Articles Posted in Pedestrian Accidents

A 61-year-old woman was struck and killed recently in a pedestrian-car accident on Sudbrook Lane in Pikeville. According to reports, the local resident was walking eastbound along the westbound side of the road when an SUV reportedly hit her from behind just before three o’clock in the afternoon. Based on news reports, it seems that the vehicle had to cross over into the westbound lane in order to strike the pedestrian. Police reports show that the vehicle did not stop.

As Maryland personal injury and auto accident lawyers, our firm is able to represent victims and their families in situations such as this one. Based on the time of day, it is highly unlikely that conditions led to the SUV driver killing this person. Unless some sort of steering or tire failure occurred, the situation points more to driver inattention, or worse, a case of impaired driving.

According news reports, Baltimore County Police have charged a 39-year-old Lochearn man with the hit-and-run accident that killed Jessica Robins Jones on that October 12 afternoon. Investigators stated that the victim was walking eastbound on Sudbrook Lane near Glenback Avenue. Police also said that the driver, Lonnie Becoat III, never stopped. Jones was taken to Sinai Hospital where she later died.

It took two years but finally justice has been served on a driver who hit and killed a Glen Burnie truck driver who was standing outside his vehicle on Interstate 79 in October 2007. Heidi Wise pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while driving under the influence of prescription medication. As a Maryland personal injury and auto accident lawyer, my firm is able to represent victims and their families in situations very similar to this one.

According to news reports, the accident occurred as Wise was passing the disabled tractor trailer driven by Charles H. Payton Sr. The 50-year-old truck driver had just pulled his big rig off onto the eastbound ramp of Interstate 79 at the junction of I-79 and I-80 in Findley Township, PA. According to police, the local woman struck and killed Payton with her pickup truck after the man had gotten out of his truck, likely to check on its condition.

Although police initially determined that the woman was not drunk from alcohol consumption, later laboratory results showed she had five times the appropriate dosage of the anxiety medication Xanax, according to news reports. Courts records indicate that on the day of the accident the woman had picked up a prescription for the medication totaling 60 pills, however, when police conducted their investigation the bottle contained only 46 pills — authorities maintain that there should have been least 58 or 59 pills.

Pedestrian-auto accidents occur more often than one would imagine. When they do the results can be catastrophic — injuries from simple scrapes and bruises to fractures, head and spine injuries. Very serious injuries. Our firm, Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers represents all manner of clients, including the families of victims killed as a result of automobile accidents. As experienced car accident attorneys, we know the proper way to approach personal injury lawsuits to the best advantage of our clients. A pedestrian accident in downtown Baltimore last month is a painful reminder of how the simple act of crossing a street on foot can take a terrible turn for the worse.

According to police, a woman was struck by a Dodge Neon driven by a 71-year-old woman in the 3100 block of North Calvert Street near the Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus. The accident occurred around 9 p.m. on a Friday evening. Emergency personnel were soon dispatched to the scene and the victim was rapidly transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital, however she was pronounced dead around 11 p.m. that same evening. The driver of the car stayed at the scene, according to news reports.

A preliminary investigation by Baltimore City police indicates that the victim may have been crossing the street against the traffic light. To complicate matters, police added that the weather also may have contributed to the incident, in that visibility for the driver may have been reduced to some extent.

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.

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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.

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