Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog

The number of teens who are dying in night time crashes has tragically risen as the use of cell phones has increased, the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A & M University reported in sobering news today.

The number of fatalities has increased by over 10% over the last 10 years.

I have a client who was rear ended on a local highway by a teenager on her cell phone. My client had to undergo a spinal fusion and discectomy as a result. My client is still in pain due to the wreck in June 2007. I just took her neurosurgeon's deposition last night. I used this diagram as an exhibit in the deposition.

Talking on the phone, texting, surfing the internet, and even using a bluetooth headset while driving is distracting. Distractions are the leading cause of automobile crashes in America. Thousands of people are injured every year as a result.

If you've been hurt because of a wreck, call my office at 817-885-8000 or e-mail me. I will fight hard to get you the maximum recovery possible. In addition, if you mention that you found me by this blog or my website, I offer a reduced attorney fee of only 28% pre-trial instead of the 33.3% pre-trial fee that most attorneys charge. That will translate to hundreds or even thousands of dollars in savings to you.

You will never believe this, but many young drivers in Texas are dangerous. I know. My teenager hit another driver when she was 16! Fortunately noone was injured. I took her car away for a year, made her go back to driver's ed classes, and personally coached her before I would let her drive again. And she hasn't been in any crashes since.

While many young people are good drivers, the combination of inexperience, over-confidence, and their fondness of texting while driving makes teen drivers statistically much more likely to cause wrecks than drivers who have had more experience behind the wheel.

Many states, including Texas, have so-called "graduated license" laws limiting the number of passengers that teen drivers can carry as well as restrictions on the times of day when teen drivers are allowed to be on the roads. The problem with these laws is that they are hard to enforce. Officers do not have a way to easily identify a driver as 16, 18, or older without pulling them over. New Jersey now requires teen drivers to put decals on their license plates so officers can identify them easily.

Support for the decals has been varied. Many teen drivers and now some New Jersey lawmakers are opposing the law.

New Jersey teens opposed to the nation's first state law requiring young drivers to display license plate decals that identify them as inexperienced have gained support for their cause from several state lawmakers and a national youth rights advocacy group.
The statute known as Kyleigh's Law takes effect Saturday. It requires New Jersey drivers ages 16 to 20 to have a $4 pair of detachable fluorescent red decals on their front and rear license plates during a yearlong provisional license period. Failure to do so could result in a $100 fine.
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The law was named for Kyleigh D'Alessio, a 16-year-old central New Jersey high school student who was killed in 2006 while riding in a vehicle driven by another teen. Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine signed the law last year.

Opponents claim the law is well intentioned but won't improve safety, will subject motorists to nuisance traffic stops and might entice criminals to target young drivers.

Continue reading "Texas Teenage Drivers Are Dangerous! " »

"Only" 33,963 people died driving on U.S. roads in 2009, the government reported yesterday. This is down from the 37,261 killed driving in 2008 -- all the people who live in Benbrook and Azle combined!

And here in Texas, "only" 2,984 people were killed in collisions.

Whoopee!

In my opinion, one person dying on our roads or getting injured is one too many.

Even the U.S. Transportation Department admits that the numbers are too high, but tries to take credit because (1) more people are wearing seat belts, (2) vehicles are safer, and (3) police are enforcing drunk driving laws more vigorously.

It doesn't mention that peoople drove less last year due to the recession,

Continue reading "Texas and U.S. Accident Deaths Decrease" »

I recently wrote about this weeks's big Department of Transportation conference investigating how to reduce deadly crashes.

Today, President Obama signed an executive order prohibiting the 4.5 million federal employees, including military personnel, from driving and text messaging.

In addition, the U. S. government wants to ban texting by bus drivers and truckers who travel across state lines. Furthermore, these drivers may be prohibited from uding cellphones while driving, unless an emergency is involved. It is not clear whether onboard computers use will be restricted.

"This meeting is probably the most important meeting in the history of the Department of Transportation," Mr. LaHood said in his remarks concluding the conference.