Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

Last week I blogged about a terrible accident in Bridgeport, Texas. The city released a preliminary engineering report last Friday after an investigation into the awning fall that killed Leslie Denison and injured her classmate Rebekah Logan. The report concluded that inefficient structural supports connecting the awning to the building, combined with weather factors, caused the awning to unexpectedly collapse.

The Bridgeport High School students were crushed by the falling awning last Tuesday when they were running as part of their cross country training.

According to the report, the city was unable to find records indicating the age of the building or how long the awning has been attached to Club Barbell and the neighboring businesses. The awning was attached to the top of the building on a grouted stone block wall, which can wear down over time, according to the report. The report also noted that there was no evidence of proper structural supports such as braces or bolts attaching the awning to the building. Weather may have played a part in the tragedy as well; the awning had a wood rather than metal frame, and wood can shrink, swell, or even warp from humidity over time.

There are two more awnings, located on either side of Club Barbell, addressed in the report. While one was determined to be fine, the other has structural problems and is considered dangerous.

This report is not that surprising. Something had to have caused this awning to fall. In this case, it just sounds like poor workmanship by the installer and poor maintenance by the building owner. It would be interesting to know how long the awning had been there.

Information provided by Texas Board Certified Attorney Mark A. Anderson who can be reached at 817-294-1900 or contacted by clicking here.

The Consumer Product Safety Committee recalled millions of window blinds and shades Wednesday because of their danger to children. The recall includes blinds and shades sold at Pottery Barn Kids and IKEA as well as many brands sold at retailers like Target.

Three children have died as a result of becoming caught and strangled in the exposed cords that move the blinds up and down. Two of the blinds that caused deaths were the Lewis Hyman roll-up blind, sold at retail stores from 1999-2003, and the Woolrich roman shade, sold at Target from 2006-2008. Customers should contact the company for a free repair kit. A Vertical Land blind, sold in Florida from 1992-2006, caused the third death. Customers of this product should contact the company for a free retrofit kit.

Roman shades were recalled from Pottery Barn Kids and William Sonoma after six children were found with cords wrapped around their necks. Fortunately, none of these children died. Roman Melina blinds were also recalled from IKEA after a child was found hanging from the cord nearly strangled to death. Customers of these blinds should return them to Pottery Barn Kids, Williams Sonoma, and IKEA for a refund.

The problem with these types of shades is the exposed cord that moves the blinds up and down. A child playing with or near the blinds can easily become entangled in this cord and die of strangulation if not found and disentangled immediately.

For a complete list of the recalls and more details about the types of blinds involved, click here.

Information provided by Dallas/Fort Worth Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson, who can be contacted at 817-294-1900, or by clicking here.

A motorcycle ride turned fatal Monday night in Waco, Texas when a man was killed after he and a passenger hit a curb and flew from their bike.

22-year-old driver Christopher Lee Gault was pronounced dead at the scene and his 23-year-old passenger Katharine Sadler was taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center. According to police, Gault was speeding and failed to stop at the four-way stop at Airport Road and Steinbeck Bend. Neither rider was wearing a helmet.

It is so distressing to hear of motorcycle fatalities in which the victim was not wearing a helmet. Would a helmet have saved this man’s life? It’s impossible to say, but helmets certainly save countless lives in accidents every day.

Information provided by Texas Board Certified Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson, who can be contacted toll free at 1-877-294-1115 or by clicking here.

A seventeen year old senior at Bridgeport High School was tragically killed today when a storefront awning fell on her as she was running through downtown Bridgeport with a classmate. The girl, Leslie Denison, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her friend and felllow BHS cross country runner, Becca Logan, also 17, was transported to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth where she was listed in stable condition.

This tragedy happened in front of Club Barbell on Halsell Street about 4 p.m. The girls were merely running down the sidewalk when the awning and connected bricks and mortar came crashing down. This is an absolutely incredible case of bad timing. I have heard of tree limbs falling and injuring runners, but this is unimaginable. How does a store awning just come crashing down?

This wrongful death certainly will be investigated, but for now one must wonder and speculate how it happened. Was the awning recently attached? Were there recent modifications to the awning or any part of the front of the building? Were there any signs of stress? Who installed the awning? Hopefully these questions and many more will be answered. Sometimes it takes extensive civil litigation to find out all of the real answers.

Information and commentary provided by Texas Injury Lawyer Mark A. Anderson. Phone 817-294-1900 and www.maafirm.com.

SCENE OF TRAGEDY

In a tragic weekend in Texas, three riders were killed in separate motorcycle accidents in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

In perhaps the most avoidable accident this weekend, 53 year-old Constante DeCastro died Sunday afternoon as the result of negligence in Haltom City, Texas. DeCastro was pronounced dead at the scene after hitting the passenger side of a vehicle driven by an 88-year-old woman who pulled out in front of him and attempted to turn.

Earlier that morning, 33-year-old Deangelo Rountree was killed after striking the rear of a semi-truck tractor on 1-20 near Collins Street in Arlington, Texas. Roundree was thrown from his motorcycle over the median and across the highway.

The previous day, 35-year-old Montrell Asher was thrown from his motorcycle and killed after striking the rear of a vehicle on I-20 in Fort Worth, Texas. Asher was driving east and struck the car while attempting to exit Wichita Street.

Riding motorcycles can be dangerous, as we all know. The Haltom City wreck looks like pure negligence on the part of the car driver. That is something that all bikers fear: the turning car that doesn't see the motorcycle. But it looks like speed (by the motorcycle) was the reason for the other two fatal wrecks.

Information provided by Dallas/Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Mark A. Anderson, who can be contacted at 817-294-1900 or by clicking here.

A driver suspected of being drunk drove his car through the front of a Wal-Mart this morning. After crashing through the front doors he then jumped into the bed of a passing pickup and tried to flee. The pickup driver collided with several cars in the parking lot as he tried to remove the man from his truck.

According to witnesses the man drove erratically through the parking lot before crashing his vehicle into the front of the Wal-Mart near I-30 and Eastchase Parkway in Fort Worth, Texas. Unfortunately the car accident injured a Wal-Mart employee who was standing near the front of the store.

Police arrested the driver suspected of being drunk.

Drunk driving is a bad problem. This guy was drinking in the morning and was driving through a busy parking lot. It is amazing that more people were not injured. At this time of year with all of the back-to-school shopping, it is very fortunate that there were no children injured or killed. I certainly hope that the Wal Mart employee is OK.

Information provided by Mark A. Anderson, Fort Worth Injury Lawyer.

Despite overwhelming support from the House and Senate, Governor Rick Perry vetoed a bicycle-safety measure in the last legislative session that would require motorists to give cyclists and other vulnerable road users at least 3 feet of clearance when passing. The proposed law would have fined drivers $500 if they did not provide runners, motorcyclists, bicyclists and tow truck drivers at least 3 feet of clearance.

Gov. Perry apparently feels that there are already plenty of laws that protect cyclists and other non-motorists on our Texas roadways. This has undoubtedly irked many cyclists and organizations that support the shared use of our roads.

In an incident that occurred June 8, 2008, a young gentleman named Kenneth Bain stands accused of hitting and killing two cyclists in Duncanville. Meredith Hatch, 38, and Michael Alfaro, 36, were hit from behind and killed on Camp Wisdom road when Bain’s Lincoln Navigator struck them.

When a cyclist or pedestrian accident occurs on Texas roadways, liability insurance policies should be in place to punish careless drivers and provide compensation for the victims of such accidents. These accident victims are often left with incredibly high medical bills and are forced to miss work as a result of their injuries.

Information provided by Texas Board Certified Injury Lawyer Mark A. Anderson, who can be contacted at 817-294-1900 or online by clicking here.

What started as a daily bicycle ride for 59-year-old Ronnie Monroe Keller ended in his tragic death on Saturday night when drunk driver Vincent Paul Riojas struck him with his car and left Keller in the backseat to die.

Police say Riojas hit Keller on his bike on the 3400 block of East Main Street in Fort Worth, Texas-less than a mile from Riojas’s house, which is where he fled with Keller still in his car. Damage to Riojas’s auto indicates that when he hit Keller, the cyclist flew into the front windshield, over the roof, and partway through the back window. Since Riojas was covered in blood when they found him, police believe he may have removed the injured Keller from the back window and placed him in the backseat. Police found Keller in the car after Riojas’s family called 911 when they saw their bloodied son and his visibly damaged Chevrolet Cavalier hidden around the side of the house.

This bicycle accident is horrific for so many reasons. If Riojas hadn’t been driving drunk, he surely would have noticed Keller and avoided the accident in the first place. If he had called police immediately after the accident occurred, police believe it may have saved Keller’s life-he was pronounced dead after being taken to a local hospital, and had lain helplessly injured in Riojas’s car for about 20 minutes.

Of course Riojas was taken to jail; he was arrested on charges of intoxicated manslaughter and failure to stop and render aid, as well as resisting arrest and charges of an existing unrelated felony warrant. Unfortunately this will provide little comfort to those who lost a friend and family member in a tragic drunk driving accident that could have been avoided.

Information and commentary provided by Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Mark A. Anderson, who can be contacted at 817-294-1900 or online by clicking here.

A speeding drunk driver caused a fatal accident early this morning on University Drive in Fort Worth, Texas. Police had just clocked the drunk driver going 53 m.p.h. in the 1600 block of University, but the FWPD officer lost sight of the vehicle. Soon thereafter, the drunk driver slammed into a silver car which had stopped at the light at University and 7th Street. Renee Horton, a 24 year old from Wichita Falls, Texas was a passenger in the silver car and was pronounced dead at the scene. The drunk driver, who was not identified by the police, was arrested on suspicion of intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault.

This is a tragic and obviously preventable accident. Texas has a real problem with drunk driving. Each year we lead the national statistics on number of alcohol related deaths. And we average over 1500 deaths each year as a result of drunk drivers. While each accident is different, the criminal case will hopefully result in substantial punishment for this one reckless but irreversible act of negligence. Any civil claim based on liability insurance policies or uninsured motorists policies will never truly compensate the family of the young girl.

Fort Worth Accident and Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson can be contacted at 817-294-1900 or by clicking here.

For the second time in a month, a horrible crash has claimed the lives of innocent victims near a construction site on I-35 south of Gainesville. And just like the previous wreck, a tractor-trailer was not paying attention and slammed into the back of a vehicle, causing a terrible chain reaction. The wreck happened just before noon on Monday north of FM 1306. A tractor-trailer driven by 59-year-old James Creighton of Dallas came barreling into backed-up construction traffic where two lanes were merging into one, causing a Chevrolet car to burst into flames. Anthony Brandon, 48, and his wife, Kimberly, 47, both of Bedford, died instantly, leaving 3 teenage daughters and members of Harwood Terrace Church in Bedford in shock. The 18-wheeler, registered to Bradco Supply in Irving, then struck a small Honda sedan, injuring Carroll Whaley, 63, and his wife Linda, 61, who were treated and released at an area hospital. The truck next hit a Nissan and killed the driver, 55-year-old Darryl Hoosier of Lafayette, La. Finally, the rig hit another truck driven by Charles Haney, 53, who suffered only minor injuries. The driver of the tractor-trailer was only slightly injured. Officials blame the dangerous construction zone on KKM Construction, which has failed to meet its deadline on repairs of the 70 year old Elm Fork bridge over the Trinity River. Although warning signs begin 7 miles before the lanes merge, and again posted at one mile intervals before the construction zone, the site remains a mess that has lingered far too long and has now been blamed for 5 wrongful deaths. Driver inattention is also a huge contributing factor in these tragic trucking accidents. Big rigs are dangerous vehicles that are operated many times by drivers who have had too little sleep, are under deadlines, or simply zone out from boredom on the road. When drivers are negligent and unaware of approaching traffic conditions, consequences are often on a large scale. The amount of time it takes for the driver to react and slow an 18-wheeler to a stop from 70 mph is too great to allow for driver inattention. In this instance, before the truck could come to a stop, he ran over 4 other vehicles causing a path of death and destruction that even seasoned officials couldn’t believe. Mark A. Anderson of Fort Worth is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law. He focuses his practice on helping those seriously injured or killed by the wrongful acts of others. He can be reached online by clicking here or by phone at 817-294-1900.

Another drunk driving accident here in the Metroplex. In the early morning hours of July 31, 2009, Karla Rivers, 45, was killed when her Jeep SUV was hit head-on by a black Infiniti driven by Ramiro Moreno. Rivers was on her way home from work at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas at the time of the accident which occurred around 12:30 a.m. on Interstate 20 near Polk Street. Moreno, 29, and his passenger, Ian Edward Pierson, 21, were also killed in the accident.

Investigators found evidence of alcohol in Moreno’s vehicle. Rivers was only a few miles from her home when Moreno crashed into her as he drove eastbound in a westbound lane of I-20. Another vehicle narrowly avoided being hit when the driver saw the oncoming lights of the Infiniti coming at him. As that driver’s wife attempted to call 911, she saw “a burst of dark, black smoke” as the vehicles crashed behind them.

These types of accidents have been in the news earlier this year when multiple crashes occurred on the Dallas North Tollway due to drivers going the wrong-way resulting in the deaths of four people. Reflective buttons and “Wrong Way” and “Do Not Enter” signs have been installed by the North Texas Tollway Authority in hopes of decreasing these types of deadly incidents.

Information provided by Texas Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson, who can be contacted online by clicking here or at 817-294-1900.

Toxicology results have revealed that Diane Schuler, 36, was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana at the time of a horrific crash on the Taconic State Parkway in Briarcliff Manor, New York on July 26, 2009. Schuler was returning home from a camping trip when she drove her Ford Windstar minivan on the wrong side of the road and smashed head-on into a Chevrolet Trail Blazer. Among the dead were Schuler, her 2-year-old daughter and her three nieces ages 5, 7 and 8. The driver of the Trail Blazer, Guy Bastardi, his father and a family friend were also killed. The only survivor from the fiery crash was Schuler’s 5-year-old son who is hospitalized in stable condition.

An accident investigator indicated that at approximately 1 p.m. Schuler phoned her brother stating that she did not feel well and was “disoriented and had trouble seeing.” Her brother told her to pull to the side of the road and wait for him to come to her aid. Unfortunately, Schuler did not wait for her brother and drove directly into the unsuspecting oncoming traffic at about 1:35 p.m.

Come on, drinking and smoking with kids in the car? Drinking and driving is a huge problem. In Texas, about half of the vehicle fatalities are related to alcohol.

Information and commentary provided by Mark A. Anderson, Texas Injury Attorney. Please contact the Anderson Law Firm at 817-294-1900 for any questions.