Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog

Being personal injury lawyers representing individuals in Maryland and Washington D.C., our office sees the sad results of car, truck and SUV accidents every month. Although many traffic collisions do not cause fatalities, these kinds of auto wrecks can produce serious and long-term injury to one or more passengers in a vehicle. Pedestrians as well can be affected by car and truck accidents in city centers.

Cuts and bruises are the most minor of injuries, but during high-speed collisions head, neck and spinal damage can easily be sustained by the occupants of a vehicle. While seatbelts and airbags do provide a fair amount of protection, severe and sometimes fatal injuries often do occur.

Tramatic Brain InjuriesHead injuries, many times referred to as traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are very commonplace in emergency rooms across Maryland and the rest of the U.S. More than a million people receive some kind of TBI every year as a result of a car, minivan, SUV or pickup truck crash. Traumatic brain injuries are usually caused by a blow to the head, quite uncommon in medium- to high-speed car or truck accidents. The impact from such a crash can cause a disruption of the brain's neurological functions, the severity of which can range from a mild concussion to severe brain damage, coma, or even death.

It’s a known fact that more than five million persons across the U.S. are living with disabilities caused by a TBI incident. The leading causes of these injuries include motor vehicle crashes, motorcycle or bicycle accidents, even slip-and-fall accidents. When such accidents occur due to another person’s negligence, this is cause for a possible legal suit.

Spinal Cord Injury
Car accidents can also result in serious back and neck injuries. Anyone who can walk away from a high-speed trucking accident or car crash can count themselves lucky, however it is possible to sustain a spinal cord injury in such accidents, the effects of which could remain with you for months or years to come.

The most common types of spinal cord injuries (also known as SCIs) are the compression type as well as the contusion type. A compression injury to a person’s back can cause excess pressure on the individual’s spinal column, including the flexible discs separating the individual vertebrae. A contusion type of injury can result in bruising of the spinal cord.

As with severe head trauma, a person suffering from these types of traumatic spinal injuries, caused by or resulting from another individual’s negligence, should consider seeking the services of a qualified legal professional. Because of the potential lingering effects of such spine-related injuries, no one should take themselves for granted. Your health is one of your most important assets, and you must protect yourself.

Some have likely heard this said: “That wasn’t such a bad traffic accident; the damage to the vehicle was minimal.” If you haven’t, then you probably have not dealt with an insurance company as a plaintiff in an injury case. Having represented hundreds of victims of car, truck or sport utility vehicle (SUV) crashes, my firm understands that it is quite easy to be seriously hurt in an automobile accident even though the repairs to the vehicle don’t amount to much at all.

This is a case of major bodily injuries, yet relatively minor vehicle or property damage. Sadly, this familiar, yet deceptive argument is used very frequently by defense attorneys and insurance companies when auto collisions are concerned. And it’s one of the best reasons to consult a personal injury lawyer experienced in the area of auto accident law.

Whether you live in Baltimore, Annapolis, Columbia or the D.C. area, car accidents can occur most anywhere, some of them with devastating consequences. Insurance companies many times will try to downplay the extent of an accident to try to justify a reduced settlement to the injured parties. This is done sometimes by introducing evidence in the form of distorted, grainy or out-of-focus photos showing minor vehicle or property damage.

But this is done without offering any expert testimony regarding the direct and causal relationship between the extent of the property damage and the victim’s bodily injuries. Brain trauma as well as neck injuries can occur even when a vehicle has sustained minimal outward damage itself. Yet every year, hundreds of auto accident victims settle for less than what they deserve due to these kinds of tactics.

The purpose of the defense is to disprove, usually by false implication, what has been proven by medical evidence and expert testimony -- typically by a licensed physician. It’s easy to forget how much energy is released – or inflicted on a victim’s body -- as a result of a traffic accident. Yet insurance company attorneys will usually make no mention of the sudden and very high energy forces that are transmitted throughout a motor vehicle in the milliseconds following a collision.

Continue reading "Maryland Auto Injury Update: So-called Minor Car or SUV Accidents can Cause Serious Personal Injury" »

Depending on the speed of a car or truck accident, injuries to the occupants of the vehicles can be substantial. Seatbelts, also known as safety belts, provide a first line of defense against severe injury or death. Bus accidents are particularly dangerous since passengers rarely use or even have seatbelts available to them. Being a Maryland auto accident and personal injury lawyer, I know how critical using seatbelts is to passenger survival.

According to a recent news report, eight people were injured as a result of a bus-car crash in Baltimore, MD. The motor vehicle accident occurred in the early morning of December 19. Based on that report, Maryland police personnel along with EMS emergency crews arrived at the accident scene not long after the crash. The bus involved in the wreck was carrying individuals with special needs, according to police.

The crash, which took place at 8am on the 3200 block of Philadelphia Road in Baltimore, was apparently caused by a small passenger sedan that had rear-ended a taxi, which had stopped on the road prior to the accident. Police reported that following the collision, the sedan subsequently crossed the road’s center line, heading into the oncoming traffic lane where it struck the special needs bus.

There were eight victims who sustained injuries in the crash. Emergency crews helped to transport eight people to local medical facilities for treatment of their injuries. Two of the eight victims were transported via ambulance to the Shock Trauma center. Two more victims were transported to Bayview Medical Center, while four others were transported to Upper Chesapeake for treatment by medical personnel.

The identity of the driver in the passenger car was not immediately know, nor were the extent of that person’s injuries. As for the others injured in the accident, healthcare officials at the various medical facilities had not released the identities or the condition of those delivered to hospitals in the area.

8 Injured In Collision Involving Bus, WBALTV.com, December 29, 2009

A potentially deadly situation occurred recently when a pickup pulled out in front of a loaded St. Mary’s County school bus on Great Mills Road. Auto accidents involving school buses can ofter result in injury to numerous children riding in the vehicle. I'm well aware of this as a Maryland automobile accident lawyer. In this case, the kids onboard were not injured, although the man driving the pickup truck apparently remained hospitalized following the crash.

The traffic wreck occurred just before 7am on the morning of Wednesday, December 16, when a 1999 Dodge truck driven by 55-year-old resident of Lexington Park failed to yield to the school bus. According to reports, William Woodley Dyson pulled out of Prather Drive directly into the path of the oncoming school bus, which then hit the man’s pickup truck.

According to the sheriff's office, five children and the bus driver, 31-year-old Torri Lavore Hall of Lexington Park, were taken by ambulance to St. Mary's Hospital for evaluation, while the pickup driver was flown via Maryland State Police Trooper 7 helicopter to Prince George's Shock Trauma.

The five Little Flower School students on the bus, whose ages ranged from 6 to 13 years, along with the bus driver were reportedly in good condition following the crash. The kids were released from the hospital back in school by lunchtime.

According to reports, this is the second parochial school bus accident in as many weeks. Previous to this latest crash, a bus that transports students to St. John's School and St. Mary's Ryken High School was involved in a collision the morning of December 9 on St. Andrew's Church Road.

St. Mary's County government oversees 43 buses run by 18 contractors. The buses service 11 private elementary schools as well as St. Mary's Ryken High School by transporting between 1,600 and 1,900 children.

Students not hurt as bus, truck collide, SoMDNew.com, December 18, 2009

More than 20 Maryland residents received various injuries on Saturday, June 6, when the MTA city bus they were riding in was hit by a Chevrolet Malibu in Baltimore County. The Route 20 bus was traveling toward Security Square when the driver of the Malibu apparently lost control and slammed into the larger vehicle at an intersection in West Baltimore.

The incident occurred at the intersection of West Baltimore and Carey streets. Although details of the car-bus accident have not yet been released -- the investigation is ongoing -- crashes like this can be the result of a number of possible causes. Driver error -- for example inattention, confusing the accelerator with the brake pedal, or driving under the influence of alcohol -- is such cause. Another common area is a vehicle mechanical problem, such as poorly maintained brakes, failure of the steering system, or even a blown tire.

Regardless of the cause in this case, nearly a dozen innocent passengers on the bus were hurt as a consequence of the accident. Many of those riders were taken to three different hospitals in the Baltimore area for treatment of their personal injuries. No one was killed in the accident, but the driver of the car was badly injured and was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. As part of the police investigation, the bus driver was given a required examination for alcohol or drugs.

Continue reading "Multiple Injuries in West Baltimore after Car Crashes into City Transit Bus" »