Posted on February 05, 2013 in Uncategorized

A report on KCBD News offered details about new lawsuits and new proposed laws as a result of train accident in Midland last illed-11-that four veterans and injured several others. The tragedy occurred when a parade float carrying wounded veterans and their wives was moving across railroad tracks and the crossing gates suddenly came down. A freight train came speeding out of nowhere and slammed into the float.

There are now almost two dozen victims who are involved in the lawsuit that was filed against the railroad, Union Pacific and Smith Industries, the company who provided the truck and driver the float was being driven by. According to the lawsuit, some of the victims who were injured in the crash suffered injuries resulting in amputations, paralysis and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Union Pacific has in turn filed lawsuits against Smith Industries. They also are preparing to file suits against Midland County, the City of Midland and the parade event organizers as responsible third parties.

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 Posted on February 02, 2013 in Uncategorized

Connie Spears’ leg was amputated unnecessarily because ER doctors first sent her home from the hospital with extensive tissue damage and a severe blood clot, even after she told them of her history with blood clots. After being turned down by many lawyers to take her case because of the “tort reform” in Texas made the negligence laws more anti-patient, she found a lawyer who couldn’t turn her down.

Although her luck appeared to have turned upward, the case soon fell apart because of the new expert-witness rules. Spears had to prove the ER doctors were “willful and wanton” in their negligence, but she also had to find “a practicing physician in the same specialty as the defendant to serve as an expert witness” to say it. To top it off, if she “fails to produce adequate reports within 120 days of filing their cases, she is liable for defendants’ legal fees.” The New York Times wrote, “With her retirement savings tapped and her husband out of work, she is afraid they will lose their home.”

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 Posted on January 31, 2013 in Uncategorized

The Houston Chronicle has reported that the driver of a Sky Express bus involved in a deadly crash in May 2011 will be spending the next six years in prison after being sentenced to 40 years with 34 years suspended for his conviction. Kin Yiu Cheung was convicted last our-11-of counts of involuntary manslaughter in the crash that killed four people and injured dozens more. The bus had departed from Greensboro, N.C., and was on its way to New York when the accident occurred on Interstate 95, about 30 miles outside of Richmond, VA.

Passengers had testified at Cheung’s trial that they overheard him on his cell phone, complaining that he had no turnaround time to rest between bus trips. There was also witness testimony about the defendant’s behavior leading up to the crash, describing how he was drinking coffee and energy drinks and driving the bus erratically on the highway. He then fell asleep while still driving the bus. The vehicle swerved off the highway, hit an embankment and overturned. A state trooper had testified at trial that when she asked the defendant if he had fallen asleep while driving, he nodded.

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 Posted on January 29, 2013 in Uncategorized

Royce Reid, 50, from Texas felt the joy of feeling his wife’s hand in his once again after an unfortunate workplace injury.

In August 2011, Reid’s left arm was severed from his body in Gilmer, Texas while at work. It took hours to get Reid from a Longview hospital to Parkland in Dallas, in which time he nearly bled to death. Along with the fear of death, the more blood that Reid lost, the less likely he was to have his arm successfully reattached.

From the time that Reid’s arm was severed to the time at which he met Dr. Bardia Amirlak, a UT Southwestern plastic surgeon on-call for the hand transplant team, was seven hours. To make it possible for Dr. Amirlak to restore oxygen to Reid’s severed arm, he had to transfuse blood directly from the patient’s left leg.

Dr. Amirlak had never tried or even read about the experimental procedure, he had only heard of it. He was aware that is was a big risk and certainly a long shot.

The tedious surgery that reattached Reid’s amputated limb took 18 hours to complete.

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 Posted on January 24, 2013 in Uncategorized

What happens when there is a school bus accident but the driver is unable to report it? That’s the scenario that played out in a drill, simulating a collision between a school bus carrying students and another vehicle, which was recently held in Batavia, IL. The mock crash was a coordinated effort between Illinois Central School Bus, Batavia Public Schools and the Batavia fire and police departments. Students participated as “victims” and the bus driver played an “unconscious victim”. In an interview with School Transportation News, superintendent for Batavia Public Schools Dr. Jack Barshinger explained the drill was held in order to proactively test and evaluate the emergency response systems “to ensure that each agency is fully prepared to respond and execute systems in the event of a real crisis.” Dawn O’Connell, Illinois Central’s contract manager, told the publication that the biggest lesson learned from the drill was what process needed to be put into place if the driver is unable to call in and report an accident. “We have reinforced with our bus evacuation team that the older students need to be instructed what to do if the driver is not responsive, such as utilizing the bus radio, their cell phones to call 911, etc.” O’Connell said if a crash occurs during midday, the company will utilize any buses closest to district schools to respond versus waiting the twenty minutes it may take for a bus to come from base. The company operates 104 buses to transport nearly 4,000 students each day for Batavia and surrounding schools. Also participating in the drill were the Tri-Com Central Dispatch and Southern Fox Valley and Central DuPage Emergency Medical Services System. Drills such as this one help to ensure that everyone knows what to do in an accident situation. If your child has been injured in an accident caused by the reckless actions of another driver, contact an experienced Illinois attorney to find out what compensation your family may be entitled to for pain and loss.

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 Posted on January 21, 2013 in Uncategorized

This next piece of news could be considered old news, but in personal injury terms, this is a perfect example of where people get injured. The story is about a highway-pileup crash in Southeast Texas. Two people were killed in the crash, and more than 80 were hurt. The Huffington Post reported a story on this accident.

A collision involving at least 140 vehicles killed 2 and hurt more than 80, causing the I-10 to be shut down at the crash site for 8 hours. The collision happened when conditions were extremely foggy on Thanksgiving Day.

The massive pileup left trucks twisted on top of each other, and a man and a woman were killed in a Chevy Suburban when a tractor trailer crushed the vehicle, the Texas Department of Public Safety informed KFDM-TV.

According to Jefferson County sheriff’s Deputy Rod Carroll, 80 to 90 people were taken to hospitals, and 10 to 12 of these people were in serious to critical condition. Carroll said a total of 140 to 150 vehicles were involved.

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 Posted on January 18, 2013 in Uncategorized

When people get old, they sometimes need constant care to be able to lead their lives. This is when nursing homes come into play, but sometimes issues arise with the care provided by the nursing homes. Nursing home negligence is one of the issues handled by personal injury attorneys, so here is an example of what a nursing home negligence case might involve. Setexasrecord.com reported a story on this particular case. A lawsuit was filed on behalf of Denzil Weaver after a nursing home allegedly forgot to administer medication to weaver twice, which lead to hospitalization on both occasions. Kandace Harris filed suit against the company running the Jefferson Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Windsor N.H.R. Partnetrs of Beaumont. Weaver was admitted to Jefferson Nursing for rehabilitation after a total knee replacement, and her doctor had prescribed medication to prevent blood clots. The center failed to administer the drug, which led to Weaver’s hospitalization. When Weaver returned to Jefferson Nursing from her hospitalization, the same thing happened again, according to the suit. Jefferson Nursing is accused of negligence for falling below the standard of care and of the failure to correctly administer the medication. If you or a loved suffer a personal injury, and someone else is the reason for this injury, you might be eligible for compensation. Whether this injury occurs in a traffic accident or is a result of nursing home negligence or a defective product, you should contact an experienced personal injury attorney in your area. Contact our offices for a consultation with our New Braunfels, Texas personal injury attorneys.

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 Posted on January 15, 2013 in Uncategorized

A night out at a bar just north of downtown San Antonio nearly turned deadly in early January, according to KSAT.com News. Two suspects fired nearly 16 shots behind Bar Central, and officers said that it was a fight inside the bar that led to the shootings. According to KSAT, “an officer was parked across the street to keep an eye on the bar, which police said has had problems with violence in the past, when he heard shots.” Five people were taken in for questioning following the incident, and police told KSAT that they believe they have the perpetrators in custody.

No charges have been filed as of yet, and police hadn’t announced what the charges would be. No one was killed in the shootings, but one person was “grazed by a bullet and treated at the scene.” The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that “scientists and nonscientists alike have long recognized a two-way association between alcohol consumption and violent or aggressive behavior.” The institute reports that studies show that 37 percent of all assault offenders acted when under the influence of alcohol, and that 42 percent of violent crimes reported to police involved alcohol.

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 Posted on January 12, 2013 in Uncategorized

A 65-year-old woman suffered injuries after allegedly being assaulted by her nephew in New Braunfels in early January, according to KGNB News Radio. The incident happened in the evening on a Thursday night, “when several family members inside a home were involved in a disturbance that at one point turned physical,” the radio reports. When officers arrived at the scene, they found the woman with injuries to her face and back “that officers say were consistent with having been assaulted.”

Her nephew, 35-year-old Jim Gomez was arrested and “booked into the Comal County jail on a third-degree felony charge of injury to an elderly person and a Class A misdemeanor charge of interference with an emergency call,” according to KGNB. Gomez posted bail just a few days after being booked and was released. The trial is pending.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), “every year an estimated 4 million older Americans are victims of physical, psychological or other forms of abuse and neglect.” Like other forms of domestic abuse, most perpetrators of elderly abuse are relatives or trusted household members, according to the APA. Most elder abuse occurs at home, not an institutional settings, though there are some highly-sensationalized news stories every year of elders being abused at nursing hoes and the like. The APA reports that 95 percent of older people live in a non-institutional setting, and that many live with family members or paid in-home caregivers.

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 Posted on January 09, 2013 in Uncategorized

More than 30,000 XTS motorcycle helmets are being recalled because they may not meet crash protection safety standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tested the helmets and concluded that people using the helmets may not be adequately protected in a crash after some of the helmets failed testing.

The manufacturer, Vega Helmet Corp based in Tukwila, Wash., said it will replace the recalled helmets. The helmets being recalled are the XTS model’s large, extra-large and extra-extra- large (XXL) that were made between May 2011 and last October. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the recall affects 30,546 helmets.

When notified by the NHTSA of the failed testing, Vega investigated and found that part of the problem was a result of changes in the helmet’s shell design. In a report by the Associated Press, the company has stated through legal counsel that because they don’t know how many helmets failed to meet the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard, they are recalling all of them.

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