Hope, as we all do, that serious and fatal traffic collisions will be reduced, we all know that the only way to eliminate collisions would be to eliminate vehicles on the road and driving as a means of getting around. As Maryland personal injury attorneys, I and my legal staff know how easily a person can be caught up in a serious injury accident on the roads in and around our cities and towns.

Earlier this winter, a cab driver apparently ignored a red traffic signal causing a multi-vehicle wreck along a stretch of Western Ave in Friendship Heights. The crash happened on a Tuesday near the D.C.-Maryland border. According to police, the taxi cab was moving eastbound along Western Ave. when it reportedly ran through the intersection against a red light.

As relative innocents, very young children can be seen as being more or less blameless in their actions. When a child injures himself while playing with his friends or family, we immediately feel empathy for the youngster; hoping that he both recovers quickly from his injuries and that he learns from the incident, if only that he or she doesn’t repeat it in the future.

However, when a child is injured due to another person’s negligent or thoughtless actions, our reaction tends to be somewhat different. We may feel anger or resentment toward the individual who caused the incident. While the child may not know what occurred or who is to blame, the parents and society take it upon themselves to protect the child’s interests. Depending on the severity of the accident and extent of the child’s injuries, this is the point at which adults may retain the services of a personal injury attorney.

Whether you commute in the Baltimore area, or Howie, Gaithersburg or the District, no doubt many readers have seen the aftereffects of car and trucking-related wrecks in which one or more people have been injured or killed. Depending on the speed of such an accident -- not to mention the mass of the vehicles involved -- the injuries received by the victims can range from minor cuts and bruises to more serious compound fractures and back injuries. Some of the most serious and life-threatening injuries sustained by victims of highway wrecks include spinal cord damage and closed-head trauma.

The latter of these injuries can mean weeks or months, sometimes years, of recovery following the initial hospital stay. Some victims of high-speed interstate and rural route car accidents can become permanently disabled and unable to perform even the most basic daily functions. In such cases, an individual’s quality of life can be greatly impacted following the aftermath of a truck or passenger car crash that may have been caused simply by another driver’s inattention or perhaps outright negligent actions.

The fact of the matter is that there are people, even now as we write this, who are driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, prescription drugs, or even illegal and illicit substances, know in law enforcement circles as controlled dangerous substances (CDS). The point we wish to make here, is that anyone who operates a car or truck in Maryland should exercise caution when driving in traffic; an accident may only be a only one careless move away.

This is not meant to scare anyone, but only to alert those conscientious drivers to the possibility of traffic collisions that are ever-present due to less-than-thoughtful (or brazenly negligent) drivers who would place not only their life in jeopardy, but also the lives of you and your family. People who drink and drive are just one kind of negligent individual on our roads. Those who use drugs, such as marijuana and cocaine, also place others in danger when taking their illegal habits out on the road. Of course, any kind of passenger car or commercial trucking accident is undesirable, not just the DWI- or DUI-related kind.

Car and trucking-related accidents come in a variety of types and severity. While one would think that maybe a single-car or truck wreck would be less serious than a multiple-vehicle accident, single-vehicle accidents can be one of the worst, especially in the case of a rollover.

We’ve all seen the results of a rollover accident on the highway. Although one may not have realized it at the time some of these rollover accidents involve serious or fatal injuries to one or more of the vehicle occupants. How can this kind of accident, which affects many different vehicles yet tends to be more common in taller vehicles (such as SUVs, Minivans and van-based shuttle buses), be so deadly for the driver and passengers?

That said, it in no way lessens the shock and grief that tend to overwhelm a family members following the untimely death of a relative or close family friend. As Baltimore injury accident lawyers, I and my legal staff have developed a deep understanding of the pain and heartache that many of our clients have experienced following a tragic car or trucking-related wreck.

Not surprisingly, the emotional hurt is only one aspect of a serious injury or fatal traffic accident. For those families whose primary breadwinner is involved in a fatal car or truck crash, the loss of income in itself can place a terrible burden on a family that may already have been struggling in this current economy. Even when the news is not as grave for a an automobile accident victim, the weeks or months spent in a hospital -- unable to work or earn a living to his or her maximum potential -- can also bring a family’s economic survival into question.

On that note, we noticed that one of the last days of 2011 saw multiple injuries and traffic fatalities on Maryland roadways. From these kinds of car and truck wrecks, one usually sees a variety of injuries; from the lesser types, like minor scrapes, cuts, bruises, to more serious bodily injury, such as broken bones, compound fractures, as well as serious neck, spinal cord damage and closed-head injuries.

Of the latter, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord damage can result in months or years of costly medical care, recuperation and rehabilitation. For families living on the ragged edge of financial existence, an event such as a bad car or commercial truck-related crash can spell disaster, especially if the victim is one of the key bread-winners for that family. Costly medical care combined with lost wages can quickly ruin a family’s meager savings and result in all manner of financially-related misery.

While the numbers may be small, at least when compared to the universe of automobile, trucking and motorcycle collisions, victims of taxi cab-related traffic accidents represent a smaller percentage of personal injuries. Nevertheless, as Maryland auto and trucking accident attorneys, my office is aware that many people put their well-being in jeopardy on a regular basis when riding public transportation.

Here in Baltimore, as well as Annapolis, Rockville, the District and Gaithersburg, accidents involving service vehicles are certainly not unheard of. In fact, taxi cabs, hire cars, limousines and shuttle busses have all been part of a traffic wreck from time to time. As personal injury lawyers and occasional passengers of these kinds of vehicle ourselves, we understand how easily one can be seriously injured in even the simplest of automobile accidents, not to mention ones that do not provide seatbelts for occupants’ use.

You don’t have to be a physics major to know that an unbelted occupant of a motor vehicle can receive serious bodily injury, such as broken bones, cuts and lacerations, and even closed-head trauma and other potentially debilitating injuries.

This brings up an interesting topic that many have touched on over the years; that of drunken driving accidents, injury and fatal, which happen more than anyone would like to admit. Among the top candidates for senseless traffic collisions has to be drunken driving wrecks. This category of car, truck and motorcycle collision is by far the most preventable, since it usually involves a driver who more or less chose to drive in an impaired state.

Truly, victims and families of those killed in DWI and DUI car crashes must live with the memory for the rest of their lives; knowing that the death of their loved one in a sometimes terrible car or truck wreck need no have happened at all if it wasn’t for the thoughtless consumption of alcohol, or the reckless use of prescription or illicit drugs.

We’re told by many authorities that drunk driving arrest rates are down across the country, and by association the number of crashes have dropped as well. But the question that comes to mind amid all this “good" news is whether or not people are drinking and driving less.

As Baltimore car, truck and motorcycle injury accident attorneys, even we are aware of just a fraction of the more dangerous intersections here in Baltimore, over in Gaithersburg and out in Washington, D.C. With all of the many and varied automobile and trucking-related traffic collisions that happen every year, only a computer database can really keep track of this information with any accuracy.

And so it was, until recently, that the average person could not know for certain if they were constantly exposing themselves and their families to danger by driving through a highly accident-prone area on the way to school, work or the movies. This has all changed with the advent of new, online traffic fatality mapping information offered by UK-based ITO World.

According to news articles, individuals can now see how safe (or dangerous) the steets they frequently drive on or cross as a pedestrian actually are. Since almost nobody stands at a street corner for hours each day to observe traffic collisions and pedestrian accidents, the database offered by ITO World let’s one decide if an obviously busy intersection is really a hazard to one’s health.

Quite frankly, although drunk driving has for decades been under attack nationwide by state and federal government and law enforcement agencies, the fact remains that the same people who drink still use a car to get around. Designated driving campaigns are helpful, but it’s not hard to imagine that more than a few drunken bar patrons are going to head home this weekend without a sober ride.

Traffic wrecks involving commercial trucks may not be the primary type of injury accident during the New Year’s holiday, but car-to-car collisions are likely to be the order of the day -- and night. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my colleagues have seen the result of alcohol-related car, truck and motorcycle accidents; none of which are particularly pretty.

Given the number of DWI- and DUI-related traffic incidents in any one year, it is a certainty that we will see our share of crashes in Baltimore, Rockville, Annapolis and the District this season as well. What we should all keep in mind is that the danger exists and should be avoided whenever possible.

As Baltimore automobile accident attorneys and Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my staff know the heartbreak of families who have lost loved ones in tragic, and many times, avoidable car, truck and motorcycle crashes. Even those who survive a car or trucking-related traffic accident can face weeks or months of hospitalization and rehab treatment in order to get back some semblance of normalcy in their lives.

Sadly, older people have a harder time when it comes to recuperating from a serious traffic wreck; even relatively minor car or truck accidents can leave an elderly individual in critical condition with sometimes life-threatening complications as a result of their age. Pedestrian injuries precipitated by a car crash can be particularly deadly for an older person with broken bones, sometimes compound fractures, and serious closed-head injuries commonly being sustained.

Many families worry about their elderly parents who still drive. While there is no reason that a competent individual cannot continue to operate a motor vehicle into their 80s and 90s, the potential for accidents is known to increase for these individuals as a function of miles driven. Occasionally, very minor accidents -- such as striking a mailbox while backing out of the driveway or knocking off a sideview mirror while parking in one’s garage -- can portend worse incidents to come. It’s sometimes up to other family members to suggest to elderly drivers to perhaps scale back or even stop driving altogether.

When an accident happens on a low-speed surface street, the out come can range from minor injuries to death of the vehicle’s occupants. While higher speed interstate crashes can be serious as well, the lesser number of obstacles immediately adjacent to the roadway helps to reduce the number of fatal accidents. However, this is not to say that people don’t die on a regular basis as a result of bad highway collisions.

As Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my legal staff are well-versed in handling injury and fatal car, truck and motorcycle crashes. Certainly, when a multiple vehicle accident occurs, one or more drivers may be to blame. Filing a wrongful death suit against another individual based on claims of negligent or thoughtless acts is not uncommon here in Baltimore, or over in Rockville, Gaithersburg or the District.

In the case of single-car or truck crashes, the injured party is typically the driver himself. If the driver was found to be at fault, having caused the accident, other passengers may decide to file a claim against that driver to recoup the costs of medical care or other claims of pain and suffering which directly resulted from that particular traffic wreck.

Whether one drives to work or school every day, or just takes the family car to the supermarket once a week, as soon as we hit the road the odds begin to mount up. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my colleagues know that for many people it is simply a matter of time before someone is involved in a injury-related road accident. Hopefully that is all; however, fatal car and commercial truck crashes are all part of the mix.

Occupants of passenger cars, SUVs and minivans are certainly more protected when compared to a motorcyclist involved in a traffic collision, but pedestrians and bicycle riders are part of the most vulnerable group when it comes to car accidents. Not only are people on foot or cycling not protected by a steel cage, but if and when they hit the ground, they are more likely to strike their head on a hard surface, like an asphalt roadway or concrete sidewalk.

Without a doubt, over the past several decades the mixture of cars and alcohol has been a major contributor to highway deaths across the country. Locally, in Baltimore, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, not to mention Washington, D.C., anti-drunk driving campaigns have slowly made inroads toward creating a safer driving environment for all concerned. Still, as we say, there is much work to be done to eliminate the threat.

Anyone who has been involved in a car or motorcycle accident caused by a drunken driver can relate to this subject on a very personal level. Anyone who has lost a loved one due to a fatal DWI or DUI traffic collision knows the pain and the emptiness that follows; a void in one’s life that can never truly be filled. While it is our job, as Maryland personal injury attorneys, to help provide a modicum of closure to those who have lost a loved one in a car or commercial truck accident, no amount of recompense can ever take the place of a deceased relative, spouse or child.

For the people who survive a serious automobile wreck, the injuries sustained -- such as head, neck and spinal cord injuries; internal injuries; broken bones and compound fractures -- the path to recovery is sometimes long and hard. And, it goes without saying, that medical costs for prolonged treatment and rehabilitation can quickly become a burden on a family, especially in cases where the injured party is a major income earner.

With all this understood, it seems odd that individuals continue to drink and drive, and thus expose others and themselves to potential physical harm and even death. A short while ago we read of a man who apparently could not take responsibility for his actions after crashing his vehicle into a utility pole along a portion of Kenilworth Avenue.

Described in police reports as uncooperative, the 29-year-old driver allegedly was speeding when he drove a black sedan into a pole on the roadside, trapping his passenger in the car until emergency responders could arrive to free the victim. Based on reports, the accident occurred at about 11pm on a Tuesday evening when the car hit the light pole on the southbound side of the roadway.

Riverdale Heights volunteer firefighters responded to the call, as did personnel from the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department. Police reports indicate that the driver initially had wanted to leave the crash site, however apparently decided to stay as emergency responders began to arrive.

According to news reports, the suspect allegedly denied the fact that he was at the wheel at the time of the accident, however a woman who was the only other occupant in the car claimed that the man was driving the entire time. The unnamed driver, who was later transported to a local hospital for treatment of undisclosed injuries, reportedly refused to take a breathalyzer test, and also declined to sign the citation issued by the officer in charge.

Ultimately, the man was charged with operating a motor vehicle without a driver’s license, speeding, DUI, driving while impaired, reckless and negligent driving, as well as a number of other violations. No mention was made as to the condition of the female passenger.

Driver Faces Litany of Charges After Car Slams Into Utility Poll, Patch.com, November 24, 2011