Articles Posted in Multi-vehicle Accidents

Multi-vehicle auto accidents can occur day or night, but the results are very often serious. Head-on collisions especially can result in severe or life-threatening injuries, and many times death. Aside from the emotional anguish, a fatal car accident can cause great strain the victim’s family especially if that person was the primary bread-winner for the family.

As Maryland automobile accident lawyers, our firm is able to help families make it through these difficult times. Lebowitz-Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers handles cases not unlike a recent accident that took the life of one woman and injured the drivers of two other vehicles. According to news reports, a young woman from Ellicott City was driving westbound on Route 108 near Ten Mills Road just before midnight on Friday, October 2, when her vehicle crossed the centerline into oncoming traffic near Clarksville, MD.

Somehow the Toyota Corolla belonging to 20-year-old driver, Melissa Moody, of the 11600 block of Masters Run crossed the double-yellow line and sideswiped an eastbound Lexus IS 350 being driving by Joanne Chan, 32, a Brookeville resident in Montgomery County. According to police reports, Moody’s Corolla then hit a second eastbound Hyundai Elantra belonging to 29-year-old Derrick Jordan of Columbia, Maryland.

A Baltimore County woman died from injuries sustained when her Honda Civic veered from a southbound lane of Interstate 795, traveled across the median and entered the northbound lanes where it was hit by a delivery truck. According to Maryland State Police, the 21-year-old driver identified as Amy L. Brooking initially survived the head-on crash with the truck, but later died after being admitted to Sinai Hospital.

As Maryland auto accident lawyers, we have seen this kind of scenario before. It is difficult to imagine a driver intentionally crossing an interstate median and heading into opposing traffic. Assuming the driver did not have some kind of an episode prior to the crash, one explanation for this accident could be a catastrophic failure of one of the vehicle’s critical systems or parts, such as the steering assembly, a suspension component or even a blown tire. One or more defective parts or components could have cause the young woman’s vehicle to go out of control.

According to police reports, the delivery truck attempted to maneuver out of the way of the Honda, which caused the truck to flip over on its side. Although emergency medical personnel were dispatched to the scene as quickly as possible to assist and transport the injured drivers to the hospital, Brooking’s injuries were such that doctors and nurses could not reverse the damage. She was declared dead shortly after being admitted. The driver of the truck, 32-year-old William K. Dodge of Hanover, PA, was taken to Northwest Hospital Center for treatment of what were assumed to be non-life threatening injuries.

A Prince George’s County jury recently awarded $4 million to the family of a University of Maryland student who was killed in a 2007 automobile wreck involving an off-duty county police officer in Bowie, MD. The civil case ended with a decision showing that the officer, Cpl. Mario Chavez, was negligent in the fatal accident that killed 20-year-old Brian Gray on December 10, 2007.

As Maryland car accident lawyers, we have great respect for law enforcement professionals and the work they do, however a police officer cannot afford a lapse in judgment, especially when it comes to causing the death of an innocent person. This jury’s award is a message to police agencies throughout Maryland that off-duty officers should conform to the same rules of the road that other motorists are expected to observe. This crash is an example of that lack of consideration.

According to news reports, the victim was on his way to take an exam in College Park when his Chevrolet Beretta was hit broadside at nearly 50mph by a police cruiser driven by Chavez, who was off duty and heading home at the time. The posted speed limit in that area is reportedly 25mph.

A Maryland man was convicted recently of vehicular manslaughter stemming from a traffic accident last January that killed a Baltimore woman and severely injured her boyfriend. The defendant, Christopher Nelson, will face up to a year and a half in jail when he goes before a court in October for sentencing. As a Maryland car accident lawyer, I am committed to my clients. Although this man will be sentenced in October, the pain and suffering continues for the families of the victims.

The defendant was reportedly drunk when the crash occurred last January 8. Although he pleased guilty and claims to be sorry for the incident, that’s cold comfort for these victims. One person is dead and another suffered life-threatening injuries the physical and emotional scars from which will more than likely stay with him for many years to come.

According to reports, the 26-year-old Nelson was driving while intoxicated when he crashed his car head-on into a southbound vehicle on Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard in Pasadena. Elizabeth Meryl Fowler, 54, died in the wreck and her boyfriend, 45-year-old Steven Desombre, received multiple injuries to the head, chest and hip that required him to spend a month in a Baltimore hospital.

It seems there has been a spate of tragic car accidents in Maryland of late. The recent death of a well-known doctor in the Salisbury area is one such example, but also in the headlines was a very sad car crash that took the life of three women and an unborn baby. As Maryland automobile accident lawyers, Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers has represented many accident victims and their families in cases just like this one.

According to reports, 19-year-old Katrina Morrison, Lori Cardwell and Darlene Cardwell were all killed in a fiery traffic accident in Blatimore County as they were driving home from a visit down south where they attended the recent graduation of Morrison’s fiancé from Army basic training. News reports state that Morrison was carrying her fiancé’s baby, which also died in the crash.

It all happened in the early morning hours of July 27 as the three women were traveling in a Chevrolet Aveo through White Marsh, MD. At the intersection of Honeygo and White Marsh boulevards, the Aveo crossed into the path of a large street-sweeper and was hit T-bone style and pushed down the road for about 100 yards. According to Baltimore County fire officials, the three adults were all killed instantly in the collision as the car burst into flames.

A 21-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico has been sentenced to three years in jail for the fatal crash in Dayton, MD, last March that killed two of his passengers and injured a third. According to news reports, one factor in the court’s decision was the man’s 0.09 blood alcohol content (BAC) at the time of the car accident, which was just over the legal limit in Maryland. Other factors, such as an ice- and snow-covered roadway was not considered important. Once the man’s sentence is completed, it is likely he will be deportation back to his home country.

This case shows that courts have very little patience for anyone who has been drinking and driving, even “a little.” As a law firm that represents automobile accident victims and their families, Lebowitz-Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers fights hard for its clients. In this instance, the defense tried to argue that weather conditions were the cause of the accident, however the other facts were more important to the court, such as the use of alcohol and the resulting deaths.

According to court documents, the defendant, Jose Algomeda-Santiago of Mount Airy, was driving a Volkswagen Jetta northbound on a snow- and ice-covered Route 32 shortly before 4 a.m. on March 1 when he lost control of the vehicle. The vehicle spun into the southbound lane, where it was hit from the rear by a Dodge truck. Gilberto Garcia Vasquez, 26, of Westminster, the right rear passenger, was ejected from the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The right-front passenger, 21-year-old Victor Gutierrez-Almeida, died later at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore from injuries sustained in the collision. A third passenger, Gonzalo Gutierrez-Molina, 25, survived the collision. The defendant, Jose Algomeda-Santiago of Mount Airy pleaded guilty to two counts of negligent homicide while under the influence of alcohol.

The judge in the case declined to add probation to the sentence, noting that Algomeda-Santiago would likely be taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials once his sentence was up and probably deported back to Mexico.

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