Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog

Maryland Personal Injury Update: Rollover Traffic Accidents Pose Serious Danger to SUV and Passenger Van Occupants

January 25, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

We’ll be quite frank here: Automobile collisions are one of the most violent kinds of personal injury accidents out there, especially on our high-speed interstates and even on some secondary roads. In fact, as Maryland auto accident lawyers, I and my staff have seen the results of some very serious car, truck and motorcycle crashes. Many of these involved serious injuries — from compound fractures and internal organ damage, to closed-head trauma and permanent paralysis; some collisions resulted in death of the victim.

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?

Baltimore Auto Accident News: Three Separate Maryland Traffic Fatalities in St. Mary’s, Calvert and Charles Counties

January 22, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Many people subscribe to the adage, Bad things come in threes, but sadly this saying would apply to one news article we ran across a while back. Although many individuals are hurt or permanently injured in the Maryland and Washington, D.C., areas, it is true that a percentage of car, truck and motorcycle roadway collisions result in fatalities.

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.

Maryland Auto Injury News: Driver Survives, Two Others Die in Fatal Montgomery County Traffic Accident

January 19, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Another alcohol-related car crash has taken the lives of two people in Montgomery County, MD — barely a day into the New Year, according to news reports. As Baltimore automobile and motorcycle accident attorneys, I and my colleagues understand the anguish that victims families go through following a fatal traffic wreck. Most unfortunate, from the standpoint of these grieving relatives, is the possibility that accidents of this sort may have been avoided (or the severity of the collision significantly reduced) had the driver been more thoughtful.

As a Maryland personal injury lawyer, I and my colleagues have had the opportunity to represent numerous individuals injured as a result of another person’s negligence. In the case of fatal accidents, the victim’s family may sometimes bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the person they believe caused the crash, or at least played a significant part in the tragic event.

Naturally, whenever an individual is killed or dies in an untimely fashion, the entire episode becomes an emotional experience for the victim’s family and relatives. Even under the best circumstances — for example, when a person passes away due to natural causes – that individual’s wife or husband, their children can be facing an uncertain future, especially in cases where financial hardship has become a way of life.

Baltimore Traffic Accident News: Marylanders Killed, Injured in Multiple Car, Truck and Bus Crashes

January 17, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Sad as it is to report, car, truck and motorcycle accidents will likely remain a fact of life as we continue to soldier on into the New Year. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my legal staff do not expect that 2012 will deliver and better news in terms of traffic deaths and serious car and trucking-related collisions. Of course, as the economy slowly makes its eventual recovery, the increase in commerce and relative prosperity will likely mean an increase in commuting and business miles.; with that inevitable rise in traffic activity comes the very real potential for increased injury accidents.

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.

Baltimore Auto Injury Update: Beware Cheap Taxi, Limousine Rides; Uninsured Cabbies can Cost You Big

January 14, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

These days, with the economy still struggling to get a foothold, many people are cutting corners to make ends meet. Similarly, many retailers and service providers are cutting their prices to compete with the limited pool of discretionary monies in family budgets. While taking a cab or hiring a limo may not be something that many cash-strapped individuals are doing much of, there is still a need for these services and it’s a fair bet that a percentage of potential customers may be looking for the cheapest ride available; cue the unscrupulous cab operator or limousine company.

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.

Montgomery County Auto Accident News: Maryland Man Sentenced to 20 Years for Fatal DUI Crash

January 10, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Our judicial system has ways of dealing with those who have violated the laws put in place to make our land a safe and civilized place in which to live. Some individuals, whether through malice of forethought or through negligent actions, cross the line between good and bad; those people are often caught and brought to justice, where they face the penalties laid out by lawmakers and their fellow citizens.

As a Maryland personal injury lawyer, I have seen many families torn apart by the thoughtless actions of other people. Fatal traffic accidents, in particular, are instances where a life can be taken due only to the lack of consideration on the part of another driver. Whether the result of drinking and driving, distracted driving, aggressive or other thoughtless operation of motor vehicle, once a person is killed in a car or truck accident there is no bring that individual back to life.

A person found guilty of causing a fatal car, truck or motorcycle accident due to alcohol or drug use can many times be sent to jail for his or her offense. This may help the victims’ families feel that justice has been done, but the void left behind by the loss of those deceased family members can never truly be filled. When a person who killed a loved one out of negligence receives what the families of some victims deem a partial or incomplete criminal sentence, those family members may decide to bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the negligent individual.

Baltimore Automobile Accident Update: Certain Jeep Models May Hide Dangerous Mechanical Issues

January 7, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Every once in a while, one hears or reads of a potentially life-threatening situation or condition created by a faulty or poorly designed car, truck or motorcycle component; and, it’s not a stretch to say that some single-vehicle car or truck accidents are caused, at least in part, by a mechanical failure in on of the vehicle’s critical control systems.

One glance at some owner and enthusiast sports car, biker and off-roading websites and it’s easy to see that potential trouble lurks when people attempt to modify their vehicles beyond what the manufacturer intended. But problems can also crop up even without radical modification to a motor vehicle. In this respect, preventative maintenance is also important to follow, especially with older vehicles that may have many tens of thousands of miles on their odometers.

As Maryland personal injury attorneys, my firm has the skills to represent victims of automobile, truck and motorcycle accidents. One thing we know is that even seemingly minor mechanical or structural problems on a motor vehicle can easily lead to serious injury or even death. As injury lawyers, our job is to help victims and their families recover the costs and expenses from medical treatment and rehabilitation as a result of a passenger car or commercial vehicle accident caused by someone else’s negligence.

Baltimore Traffic Accident Update: Reviewing the Statistical Danger of Meeting a Drunken Driver in Maryland

January 6, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As Baltimore auto accident attorneys, we are always at odds with the actuaries and statistics people, not because we don’t believe the numbers, but because it’s a hard pill to swallow that X-number of innocent people will be injured in car and trucking-related accidents from one year to the next. Unlike those who tally only numbers, as Maryland personal injury lawyers, we are all too familiar with the pain and suffering of our clients.

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.

Baltimore Auto Injury News: Firm Helps Maryland Drivers Peer into the Dangerous World of Traffic Accidents

January 3, 2012 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Unless one is a police officer, traffic accident investigator, or traffic reporter, it’s difficult to know all of the dangerous and potentially deadly intersections and roadways throughout Maryland. In fact, it’s likely that no one person can really know the location of the majority of accident-prone areas across the state.

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.

Maryland Auto Accident Update: Beware of New Year’s Weekend in Baltimore and Potential Drunk Driving Wrecks

December 31, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Anyone new to the Baltimore area should be advised that the city’s bars and other drinking establishments get a special pass each year regarding their operating hours during the New Year. Specifically, state law will allow bars in the city to remain open literally “24-7” from New Year’s Eve through 2am on Monday, January 2. While law enforcement efforts to curb drunken driving are ongoing, we cannot stress enough the need for caution when driving in and around the city during the holiday weekend.

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.