Fatal Traffic Accidents

Baltimore Personal Injury News: Speeding Blamed in Fatal Howard County Traffic Accident that Killed Two Teenagers

January 31, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Almost every driver on Maryland roads has heard the phrase, “Speed Kills,” but fewer among us know of someone who has actually died as a result of a speeding-related traffic accident. Over the years, as Maryland personal injury lawyers representing individuals hurt as a result of car, truck and motorcycle crashes, I and my legal staff have read of numerous roadway collisions where excessive speed was a contributing factor.

Whether you commute in the Baltimore area, or Howie, Gaithersburg or the District, no doubt many readers have seen the aftereffects of car and trucking-related wrecks in which one or more people have been injured or killed. Depending on the speed of such an accident — not to mention the mass of the vehicles involved — the injuries received by the victims can range from minor cuts and bruises to more serious compound fractures and back injuries. Some of the most serious and life-threatening injuries sustained by victims of highway wrecks include spinal cord damage and closed-head trauma.

The latter of these injuries can mean weeks or months, sometimes years, of recovery following the initial hospital stay. Some victims of high-speed interstate and rural route car accidents can become permanently disabled and unable to perform even the most basic daily functions. In such cases, an individual’s quality of life can be greatly impacted following the aftermath of a truck or passenger car crash that may have been caused simply by another driver’s inattention or perhaps outright negligent actions.

Baltimore Traffic Fatality News: Three-car Accident in Frederick County, MD, Leaves One Person Dead

January 27, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Being injured in a multi-vehicle roadway accident is not an uncommon experience for those unlucky enough to have been caught in a car, truck or motorcycle crash. For those who have survived a serious highway wreck, there is no doubt that any injuries sustained in such a collision could have ranged from cuts and bruises to neck and back injury, or even closed-head trauma.

Survivors of horrific traffic accidents may end up with compound fractures, internal injuries, severely limbs, and temporary or permanent paralysis. Regardless of the type of severe injury, it’s a fair bet that anyone injured in a high-speed crash or serious multi-vehicle collision may be facing weeks or months of hospitalization followed possibly by a period of rehabilitation.

All of this time spent away from work can cause financial trouble if the victim is a primary breadwinner. Even if there are two earners in the family — a husband and wife, for instance — the loss of half a family’s income, even for a short time can put a strain on everyone concerned. But all this is relatively unimportant when one considers those who don’t survive a fatal car or commercial trucking accident.

Maryland Personal Injury Update: Rollover Traffic Accidents Pose Serious Danger to SUV and Passenger Van Occupants

January 25, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

We’ll be quite frank here: Automobile collisions are one of the most violent kinds of personal injury accidents out there, especially on our high-speed interstates and even on some secondary roads. In fact, as Maryland auto accident lawyers, I and my staff have seen the results of some very serious car, truck and motorcycle crashes. Many of these involved serious injuries — from compound fractures and internal organ damage, to closed-head trauma and permanent paralysis; some collisions resulted in death of the victim.

Car and trucking-related accidents come in a variety of types and severity. While one would think that maybe a single-car or truck wreck would be less serious than a multiple-vehicle accident, single-vehicle accidents can be one of the worst, especially in the case of a rollover.

We’ve all seen the results of a rollover accident on the highway. Although one may not have realized it at the time some of these rollover accidents involve serious or fatal injuries to one or more of the vehicle occupants. How can this kind of accident, which affects many different vehicles yet tends to be more common in taller vehicles (such as SUVs, Minivans and van-based shuttle buses), be so deadly for the driver and passengers?

Baltimore Auto Accident News: Three Separate Maryland Traffic Fatalities in St. Mary’s, Calvert and Charles Counties

January 22, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Many people subscribe to the adage, Bad things come in threes, but sadly this saying would apply to one news article we ran across a while back. Although many individuals are hurt or permanently injured in the Maryland and Washington, D.C., areas, it is true that a percentage of car, truck and motorcycle roadway collisions result in fatalities.

That said, it in no way lessens the shock and grief that tend to overwhelm a family members following the untimely death of a relative or close family friend. As Baltimore injury accident lawyers, I and my legal staff have developed a deep understanding of the pain and heartache that many of our clients have experienced following a tragic car or trucking-related wreck.

Not surprisingly, the emotional hurt is only one aspect of a serious injury or fatal traffic accident. For those families whose primary breadwinner is involved in a fatal car or truck crash, the loss of income in itself can place a terrible burden on a family that may already have been struggling in this current economy. Even when the news is not as grave for a an automobile accident victim, the weeks or months spent in a hospital — unable to work or earn a living to his or her maximum potential — can also bring a family’s economic survival into question.

Maryland Auto Injury News: Driver Survives, Two Others Die in Fatal Montgomery County Traffic Accident

January 19, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Another alcohol-related car crash has taken the lives of two people in Montgomery County, MD — barely a day into the New Year, according to news reports. As Baltimore automobile and motorcycle accident attorneys, I and my colleagues understand the anguish that victims families go through following a fatal traffic wreck. Most unfortunate, from the standpoint of these grieving relatives, is the possibility that accidents of this sort may have been avoided (or the severity of the collision significantly reduced) had the driver been more thoughtful.

As a Maryland personal injury lawyer, I and my colleagues have had the opportunity to represent numerous individuals injured as a result of another person’s negligence. In the case of fatal accidents, the victim’s family may sometimes bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the person they believe caused the crash, or at least played a significant part in the tragic event.

Naturally, whenever an individual is killed or dies in an untimely fashion, the entire episode becomes an emotional experience for the victim’s family and relatives. Even under the best circumstances — for example, when a person passes away due to natural causes – that individual’s wife or husband, their children can be facing an uncertain future, especially in cases where financial hardship has become a way of life.

Baltimore Traffic Accident News: Marylanders Killed, Injured in Multiple Car, Truck and Bus Crashes

January 17, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Sad as it is to report, car, truck and motorcycle accidents will likely remain a fact of life as we continue to soldier on into the New Year. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my legal staff do not expect that 2012 will deliver and better news in terms of traffic deaths and serious car and trucking-related collisions. Of course, as the economy slowly makes its eventual recovery, the increase in commerce and relative prosperity will likely mean an increase in commuting and business miles.; with that inevitable rise in traffic activity comes the very real potential for increased injury accidents.

On that note, we noticed that one of the last days of 2011 saw multiple injuries and traffic fatalities on Maryland roadways. From these kinds of car and truck wrecks, one usually sees a variety of injuries; from the lesser types, like minor scrapes, cuts, bruises, to more serious bodily injury, such as broken bones, compound fractures, as well as serious neck, spinal cord damage and closed-head injuries.

Of the latter, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord damage can result in months or years of costly medical care, recuperation and rehabilitation. For families living on the ragged edge of financial existence, an event such as a bad car or commercial truck-related crash can spell disaster, especially if the victim is one of the key bread-winners for that family. Costly medical care combined with lost wages can quickly ruin a family’s meager savings and result in all manner of financially-related misery.

Montgomery County Auto Accident News: Maryland Man Sentenced to 20 Years for Fatal DUI Crash

January 10, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Our judicial system has ways of dealing with those who have violated the laws put in place to make our land a safe and civilized place in which to live. Some individuals, whether through malice of forethought or through negligent actions, cross the line between good and bad; those people are often caught and brought to justice, where they face the penalties laid out by lawmakers and their fellow citizens.

As a Maryland personal injury lawyer, I have seen many families torn apart by the thoughtless actions of other people. Fatal traffic accidents, in particular, are instances where a life can be taken due only to the lack of consideration on the part of another driver. Whether the result of drinking and driving, distracted driving, aggressive or other thoughtless operation of motor vehicle, once a person is killed in a car or truck accident there is no bring that individual back to life.

A person found guilty of causing a fatal car, truck or motorcycle accident due to alcohol or drug use can many times be sent to jail for his or her offense. This may help the victims’ families feel that justice has been done, but the void left behind by the loss of those deceased family members can never truly be filled. When a person who killed a loved one out of negligence receives what the families of some victims deem a partial or incomplete criminal sentence, those family members may decide to bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the negligent individual.

Baltimore Auto Injury News: Firm Helps Maryland Drivers Peer into the Dangerous World of Traffic Accidents

January 3, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Unless one is a police officer, traffic accident investigator, or traffic reporter, it’s difficult to know all of the dangerous and potentially deadly intersections and roadways throughout Maryland. In fact, it’s likely that no one person can really know the location of the majority of accident-prone areas across the state.

As Baltimore car, truck and motorcycle injury accident attorneys, even we are aware of just a fraction of the more dangerous intersections here in Baltimore, over in Gaithersburg and out in Washington, D.C. With all of the many and varied automobile and trucking-related traffic collisions that happen every year, only a computer database can really keep track of this information with any accuracy.

And so it was, until recently, that the average person could not know for certain if they were constantly exposing themselves and their families to danger by driving through a highly accident-prone area on the way to school, work or the movies. This has all changed with the advent of new, online traffic fatality mapping information offered by UK-based ITO World.

According to news articles, individuals can now see how safe (or dangerous) the steets they frequently drive on or cross as a pedestrian actually are. Since almost nobody stands at a street corner for hours each day to observe traffic collisions and pedestrian accidents, the database offered by ITO World let’s one decide if an obviously busy intersection is really a hazard to one’s health.

Baltimore Auto Accident News: Maryland Driver Involved in Fatal Traffic Wreck that Killed Elderly Couple

December 30, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

It’s a fact of life; as we age, some of us become less attentive and less able to react quickly to emergency situations. Almost anyone who follows the local news can understand this, since we see numerous reports every month describing older drivers and elderly pedestrians who are injured or killed in traffic collisions throughout Maryland and the District of Columbia.

As Baltimore automobile accident attorneys and Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my staff know the heartbreak of families who have lost loved ones in tragic, and many times, avoidable car, truck and motorcycle crashes. Even those who survive a car or trucking-related traffic accident can face weeks or months of hospitalization and rehab treatment in order to get back some semblance of normalcy in their lives.

Sadly, older people have a harder time when it comes to recuperating from a serious traffic wreck; even relatively minor car or truck accidents can leave an elderly individual in critical condition with sometimes life-threatening complications as a result of their age. Pedestrian injuries precipitated by a car crash can be particularly deadly for an older person with broken bones, sometimes compound fractures, and serious closed-head injuries commonly being sustained.

Many families worry about their elderly parents who still drive. While there is no reason that a competent individual cannot continue to operate a motor vehicle into their 80s and 90s, the potential for accidents is known to increase for these individuals as a function of miles driven. Occasionally, very minor accidents — such as striking a mailbox while backing out of the driveway or knocking off a sideview mirror while parking in one’s garage — can portend worse incidents to come. It’s sometimes up to other family members to suggest to elderly drivers to perhaps scale back or even stop driving altogether.

Maryland Auto Injury News: Baltimore Mans Dies in Single-vehicle Crash near I-695/I-795 Interchange

December 27, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Single-car or single-truck accidents can be the result of many factors. Top on the list is usually driver error, distraction or fatigue, followed by poor weather or road conditions, and even poor roadway design or bad badly placed signage. In some cases, a mechanical problem with the vehicle’s brakes, steering, suspension or other critical components may be partially to blame for a wreck.

When an accident happens on a low-speed surface street, the out come can range from minor injuries to death of the vehicle’s occupants. While higher speed interstate crashes can be serious as well, the lesser number of obstacles immediately adjacent to the roadway helps to reduce the number of fatal accidents. However, this is not to say that people don’t die on a regular basis as a result of bad highway collisions.

As Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my legal staff are well-versed in handling injury and fatal car, truck and motorcycle crashes. Certainly, when a multiple vehicle accident occurs, one or more drivers may be to blame. Filing a wrongful death suit against another individual based on claims of negligent or thoughtless acts is not uncommon here in Baltimore, or over in Rockville, Gaithersburg or the District.

In the case of single-car or truck crashes, the injured party is typically the driver himself. If the driver was found to be at fault, having caused the accident, other passengers may decide to file a claim against that driver to recoup the costs of medical care or other claims of pain and suffering which directly resulted from that particular traffic wreck.