Memorial Day is the most dangerous weekend of the yearYesterday marked Memorial Day when we honored those who died on battlefields to give us our precious freedom. But there is little remembrance of those who lose their lives on roads every day due to drunk or reckless drivers.
These victims need to be remembered. And the drunk and reckless drivers need to be stopped.
The COVID-19 virus has forced most people to stay home. So you would assume that our North Texas roads, with less traffic than in decades, would be safer, right? Unfortunately, that has not been the case. Many innocent drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians have recently been injured in scores of collisions. And expect a return to the 80,000 crashes we have in the Metroplex each year once the restrictions are lifted and normal traffic resumes.
Here are a few of the local crashes that were reported online in the past week:
We are all glad that Governor Abbott has relaxed the quarantine and that many people are returning to jobs, stores, and restaurants. But we Texans have not driven much for the past few months, are antsy, and maybe even a little rusty. There were many more vehicles on the road this morning as Mr. Berenson drove to the office and saw many vehicles driving way too fast — almost like they wanted to be on the track of the Texas Motor Speedway. Unfortunately, we can unfortunately expect an increase in car and truck wrecks in the coming weeks. Statistics from Austin were just revealed that show that serious injuries from vehicle crashes actually increased during the last two months when driving was curtailed. So we wanted to give you ways to keep safe while driving to prevent you from being the victim of a Fort Worth car accident.
We are unfortunately in the grip of one of the greatest threats to humanity in our lifetimes. The death total from the coronavirus passed the number of casualties from 9/11 yesterday. We are all frightened.
If you are a client of our law firm or someone who has been in a recent car or truck crash and are seeking to hire a personal injury lawyer, you may be wondering if you should proceed with your case. This post will attempt to answer your questions and observe how the personal injury landscape has changed.
How is a car accident case affected?
I have been asked by several clients if the coronavirus will affect their car wreck cases. No one knows as we are in uncharted territory. On top of the anxiety we are all living through, as a Fort Worth personal lawyer, I am very concerned how the virus could affect injured people’s medical treatment and personal and financial outcomes.
Here are some specific questions I have.
It is essential that the police come to the scene of a crash and determine which driver was at fault. Without a favorable police report and officers who can testify in court, a car accident can become a “he said/she said” dispute. These are often denied by the other driver’s insurance representatives so a lawsuit must be filed. Juries may not know which driver to side with.
Furthermore, the police report contains important information that the car accident lawyer can use to help his client win the case. This includes the names and identifying information about all drivers, insurance policies, date, time, location, speed limit, weather, vehicle damage, witness’s observations, admissions of fault made, injuries reported, alcohol use, etc.
My office obtains the police report for our clients at no charge. The sooner we get the report, the sooner we can get to work.
After you have been in a car or truck crash, you may have been rushed by ambulance to an emergency room. Expensive medical treatment and tests were performed. Worrying about how these medical bills were going to be paid was probably the last thing on your mind. So you will be shocked to find out later that you owe a huge sum of money for your medical bills. This happens often.
Berenson Injury Law has been representing injured Texans for the past 40 years and this can be one of the biggest hassles of the car/truck crash process.
We see one or more of these happening:
If this sounds familiar, that is because you were not told any of this at the hospital or by your doctors. You may not find out until months later when you open your mail and see “surprise bills” which can be $10,000 or more. You naturally assumed that the other driver’s insurance company or your health insurance plan would have paid these by now.
The medical bills morass is unfortunately a common problem after a car wreck, especially here in Texas. A recent study showed that we had almost the highest number of these out-of-network charges in the U.S.
If you have health insurance, you probably do not know which hospitals and doctors (other than your PCP) are in-network. You will have no idea what medical procedures cost. Before this happens to you, you should study your plan’s directory and research costs so you will be prepared.
To help those people who are researching a Fort Worth injury lawyer, we wanted to share these five new reviews our clients wrote on Google and Facebook — just in the last 24 hours!
Shantevia
***** Mr. B and his team were amazing from the very beginning until the end. They kept me updated on everything, even when I felt like giving up. I am truly thankful and happy with the results. Mr. B and his team deserve 100 stars!! Thank you for everything!
New Year’s Eve, the holiday devoted to getting drunk, took its usual deadly toll in North Texas. Here are reports about the holiday’s DWI deaths in DFW and a related story about the poster child of drunk driving in North Texas – if not the country. These add to our dismal December drunk driving crashes.
We are all busy enjoying the holidays — some people too much. The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is one of the most dangerous times to be on the road in Texas. With all the Christmas parties and football games, driving while intoxicated collisions increase. Too many people decide to get too drunk, drive too recklessly, and cause too many car crashes.
Consider these heart-breaking stories from the past few days:
This is the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s also the most deadly for vehicle crashes caused by intoxicated drivers. The holiday season began on a heart-breaking note on Thanksgiving morning when a drunk Fort Worth driver crashed her car into a 17-year-old. Benjamin Floran Castaneda, a senior at North Side High School, tragically lost his life. The drunk Fort Worth driver was traveling the wrong way on Loop 820 and crashed into three vehicles. Other drivers were also injured.
It it hard to believe that the woman was driving while intoxicated just so she could go to the Cowboys game to tailgate and drink more — at 5:00 a.m. She was arrested for intoxication manslaughter. We hope she is given a lengthy jail sentence to serve as a deterrent to other people like her.
Benjamin was a fine young man who wanted to go to college so he could devote his life to teaching mariachi music, his passion. He was in the unique mariachi band at North Side High School.
Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog