Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
We all do it, and on a daily basis. We entrust certain aspects of our lives to individuals who we believe are competent, trained and conscientious. Now, some of what these individuals do has very effect on anyone of us, at least in terms of our physical safety. But others from whom we contract services do, indeed, have a direct effect on our well-being. This can also extend to family and friends as well. The scary part is that we don’t always consider the potential negative results that a basic lapse in judgment by one person may have on us in the long-term.
Every year I and my legal staff consult with individuals who were victims of a personal injury accident. These people, or their loved ones, could have been hurt by a doctor’s medical mistake, pharmacy error or even a simple slip-and-fall mishap on the job. Still others may have been permanently disabled due to a car, truck or motorcycle-related traffic wreck. Whatever the cause, as Maryland personal injury attorneys, my firm is dedicated to helping those victims and their families recover costs for medical care, rehabilitation, future long-term care and even compensation for financial loss or emotional distress.
Most every person that we see had no idea that they would soon be facing a life-changing event when they woke up on the morning of their accident. This is the nature of personal injuries; one can almost never see them coming, otherwise we would do all we could to avoid them. One category of injury accident that can take a huge toll on an individual’s health and future physical well-being is a highway or roadway automobile or commercial trucking accident.
A subset of these sometimes horrendous car and truck crashes would be those in which the victim was an innocent passenger in the family car, aboard a city bus, or riding in a commuter rail car. This is where we come full circle, to the point of entrusting one’s life to another human being. Whether we realize every time or not, climbing into a friend’s car, riding on public transportation or simply going on a vacation cruise can set the stage for a tragic event, one which the victim could not anticipate nor control.
We are reminded of this by an event that took place in 2011, when a 43-year-old woman was killed as a passenger of a motorcycle in Berkeley County, MD. Of course, one might say, motorcycles are dangerous and anyone who voluntarily gets on one should know the risks. This may be true, but risks come in all shapes and sizes. Some risks are calculated, while others are, for lack of a better phrase, “a sure thing.”
According to the news reports we saw, a Maryland man was indicted earlier this year in the fatal motorcycle-related traffic accident that killed Lorena Roberts in April of last year. Based on police reports, 45-year-old Steven Thompson was operating his bike with Roberts on the back when the cycle apparently hit a utility pole then the back-end pickup. Police reconstruction experts stated in a preliminary hearing that the bike was going around 48mph when the crash occurred.
Sadly, Roberts died at the scene from injuries sustained in the wreck. Thompson, who was found to be drunk at the time of the crash, survived the collision and reportedly fled the scene; he was discovered by police almost a quarter mile away. Court records indicated that the man had a blood-alcohol content (BAC) of 0.137 percent following the accident. Thompson reportedly admitted to police that knowing he had some drinks prior to the crash, he fled the scene because he was scared.
Hagerstown man indicted in fatal motorcycle crash, Herald-Mail.com, February 23, 2012