Washington DC Injury Lawyer Blog

Distracted Driving Summit Focusing on Dangers of Texting Opens Today in Washington DC

September 30, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

At the opening of the Distracted Driving Summit, US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that texting while driving has become an “an endemic” and a “menace to society.” Over 300 people are taking part in the conference, including law enforcement officials, lawmakers, and safety experts.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 5,780 people died (16% of all deadly traffic collisions) and 515,000 people sustained injuries in distracted driving accidents last year. Many of these auto crashes are a result of people using cell phones and PDAs.

Distracted driving is reportedly a big problem among young drivers, especially those under age 21. Distracted driving was a factor in 16% of deadly crashes involving drivers in this age group.

Metrobus Driver Who Struck Jogger in Washington DC Pedestrian Accident is Fired

September 25, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Metro says that it fired the bus driver who struck a female jogger during a Washington DC pedestrian accident on September 3. Carla A. Proctor hit Amanda Mahnke while operating an empty bus on Florida Avenue NW. The 30-year-old jogger is Representative Rick Larsen’s communications director. She fractured her skull and sustained several other fractures during the DC Metro bus accident.

Metro cited “failing to follow standard operating procedures” as the reason for Proctor’s dismissal. The September 3 accident, which occurred close to Dupont Circle, is not the first time that the bus driver was involved in a bus crash.

In March 2003, seven motor vehicles and another bus were damaged after Proctor exited the bus to check on a faulty door. The bus accident lawsuits that were filed against Proctor and Metro accused her of neglecting to set the brake properly. This allegedly caused the empty bus to roll down a hill and into an auto, triggering a chain reaction with the other motor vehicles. A Prince George’s County jury awarded three plaintiffs $27,713 in damages. A settlement was reached in another DC bus accident claim over the multi-vehicle crash.

In December 2004, Proctor drove her Metro bus into a parked auto while turning onto Wisconsin Avenue from O Street. A 72-year-old bus passenger sued Metro for Washington DC personal injury. The case was settled in mediation under confidential terms.

In July 2003, Proctor, who was not working at the time, was involved in a motor vehicle crash that resulted in her vehicle driving through the front window of a Wendy’s in Oxon Hill. Two of the restaurant patrons sued her for Maryland personal injury. The case was settled out of court.

Proctor received five traffic tickets in January for operating an uninsured vehicle, not maintaining insurance, not having current tags, and not displaying a registration card upon demand. Charges are also pending against her for a traffic stop in Prince George’s County in 2008.

Metro fires bus driver for hitting jogger, Washington Examiner, September 25, 2009
Metrobus Crash Not The First For Driver, The Washington Post, September 16, 2009
Related Web Resource:
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

Protecting Dementia Patients from Washington DC Nursing Home Neglect

September 21, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

According to the latest figures, over 35 million people in the world are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia. This estimate is about 10% more than what scientists projected several years ago.

One reason for the underestimation was that the increase in Alzheimer’s in developing countries had not been fully evaluated. Now, however, there are enough people in poorer nations living long enough for dementia to kick in. By 2050, the World Alzheimer Report says that some 115.4 million people will be suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Age, diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol can increase the chances that a person may develop Alzheimer’s. In North America, the Alzheimer’s Association of the US says that over 5 million people are suffering from the disease. One in every eight people in the 65 and above age group and almost one in every two people in the over 85 age range has Alzheimer’s.

Powerful YouTube Video Showing How Texting Teen Drivers Can Cause Deadly Car Crashes is Internet Sensation

September 15, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A powerful video excerpt (see below) showing the worst consequences that can arise when someone is texting while driving has become a viral hit on the Internet. The four-minute footage, shot in Wales, is intended to show teens why they shouldn’t text and drive at the same.

The footage has caught the attention of more than Welsh school kids and has been viewed online more than six million times. The video shows a teen driver texting while riding in a vehicle with two friends. Because she is engaging in distracted driving, her car moves into oncoming traffic.

What happens next is extremely disturbing to see. The footage shows harsh, close-up details, including one girl’s head crashing into a car window and a lifeless baby with eyes wide open sitting in one of the vehicles involved in the deadly multi-vehicle car accident.

Grounds for Washington DC Premises Liability Lawsuits?: Georgetown University Students Victimized in Series of Sexual Assault Crimes

September 7, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In the last 18 months, at least 11 sexual assault crimes following a similar pattern have occurred in and around the Georgetown University campus. The sexual assault incidents generally involve an assailant entering through a female student’s unlocked window or door while she is asleep, getting into her bed, and groping her until she wakes up, screams, and the attacker runs off.

However, although the sexual assaults are following this pattern, the victims’ assailants do not appear to be the same person. White male, Middle Eastern male, and Hispanic male, short, tall, choppy, thin, and muscular build are among the descriptions that the women have given. The assailants also appear to belong to different age ranges.

Just last week, the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic school year, one student was sexually assaulted in her Georgetwon dorm room in Village A when her assailant entered her residence at around 4:30am last Tuesday.

NTSB Wants Tougher Rules Imposed on Emergency Medical Helicopter Operators

September 1, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In an attempt to improve safety and decrease the number of emergency medical hospital accidents, the National Transportation Safety Board is calling on the federal government to come up with tougher rules that emergency helicopter operators would need to abide by. Recommendations include requiring flight data recorders, night-vision systems, and autopilots on the aircrafts. The NTSB also is calling on the Health and Human Services Department to mandate that emergency helicopter operators fulfill certain safety standards before being given Medicare payments for medical flights.

Between December 2007 and October 2008, 35 people died in nine aviation accidents involving emergency medical helicopters. Since then, there have been three emergency medical accidents although, fortunately, no one has died. In the last two decades, at least 150 people have died in over 200 EMS helicopter crashes.

There has been a greater than 80% increase in the number of emergency medical helicopters in the US in the past 10 years and there are some 750 medical service helicopters in operation today. Yet these helicopters aren’t required to contain the same basic safety features that commercial planes must carry. EMS Pilots don’t have a lot of time to prepare for rescue flights and often they have to land in places that aren’t designed for aircraft landings. They may even have to avoid hitting trees, power lines, buildings, homes, and people.

Family Files $25 Million Washington DC Train Accident Lawsuit for Wrongful Death in Metro Crash

August 28, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

The family of Cameron Williams, one of the nine people killed in the June 22 Red Line train accident that is being called the worst wreck in the Metro’s history, has filed a Washington DC wrongful death lawsuit for $25 million. Their DC train crash complaint is accusing Metro of negligence and of failing to take the reasonable precautions to prevent the crash from happening.

Williams’s family is also suing Alstom Signaling Company, which is responsible for the circuit that failed to slow or stop the train so that the deadly collision wouldn’t happen. Depending on the National Transportation Safety Board’s findings once it concludes its crash probe, other defendants may be added to the DC train accident lawsuit.

The deadly collision occurred during rush hour close to the Fort Totten stop when one train crashed on top of another train. At least seventy people were transported to local hospitals.

Rise in Washington DC Motorcycle Deaths for 2009 is Expected

August 24, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 38 motorcyclists died in the District and the nearby jurisdictions in 2008. Now, according to Peter Horst of the American Motorcyclist Association, this figure is expected to grow for 2009.

Just this month, three motorcyclists were killed within a 36-hour period in traffic collisions involving other vehicles. With the economy being as bad as it is, motorcycle sales may have gone down, but riders who already have their bikes have been hitting the roads on them in an effort to save money on gas.

In 2008, the number of injuries and deaths for every motor vehicle category dropped—except for in the US motorcycle accident category, that is. Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland may have stayed counter to that trend last year—but as our DC accident lawyers reported earlier in this blog post, the figures this year are expected to be different.

Lawmakers in Washington DC Push to Ban Text Messaging While Driving

August 21, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In Washington DC, a group of US Senators have introduced a bill that would mandate that all states develop laws that ban text messaging while driving—or face losing 25% of the federal highway funding doled out each year. The legislation gives states two years to write their own laws and establish deadlines.

The District of Columbia already has a ban on texting and using handheld cell phones while driving. At least 13 US states also have a texting while driving ban in place.

For some time now, people in DC and the rest of the United States have known that texting while driving is dangerous and increases the chances that a motorist will become involved in a District of Columbia motor vehicle crash. Drivers who are texting are not looking at the road. They are distracted because they are busy reading/sending/composing text messages. Also, in order to text while driving, a motorist must usually take at least one hand off the steering wheel.

The need to ban motorists from texting on the road became even more apparent last month, however, after findings from a study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute reported that texting increased a truck driver’s chances of becoming involved in a truck accident by 23 times. The study also noted that right before near collisions or truck collisions involving texting drivers did happen, the trucker had spent almost 5 seconds glancing at the phone or PDA device. In that length of time, a motor vehicle traveling at highway speed can travel the entire length of a football field, passing a myriad of cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles along the way.

The federal government plans to hold a “distracted driving summit” in September so that academics, safety experts, police, elected officials, and others can discuss the bad habit that distracted driving has become.

There are far too many US traffic accidents occurring because a driver was texting or talking on a cell phone. People are dying, sustaining spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and other catastrophic injuries because a motorist couldn’t wait to make that call or check an incoming message.

Federal Agency Plans Distracted Driving Forum, NY Times, August 4, 2009
Bill Seeks to Ban Texting By Drivers, The Washington Post, July 30, 2009
In Study, Texting Lifts Crash Risk by Large Margin, NY Times, July 27, 2009
Related Web Resources:
Cell Phone Driving Laws, Governors Highway Safety Association, August 2009
S.1536 – Avoiding Life-Endangering and Reckless Texting by Drivers Act of 2009, Open Congress, July 29, 2009

Some Washington DC Injury Accidents Are Caused by Older Drivers Who Binge Drink

August 18, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Duke University researchers, along with the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, say that there are older adults who binge drink. While binge drinking is commonly associated with young adults and college students who drink too much to the point of inebriation, this latest research says that 9% of females and 22% of males between the ages of 50 and 64 have engaged in binging drink. The research, published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, comes from a survey conducted in 2005 and 2006 of 11,000 women and men.

13% of the woman and 19% of the men also reportedly had at least two drinks a day—a quantity that the American Geriatric Society considers “at risk” drinking for older adults, who don’t metabolize alcohol as fast as younger people and may be taking medication or be more prone to health problems that alcohol consumption can exacerbate.

Regardless of a person’s age, binge drinking—especially when done regularly, can lead to neurological injuries, alcohol poisoning, liver disease, and other injuries. It also can lead to Washington DC car accidents, truck collisions, motorcycle injuries, bicycle accidents, and pedestrian deaths if the person gets behind the wheel of a motor vehicle after binge drinking.

Beginning Friday, law enforcement officials in Washington DC will take part in a nearly 3-week long, nationwide, drunk driving crackdown. The campaign, called Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest. will run through Labor Day.

In 2007, almost 13,000 people were killed in drunk driving crashes in the US because a driver or motorcyclist had a blood alcohol concentration of at least .08%. In 2008, there were nearly 12,000 DUI deaths.

Driving while drunk impairs a driver’s balance, eyesight, reaction time, and hearing. A drunken motorist whose judgment, self-control, and ability to sense danger are affected may not be able to realize that he or she is about to collide with another vehicle or pedestrian or is driving too fast or at a dangerously slow speed.

Drunk driving is negligent driving and can be grounds for a Washington DC wrongful death lawsuit or personal injury case.

Older people, too, knock back 5 drinks at a time, USA Today, August 17, 2009
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Kicks Off Nationwide Enforcement Crackdown on Impaired Driving, NHTSA, August 19, 2009
Related Web Resources:

American Journal of Psychiatry

How Alcohol Can Affect Safe Driving Skills (PDF)

National Survey on Drug Use and Health