be used when installing forward-facing car seats, even when you’ve also attached the child’s car seat to the seat belt. The Pearland car accident injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC urge you to read the owner’s manual for your vehicle and also the manufacturer’s instructions for the car seat to learn the correct weight limits for upper tethers and lower anchors.
In vehicles with LATCH systems (which includes almost all passenger vehicles manufactured September 2002 or later), the anchors can be found in the back seat at the juncture of the seat cushions. Upper tethers are generally found behind the seat on the panel behind the seat (for sedans) or on the back of the seat, ceiling, or car floor (for SUVs, minivans, and hatchbacks). Child safety seats made in September 2002 or later will have attachments specifically designed to fasten to LATCH anchors.
If you attach your child’s safety seat to the seatbelt, you might need to use a locking clip to keep it in place. Check your vehicle owner’s manual and the manufacturer’s instructions for the car seat to be sure. You may also need to fully extend the seat belt and let it retract to ensure that the belt fits tightly around the car seat. Your car seat might have built in lock offs to lock the seat belt in place.
If you have trouble installing a child safety seat correctly, a trained child passenger safety (CPS) technician could help you. You can find CPS technicians at some car dealerships and at certain auto safety events. And the Internet is always a useful place to start these days when looking for information for your area.
And if you need help after a serious crash injury has harmed you or your child, don’t hesitate to contact the Board Certified Pearland car accident injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC for a free initial legal consultation at 713-807-9500 or by filling out our online contact form. You can get started finding some of the information you need about what to do after the wreck by downloading our free guide at the book icon on this web page.
U.S. NHTSA Proposes New Rule for Enhanced Child Car Seat Safety in Side Impact Crashes
The NHTSA first informed the U.S. Congress in 2004 that better protection of children from side impact collisions was a priority. But little has been done since then to work towards that goal.
Last week, the NHTSA took up the safety banner again, and proposed rules that would require children’s car seats to withstand T-bone collisions of up to 30 mph. Our Houston car accident injury lawyers note that compliance with the new rules is expected to save at least 5 children’s lives each year and spare at least another 65 serious injury.
To test the ability of the car seat to withstand such impacts, manufacturers will have to simulate crashes where the front of a vehicle traveling at 30 mph strikes the side of a vehicle traveling at 15 mph. And the tests are supposed to use 40-pound crash test dummies that simulate the mass of a 3-year-old.
While T-bone collisions aren’t as frequent as frontal impact crashes or rear end wrecks (the most frequent type of accident), side impact crashes actually account for about 1 in 4 collisions. Drivers, especially those who are speeding and/or drunk, run red lights and stop signs with alarming frequency. The Houston car accident injury lawyers at Denena Points, PC realize that it’s usually the vehicle with legal right-of-way that gets T-boned in the intersection.
Manufacturers tend to balk in the face of additional regulations because it adds new costs to the manufacturing and R&D processes, as well as to the final product. But at least one car seat manufacturer, Dorel, has been working on developing enhanced side impact protection since the NHTSA’s alert to Congress in 2004. For example, some of their child safety seats feature air pockets that help cushion a child’s head during a crash, and hexagonal holes in the foam padding to deflect energy from the impact. (Michelle Sokol, The Republic, by way of the Houston Chronicle, 2/7/14)
These new features help extend a child’s “ride-down time” in a wreck. Each fraction of a second of additional ride down time can help reduce the chances of severe injury or death from crash forces.
The comment period for the proposed rule before it gets finalized is 90 days. In another three months, parents and safety advocates will have a better idea of the final rule regarding better child safety seats. Click the link to learn more about how to keep your young child safer in a car seat now.
Negligent Entrustment and Financial Liability after a TX Car Wreck
If a person lets someone else drive their vehicle and that person causes a Houston, TX car wreck and injuries, the person who owned the car could be financially liable for the costs of the accident even if they weren’t in the car at the time. This is called “negligent entrustment.” And our Houston car crash injury attorneys suggest that you should consider its ramifications before entrusting your vehicle to a ne’er do well friend, exuberant teenager, unlicensed driver, or other potential liability issue.
As an example, on Wednesday morning in Houston on W. Bellfort near S, Gessner, a driver entrusted with a vehicle crashed through the window of a blood plasma center in SW Houston. The car owner was waiting there inside to give blood at the time. Apparently the car owner’s friend had taken a trip to the store, returned, and was trying to park the vehicle again in front of the center when she stepped on the accelerator pedal instead of the brake. Two people were hospitalized with injuries from the crash. The car owner/blood donor’s children were in the car at the time and evidently shaken by the experience. (Malini Basu, KHOU, 2/5/14)
The car owner indicated she didn’t leave her friend behind the wheel, and didn’t expect her to drive. Nonetheless, one must consider when entrusting a car and one’s children to an adult, whether properly licensed or not, that the adult may choose to drive.
When you exit a vehicle, take your keys with you. Given that current weather is such that people may not want to wait outside in a car that’s not running, have them wait inside with you. Blood plasma donation centers generally have waiting rooms just for such purpose. And to leave a friend who might choose to drive in one’s car with the keys and one’s children when other alternatives are available could well be considered reckless and an incident of negligent entrustment.
Contact the Houston car crash injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC to learn more about your available legal options and potential eligibility for a full financial recovery of you’ve been injured by a driver negligently entrusted with a vehicle. We’re available at 713-907-9500. Or schedule your free initial legal consultation by filling out our simple online contact form.
Is truck driver fatigue to blame for East Freeway big rig wreck?
Our Houston truck accident injury attorneys have been writing recently about truck driver fatigue. A spate of recent accident and a lawmaker’s call for more stringent oversight have brought the ongoing problem into the public eye once again. And Wednesday’s big rig wreck during the morning commute on the East Freeway shows that the problem endures n Houston, shipping hub of the United States.
The driver of an 18-wheeler lost control of his vehicle on the East Freeway near Gregg. A picture of the accident scene shows the big rig overhanging I-10 while caught up on a guardrail. The nasty wreck slowed morning rush hour traffic to a crawl and sent the truck driver to a hospital with serious injuries. (KTRK abclocal.go.com, 2.5.14)
Last July, a new law took effect that reduced the number of hours that long haul truck drivers could drive per week. If a driver drove 60 hours per 7 days or 70 hours per 8 days, he or she was now required to take 2 consecutive nights’ rest rather than one before getting back behind the wheel.
To those of us who work the more usual 35- to 40-hour workweek, that hardly seems excessive. In fact, it seems almost guaranteed to leave one feeling dazed and sleepless. Yet trucking industry officials decried the new law, claiming it lowered productivity and profits. The Houston truck accident injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC suggest that thee industry officials might consider that the new law probably also lowers financial liabilities for 18-wheeler wrecks caused by truck driver fatigue. We’re fairly certain that these officials do not drive 6 or 70 hours per week.
Serious accidents caused by truck driver fatigue don’t just injure people in smaller passenger vehicles. As this accident clearly reveals, the truck driver himself might be seriously injured or even killed. One of our Board Certified personal injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC used to be a truck driver himself. We know the risks. The trucking industry does not do enough to protect its drivers, and it asks its drivers to risk their lives for the profits of the companies by driving overly long hours.
Contact us if you’re a driver or the family member of a driver who’s been injured in a big rig wreck. We offer an entirely free and confidential initial legal consultation. Call us at 713-807-9500 or reach us anytime through our online contact form. Put our 14 years of successful experience helping injured clients and their families financially recover after serious truck wrecks to work for your benefit. Call us today.