Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
Sad to say, but it would be a shock if one day we woke up and there were no more automobile or trucking-related traffic accidents in Baltimore, or anywhere else for that matter. With the number of serious and fatal car, truck and motorcycle collisions that occur every month, it’s no surprise that a significant percentage of our society’s time, energy and financial resources go toward helping people recover from, many times, senseless car accidents.
In a perfect world there would be no single-vehicle, multi-vehicle or commuter-related wrecks anywhere in our state or across the nation. But enough dreaming, because in the real world people make mistakes and others pay for those mistakes by being injured or killed as a result.
As Maryland personal injury lawyers, my firm sees first-hand the effects of senseless car and truck collisions on a weekly basis. Not a day goes by that somewhere across the state, someone innocent bystander or vehicle occupant has been hurt by the actions of another individual. In cases where a death has resulted from a negligent act, it’s not uncommon for the family of the victim to file a wrongful death suit against the person responsible for that fatality.
For those lucky enough to survive, the road to recovery is not always the smoothest, but hopefully it has few bumps and curves to delay them from getting back to a more healthy condition. A recent news item pointed out the callousness with which some drivers can carry on following a serious collision; in this case a hit-and-run pedestrian crash.
According to reports, a person on foot in Laurel, MD, was rushed to the hospital in critical condition following an afternoon traffic accident. Police reports indicate that a man was hit by a vehicle along a stretch of eastbound Rte 198 while he was walking on an adjacent sidewalk. At the time of the news article, police did not know with any certainty if the vehicle that struck the man went out of control or if the driver specifically targeted the victim.
Regardless of whether the crash was due to a mechanical problem or a deliberate act, the driver of the vehicle allegedly drove away from the scene following the impact. Based on news stories at the time, the Laurel PD was actively searching for what witnesses described as a white pickup truck.
The incident reportedly occurred just after 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon near the Crossroad Shopping Center in Laurel. The force of the impact apparently sent the victim down a 30-foot embankment and into a nearby parking lot, where police and EMS personnel found the unnamed man shortly thereafter.
Following the collision, eyewitnesses, including the driver of a Metrobus that was following behind the pickup at the time of the crash, told police that the driver of the pickup truck left the accident scene. Emergency responders transported the victim to R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore where he was admitted in critical condition with head injuries, broken femur and crushed pelvis.
According to police investigators, the Metrobus was fitted with a camera. Initial news reports indicated that the video captured the truck leaving the roadway, going onto the sidewalk, then running into the man on foot. Police stated that they had identified the type of vehicle — a Ford F-250 SuperCab with an extended pickup bed; however there was no additional information on whether the footage revealed additional information that could help locate and arrest the driver.
At the time of the news reports, the only other additional information police had to go on was that the suspect continued to head eastbound on Rte 198 toward Anne Arundel County.
Man critically injured in Wednesday afternoon hit-and-run in Laurel, Gazette.net, February 29, 2012
Laurel Police Seek Driver In Hit-And-Run Crash, CBSLocal.com, March 2, 2012