Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog

Yesterday the Texas Transportation Commisision raised the speed limit from 70 to 75 on nine of our interstates as soon as new signs are posted.

About 1,500 miles of interstates will be a little faster to drive on, with the longest stretch of 310 miles on Interstate 20 starting west of Fort Worth and going out to far West Texas. Here is the map of the affected highways:

View image

Other long stretches of highways are I-30 in East Texas, I-10 between San Antonio and Houston, and I-45 between Dallas and Houston.

As a personal injury lawyer specializing in auto and truck collisions, I have to wonder if increasing these speed limits will increase the number and severity of crashes .

After all, in 2010, there were 104,000 car crashes causes by speeding or failing to control speed. There were also 78,000 caused by driver inattention. Often both factors were listed on police report.

How many wrecks happened here? In 2010 there were 123 serious car crashes in Tarrant County, which led to 134 fatalities. And there were almost 1,000 accidents that led to injury codes on the police reports of either an A or B, the two most serious ones.

The total number of crashes was about 23,000 traffic accidents in Tarrant county.
That's 63 a day - on our slower roads.

A drunken driving suspect, 18 year old Joshua Reyes, crashed into a poor guy riding his motorcycle in University Park early Sunday morning.

Danny Ray Viola, 56, of Dallas was southbound on Preston Road at 12:40 a.m. when he collided with a speeding Honda Civic that ran the light at University Boulevard.

Viola was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Reyes (see photo) was taken into custody on a charge of intoxication manslaughter.

This story really makes me angry.

I hate drunk drivers. And don't drink much alcohol. And sympathize with law abiding motorcyclists and bicyclists. And my only child goes to SMU and lived in a dorm a block from the scene for two years. And I spent three years studying at SMU Law School a block in the other direction.

There has to be a way to crack down on the wide spread culture of drinking and driving, especially when it kills innocent drivers. I have had to handle far too many DWI cases over the last 31 years.

This story is just too hard to believe.

In Arlington at 1:40 yesterday afternoon, a 27 year old man, Thomas Harper, crashed his Tahoe into two cars on North Collins.

Harper then rear-ended a truck so hard he tragically killed the driver, Najee Nasir, who was 42 years old.

As if that weren't bad enough, Harper then peeled out and fled the scene at a speed estimated at 100 miles per hour. with his twin toddlers in the back seat.

Witnesses chased the Tahoe to get a license plate.

Harper then rammed his SUV into the rear of a Dodge pickup stopped at the intersection of Collins and Brown Boulevard so hard that he killed its driver too.

Witnesses rushed to the Tahoe to render aid and found Harper "ranting and raving, half laughing."

Harper started firing a gun out of his window and shot and killed Clarence "C.J." Robinson, 19, of Arlington, who was on his way to work at the nearby Potbelly's Restaurant. He did not own a car.

An eyewitness heard Harper say as he was being pulled out of his Tahoe by Arlington police that "I'll shoot somebody again."

Harper was obviously high.

He is being held in the Arlington jail on charges on murder and intoxication manslaughter. Bail is set at $550,000.00.

And just four days earlier, Robinson's older brother died the same way -- with a gunshot wound to the head -- in a New Orleans-area shooting.

Robinson had left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina with his siblings and was trying to make money to help out his sister and his nephew.

As I often have to ask, what is going on out there?

A Fort Worth woman faces intoxication manslaughter charges in the death of an 18-year-old Fort Worth man.

Althea Voynn Wilson, 28, was arrested Thursday after the pickup she was driving late Wednesday ran a stop sign and struck another truck in the intersection of East 2nd Street and Pecan Street in downtown Fort Worth,

Sean Michael Satterfield was thrown from a 1996 Chevrolet truck when it was hit by a 1998 Dodge truck that was southbound on Pecan Street.

Satterfield died at the scene from blunt trauma of the chest.

The driver of the Chevrolet, Arnold Razon, 19, of Fort Worth, also was arrested and faces charges of driving while intoxicated and possession of marijuana

Honda Motor Co has just recalled 273,000 of its vehicles in the U. S. whose air bags inflate too fast and with too much pressur and cause serious injuries and even deaths.

This adds to several milliion Hondas previously recalled for this same problem.

This time, Honda says that it used the wrong material in the chemical inside the air bags.

You would hope that when you bought a car, the air bag wouldn't hurt -- or kill -- you.

I forced an insurance company just last week to pay a large settlement to a young 19 year old UTA student who was a passenger in his friend's Nissan and whose face was burned by the air bag hitting him when his driver crashed into a pole.

A Fort Worth man died early Thursday, a little more than a day after he was injured in a traffic accidentin the 1500 block on North Cooper in Arlington.

It was the 35th traffic fatality in Arlington in 2011. However, for the entire year of 2010, only 18 people died in colliisions in the city -- out of 6,484 reported crashes.

What is going on out there?

Jose Reyes, 23, unfortunately died at 1:16 a.m. at John Peter Smith Hospital from multiple blunt force injuries.

Two others were injured in the crash.

I was just hired this week to represent a family that was hurt in Arlington recently when another driver ran a red light and have successfully prosecuted auto and truck collision cases throughout Texas and the United States for over 31 years.

Here's a horrible story: an Arlington woman caused a fatal collision when she was driving while intoxicated on Interstate 35W -- the wrong way -- late Friday. Her blood alcohol content was .24% -- THREE TIMES THE LEGAL LIMIT.

And she was seen by a police officer driving into heavy traffic with her hands behind her head.

As I often say, what is going on out there?

Brittany D. Burton, 25, was charged with first degree murder -- not just intoxication manslaughter - under a new law that allows criminal prosecution if a person performs an act that is "clearly dangerous to human life and causes the death of another person ( her six month old daughter) while committing a felony.

Police say a Fort Worth DWI officer spotted Burton driving her Jeep Liberty north in the southbound lanes of the 2700 block of I-35W around Berry Street shortly before midnight Friday.

With emergency lights on and his siren blaring, Officer C. Norman traveled in the northbound lanes beside the wrong-way driver, trying unsuccessfully to get the driver to stop.

Continue reading "Fort Worth DWI Crash Kills Local Resident" »

I call on the protesters across America to focus on some of the worse abusers of power: insurance companies.

Legislators do nothing to control them. Yet they routinely rip off thousands of people damaged in motor vehicle collisions --and brazenly pocket billions of dollars they collect from their policyholders when they refuse to pay claims.

The Dallas Morning News investigated this problem in the article on its front page yesterday. Its reporter talked to the leading state official in charge of policing the insurance companies, House Insurance Committee Chairman John Smithee, R-Amarillo. He claimed he had growing concerns about certain insurers who regularly refuse to pay claims in which their policyholders are at fault. "I get calls about this all the time," he admitted.

So why doesn't he/the Legislature do something to stop these rampant abuses?

Why was Old American County Mutual Insurance Company allowed to illegally rescind hundreds of auto policies from 2005 - 2009 after claims were filed and not pay any money to injured drivers, even though hundreds of complaints were filed with TDI?

Continue reading "Occupy Insurance Companies!" »

The city of Arlington is on its way to a historic high in driving-while-intoxicated fatalities.

Arlington police are increasing their commitment to their annual DWI Task Force campaign -- deploying more officers, conducting more checks at bars, and implementing a no-refusal policy.

Under the no-refusal policy, drivers stopped on suspicion of DWI are required to blow into a Breathalyzer or be served with a search warrant to obtain a blood sample.

A staggering number -- 33 people -- have been killed in drunken-driving crashes in Arlington already this year.

As I often have to say here, what is going on out there?

Continue reading "Arlington DWI Rate To Drop? " »

I was saddened to read that Floyd Jones, a 60 year old resident of south Fort Worth, tragically lost his life Monday night when he was hit by a vehicle as he was walking around his neighborhood.

The collision occurred about 6:30 p.m. in the 500 block of Garden Acres Drive in Fort Worth near I 35.

A motorist told police that she was driving eastbound when she slowed down for a speed bump and heard something hit a passenger side mirror. She told officers that she saw a "flash of red," stopped her vehicle and saw the victim laying in the ditch.

It is hard to believe, but over 5,000 pedestrians are killed and 78,000 are injured each year in the United States.

Without knowing more, I cannot tell whether the driver or pedestrian is at fault. Perhaps the driver was driving carelessly or was distracted as she talked on her cell phone. Or perhaps the man was wearing dark clothing or walked suddenly across the road and she could not have avoided hitting him. Perhaps both were partially at fault. It hardly seems to matter now.

In any event, I urge motorists to drive slower in residential neighborhoods and use utmost caution.

Continue reading "Fort Worth Pedestrian Injuries " »

I am delighted that my clients are "very pleased" with my legal services.

In October, 11 clients filled out surveys reporting they were "very pleased" with their results and treatment and would recommend me to others needing legal assistance.

In September, 11 people all had 100% positive comments about their experiences.

In August, 12 clients said they were very glad they had hired my law firm.

We have had well over 100 clients fill out these surveysthis year -- and all had nice things to say.

As I've said it before, I am blessed to have the greatest clients any where.

I believe in the Golden Rule and always ask how I would want to be treated by my attorney -- then do everything I can to make sure my clients are happy. I fight to make sure my clients are well compensated for their injuries.

If you are shopping around for the best attorney to represent you in a collision case, first see what others who have used my services have to say. You will be equally pleased. I guarantee it.

The Dallas Morning News reported today that our Supreme Court justices usually rule in favor of big insurance companies and other major economic concerns and do not give individuals and small businesses a fair hearing. They have already made up their minds ahead of time which side they want to win.

Noone can possibly think this is fair.

So why is this happening?

Here are excerpts from the article:

...What the (nine current appointments to the Supreme Court) have in common, critics say, is a strong enough leaning toward corporate interests that it's nearly impossible for individuals to win cases against large corporations.