Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog

About 11:15 a.m. Saturday, a Toyota Avalon ran a stop sign, crashed through a fence and bounced off a tree before landing upside down in a pond outside a Southlake home. Two people were pronounced dead while being transported to hospitals, and two passengers died early Sunday morning.

Monty Hardy, 56, of Southlake and Hadassah Vance, 35, of Euless both died shortly after the crash. On Sunday, Wendy Akion, 38, of Irving was pronounced dead at the Baylor Regional Medical Center in Grapevine. Sharon Ransom, 56, of Grapevine was later pronounced dead.

Investigators said that they did not see any skid marks around the sight of the crash leading them to suspect vehicle malfunction may have been to blame. Earlier this year, Toyota recalled over 4 million vehicles, including Avalons, to correct a problem with the shape of the accelerator that could cause it to become stuck in the floor mat causing the driver to lose control.

A Los Angeles Times investigation, said problems with Toyota's electronic throttle may be responsible for many vehicles suddenly accelerating uncontrollably.

For the safety of yourself and your passengers, please find out if your car was one those recalled. If it was, please contact Toyota to fix the problems, and immediately remove the driver's floor mat. Please contact me if you have any questions or need legal representation if you have been injured doe to an accelerator problem with your Toyota.

Continue reading "Toyota accelerator may have killed 4 in Southlake wreck " »

Three Watauga motorcycle officers are now equipped with clip-on video cameras to record traffic stops. For years, officers in cars have had dash-mounted cameras to record stops, but until recently, officers on motorcycles did not.

In Texas, 45 to 50 law enforcement agencies use the cameras, according to Heidi Traverso, a spokeswoman for Vievu, the Seattle company that designs and manufactures the cameras.

The city paid $800.00 for each of the cameras plus $500.00 more for additional hard drives to store the recordings.

The cameras are an important tool for showing driver or officer misconduct. The footage they record is often brought in as evidence at trial. On a DWI case a few months ago, my office was able to get a copy of the footage from the arresting officer which showed that the defendant was hardly able to walk when he crashed into my client. After showing the insurance company the footage and threatening a lawsuit, their offer increased 10-fold.

New reports released today by the Fort Worth Police Department reveal that Jesus Cisneros, the FWPD officer accused of killing a mother of two in a car crash while he was drunk, was speeding at over twice the posted 35mph speed limit before the crash.

Originally, there was talk that the accident may have possibly been Sonia Baker's fault for failing to yield the right of way while turning, but a preliminary investigation has found no evidence to suggest that Baker ran a stop sign or had any fault in the collision.

Officer Cisneros is rightfully being charged with homicide in Baker's death. He was released on $25,000.00 bond.
"Right now the preliminary reports are showing that because he was driving twice the speed limit, she did not have a chance to see him," Lt. Paul Henderson said.

The report goes on to say that Cisneros was at a party at The Pour House on West Seventh Street before the crash. Investigators are looking into reports that up to 20 other officers were also at the party. The investigation also involves three off-duty officers, including two sergeants, who were working security at the bar that night. Internal investigators are looking into whether the officers knowingly let Cisneros leave the bar intoxicated.

And on top of the speeding and drunk driving, Officer Cisneros was not authorized to be driving the city-owned vehicle while off-duty. "Preliminary information indicates Cisneros was not authorized to use this vehicle after hours and does not have take-home privileges," Police Chief Jeff Halstead said.

Obviously this terrible tragedy could and should have been avoided. There is no reason anyone, specifically a police officer, should be driving drunk on our city's roads. We eagerly await the court's ruling and punishment for this horrible crime.

Continue reading "Drunk driver who caused death was 2X speed limit" »

The family of William Bond, who was killed in a crash on the Dallas North Tollway on December 20, 2007 has filed a lawsuit seeking damages. Bond died after a piece of cement broke off of the median barrier and flew into his car.

The suit blames both the driver, Christopher Spicer, for losing control of his vehicle and crashing into the median, as well as the North Texas Tollway Authority and other companies who did engineering, construction or maintenance on the tollway, said the Bond family's attorney, Linda Turley.

The driver, Christopher Spicer, 44, was indicted for criminally negligent homicide, a state jail felony that carries a maximum penalty of two years. But District Attorney Craig Watkins declined to prosecute the case earlier this year, saying no crime other than speeding was committed and it was better handled in civil court.

Obviously this a a terrible tragedy could have been avoided if the other driver had been more careful. I wish the family and my friend Linda Turley the best of luck in their lawsuit.

Continue reading "Dallas death blamed on faulty median" »

Officer Jesus Cisneros had a blood alcohol content of more than two times the legal limit of .08% when his vehicle ran into a car driven by Sonia Baker and tragically killed her.

It is not clear how long Cisneros had been drinking, whether he had been drinking while he was on the job, why he was still driving a City vehicle, and why no one at the Police Department knew that one of its officers was intoxicated while operating a FWPD cruiser.

You would think that of all people, a police officer would know that it is against the law to drink and drive - especially in a police car.

Poor Ms. Baker was married and had two small children.

This tragic and callous disregard of human life is appalling. I demand that the FWPD appoint an independent attorney to investigate what happened on the night of December 12th, file vehicular manslaughter charges, and insure that this never happens again here in Tarrant County.

I am also appalled that more than 1,400 people die iin Texas due to DWIs and I call on our police -- who are hopefully not drunk -- to crack down on drunk drivers before they crash into you and me.

Nearly 30 million Americans travel the highways in this country. New analysis of government data was released showing more nearly 29,000 motor carrier companies with more than 200,000 trucks, operate in violation of federal safety laws. In an original analysis of data, it was revealed that drivers are sharing highways with trucks that have incurred thousands of safety violations. The violations include defective brakes, bad tires, loads that dangerously exceeded weight limits and drivers with little or no training or drug and alcohol addictions.

Data was obtained on the safety performance of U.S. trucking companies through the Motor Carrier Management Information System, which is maintained by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Over a million lines of data were analyzed in an effort to pinpoint just how many unsafe trucks might be on the road. West Virginia, North Dakota, Nebraska, Vermont and Iowa had the highest rate of companies in violation of federal safety requirements. The effects of these violations are deadly. While truck accidents occur for a variety of reasons, many are preventable, and often a direct result of trucking companies violating safety standards to cut corners and maximize profits.