Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

The National Transportation Safety Board completed its investigation into the tragic bus crash in Sherman, Texas last year. I had previously blogged about this tragic—and avoidable—bus wreck (see here and here). The NTSB determined that a punctured retread tire was the probable cause of the crash. The bus driver tested positive for alcohol and cocaine after the accident, but the board did not cite driver impairment as the cause.

The retread tire was on the front steering axle, which is in violation of federal rules. According to the NTSB, it was a slow leak that caused the retreaded tire to blow. If the tires had been properly checked and inflated, investigators said the accident could have been avoided all together. The bus had been inspected eight days prior to the crash, but the Texas Department of Public Safety was cited in the investigation for poor oversight of the contractors who performed the inspection and for limiting inspection costs.

The tire itself wasn’t the only problem. The bus company, Iguala BusMex, was previously operating as Angel Tours until the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration pulled its certification for having an unsatisfactory record. Its owner, Angel de la Torre of Houston, simply applied for a new certification under a different company name. The administration has now stopped granting licenses for new applicants until it checks its system for this type of attempt.

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

When 46-year-old Todd Martin was found dead in rural Parker County during a Fort Worth Bicycling Association club ride, officials were unsure of how he died. Now an autopsy shows he was killed by a traumatic head injury.

Other riders found his body in the 3000 block of Precinct Road near a paved county bridge. He had ridden ahead of the group, and was traveling downhill at a high rate of speed when he apparently lost control near the bridge. He was found in a steep gully off the road with his bike resting uphill, according to the Parker County Sherriff’s department.

This is a terrible accident and hopefully knowing the facts about what happened will bring some comfort to Mr. Martin’s family and friends.

Bike wrecks can be deadly. Each year almost 700 riders die in the United States from bicycle accidents, and typically 90% of these involve a crash with a motor vehicle. That’s why it’s so important to wear a helmet while on a bicycle or motorcycle which offers the rider little to no protection in the case of a wreck. Even a helmet cannot prevent all major head injuries, but it sure does prevent most.

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

Who can resist a good deal? Buying refurbished products can help you save hundreds of dollars over buying products new (or maybe even more). However, buying refurbished can also cost you a lot in the long run, so think twice before you jump on that good deal when it could affect your safety.

Don’t buy refurbished when your safety is at risk.
Saving $50 could make a product a great deal, and help you decide to make a purchase when you’re considering refurbished products. However, buying refurb when your safety is at risk is a bad idea.

Consider the example of a refurbished car seat for your child. I hear that many refurbished car seats come back to the manufacturer after a car accident and are‘re-certified’ and then sold again. There is no legislation in place governing how refurbished car seats are inspected or tested to determine their safety. After the stresses of a car accident, you could buy a refurbished car seat on the verge of failure and you’d have no way to know it.

Follow safety checklists to determine whether a product is safe.
In many cases, there’s nothing you can do to determine whether or not a refurbished product is safe. In the car seat example, though, you do have a few options to check for safety before you use it.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has guidelines for when car seats need to be replaced, and when it’s safe to continue to use them after an accident. CPSafety has a checklist you can use to look for common issues and determine whether or not the car seat is safe for reuse. Neither of these can tell you for sure that the car seat is safe, but they can help you make an informed decision about whether or not to buy a product that has been refurbished for resale.

Information provided by Tarrant County Personal Injury Lawyer Mark A. Anderson, who practices injury law throughout Tarrant County, and can be reached at 817-294-1900.

Motor vehicle accidents range from minor to severe. If another car taps your car at a stop sign going five miles per hour, and doesn’t leave a scratch on either vehicle, you probably aren’t hurt and, therefore, don’t need to seek medical treatment. But if you’re involved in a more serious accident with injuries, don’t try to ignore them; get medical treatment as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, it’s a fact that many people refuse medical treatment after an auto accident. Sometimes they think that they pain will go away. Sometimes they are worried about the huge hospital bill that they would incur. The bottom line is that your health is extremely important and should be a top priority.

Seeking medical treatment right away isn’t just a matter of taking care of your health, although that’s certainly the most important thing to consider after a car accident. It’s also about documenting your medical problems in the event that you need to prove they’re related to the car accident. If you have back problems after a car accident but wait two weeks to go to the doctor, it’s much more difficult to prove that it’s related to the car wreck than if you go the next day.

I have seen it time and again when folks tried to “tough it out” and they accomplish nothing. They endure pain unnecessarily and they “wreck” their potential insurance claim. Bottom line: seek medical treatment ASAP after a car accident. Not just for your case, but for your health.

Information provided by Fort Worth Texas Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson, who discusses this topic and many others in his book, 15 Mistakes That Will Wreck Your Texas Accident Case. This book is available for free to Texas Residents at www.DontWreckYourCase.com.

About 300,000 robes have been recalled, including full length robes, jackets, lounge jackets and tops. The chenille items were sold in Blair stores in Pennsylvania and Delaware and nationally in Blair catalogs from 2000-2007.

Most of the deaths linked to the robes occurred when the victims were cooking; the chenille proved highly flammable when it came into contact with the cooking flame. Most of the victims were in their 70s and 80s.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Blair LLC initiated the recall of the items that were made by A-One Textile & Towel, of Karachi, and were manufactured in Pakistan.

For more information, visit the Blair recall website.

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

This is a question I get from some of my new clients after they have been in some sort of an auto accident somewhere here in the Fort Worth Arlington area. The short answer to that is: yes, you absolutely should. PIP insurance is No-Fault insurance which you carry on your own automobile policy and it provides reimbursement to you (and any passenger in your car), for medical expenses and for documented wages up to the amount of the PIP coverage. In Texas, each insurance company must offer at least $2,500.00 in PIP coverage, but you can buy more. In order to turn down this coverage, you must reject it in writing.

The reason that PIP coverage is so good is that you are not penalized in any subsequent claim against the responsive party if you use PIP coverage. In other words, you can recover from the responsible party’s insurance company (if they were indeed at fault) and you can also recover on your own policy. You can also even use health insurance to pay for your bills, therefore utilizing yet a third type of insurance.

Some people are reluctant to make a PIP claim on their own policy, but it is against the law for an insurance company to raise your rates or drop you solely because you make a PIP claim. The reason, this is a no-fault claim. You can make this type of claim regardless of whether you were at fault or somebody else was responsible for your injuries.

So to me, a lawyer who focuses solely on personal injury, this is a no brainer. If you were fortunate enough to pay for the PIP coverage (and it is very cheap), you should definitely use it if you have been in an automobile accident.

Information provided by Fort Worth Arlington, Texas Board Certified Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson, who can be contacted at 877 294 1115 or by clicking here.

If you have been involved in an automobile, truck or motorcycle accident in Fort Worth, Texas, you must make some decisions to protect your potential insurance claim or you could suffer the consequences of a “wrecked case.” Fort Worth’s Board Certified Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson has recently authored a book which goes over the many ways an accident victim can destroy their own case, therefore making it harder to recover fair and reasonable compensation. This book, entitled 15 Mistakes That Will Wreck Your Texas Accident Case, is for sale on Amazon.com, but is made available for free to Texas residents at www.DontWreckYourCase.com.

In this book, Mistake No. 2 is the failure to obtain prompt medical treatment. Insurance companies and juries tend to operate under the assumption that if you are hurt, then you need to go to the doctor. And that makes sense. But the problem I see often is most people try to tough out their pain and not go to the hospital or doctor unless it is absolutely necessary. If you have a broken bone or are bleeding excessively, you will go to the hospital. But it is human nature to try to tough it out if you have a less obvious injury. You might take over the counter pain medications and see if the injury will heal on its own. You might wait an entire month before you go to the doctor.

The problem with this approach is that without good medical documentation, it may look to an outsider like you weren’t really hurt. So in order to not hurt your ability to recover fair compensation, you will need to seek medial treatment within the first few days after an accident. This will allow you to get on the road to recovery much faster and will serve as proper documentation of your injury.

Fort Worth Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson can be contacted at 817-294-1900 or at www.maafirm.com.

Two lawsuits have been recently filed in federal court in San Antonio, Texas against Dyn Corp’s Forth Worth based aviation services division as a result of the 2007 army helicopter crash that killed six military members. The helicopter crash occurred near an airbase in Aviano, Italy. The helicopter was one of Army’s H–60 Black Hawk helicopters and Dyn Corp was in charge of maintenance for the helicopter.

The lawsuits were filed by lawyers based in Michigan, New York, California and San Antonio. That group of lawyers represents the survivors of five of the six victims killed in the crash. The lawsuits will be defended on behalf of Dyn Corp by the Fort Worth law firm of Brown, Dean, Wiseman, Proctor, Hart & Howell.

The wrongful death lawsuits allege that Dyn Corp, through its employees, improperly removed, serviced and reinstalled critical flight-controlled components of the helicopter in early 2007. The lawsuit alleges that Dyn Corp knew of problems with the components based upon prior complaints, but did nothing to remedy the situation.

Dyn Corp employs about 800 full and part-time employees at its Aviation Services Division at Alliance Airport in North Fort Worth.

This 2007 crash was a tragic accident which gained international attention. It will be interesting to see what develops in the course of the litigation. I have no idea if the allegations against Dyn Corp are true. However, if they are true, it is a real tragedy that this helicopter crash could have been prevented.

Information and commentary provided by Dallas Fort Worth Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson, who can be contacted at 817 294 1900 or at www.maafirm.com.

The move is done! The Anderson Law Firm has now completed its move to a much better location for us and our clients. Today is our first day in our new office and I am very glad to have the move in our rear view mirror. Our new office is located at 1310 W. El Paso Street, Fort Worth, 76102. Our phone numbers remain the same.

Our new location makes our office much more accessible to all of our clients throughout the the DFW metroplex. I like being centrally located. The first part of my career was spent in downtown Fort Worth. But the tornado that hit downtown Fort Worth in March of 2000 pushed me out of downtown. It has taken me a while to get back close to the central business district, but I am looking forward to it.

At our new location, we will continue to represent the victims of reckless conduct, such as those harmed as a result of DWI accidents, tractor trailer wrecks and motorcycle accidents.

A portable storage closet fell on a kindergarten student in the gym at G.L. Wiley Middle School in Waco when she and two other children were playing on top of it. They were reportedly chasing a lizard.

The children were attending classes at the middle school while J.H. Hines Elementary is closed for repairs. Princanna Strain, who died en route to the hospital, would have been six-years-old on October 20.

What a devastating accident. My heart goes out to this child’s parents and family. From the picture, the storage unit looks very large and heavy. What was it doing in an area where children would be playing? Perhaps it should have been moved as part of the effort to make a middle school building safer for younger children. Were the children properly supervised? Were there enough teachers to keep an eye on all the children in the gym? These questions and more will have to be answered during the course of this wrongful death investigation.

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

Photo from KWTX.com

A patrol car collided with an SUV Tuesday morning at the intersection of Brentwood Stair Road and the East Loop 820 service road under the overpass. Fortunately there were no life-threatening injuries.

According to preliminary reports, the police car spun out on slick pavement, causing the accident. However, a recent statement by police indicates an investigation will take place to determine if the road conditions contributed to the wreck. The officer driving the patrol car was “responding to a possible life-threatening disturbance in progress,” according to police.

There is no word on whether or not speed contributed to the accident. Also, initial reports do not indicate whether the officer was using his lights and siren. That makes a huge difference, as there are certain regulations about when a responding officer must use lights and sirens on a police vehicle to alert the public that a responding vehicle is nearby.

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

A 20 year old man from Fort Worth died yesterday from injuries he received last week in a car accident which happened in the 2900 block of East Loop 820 in Fort Worth. The man, Arialdo Hernandez, was a back seat passenger in a Ford Explorer which was reportedly traveling at a high rate of speed when the driver lost control. The vehicle then hit a curb and started rolling over, and Mr. Hernandez and another passenger were ejected from the SUV. Mr. Hernandez was transported to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth where he remained until his death yesterday.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Hernandez family. Twenty years old is way too young to die. This accident brings to light the danger of speeding. Nothing good happens and bad accidents are the frequent consequence of highway speeding. In the eyes of the law, this is a wrongful death.

Also, I don’t know if Mr. Hernandez was wearing his seatbelt, but seatbelts do normally help prevent passengers from being ejected. They really help reduce injuries in rollover accidents.

Information provided by Dallas Fort Worth Accident Lawyer Mark Anderson.

It isn’t just Texas lawmakers who are concerned about texting while driving; now, the Obama Administration is taking steps to prevent distracted driving accidents by banning texting while driving for bus drivers and truckers. It will also push states to pass their own laws against distracted driving.

According to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, President Obama recently signed an executive order banning texting while driving for all government workers while on government business, in government vehicles, or using government equipment. The administration is also trying to disqualify for a commercial driver’s license any school bus drivers who are convicted of texting while driving.

Driver distraction, which often involves texting, killed 5,870 people and injured 515,000 last year, according to the Transportation Department. Lawmakers across the country have placed restrictions on texting while driving, including the District of Columbia, where it is illegal to drive and text. Washington D.C. and seven states have even banned handheld cell phone use completely while driving.

One group of people these changes will affect most is truck drivers. Truckers frequently use computers to communicate with their company dispatchers, and often use this technology while driving. The American Trucking Association said they will work with the Transportation Department to reduce driving distractions, although Mississippi personal injury lawyer Robert Kisselburgh wrote an interesting blog recently exploring the Association’s financial interest in keeping these laws from going into effect.

I think this new law is great. Anything to make the roads safer. And if it makes the truckers a little inconvenienced, then so be it. What is more important—saving lives or texting your dispatcher?

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

In a terrible tragedy that happened early in the morning of September 20, a man who was trying to help accident victims on 1-20 in Arlington was struck by a passing car and killed.

Two people involved in the initial multiple car crash were injured and taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. The accident occurred on westbound 1-20 between Collins Street and Matlock Road. According to police, the driver who hit and killed the man was not speeding or driving while intoxicated.

I hate hearing about things like this. This man was concerned with the safety of those involved in the wreck, and died as a result of his good intentions. Since police said this driver wasn’t speeding or drunk, it seems like just a terrible accident. Always stay alert while driving and keep a look out for any accidents or vehicles by the side of the road, because as this case shows, it is not only the car crash itself than can be deadly, but simply being out of your car in the vicinity of the accident.

Information provided by Personal Injury Lawyer Mark A. Anderson, who can be contacted by clicking here.

Toyota Motor Corp. issued a warning on Tuesday that the floor mats found in many popular models of Toyota and Lexus cars may cause the accelerator to become stuck and could potentially lead to dangerous accidents. The warning came after a crash near San Diego in August which killed four family members when their Lexus ES 350 sped out of control, flew off of an embankment, rolled over several times and burst into flames.

Toyota and government officials recommended owners remove the floor mat from the driver’s side of their vehicles and not replace it. Toyota has not said how many complaints they’ve received about this issue, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received reports of 102 incidents where the accelerator may have been stuck on Toyota vehicles.

Toyota advises that if the accelerator appears to be stuck and the driver can’t remove the floor mat, to step on the brake pedal with both feet to slow the vehicle and then try to put the car in neutral and switch the ignition to accessory power.

This can be a huge problem if not fixed, so I encourage all owners affected to make sure they get replacement mats.

The following is a list of vehicles that will be affected in the floor mat recall:
2007-2010 Toyota Camry
2005-2010 Toyota Avalon
2004-2009 Toyota Prius
2005-2010 Toyota Tacoma
2007-2010 Toyota Tundra
2007-2010 Lexus ES 350
2006-2010 Lexus IS 250 and IS 350

For more information consumers can contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at 1-888-327-4236, Toyota at 1-800-331-4331, or Lexus at 1-800-255-3987.

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

Photo from NHTSA