Fatal Traffic Accidents

Maryland Woman Killed in Fatal Single-vehicle Crash on Suitland Parkway

June 21, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A Capitol Heights woman was killed in a recent car crash when the vehicle in which she was riding left the road, rolled and hit a stand of trees. The car accident occurred in the late evening of June 7 on a stretch of Suitland Parkway near Forrestville, MD.

The front seat passenger, identified as Keyanna Bowser, 19, was pronounced dead at the scene. The two male back-seat passengers, who received slight injuries, were helped from the vehicle by Prince George’s County fire crews and transported to Prince George’s Hospital Center. The impact was so powerful it took rescue personnel two hours to extricate the female driver, who received much more severe injuries.

After leaving the parkway between Suitland Road and Forestville Road, the vehicle ended up on its side between some trees. This made the driver’s rescue extremely time consuming. According to reports, the driver’s legs were pinned underneath the vehicle’s dashboard. Once removed from the vehicle, she was airlifted to Washington Hospital Center for treatment.

Rollover accidents can cause very serious injures due to the vehicle’s roof structure being crushed and intruding into the passenger compartment. This particular crash may be similar, and if so, head, brain and spinal injuries are also very common. For the most part, the two rear-seat passengers were lucky, since the front seat passenger died at the scene and the driver had numerous serious injuries herself.

News reports indicate that the accident was still under investigation. Nevertheless, the causes for a crash of this type can range from driver error or inattention to defective steering equipment or poorly maintained tires. No matter the cause, we always recommend that victims contact an automobile accident attorney to find out what their rights are in cases like this.

Maryland Driver Charged in Traffic Death of Jogging College Student

June 15, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A 29-year-old Maryland man has been charged by the Fredrick County Sheriff’s Office in the April traffic death of a college senior who was struck and killed while jogging on Old Emmitsburg Road. The man was allegedly operating an uninsured vehicle belonging to his parents.

According to police reports, Elizabeth DiNunzio, a 22-year-old senior at Mount St. Mary’s University, was jogging on the afternoon of April 28 when she was struck by a pickup truck driven by Joshua Wayne Cool of Emmitsburg.

There is no paved shoulder on the straight section of the road where DiNunzio was hit by Cool’s 1995 Nissan pickup, but police say that she was traveling south against the flow of traffic in accordance with Maryland law. An investigation revealed that the woman was not listening to a portable music player when the fatal accident occurred. Police also ruled out speeding or drunk driving as factors.

Cool was recently served a summons related to the accident. He has been charged with negligent driving, failing to avoid a collision with a pedestrian, and knowingly operating an uninsured vehicle. The man’s parents, Joseph R. and Ann V. Cool, both in their 50s, were also served with citations because they owned the vehicle and allowed their son to drive it uninsured.

The negligent driving charge carries a $280 fine and three points, while the failure to avoid a collision carries a $110 fine and three additional points. The uninsured vehicle charges are citations that compel the Cools to appear in court, according to Fredrick police. They face a possible $1,000 fine, up to 12 months in jail or both.

As a Maryland Automobile Accident Lawyer, I am able to represent victims and their families in situations such as this one — I can truly say that cases of wrongful death are sad events. This young woman, who was to participate in the upcoming Pittsburgh Marathon, was also just weeks away from graduating magna cum laude from Mount St. Mary’s with a degree in Spanish. Apparently, she was doing everything right.

Conversely, the driver, as well as his parents, was certainly in the wrong. The young man had a responsibility to watch out for pedestrians and failed. The parents, as owners of the vehicle, had a responsibility to make sure that the truck was insured, and they failed at that as well. It is a tragedy in every sense of the word.

Driver Responsible for Death of Maryland Motorcycle Rider Gets $115 Fine

May 31, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A 19-year-old driver who caused a fatal motorcycle crash that killed a Maryland man has been fined $115 for the accident, but investigators found she was otherwise not negligent in the case of this traffic death. The rider, Harry D. Catts, of Smithsburg, MD, died from injuries suffered on Route 11 in Pennsylvania in late April.

Despite the gravity of the incident, police investigators and the local prosecutor’s office said that Samantha J. Young was not grossly negligent when she turned left in front of the 72-yeal-old Catts. Eye witnesses reported seeing the teenage driver make a left turn into the path of the motorcycle rider, who struck the side of Young’s car.

Police said the crash occurred around 1:30 p.m. on April 26 at a busy intersection near the Plainfield exit of Interstate 81. According to police reports, Young told an officer at the scene that she saw the green light and made the turn, but claimed she didn’t see the motorcyclist. An accident reconstruction team reviewed the crash scene but apparently found nothing out of the ordinary. Authorities stated that there was no alcohol or cell-phone use involved, and police said that the traffic signals were found to be working properly.

As Maryland Automobile Accident Attorneys, our office has represented many families who have lost a loved one through a motorcycle or car accident. Motorcycle accidents, in particular, can result in very serious bodily injuries or even death due to complications from head trauma or spinal cord injuries.

In this case, the police determined that the driver who caused the accident was simply inexperienced and therefore not grossly negligent for the motorcycle rider’s death. Despite the local district attorney’s statement that the accident was “a mere error of judgment,” there is little solace in the fact that the young woman received only a monetary penalty.

Auto Accident News: About 100 Maryland Pedestrians Killed Every Year

May 28, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Nearly 100 pedestrians in Maryland are killed each year, but could this figure increase in the future? The most current statistics, from 2007, indicate that 110 pedestrian deaths occurred in the state, with 70 of those traffic fatalities occurring on state highways. With a struggling economy and people from all economic backgrounds looking for ways to save money, it’s important to consider that more and more people may be walking to work, school or the store than in years past.

This point was brought home by a recent editorial column in the Baltimore Sun. The writer described his experience of trying to negotiate a local roadway as a pedestrian while his vehicle was in the shop for repairs.

His main observation? Highway engineers gave little thought to the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists in the past. Almost everywhere in Maryland, the columnist explains, there are roads and highways where pedestrians are forced — by design — to walk in vehicle lanes. Maryland’s Route 2 and U.S. 40 were mentioned as two of the most deadly for pedestrians.

In a state of more than five million residents, 100 may not seem like a large number, but nobody should be subject to injury or death just for trying to get somewhere on foot. And these statistics are most likely slanted toward the poor or under-employed — folks who not only cannot afford to own a car, but who don’t even have the money for public transportation.

As a Maryland Car Accident Attorney, I have the ability to represent victims and their families in cases of auto-pedestrian accidents, including situations involving a fatality. Almost every one of these people were minding there own business, just going about their life and hoping that each passing motorist wasn’t distracted by a passenger or cell phone, intoxicated or driving under the influence of drugs, illegal or prescription.

Things have slowly improved. According to Maryland’s highway administration, pedestrian and bicyclist safety has been a top priority since the late 1990s. Before that, the administration was apparently forbidden by law to “squander” state funds on so-called luxuries, such as sidewalks. But the law was changed and many of the state’s highways have been retrofitted with sidewalks — currently 33 percent, with another two percent typically added each year.

Anne Arundel County, MD, Woman Dies in Possible Drowsy Driving Accident

May 23, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A head-on accident between a passenger car and an SUV in Pasadena, Maryland, killed an 80-year-old woman this past week in what could be a fatal case of drowsy driving. According to reports, the crash allegedly resulted from the victim’s son dozing off behind the wheel, although the time of day — 10:30 a.m. — is somewhat perplexing for this type of accident. Police are still investigating the collision.

Every year, our law firm handles numerous Maryland car accident cases similar to this one. The professional legal team at Lebowitz-Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers is very familiar with the many causes of passenger car, pickup truck and SUV crashes. Whether a result of driver error, mechanical defect or drunk driving, our attorneys have the experience to fight for the accident victims’ best interests. In this situation, drowsy driving may have been a factor in the tragic crash.

According to Anne Arundel County fire officials, the accident happened at Fort Smallwood Road near Carroll Road, when the car carrying Irene G. Ratcliff apparently drifted into oncoming traffic, crashing head-on with a Ford Explorer.

Ratcliff died of injuries sustained during the crash. Her son, Herbert Ray Ratcliff, 64, was taken by ambulance to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with serious but not life-threatening injuries. Based on the initial police investigation, the police believe that the son fell asleep at the wheel and drifted into the northbound lane.

This accident highlights the increasing problem of drowsy driving. Longer working hours, family obligations and other activities can reduce the amount of sleep a person gets. Although it seems less serious than other traffic offenses, such as driving under the influence of alcohol, the consequences of drowsy driving can be very serious, as evidenced this past week.

Drowsy driving is a vexing problem for traffic safety officials. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it is a factor in more than 100,000 vehicle crashes annually, likely resulting in more than 1,500 deaths and 40,000 injuries around the country — and these may be conservative figures. Many experts say the nation’s progress against drowsy driving is about where the campaign against drunken driving was 30 years ago.

Pickup Truck Rollover Crash in Wicomico County, MD, Kills Driver; Injures Others

May 17, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A single-vehicle rollover accident in southern Maryland quickly turned into a two-car fatality with multiple bystander injuries during the early morning hours of May 2. Through a series of unfortunate events, the driver of a pickup truck that crashed and rolled over on Hurley’s Neck Road was killed when a second car hit the truck just as several Good Samaritans were trying to save the man.

The incident occurred, according to police reports, around 3 a.m. early Saturday morning when Christopher J. Atkinson of Mardela somehow lost control of his pickup truck, causing the vehicle to roll over, ending up with a section of the vehicle remaining in the darkened roadway.

Reports out of the Wicomico County Sheriff’s office said a second Mardela resident, Mike T. Brown, and two juvenile female passengers stopped their car and attempted to provide assistance. As the three were trying to free Atkinson from his Dodge pickup, a 2008 Honda Civic driven by 22-year-old William R. Morgan of Salisbury slammed into the passenger side of the pickup truck.

The impact from the Honda resulted in fatal injuries to Atkinson, who was declared dead at the scene by the medical examiner. The Honda driver and the three Good Samaritans were all transported by ambulance to Peninsula Regional Medical Center where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries received at the scene of the crash.

According to authorities, this accident remains under investigation guided by the Maryland State Police Crash Team, but the eventual outcome will define the next steps. Whether the initial rollover was a result of driver error or defective equipment, the subsequent death of the pickup driver and the personal injuries received by the people trying to help could possibly have been avoided.