Rollover 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.

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.

Will Maryland Auto Injuries be Reduced by New Federal Roof-crush Standards?

May 9, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Deaths and injuries in Maryland, as well as across the country, caused by collapsed SUV and passenger car roofs as a result of vehicle collisions and rollover accidents could be reduced in the future thanks to new federal government requirements for greater roof-crush protection. For the first time in more than 30 years, automobile manufacturers will have to engineer their vehicles’ roof and body structures to meet a higher standard — the roofs of future vehicles will have to bear three times the curb weight of a vehicle.

Nearly a decade in the making, will this new requirement save the lives of auto accident victims? Unfortunately, the rules only cover vehicles with gross vehicle weight ratings up to 6,000 pounds (curb weight plus maximum passenger and cargo weight), which will leave out some full-size SUVs and pickup trucks. Still, it is a step in the right direction to reduce vehicle injuries.

Our experience as Maryland Auto Accident Attorneys tells us that there will always be accidents that threaten the lives and well-being of drivers and passengers. At Lebowitz–Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers, our skilled legal professionals have seen the results of roof crush injuries and deaths. We can only hope that the new standards will make a difference.

Single-car Injury Accident on Maryland’s Route 4 Sends Three to Hospital

April 23, 2009 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Three Maryland residents were injured in a recent automobile accident on Route 4 after the SUV they were traveling in was involved in a single-vehicle crash. All but one of the four occupants were hurt when the vehicle went out of control and then rolled at least twice, according to police.

Although multiple-car accidents can result in very serious injuries, especially in front-end collisions, a single-vehicle accident can be just as dangerous, especially in rollover situations. In this case, two of the four people were ejected from the truck as it rolled over several times. It was unknown at the time if the accident was caused by a defective component or if it was driver error.

The accident occurred at about 6 p.m. on April 17, when Nikia C. Wallace, 22, was driving her Chevy Blazer southbound on Route 4 near White Sands Drive. The Hyattsville resident was transporting three other passengers when she apparently lost control of the vehicle. No other vehicles were involved in the incident, although traffic in the southbound lanes was backed up for more than an hour as police and emergency crews helped the victims.

One of them, Sharday N. Redmond, 22, was flown by medevac helicopter to the shock trauma center at Prince George’s Hospital Center more than 40 miles away. The driver and another passenger, Charlton L. Jackson, 22, were transported to Calvert Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.