Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
When it comes to personal injury, nobody wishes for it to happen, yet there are worse scenarios that can occur to a person or an entire family. As most every parent, grandparent or adult relative will tell you, it is hard to see a young child, sibling or grandchild injured in a senseless accident. Most parents would gladly take the place of an injured girl or boy rather than have that innocent person suffer the pain of injury for days or weeks, much less for a lifetime.
As Baltimore automobile and trucking accident attorneys, we can attest to the grief felt by family members following a terrible car, truck or motorcycle crash. And while most injuries heal over time, a fatal accident can be one of the most emotional events that a family can experience, especially when it involves the death of a youngster who hasn’t even known the world for long.
Nothing can bring back a life lost to a traffic collision; that is a fact. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my colleagues can only hope to help the survivors cope with the loss of a child through legal means, if necessary. It goes without saying that cases involving a lost loved one are probably the most difficult, due to the wide range of emotion and the anger that the victim’s family tends to hold against the individual who may have caused the accident to begin with.
Whether one lives or works in Annapolis, Gaithersburg, Rockville or the Washington, D.C., area, personal injury cases, as well as those involving wrongful death, are more common than one might expect. Following a road accident or car wreck, medical bills must be paid, as do other recuperative therapies, if the victim is to be returned to health as soon as possible, if at all possible. Even when it comes to loss of life, the victim’s family may still be responsible for any hospital costs.
Children who are seriously injured or killed in a tragic accident, whether due to careless or negligent actions of another individual, are entitled to be compensated for their pain, suffering, as well as injuries sustained in the crash. The same goes for a child’s parents or legal guardians.
On this very topic, we caught a news item that reported one of the worst of all scenarios: the death of a small baby in a single-car traffic wreck. Sadly, every parent’s worst nightmare was realized in a serious traffic accident that happened in Prince George’s County along a stretch of Interstate 295 in mid-August when a passenger vehicle carrying seven people, including a 3-month-old infant, left the roadway in the early morning hours, impacting a nearby tree.
The crash, which apparently involved only the victims’ vehicle, occurred on a Saturday just after 2am on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway just south of Rte 197. According to police reports, which were sketchy at the time, a number of the vehicle occupants were thrown from the motor vehicle.
Two of the seven people, an adult female and a teenage girl were pronounced dead at the scene. According to Prince George’s County officials, the baby was rushed to a local hospital but doctors could not save the child, who died shortly thereafter. Based on news reports, some of the occupants became trapped in the vehicle following the crash.
No mention was made as to whether the accident was a result of driver error or possibly malfunctioning steering, failure of the brake system or a blown out tire, all potential mechanical problems that could lead to a loss of control of a motor vehicle traveling at highway speeds. The southbound side of the B-W Parkway was closed for several hours as emergency responders, clean-up crews and crash scene investigators worked at the scene of the accident.
Infant Among Victims in Fatal I-295 Crash, Patch.com, August 16, 2011