Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

December is one of the most dangerous months of the year because of alcohol-related accidents. That's why the Dallas Police Department is adding 14 officers to its DWI enforcement squad as a part of the "Home for the Holidays" campaign. The news conference came amid a spate of drunken driving accidents, including weekend crashes in Dallas and Grand Prairie that killed a 2-year-old girl and 1-year-old boy.

Also, last week the National Transportation Safety Board listed Texas among the 10 states that have done the least to prevent alcohol-related traffic fatalities. Last year, 11,000 people died nationwide in drunken driving accidents — more than 1,000 of them between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve, according to the North Texas Tollway Authority . The agency is helping to sponsor Mothers Against Drunk Driving's "Tie One on for Safety" initiative this year.

This holiday drivers need to plan ahead and use every other option to avoid drinking and driving. Call a cab, have a designated driver, take a bus, plain and simple don’t drive after drinking. Please do not contribute to the drunk driving fatality statistic. The cost of a taxi is just a fraction of the cost and damage that an intoxicated driver brings.

Information and commentary provided by Fort Worth Drunk Driving Attorney Mark A. Anderson. The Anderson Law Firm can be reached in Fort Worth at 817-294-1900. If you have been in a car accident from a drunk driver, please fill out our contact card for a free consultation.

A Spring man died Wednesday from injuries suffered in an all-terrain vehicle accident at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 7, the day of the AAA Texas 500.

Eddie Akin, 33, was attending the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway when he fell off an ATV and sustained serious injuries. Akin was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he was treated until Wednesday. He was pronounced dead at 5:36 a.m. Akin was riding an ATV with five others when he fell from the vehicle. No other details were available.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission documented 555 ATV-related deaths occurred in 2006. The number of fatalities has unfortunately been increasing because of the popularity of all-terrain vehicles. If you are going to driving or riding an ATV, please be careful. My thoughts and prayers go out to Akin’s family and friends.

If you or a family member have been injured or suffered a loss as a result of an accident which was caused by the negligence of another person or product, please Contact Us Online or call our office at 817-294-1900 for a free consultation.

Parents and teens ignore dangers of their own distracted driving habits in Fort Worth, yet 81 percent of parents get upset or angry when they see other motorists doing the same. Many people believe that they can text but their neighbor they are passing can’t text and drive.

In May, AAA partnered with Seventeen Magazine and surveyed teen drivers to get insight on their behaviour when behind the wheel. In the survey, 86 percent of teens admitted to driving while distracted, despite their knowledge about the inherent dangers. Interestingly, 96 percent of parents with teens admitted they too have engaged in one or more distracted driving behaviors in the past 30 days.

Many younger drivers, 41 percent of teens said “It only takes a split second” while 35 percent said "I don’t think I’ll get hurt doing it." As for parents of teen drivers, 34 percent said they are “used to multi-tasking,” while 26 percent said, “I’m a good enough driver to do more than one thing while driving.” With less experienced drivers multi-tasking the higher the opportunity there will be an accident. Although 96 percent of parents surveyed said they engage in distracted driving behavior, 81% of them get upset or angry when they see other motorists doing the same.

Everyone seems to be confident in their own ability to drive distracted, but are concerned about other distracted drivers when ironically, everyone is the ‘other driver’ and any driver who engages in distracted driving is a threat to both themselves and everyone else on the road. When teaching their teen to drive, 48 percent of parents strongly agreed that they practice all the safe driving habits they teach their teen. Yet, 41 percent said they agree or strongly agree that they expect their teen to “do as I say, not as I do.”

This article leads me to believe distracted driving compares with drunken driving. It’s always that one person who thinks, “I have only had 5 beers, I am fine to drive home.” Inevitably, they were thinking this could not happen to me because I know all about the dangers. This article supports the facts that distracted driving accidents happen to people regardless of their education of the subject. In 2008, over 20 percent of automobile accidents were due to distracted driving. I think that by raising awareness and instructing higher fines people will have more focus on the roads.

Information and commentary provided by Fort Worth Distracted Driving Accident Attorney Mark A. Anderson. The Anderson Law Firm can be contacted in Fort Worth at 817-294-1900 for a free consultation.

Related Topics:
What's My Case Worth
Distracted Driving Statistics

An unidentified woman walking her dog was killed yesterday as she was crossing Randall Mill Road near Enclave Circle in Arlington near the Cowboys Stadium. According to the Arlington Police Department, she was hit by a pickup as she crossed the road-- but that she was not in a crosswalk. The woman was taken by ambulance to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth where she was pronounced dead. According to the Arlington P.D., the pickup driver stopped, as he should have, and is not expected to face any charges.

It looks like this lady was just out walking her dog and made a simple mistake of stepping out in front of a truck. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of this woman. I also feel for the pickup truck driver, as I’m sure this is a very dramatic event.

Pedestrian accidents are quite common. In 2009, there were a total of 4,092 fatalities in the United States as the result of pedestrian accidents.

Information and commentary provided by Tarrant County Board Certified Injury Lawyer Mark Anderson who can be reached at 817 294 1900 or online for a free consultation.

A Fort Worth man died Friday night from injuries he suffered when he was hit by a vehicle on a street in east Fort Worthhttp://www.maafirm.com/library/accident-investigations.cfm, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner's website on Sunday. The victim was identified as James Doty, 24. He died at 9:30 p.m. at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, the website stated. Doty died from trauma to his head and his death in the 6500 block of Meadowbrook Drive was ruled an accident.

There are no other details thus far as to who hit James Doty. I am assuming that the driver who hit him stopped and didn’t flee or else the police would have provided more information. This is a tragedy situation for such a young man and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. The accident happened at 9:30 p.m. which means it was dark outside. In 2009, there 4,092 lives in pedestrian/motor vehicle crashes were lost in the United States, which equals out to about 11 people a day. Hopefully, a thorough accident scene investigation by the Fort Worth Police Department will uncover the reason for this tragic pedestrian/car collision.

Information and commentary provided by Fort Worth Pedestrian Accident Lawyer Mark A. Anderson. The Anderson Law Firm can be reached in Fort Worth at 817-294-1900. Please fill out our contact form online for a free consultation.

Several patrons were injured and a Fort Worth restaurant was damaged when a car driven by Phil Record crashed into the building Sunday. The incident occurred at Carino's Italian restaurant at 5900 S. Hulen St. after Record, a TCU instructor and longtime Star-Telegram editor, suffered an apparent heart attack.

Record was taken to Harris Methodist Hospital, where he later died. He was reportedly on his way to dine at the restaurant. A ruling on the cause of death had not been released by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner as of Tuesday morning. Record and four other people were taken by MedStar ambulance to a local hospital.

This is a very sad story and my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved in this tragic accident. I hope that everyone that was taken to the hospital has a quick recovery.

Medical illnesses sometimes lead to motor vehicle collisions. Whether these are the types of wrecks that are actually preventable sometimes determines the ability of the injured parties to recover compensation for their medical bills.

Information and commentary provided by Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Mark A. Anderson. The Anderson Law Firm can be contacted in Fort Worth at 817-294-1900. If you have questions about an automobile accident, please fill out our contact form online for a free consultation.

Each year, Auto Vantage publishes the results of the survey which lists out the top ten road rage cities in the United States. It never surprises me that New York City ranks as No. 1, but what might be surprising to some folks in the Metroplex is that Dallas-Fort Worth ranks as No. 2 on this year's survey. Are we such bad drivers here in the DFW area? I don't know if we're bad drivers, but some of our habits lead to road rage, that's for sure.

Here's my take on it. I think DFW ranks so high on the road rage survey because we have such long commute times. We have some of the longest commute times of anywhere in the nation. The more time we spend in the cars, the less time we have to accomplish all of the other things we need to do in everyday life. That forces us to multi-task while we're driving. I see some people put on make-up, lots of people eating in their cars, and almost everybody talking on their cell phone. It has become a way of life. The problem is all these distractions in the car make us bad drivers, and when we're bad drivers we irritate other drivers. That leads to road rage.

Another reason that the Dallas-Fort Worth area has such a high road rage incidence is the fact that our population has continued to grow, thanks to our local economy not being as bad as the rest of the nation. However, I don't think improvements to our roads have kept up with the rising population. That leads to more crowded highways. That leads to road rage. When you combine long commute times and crowded highways, it's just a recipe for problems. I don't know if that's going to be solved anytime in the future, but hopefully we can be nicer to each other when we're driving and limit the amount of road rage we experience.

Commentary provided by Board Certified Texas Injury Attorney Mark A. Anderson who can be reached in Fort Worth at 817 294 1900 or in Dallas at 214 327 8000.