Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
It’s hardly an easy thing to say, but there are people reading this that will likely be in a car, truck or motorcycle accident sometime in their lives. Of course, as Maryland personal injury lawyers, we can also say that this is not necessarily a unique event, at least based on our experience representing victims of traffic accidents here in Baltimore, over in Gaithersburg, and even in the District of Columbia. We can only hope that those who are hurt as a result of another individual’s negligence that recovery will be swift and complete.
Unfortunately for a percentage of car crash and trucking accident victims, severe injuries, long-term disability and even death from a roadway collision can be a result. Every year, drivers all across our nation log tens of millions of miles without a single serious traffic incident, yet hundreds of thousands of innocent victims fill the statistic columns in police departments and state roadway agencies every single year.
So while it’s not that surprising to know that a minor crash could possibly be in one’s future, with close to six million traffic wrecks annually in the U.S., many of these will be severe and quite a few will be fatal. Death and serious bodily injuries are just part and parcel of the fast-paced and busy highways that people travel daily here in Maryland and elsewhere throughout the country. For us, as automobile accident attorneys, our focus is on helping those people who have been made innocent victims of a car or truck crash caused by another, less thoughtful or outright negligent driver.
It is through recklessness, carelessness and inattention that many highway collisions and urban crashes happen. Sometimes, the driver who caused the crash in the first place has little or no self-respect, and arguable hardly any consideration for the persons they may have hurt or killed. These people are quite often the ones we read about, not in name, but in deed; they are the ones who run following a bad traffic crash. And while most hit-and-run drivers are brought to justice, some evade the law. We can only hope that these individuals cannot ignore their conscience for the pain and suffering they impose on strangers.
One story that brought this topic to the fore involved a woman who reportedly fled the scene of a traffic accident in the New Market area. Based on news reports, Maryland State Police (MSP) officers were on patrol in the vicinity (near Rte 75) when they observed a Chrysler minivan speeding west at high speed. Using their laser speed measuring equipment, the troopers could see the vehicle was travelling a little over 80mph in a 65 zone.
Officers watched as the minivan headed up the entrance ramp to Rte 75, at which time the driver apparently lost control of the vehicle. The minivan crashed into a nearby guardrail. The MSP troopers arrived moments later only to see who they believed to be the driver get out of the damaged vehicle and ran into the adjacent woods.
A while after the crash, additional troopers and other law enforcement personnel arrived with K-9 and helicopter support to search of the missing driver. Based on news articles, a 21-year-old woman was found hitch-hiking along the eastbound lanes of the interstate. Identified as Tabbetha Rio Butrim, a resident of Elkridge, she was taken by emergency personnel to Frederick Memorial Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. Allegedly drunk or otherwise impaired at the time of the crash, the news articles at the time stated that charges were pending against the woman; namely for excessive speed and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, as well as driving under the influence and operating a motor vehicle with a revoked driver’s license.
Charges Pending Against Tabbetha Rio Butrim Who Crashed, Fled In New Market, Md.; WUSA9.com; April 25, 2012