Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog

The driver of a Fedex delivery truck, Khaled Abushaaban, was tragically killed yesterday when a drunk driver in a pick-up truck hit his truck head-on on Highway 114 in Irving.

The FedEx truck was split open by the impact and packages were strewn across the highway and into the median, where the vehicle came to a stop.

Abushaaban was a father of a young daughter; his wife is pregnant with a second. My thoughts go out to his family and friends. I wish people would realize that the dangers of driving drunk are real and tragic. It seems like every day another North Texan is being killed in collisions with drunk drivers. It makes me sick.

If you or a family member has been the victim of a drunk drivers despicable and dangerous behavior, call me at (817) 885-8000 and I will help you recover every penny available for your injuries or loss.

Wednesday morning, a small Nissan side-swiped an 18-wheeler, causing the big rig to hit the median and flip over into the oncoming lanes. The wreck happened on the Dallas Tollway near Beltline Road in Addison. There was six cars inolved and after watching the video, it's amazing that no one was seriously injured.

The driver of the small Nissan tried to switch lanes and caused a huge wreck that stopped traffic for hours. Side-swipe cases happen all to often on busy highways. Drivers are impatient, distracted on their cell phones, and are just sometimes lousy drivers and end up causing huge wrecks like this.

I'm currently representing a client who was sideswiped by an 18-wheeler. The driver of the tractor trailer dropped his drink on the floor, reached down to pick it up and took his eyes off of the road. When he finally looked up, his 18 wheeler had moved to the right lane and crashed in the side of my client's vehicle. To make matters worse the 18-wheeler driver sped off after the wreck! My client was seriously injured. I have filed suit to get my client compensated for the damages she and her family have suffered as a result of the collision.

Insurance carriers often refuse to pay for the majority of the damages victims suffer in car wrecks. Please call a> and I can help you rrecover for all all the damages you've suffered.

A recent study has just revealed an average of 38 drivers die a day as a result of not wearing a seat belt. The Transportation Department is kicking off its annual "Click It or Ticket" campaign in hopes of increasing the percentage of people who wear seat belts.

I am pleased that 92.9% of drivers in Texas used their seat belts last year, but think that number should be 100%. Statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that those least likely to buckle up are teens and young adults, males, nighttime riders, motorists traveling on rural roads and motorists riding in pickups.

The "Click it or Ticket" campaign is the result of the government's efforts to enforce harsher penalties on motorists who don't buckle up. Statistics clearly show that wearing a seat belt can double your chance of survival in a car wreck. I think the "Click it or Ticket" campaign is a great way to raise awareness of the benefits of wearing a seat belt. I've been handling car wreck cases for over thirty years and know from experience that you are far less likely to be injured if you are wearing a seat belt.

More than 10,000 police officers around the nation will be cracking down to enforce the seat belt laws this Memorial Day, so remember to buckle up. It could save your life.

Texas insurance companies use the Texas Personal Automobile Policy which offers eight kinds of coverage to reimburse you for your loss from a vehicle crash. To help you understand what money you may be entitled to, here are the types of coverage:

1. Liability: When the other person is at fault for causing the wreck.
What it pays: Your expenses up to his policy's dollar limits (a minimum of $25,000.00, and sometimes more, including medical bills, lost wages, pain, and vehicle damage or replacement cost if it is totalled.

Who it covers: You, family members, and someone driving your car with your permission.

Note: Some policies won't cover other people, including family members, unless they're specifically named in the policy. Your policy's declarations page should list the names of all of the people covered by the policy.

2. Medical Payments Coverage
What it pays: Your medical bills.

Note that any money received will have to be paid back when you recover money from the other driver's insurance company.

Who it covers: You, your family members, and passengers in your car, regardless of who caused the collision.

3. Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Coverage
What it pays: Medical bills, 80% of lost income and the cost of hiring a caregiver.

Who it covers: You, your family members, and passengers in your car, regardless of who caused the crash.

An insurance company must offer you $2,500 in PIP, and you can buy more. If you don't want PIP, you must reject it in writing. The insurance company must provide me with a copy of your rejection of PIP or I can obtain these benefits for you.

4. Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM) Coverage What it pays: Your expenses caused by an uninsured motorist or a motorist who did not have enough insurance to cover your bills, up to your policy's dollar limits. Uninsured also pays for accidents caused by a hit-and-run driver if you reported the accident promptly to police.

Bodily injury UM/UIM pays without deductibles for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, disfigurement, and permanent or partial disability.
Property damage UM/UIM pays for auto repairs, a rental car, and damage to items in your car. There is an automatic $250 deductible, which means you must pay the first $250 of the repairs yourself.

Who it covers: You, your family members, passengers in your car, and others driving your car with your permission.

Insurers must offer UM/UIM coverage. If you don't want it, you must reject it in writing (see above).

5. Collision (Damage to Your Car) Coverage
What it pays: The cost of repairing or replacing your car after an accident. Payment is limited to your car's actual cash value, minus your deductible. Actual cash value is the market value of a car like yours without damages.

Who it covers: You, your family members, passengers in your car, and others driving your car with your permission.

6. Comprehensive (Physical Damage Other than Collision) Coverage
What it pays: The cost of replacing or repairing your car if it is stolen or damaged by fire, vandalism, hail, or a cause other than a collision. Comprehensive coverage also pays for a rental car or other temporary transportation if your car is stolen. Your policy won't pay for an auto theft unless you report it to police. Payment is limited to your car's actual cash value, minus your deductible.

7. Towing and Labor Coverage
What it pays: Towing charges when your car can't be driven. Also pays labor charges, such as changing a tire, at the location where your car became immobile.

8. Rental Reimbursement Coverage
What it pays: A set daily amount for a rental car if your car is stolen or is being repaired because of damage covered by your policy

The North Texas Tollway Authority has fired the driver who caused a wreck on Sam Rayburn Tollway last month. If only this happened more often!

Abebe Sbhat was terminated after an internal review found he violated NTTA policy by engaging in an unsafe act.

The crash occurred on April 8th when an 18-wheeler collided with Sbhat's dump truck on the Interstate 35E interchange with State Highway 121 in Lewisville. The impact sliced off the semi's fuel tank and caused it to immediately burst into flames, which quickly spread to the dump truck and a pickup.

The truck driver jumped out of the semi before it careened into a concrete barrier and slid off the edge of a bridge.

I can't tell you how many times the negligent truck driver's company refuses to terminate its employee after a crash out of a concern that it will make it look bad when we file suit but instead allow the bad driver to continue driving. This is a problem that has to stop.

A 2008 crash caused by an 18-wheeler that left three people dead, led to a guilty plea from the driver facing second-degree manslaughter. The truck driver admitted that he was reaching for cell phone when he slammed into several cars in front of him.

As a result of the plea bargain the truck driver, Jeffrey Knight, will not spend additional time in jail. The truck driver was given one year in jail but was given credit for time served prior to the plea bargain and therefore will not serve any additional time.

In Texas and across the county, people are rightfully becoming more demanding of commercial drivers and less tolerant of their dangerous behavior.

Not only are criminal sanctions being sought but in a truck collision when conduct endangers others, punitive damages are appropriate. When some one takes control of an 80,000 pound vehicle, he needs to be paying complete attention to the small defenseless vehicles around him. I have seen the tragic results of distracted 18-wheeler drivers all too often.

Many people believe that if a driver is charged criminally, it will hurt their chances for civil recoveries. This is not the case. In fact, convictions or guilty pleas like this can strengthen your injury case against the driver and the company that hired them.

If you or a loved one has been in a wreck involving an 18-wheeler, please call me at 817-885-8000 to discuss your case. My firm only handles car and truck wrecks, and I know how to handle these difficult cases. The sooner you call, the sooner I can start helping you get the help and the money you deserve. I have recovered millions of dollars for my clients hurt in wrecks caused by 18-wheeler drivers. Click here to read about the $5.5 million dollar recovery I got for two of my clients.

Toyota routinely deceives the court and opposing counsel when it has been sued in connection with sudden acceleration and other defect cases, according to a detailed investigation by the Associated Press that was released yesterday.

Toyota has withheld requested documents, hidden test results, and refused to release data that is stored electronically in its vehicles.

"Toyota has no peer" in disclosing this required information, according to Texas attorney Ernest Cannon, who represented the family of a 35 year old woman, Lisa Evans, who died in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land in 2002.

Another Texas woman was killed when her Land Cruiser suddenly went into reverse and pinned her against her garage wall. However, Toyota claimed in court documents that it knew of no other such incidents, when it had recently settled a nearly identical case.

Continue reading "Toyota Uses Deceptive Legal Tactics to Defend Lawsuits" »

FACT: Texas leads the U.S. in the number of people killed in wrecks caused by drunk drivers - 1,473 in 2008 alone.

FACT: Texas has one of the highest number of people serving time for DWI - 6,200.

FACT: Ralph Lynn Foltz Jr. was arrested for his 11th DWI after leading police on a dangerous high-speed chase through the streets of Galveston and Brazoria counties several months ago.

FACT: John Barton killed two people and injured three other family members in the DFW area Sunday night. He should have been locked up in the state penitentary serving his jail sentence and treated for his alcoholism after being convicted of his third DWI.

FACT: Barton was driving his wife's car which did not have the required engine interlock.
Even so, Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the Dallas Morning News that "he couldn't operate a motor vehicle unless it had it had an ignition interlock."

FACT: Barton had a valid driver's license.

FACT: The governor has ordered the Department of Criminal Justice to cut five percent from its budget, including $7.8 million from its treatment programs, which will eliminate help for 1,346 DWI offenders.

FACT: The state, knowing that we have a serious DWI problem, recently almost tripled spending on state prison treatment for DWI offenders from $36 million in 2007 to $97 million in 2010.

According to the TDCJ spokeswoman, the extra money has been worth it, with 6,000 new treatment slots being created with the money, including a 500 bed DWI treatment ward in East Texas.

"We've seen it have a positive impact not just on the individuals, but overall on the inmate population, Lyons said. Furthermore, the treatment has treatment has greatly reduced the number of offenders who return to prison.

However, the treatment programs are apparently not working. "We've had him (Barton) in prison twice and done nothing to treat his alcoholism. And now we have a tragedy," said State Senator John Whitmire, the chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

While I understand that our state is facing an enormous potential budget deficit of $18 billion and must cut back services, this is clearly not the place to do so.

"DWI will kill you, just like a gun will. It's one of our most serious crimes," Senator Whitmire said.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is working hard to get more car ignition locks, police sobriety checkpoints, and treatment to stop these tragedies from reoccurring.

The U. S. government announced yesterday that it would seek the maximum fine possible against Toyota because it had failed to promptly disclose its problems with accelerator pedals.

The amount? A whopping $16.3 million.

By comparison,Toyota earned $1.6 BILLION just in its third quarter, in the middle of decreased sales resulting from the recall and negative publicity

And the penalty, which is the largest allowed per recall under the Tread Act, which was enacted after accidents involving Firestone tires on Ford Explorers, pales in comparison with the $2.3 billion settlement last September with Pfizer over fraudulent marketing issues that did not cause countless deaths and bodily injuries.

Toyota has two weeks to contest the fine, which it presumably will.

Also, it was just revealed that just five days before Toyota announced its massive recall on January 21st, one of its top executives wrote that "we need to come clean" about the acceleration problems. Irv Miller, VP of public affairs, wrote in an email that "We are not protecting our customers by keeping this quiet. The time to hide on this one is over." Miller is now "retired."

And it gets worse: the government has just released documents proving that Toyota knew that floor mats could entrap gas pedals on February 7, 2006 and that those pedals were sticking five months later, even though it did not finally recall its defective vehicles for another 3 1/2 to 4 years.

Regulators have finally decided acknowledged that Toyota deliberately concealed safety information after ignoring the problem for years.

Continue reading "Toyota Defects Only Result in a Fine of $16 Million" »

Today I received a large recovery of money for another wonderful client who was unfortunately injured by a drunk driver This is what she had to say about my services

and was delighted to read the article in the today's Dallas Morning News about how Dallas police may start requiring blood tests from DWI suspects. That is, if the city can come up with $360,000.00.

How can Dallas not find this money? Think about its extra police, fire department, Parkland Hospital ER, medical expenses, criminal courts, and other costs that will be avoided -- not to mention the carnage to innocent people like you and me.

Just last year, 38 people were killed in Dallas due to drunk/stoned drivers and a startling 3,600 people were arrested on these charges.

Many cities already require these more reliable blood tests, with tiny Dalworthington Gardens near Arlington being the first city in Texas to require them. (However, a Bedford woman had her conviction thrown out because those police officers were not properly qualified to draw blood; the case is on appeal.)

New laws have made it harder for drivers pulled over for drunken driving to refuse blood tests. Police no longer have to obtain time consuming search warrants for felony DWIs, where a person is hospitalized, a child is in the vehicle, or the suspect has a prior related conviction. And if the suspects refuse, their licenses are suspended for six months.

A whopping 11,773 people died in collisions caused by drunk drivers in 2008 -- a shocking one-third of the 37,261 of Americans killed in all crashes.

In Fort Worth, police mounted two recent crackdowns that resulted in 125 arrests -- 163% more than last year's.

The woman who crashed into Bertha is still awaiting trial.

I will donate a portion of my attorney's fee from every case where I represent a victim of drunk driving to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), a wonderful organization. I also will volunteer at their walk in Fort Worth on March 27th in Trinity Park.

"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 am investigating whether this horrific crash that nearly killed my wonderful young client was caused by a faulty Toyota accelerator.

Here are the latest developments in what I believe may be the biggest and most deadly corporate cover up of all time:

1. Yesterday Toyota finally added the Prius to its limited list of defective cars that needed to be recalled -- only after one suddenly sped up to more than 90 m.p.h. in San Diego. Prius drivers had already complained 406 times of these sudden and potentially fatal accelerations before this glorified car was recalled.

2. Last week the family of Mark Sayles filed suit, whose Lexus suddenly accelerated to 120 miles per hour on a San Diego interstate last August before tragically crashing and killing this 45 year old police officer, his wife, daughter, and his wife's brother. SEE PREVIOUS STORY.

It was not until their terrifying 911 tape was posted to UTube that Toyota finally began recalling its defective vehicles in September. Toyota has blamed the floor mats for getting tangled up with the gas pedal.

At least 52 people have died and hundreds have been seriously injured in these sudden accelerator crashes.

Continue reading "Toyota Sudden Acceleration Problems Mount" »

President Obama just announced this morning that he may require ALL vehicles to be sold iwith brake override systems that willl prevent these horrific sudden accelerations.

This safety feature -- that is already sold in many other countries but not here for some reason -- will prevent the throttle from sticking in an open position.

Yesterday, the U. S. government finally released records showing that 12,700 owners previously complained about defective Camrys that were built before the recalled 2007-2010 models but which were never recalled. The 2002 Camry, for example, had 175 speed-control defects which were never repaired, even though a shocking 50% of those resulted in collisions -- double the number in 2007 Camrys, where 25% of the sudden accelerations caused crashes.

Don't think this is a problem that affects us? Just this Sunday night in Southlake, a poor woman named Waynoka Ricord, age 77, who was driving home from her job at DFW Airport, died when her 2004 Corolla veered out of control and crashed into a tree.

Continue reading "Toyota Acceleration Nightmare to Lead to Change?" »

Shame on you, Toyota.

It was not until August of 2009, when an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer and three members of his family were killed did Toyota finally have to take notice - and only then due to the release of this horrifying video on the Internet:

So what did Toyota do? Did it immediately recall ALL of the defective cars it had sold and repair them? No, it blamed the floor mats! But when 4 people in Southlake were killed in a terrifying sudden acceleration collision the day after Christmas and the mats were found in the trunk, clearly the gas pedal or the engine were the problems. Click here to read the latest on this case

Continue reading "Toyota Lawsuits" »

Questions for Mr. Toyoda

In the weeks since Toyota's safety problems have become international news, Akio Toyoda, the company's president, has apologized repeatedly.

When he testifies on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, he is expected to apologize again and, according to a prepared statement, admit that his company's "priorities became confused" in its quest for growth over the last decade. It isn't enough.

Mr. Toyoda owes consumers a complete explanation of why his company failed -- for years -- to fully respond to complaints about its cars' sudden and uncontrolled acceleration, a problem that may have caused 34 deaths since 2001.

Continue reading "Toyota and Lexus Crashes" »