Arizona Accident Information Law Blog : Arizona Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Solomon & Relihan Law Firm : Auto Accidents & Car Wrecks : AZ Accident Information Law Blog

A New Jersey woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a car in which she was a passenger collided with a tree. The 40-year-old man driving the vehicle was arrested and charged with assault and drunk driving and faces arraignment this week. The 36-year-old female passenger suffered a fractured ankle and a non-life-threatening head injury in the accident. The incident occurred when the driver failed to negotiate a turn and lost control of his 1999 Volvo sedan.

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Two Florida families are suing a cheerleading school over injuries suffered by their teenage daughters during gymnastics practice. The families claim the school's coaches ignored complaints and forced the girls to practice until they were injured.

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A group of twelve retired players are suing the National Football League over the widespread use of a painkiller that can put someone with head injuries at increased risk. The players contend that the widespread use of the drug put the victims of head injuries at increased risk of concussion-related symptoms.

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A train in New Jersey overran the stop at a train station forcing the station to close down the entire morning. 38 people suffered minor injuries, 33 of which were transported to a nearby medical facility for treatment. The other 5 people were treated at the scene of the train accident. The CNN report states the train was not derailed when it crashed into the bumper in the station. The bumper block that it crashed into absorbed a majority of the impact, preventing a more serious crash from occurring. The incident is currently being investigated by authorities to determine the cause of the crash.

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A construction company was fined $30,000 after an employee working for the company fell off a pier while working on a truck-mounted crane. The 49-year-old man suffered serious injuries including a fractured vertebra, broken ribs, and a broken wrist. The incident occurred in 2008 when the 49-year-old worker was attempting to climb over one of the stabilizers for the crane to reach the far end of the pier.

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An employee working for a staging company in Wilkes-Barre, PA suffered an extremely serious leg injury that caused his leg to be severed from his body after a large pipe fell on him. The accident occurred the morning of the 26th when the employee was helping to move the pipe using some type of machinery when the pipe slipped and fell on him. Federal officials and officers with the Occupation Safety and Health Administration launched an investigation to determine the exact cause of the employee accident. The man suffered other injuries in the accident but city officials did not release any information pertaining to the extent of those injuries.

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The company Raicam Clutch LTD, a British construction company was fined £5,000 (over $8,000 US) after one of its employees suffered injuries to his back and his neck after falling off a roof. The incident occurred in 2009 when the man tripped on a cable on the roof and fell 3.5 meters (11 ft) and suffered five broken vertebrae and whiplash on his neck. The company was fined because they failed to provide protection from falling for its employees.

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In Washington State, a 24-year-old man pleaded guilty to drunken driving causing the death of a 19-year-old and injuring a 17-year-old and a 25-year-old passenger in his vehicle. Loren Seaman had a blood-alcohol level of .20 at the time of the accident. The legal limit in the United States is .08. Seaman was driving along a mile-long stretch of road when he collided with a telephone pole backwards.

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Two men in Illinois were seriously injured after an automobile accident occurred as a result of the driver operating the vehicle under the influence of alcohol. 22-year-old Eric J. Larson suffered non life-threatening injuries. The 23-year-old passenger suffered a broken back, a punctured lung, and a broken ankle. A second passenger suffered an eye injury and a possible broken leg.

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A sophomore student baseball player has returned home after a serious automobile accident caused a life-threatening brain injury last year. Rhett Nelson was reportedly driving north on Highway 221 in South Carolina when he lost control of his vehicle. Nelson’s vehicle flipped about four and a half times and landed in the southbound lane of the roadway. Nelson’s mother, Rosemary suffered several broken bones in the accident.

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A tragic collision on the northbound lanes of Interstate 25 in Santa Fe, N.M was the result of a wrong-way car that was traveling more than 100 mph. The wrong-way car was traveling southbound in a northbound lane when it collided head on with an ambulance at around 2:30am on Tuesday.

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A five-year-old boy in Alabama tragically dies after being attacked by a pack of dogs. Police are currently investigating the death that occurred in the boy’s yard.

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In the desert terrain, ATV riding has become a popular sport for many families. Unfortunately many families are unaware that ATV riding produces more accidents than motorcycles, according to ATVsafety.gov. In Sumner County, KA a tragic ATV accident left one man dead and a woman critically injured on Saturday, October 17^th at around 11pm.

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A road worker that was on an interstate bridge that links Minnesota and Wisconsin sustained a serious leg injury on Wednesday afternoon.  The worker apparently fell between two spans of the interstate bridge. 

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A seventeen-year-old high school football player had to have his leg amputated after an on-field injury. Trevor Roberts of McLouth, Kansas suffered a compound fracture in a game on September 24 and attempts to save his leg failed.

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In Marana, Arizona a plane that had circled around back to a southern Arizona airport only to crash after it missed the runway. Two individuals who were onboard the flight are suffering serious injuries.

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According to an article by abc15.com, on Friday June 30^th a man was transported to the hospital after allegedly being hit by a boat in Lake Pleasant. Authorities have not yet released the man’s name, but he was in his late 60’s and was swimming in the lake as the boat was backing up. 

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In Ocean City, MD six people were injured in a boating accident. The boat involved in the accident was a sixteen foot open cockpit boat which was holding seven people when the accident occurred. The boat struck an intercoastal waterway marker injuring six of the people on board, one of them being an eight-year-old child. 

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According to a report on WTHITV.com in Indiana, a man was killed after falling from a scaffold he was standing on. 52-year-old John Garret died from severe injuries to the chest and head after he fell roughly 40 feet onto concrete.

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The website webMD.com is reporting that North Carolina-based Family Dollar stores are announcing a voluntary recall of sets of toy dart guns following reports of asphyxiation deaths linked to the toys. The report states that a 9-year-old in Chicago and a 10-year-old in Milwaukee were killed as a result of asphyxiation.

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Soon after you recover from the shock of an accident, the first thing you should think about is, “how do I go about settling with the insurance company without being taken advantage of.”

You should consider settlement as two separate transactions. One for your property damage and the second for your injury.

Settling property damage claims is relatively straight forward. Your vehicle needs to be repaired or replaced and the cost of each can be determined by simply contacting repair shops and car lots to obtain estimates for repair or replacement costs for vehicles that are totaled.

Some property damage issues are in fact more complicated, such as the value of custom vehicles or the diminished value of damaged vehicle upon sale. These issues require special knowledge and negotiation.

The area requiring the attention of an attorney with investigation and negotiation expertise is that of a bodily injury claims attorney.

The value of these claims are mainly subjective necessitating knowledge of the insurance company tactics as well as local values of similar injuries.

For example, the value of an injury claim in Arizona is different than the value of an injury claim in California. The value of these claims are based, in part, on the amount juries award for similar injuries in local courts.

The likelihood of receiving the maximum value for an injury claim is substantially enhanced by a speedy investigation and an experienced negotiator.

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Former clients call and ask for advice about what to do when they are involved in a minor auto accident.

They tell me that they have been in an accident but, other than being a little sore, they feel fine. They go on to say that the insurance company has offered to repair their car, pay for their emergency room visit and give them $500 for any “inconvenience”. What should they do?

This happens so frequently that it does not take me long to reply. I tell them the story about a similar call I received when I first started practicing law.

Many years ago, a young woman called for her husband who had recently been involved in a “minor” collision. She told me that since he had only been sore for a couple of days after the accident, he agreed to settle his claim for $1,500 (which back then was a great deal of money for a “no injury” claim).

Six or seven weeks later, his soreness became radiating pain which eventually required surgery costing many thousands of dollars. However, since he had given up his right to recover, he was not able to be compensated for any more than the original $1,500.00.

The lesson is, don’t be in a hurry to settle a “minor” collision accident, even with only “a little soreness”.

Injuries may take time to develop and mature. As a general rule, settling any claim in less than six months may not be a good idea.

Every injury is different and the decision to settle should not be made in haste.

Consulting with an attorney soon after the accident in order to get a professional opinion about the specific facts of your accident is sound advice, even coming from an attorney.
 

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Victims of serious motor vehicle accidents find that they have entered a world in which their lives are now controlled by insurance adjusters and lawyers.

We have created this blog so that these unfortunate souls may become familiar with the landscape as quickly as possible.

At first blush, the facts of an accident may appear simple and straightforward. “The truck hit my car and I was injured.” However, there are a host of “hidden factors” which can either hinder or enhance the pursuit of justice.

All serious accident injury claims justify an in-depth investigation to uncover potential “hidden factors.”

A “hidden factor” is information that is not apparent on the surface, requires investigation to discover and is critical to the outcome of an accident insurance claim.

For example, the “accident” may not have been caused by mere inattention, but instead may have been the result of an intentional violation of federal safety regulations, making the “accident” inevitable. Armed with the additional information, the accident victim’s claim will be significantly enhanced.

The “hidden factor” may involve a tire manufacturer who, in order to cut corners, manufactures an inherently dangerous tire. Or, it might be a highway designer who fails to consider the safety risks his design poses to the average driver.

We will address many of these “hidden factors” in future postings.

However, even if the accident is in fact straightforward without any “hidden factors,” understanding the investigation and claims process will help set reasonable expectations.

Our next article will discuss the insurance claims process.

The “Accident Information Law Blog” (AILB) provides readers with information necessary to appreciate the issues and options available in the pursuit of safety and justice.
 

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