Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

New Bill May Put Drunk Drivers in Prison for 25 to Life - Thursday, August 16, 2007

In New York, a drunk driver who was convicted in a fatal accident could face up to 25 years in prison under a new legislative agreement. The deal was struck following a highly emotional plea by a mother who described holding the decapitated head of her dead 7-year-old daughter, Katie Flynn, following a crash after a family member's wedding.

The bill was inspired by a now-famous tragic car crash that decapitated the little girl and also killed the limousine driver. The tragic crash occurred just after 2:00 a.m. on July 2, 2005 when Katie was traveling home from her aunt's wedding reception in a limousine with her mother, father, stepfather, sister and grandparents. A pickup truck traveling the wrong way on the Meadowbrook Highway and driven by a drunk driver hit the limousine head-on. Katie died instantly.

The driver of the pickup truck, 25-year-old Martin Heidgen, was drunk at the time of the crash and was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to 18 years to life in prison. The family and prosecutors had asked for the maximum of 25 years to life.

The proposed bill would create the crime of aggravated vehicular homicide, a Class B felony, punishable by up to 25 years to life in prison. This felony could be charged against someone convicted after a fatal crash who had a blood-alcohol level of more than 0.18 or higher (most state limits are 0.08). The felony could also be applied if the driver had a DWI (driving while intoxicated) conviction in the previous 10 years; if the crash killed more than one person, if the crash also severely injured others; or if the driver had a suspended or revoked license.

Air Bag Deployment (or Lack of) Still Causing Problems - Wednesday, August 15, 2007

For as long as air bags have been in automobiles, they have saved lives, but, unfortunately, they have taken lives, also. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), from 1987 to 2005, it is estimated that air bags saved approximately 20,000 lives, but needless air bag deployments have seriously injured or killed thousands more.

Recently, a Florida woman crashed her 2003 Ford Windstar minivan into the passenger side of another car while going 50 mph and her air bag did not deploy. In 2000, a Fort Lauderdale woman died from chest injuries when her air bag did deploy when she drove into a barrier going only 10 mph.

These and similar cases have led to numerous complaints of air bag malfunction since they came into regular use in the mid-1990's. Car safety experts claim that in cases such as these, the air bags performed exactly as designed, whether they deployed or not. Orlando lawyer, Rich Newsome, handles auto product liability and personal injury cases and was the attorney for the family of Mayling Semidey (the woman who died when her airbag deployed at 10mph). In 2003, Newsome won the $3.3 million lawsuit against Ford on behalf of Semidey's son.

Newsome contends that the airbag is Semidey's case was defectively designed to deploy in low-speed crashes when it was not needed. Air bags are designed to prevent catastrophic injuries caused when the driver or passenger's head would strike the steering wheel, dashboard, windshield or other equipment at a high rate of speed. To prevent such serious injuries, air bags must deploy within 1/20th of a second and with enough force to cushion the blow; the force of an air bag deployment is like an explosion. In courtrooms, lawyers have deployed air bags to give the juries an idea of their force.

In response to the high number of deaths and injuries due to air bag problems, in the late 1990's, car manufacturers provided car owners the ability to turn off passenger side air bags. They also raised the deceleration speed that triggers deployment and lowered the force at which they come out. Ford safety spokesman Dan Jarvis has explained that forward quick-stopping pressure, not driving speed, is the determining factor in air bag deployment.

According to an NHTSA employee, air bag malfunctions are rare. In some cases, air bags may fail to deploy due to the car being in an earlier crash and not repaired properly. The NHTSA does not compile statistics about air bag failures or complaints; however, it does keep records of complaints and investigations searchable by specific make and model through its Office of Defects Investigations (ODI) website. If the NHTSA receives enough complaints about a particular make and model, it will investigate. If it finds a problem, it can force the automobile manufacturer to issue a recall.

While air bag-related injuries and deaths are dropping, they still happen. There are still many problems with air bags that continue to kill people and cause serious injuries including deployment at low speeds, untimely deployment, deployment with too much force, and failure to deploy.

Monster Truck Plows Through Crowd Injuring Nine - Tuesday, August 14, 2007

In DeKalb, Illinois, a monster truck performing stunts in front of an auto parts store plowed into a crowd of spectators injuring at least nine people. Two of the victims, a mother and one child, were in serious condition at a local hospital. The seven other victims were treated and released Thursday night.

The demonstration was part of a monster truck tour sponsored by NAPA Auto Parts and featured the truck driving over and crushing four cars. The truck lost control after its third or fourth attempt of rolling over the cars and getting back down on the street. It careened off to the left into part of that crowd that was watching the event. After plowing through the afternoon crowd, the monster truck went through a fence and stopped on some railroad tracks. The 44-year-old driver of the truck was no injured.

Infant Thrown From Car After Safety Seat Breaks - Monday, August 13, 2007

The death of any child is tragic, but knowing that death was avoidable is just too much to bear. Four-month-old Tyler Malcomb died after his mother swerved to avoid a driver who was passing her Suburban illegally. The Evenflo-manufactured child safety seat broke in the SUV rollover accident. When the incident occurred, the "On My Way" seat broke off, and Tyler was ejected about 60 feet from the site of the incident.

What makes this tragedy even worse is that Evenflo's own internal tests show that the hooks cracked or failed at least 20% percent of the time in crash testing. The manufacturer was fully aware that in certain accidents 1 in 4 children's seat hooks would not hold up and keep the baby safe. They knew they had a defective product, yet they kept it on the market.

The Malcombs were awarded $6.7 million in compensatory damages and $3.7 million in punitive damages. This was the largest wrongful death settlement in Montana's history.

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