Vehicle Accidents
Motor Vehicle Accidents – Distracted Driving, the New Drunk Driving
When I was young, drunk driving did not have the stigma it has today. Police officers who pulled over a drunk driver would often follow the drunk driver home to make sure that they – the drunks! – made it home safely. I remember one incident that occurred in my home town when I was a kid. A gentleman who was known around town as a heavy drinker damaged his car while pulling out of a restaurant parking lot after “last call”. As a result, his car would only travel in reverse. He attempted to drive home from the restaurant in reverse. He was pulled over by a local cop who literally escorted this man to his driveway while the man drove drunk backwards. It became the talk of the town. A lot of people thought it was funny. The drunk driver was considered “a character”. This was in the late 60′s or early 70′s, and the designated driver didn’t exist. At that time, there was relatively little social stigma attached to drunk driving.
Due to the work of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other similar organizations, all of that has changed. Drunk drivers are now almost universally seen for who and what they are – a menace to society who should be prosecuted, not protected, by law enforcement. Nobody thinks drunk driving is funny anymore.
Have You Been Injured in a Motor Vehicle Accident?
Have you or any of your loved ones been seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident? Maybe it was the result of a careless driver, or someone driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Motor vehicle accidents affect not only the person injured, but their family and friends as well, so getting the right legal advice is not only therefore very important, but essential.
In the event of an accident, hiring a lawyer can seem like quite a daunting process, but it is essential, especially if you wish to pursue a compensation claim. In the case of car accidents, it is important that you have a lawyer or attorney working for you that is up to date with motor vehicle law. So, how do you know if your lawyer is the right person for the job? This is where a lawyer or attorney specifically qualified and trained in the area of motor vehicle accidents can help you. But, there are still three very important questions that you should ask before hiring any lawyer to represent you in a motor vehicle claim.
Vehicle Accidents: Pedestrian Knockdowns, SUV Rollovers, & Water Craft Injuries
Americans love their vehicles. Unfortunately, vehicle accidents are one of the most common ways that that people suffer devastating injury and death. The roads are becoming more and more dangerous each year, and even though automakers and lawmakers attempt to make driving a safer and more secure experience, accidents will still occur. Men, women, and children will die every single day as long as people get behind the wheel and act in an irresponsible, negligent, or careless fashion.
Americans penchant for large SUVs make the roads even more dangerous than they should be. These large vehicles with a narrow and unstable wheel base combined with a high center of gravity and poor safety design kill thousands of people each year because few understand how dangerous they are. Automakers do not go out of their way to improve their products or alert consumers to their dangers, and this combined with a false sense of security that larger vehicles are safer make them deadly killing machines.
Commercial Vehicle Accidents – Who is Liable?
Truck accidents are one of the most dangerous road mishaps that happen each year. This is because their structure can be quite deadly once it runs out of control. Studies have shown that one out of every eight accidents that resulted in fatalities involves a truck. This just goes to show that trucks can be very lethal once their drivers fail to navigate them properly. This is why in most road networks, separate lanes for large trucks are usually provided. Such things, nevertheless, sometimes fail to prevent trucks from veering off, resulting in collisions with other vehicles that are on the same road.
So what usually cause these accidents to happen? Trucks can be very hard to handle during extreme situations like the need to immediately step on the brakes or suddenly spinning the steering wheel to make the truck veer to one side in order to avoid another vehicle. Doing these things sometimes, however, may even make matters worse because the driver might find his truck suddenly become a deadly weapon. It could also be that the brakes on the truck did not function very well and made the truck skid sideways. Under such circumstance, the forward momentum of the truck will continue to propel it onward even though the wheels already run counter to the thrust. This may even cause the truck to knock over its side and in the process, mowing down small vehicles in its path. Liquor intoxication of the driver is also one of the causes why trucking accidents happen. It obliterates the driver’s ability to make clear and proper decisions while holding the wheel of a massive vehicle.
