Texas Personal Injury Attorney Blog

A recent survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revealed some very interesting statistics about DWI accidents, and the somewhat cavalier attitude toward drinking and driving across the nation.

Specifically, the survey found that one in every 12 drivers confessed to driving while intoxicated on a least one occasion over the course of the previous year, and that one in every five drivers admitted to driving within two hours of consuming an alcoholic beverage over the course of the previous year.

Curiously enough, however, four out of five people surveyed indicated that they consider drinking and driving to be a significant threat to their safety and general welfare.

According to NHTSA officials, drunk driving is a entirely preventable epidemic that claims far too many lives - nearly a third of all fatal accidents in the United States are caused by drunk drivers.

"We could cut fatalities by half if we had 100% seat belt use and eliminated drunk driving," said Vernon Betkey, chairman of the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Earlier this week, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) announced that the rate of fatal car accidents in the state declined by 11 percent in 2009. This translates into roughly 388 fewer fatalities on Texas' many roads, highways and freeways.

What is behind this rather impressive decline in the number of fatal car accidents?

Experts agree that both increased funding to improve road safety and statewide public safety/public awareness campaigns are the primary reasons behind the drop in fatalities.

The funding for improving Texas' roads and highways comes primarily from the Texas Safety Bond Program. The bond program utilizes 20 percent of available funds from Proposition 14.

Approved by voters in 2003, Proposition 14 revenue bonds are secured and ultimately repaid by the State Highway Fund, which includes vehicle registration fees and fuel taxes.

To date, TxDOT has spent more than $1.2 billion on highway improvement projects designed to reduce crashes.

Oil giant British Petroleum (BP) is once again the subject of a lawsuit in the state of Texas. However, this time the legal action is unrelated to the recent oil spill and instead focused on the alleged wrongful death of a six-month-old boy.

On August 19, Sharon Champion of Hitchcock, Texas, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against BP in Galveston County. The lawsuit alleges that her six-month-old son, Julius Provost, died as a result of pneumonia-related symptoms that were exacerbated by his exposure to roughly 500,000 pounds of chemicals released by a BP refinery between April 6 and May 16.

According to the complaint, Julius was looked after by an aunt, who lives roughly a mile from BP's Texas City refinery, while Sharon Champion worked. After the chemical exposure/leak, which is alleged to have been caused by a faulty hydrogen compressor, he developed a variety of pneumonia-related symptoms, including a severe cough, mucus in his eyes and a runny nose.

The compliant goes on to state that physicians at three separate hospitals were unable to identify Julius' illness or properly treat him, and he subsequently died as a result of his condition. The Medical Examiner's Office in Galveston County officially ruled his cause of death as undetermined.

Susan Champion is seeking $10 billion in damages in her wrongful death lawsuit. 

It is worth noting that this same incident has already spawned a class action lawsuit against BP. Brought by both Texas City residents who lived in the vicinity of the BP refinery and thousands of BP employees, the lawsuit accuses the company of failing to report the leak due to concerns over financial losses.

In addition, the Attorney General of Texas, Greg Abbott, is also pursuing legal action against BP over the purported chemical leak.

Stay tuned for further developments in this Texas case ...

Related Resources:
  
• Woman Blames Infant Death on BP Chemical Leak (The Southeast Texas Record)

A case going to trial in New Jersey against the manufacturer of the acne drug Accutane is expected to draw additional attention to the many Accutane lawsuits being filed accross the country.

Actor James Marshall claims that the use of Accutane caused to have his colon removed and ruined his career.  Actor Martin Sheen is expected to testify on his behalf along with actors Brian Dennehy and Rob Reiner

Drug maker Roche took Accutane off the market in 2009 but lawyers across the country have been bringing lawuits for damages.  Accutane is believed to casue serious injuries including Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

Statistics show that most people are aware of the dangers posed by going without a seat belt and therefore choose to buckle up. To illustrate, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently indicated that the overall rate of seat belt use in the United States was 84 percent in 2009. Furthermore, the federal agency indicated that seat belts saved the lives of more than 13,000 people involved in car accidents in 2008.

While these numbers are certainly encouraging, they also reveal a very interesting trend. In 2008, 83 percent of passengers riding in front seats wore their seat belts while only 74 percent of passengers riding in rear seats wore their seat belts.

Unfortunately, many people mistakenly believe that riding in the back seat somehow makes them immune to the potential dangers of a car accident. However, this is simply not true.

Unbelted back seat passengers move at roughly the same rate of speed as the vehicle in which they are traveling. This can translate into high-speed (and potentially fatal) impacts with a variety of obstacles, including dashboards, windshields, seat backs and even other passengers, during an accident.

According to Pam Fischer, a state highway traffic safety director, unbelted back seat passengers "become a back seat bullet."

In car accident news, the highest-ranking quality control executive for Toyota in North America, Steve St. Angelo, recently declared at the Center for Automotive Research conference that the Japanese automaker had completed a large portion of its auto recall repairs here in the United States.

Over the past twelve months, Toyota has been dealing with massive global recalls affecting nearly 11 million vehicles. The majority of these recalls involved repairing vehicles most at risk of suddenly accelerating to a high rate of speed.

(For several months, the daily news was filled with stories about various Toyota owners whose automobiles accelerated on their own, resulting in serious or even fatal car accidents.)

Toyota engineers eventually narrowed the sudden acceleration problem to two primary causes: sticky accelerator pedals and/or accelerator pedals that can become trapped under floor mats.

According to St. Angelo, 80 percent of U.S. automobiles with sticky accelerator pedals have been fixed and only 50 percent of U.S automobiles with the accelerator pedal/floor mat issue have been repaired. (The latter defect is repaired by reshaping the pedal).

Earlier this week, members of the House Public Safety Committee of the Texas Legislature listened to arguments regarding the efficacy of Texas' Driver Responsibility Program, an initiative designed to crack down on the number of DWI accidents and speeding-related accidents.

The Program

Originally launched in 2004, the Texas Driver Responsibility Program assesses very large additional fines (known as surcharges) against those found guilty of certain vehicular offenses (DUI and speeding to name a few). Its overall purpose is to discourage drivers from this type of behavior, and prevent tragic speeding and DWI accidents.

The funds collected via the program are supposed to be used to fund trauma care centers and highway projects. However, the program has encountered great difficulty collecting the surcharges owed.

To date, more than 60 percent of those ordered to pay surcharges (1.2 million motorists) have failed to do so. This means the state of Texas is currently owed more than $1.1 billion in past-due surcharges.
    
In addition, highways projects have received no funds while trauma centers have only received $75 million, a small portion of the intended funds.