Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

February 15, 2011: A 51-year old woman lost control on her Toyota RAV4 SUV on Lake Robbins Drive near I-45 close to The Woodlands Mall around 4:30PM. The SUV crashed into a lake and the woman was hospitalized. A dive team pulled the SUV out of the water at around 5:00PM police said. Paramedics performed CPR on the woman for several minutes before taking her to Memorial Hermann Hospital The Woodlands; her condition was not released. ABC Eyewitness News’ report described the woman’s age as 59-years, not 51. Reportedly five witnesses that saw the SUV ditch into the lake tried to rescue the woman but couldn’t because all of the windows in the vehicle were rolled-up.

51-year old woman taken to hospital when her SUV crashed in to a lake in The Woodlands, TX

If you, a friend or a family member have been injured in a car accident, almost immediately you will have to begin navigating the insurance claims process. The more an insurance company has to pay to settle your claim, the more money they lose: as a business decision they want to pay you as little as possible. Don’t let yourself be talked into settling your claim too early: call the experienced Houston personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler. We represent injured people in their claims against insurance carriers all day, every day: let the personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler put their years of experience to work for you. Call for a free consultation, either in person or by phone.

Fortune 500 company Enterprise Products issued a press release (click here to view the press release) on February 9, 2011 regarding the explosion and fire at its Mont Belvieu, Texas gas plant that left contract worker and father of two Rick Shaw dead. In the press release Enterprise Products does not identify Rick Shaw by name and the company extends its: “…condolences to the family and friends of the worker and will be working closely with authorities to determine the cause of the fire.”

The bulk of Enterprise Products‘ press release went on to explain that the explosion did not damage certain key components of the gas plant and that Enterprise Products‘ operations were minimally impacted. Assuredly the explosion has had more than a minimal impact on Rick Shaw’s 12 and 13-year old daughters and other family members.

If you or a loved one have been seriously injured at work, including in a plant explosion, call the experienced personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler for advice on your legal rights.

Comcast worker Jose Torres was charged on Friday with aggravated assault of a child, and Houston police are looking for him. Torres is accused of raping a 14-year old girl 2 days after visiting her home. Torres visited the family’s home last summer trying to sell them cable service from Comcast, according to investigators. The girl told police that 2 days later Torres returned to her family’s trailer, broke in while she was sleeping and held a knife to her throat. The 14-year old later identified Torres from a photo spread; Torres had left his business card at the home.

KPRC Local News Channel 2 called the number on the business card Monday afternoon and spoke to Torres who told their reported Phil Archer that he is cooperating with law enforcement and that the accusation of rape is due to mistaken identity. Torres told the reporter that he met with police and submitted his DNA, however police say no testable DNA was recovered from the scene. A Comcast spokesman said that Torres worked for a Comcast contractor, that he passed a criminal background check and that he was fired shortly after a police investigation.

Generally an employer is responsible for the actions, including negligence, of its employees provided the employee’s actions were within the course and scope of employment.  This is known as vicarious liability and also known as respondeat superior.  Put another way, an employer will answer for the wrongs of an employee provided what the employee was doing at the time was part of the employee’s typical work duties. On the other hand if the employee did something well outside the course and scope of his/her employment, the employer is probably not responsible. Under certain circumstances an employer may be responsible for an employee’s acts that are outside the course and scope, for example if the employer negligently hired the employee, negligently trained them, or negligently retained them. One example would be if an employer knew an employee would have access to vulnerable members of the public, such as children, yet the employer failed to do a background check on the employee or respond to complaints about the employee behaving inappropriately toward children.

If you or a loved one have been injured by the negligent or intentional acts of a company employee, call or email the experienced Houston personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler for a no charge consultation and review of your case. Large companies put their resources to work right away when they believe they are facing a legal problem: let the attorneys at Smith & Hassler advise you of your legal rights as soon as possible.

Comcast employee Jose Torres is facing rape charges after allegedly assaulting a 14-year old Houston girl in her family's trailer.

Police say a 17-year old driver died in a rollover car accident at around 11:50am on Sunday February 13th. The teenager was driving a white-colored Honda Accord in the 10400 block of the Southwest Freeway. Investigators said the driver lost control while exiting on the service road near Beltway 8. When the car slid and overturned, the driver and a rear seat passenger were ejected from the car, according to detectives. Police say the driver died at the scene and the ejected passenger and one other passenger were transported to Ben Taub, reportedly with minor injuries.

What the Toyota sudden acceleration and resulting injuries and deaths have reinforced is that single car accidents are not always due to driver error. Sometimes a vehicle defect may either be responsible for the initial accident, or may may injuries or death more likely due to design, manufacturing or warning defects for which the vehicle manufacturer is responsible. If you or a loved on have been seriously injured in a car accident and believe a failure on the part of the vehicle may have contributed to serious injury or loss of life, call the experienced personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler for a free consultation regarding your potential products liability case.

Sunday February 13, 2011: a 21-year old motorcyclist died Sunday afternoon when he lost control of his motorcycle and hit a construction sign in northwest Houston. According to witnesses they saw three motorbikes traveling at high speed and weaving in and out of traffic on the north loop west around 4:20PM. One motorcyclist tried to switch lanes and side-swiped a Ford Fusion car according to Houston Police Department Vehicular Crimes division. The motorcyclist who was wearing a helmet lost control of his motorbike then slid along the ground before hitting a wooden construction sign. Sadly he was pronounced dead at the scene.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a motorcycle accident, call the experienced personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler for a free consultation on your injury claim. Of all the motorized transportation types on public roads, motorcycle accidents have the highest potential to cause serious injury or death: having a Smith & Hassler personal injury attorney working on your motorbike accident injury claim puts knowledge and experience on your side.

A wrong-way driver caused a collision in downtown Houston that left a man in the hospital early Saturday morning. Police report that a man driving a Toyota car heading the wrong way on Fannin near McIlhenny crashed into another vehicle around 12:30am. The Toyota driver was taken to hospital in stable condition and the driver of the other vehicle was unhurt. Authorities indicate a blood draw would be done to determine if alcohol was a factor in the crash.

Over our 20+ year history Smith & Hassler has represented thousands of people in Houston and throughout Texas that have been injured in motor vehicle accidents. Automobile insurance companies like to settle serious injury claims for as little as possible as quickly as possible: they know that once you sign a settlement release and accept a check, their obligation to compensate you ends. Do not allow yourself to be talked into settling your automobile accident injury claim too soon: calls the experienced personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler for a free consultation regarding your car accident injury claim.

Enterprise Products employee Kelvin Horton has filed a lawsuit against the company for injuries Horton sustained in Tuesday’s explosion at the Mont Belvieu, Texas gas plant that killed father of two Rick Shaw. Horton’s attorney has also against for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) for prevent the cleanup at the Enterprise Products plant from continuing until outside engineers are able to go to the site for an inspection. The lawsuit is Cause No. 2011-08949; Kelvin Horton v Enterprise Products Partners, L.P.; In the 269th Judicial District Court, Harris County, Texas. Presiding Judge Dan Hinde will rule on the request for the temporary restraining order next week. ABC News’ story can be viewed here.

If you or a loved one have been injured at work, call Smith & Hassler’s experienced personal injury attorneys for advice on your legal rights. Often after highly publicized incidents, particularly those resulting in serious injury or death to employees, company lawyers and insurers move fast to protect the company. Getting legal representation early by a firm such as Smith & Hassler that exclusively practicespersonal injury law protects the interests of injured workers or vulnerable, grieving families. After a major incident such as a plant explosion, big companies have their insurers and attorneys working hard to protect them: if nobody is protecting you, call Smith & Hassler now.

A federal and state investigation has begun into events leading up the explosion at Enterprise Products‘ Mont Belvieu gas plant that killed contract worker and father of two Rick Shaw, earlier this week. Since 2004 the Enterprise Products plant has paid thousands of dollars in fines for serious violations that include at least one other death.

The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) opened its investigation Tuesday, shortly after the fire began. Once OSHA‘s investigation is complete the details will be made public. Enterprise Products is conducting its own probe, and two State of Texas agencies will investigate the plant’s pipeline safety and also whether the plant violated air emission standards.

In 2005 a flash fire at the Mont Belvieu Enterprise plant burned and killed a worker who was overseeing a valve replacement. The plant has paid nearly $30,000 in fines since 2004 for a number of violations deemed serious by OSHA. In September two workers were hurt at BP’s Texas City refinery, the site where 15 workers were killed and 170 more were injured in a 2005 explosion. The workers were rushed to hospital with steam burns.

In 2005 Enterprise Products paid just over $12,000 in fines, a lesser amount than the $18,900 OSHA initially assessed against the company for the prior fatal incident in 2005. Based on Enterprise Products’ history at the Mont Belvieu plant, it certainly appears that the plant’s management were forewarned of safety issues. Unfortunately an OSHA investigation isn’t always enough: it sometimes takes a highly publicized lawsuit to take a company to task on their failures to keep workers safe, the BP Texas City refinery being a prime example of just that. This is particularly true in tragic circumstances such as the death of Mr. Rick Shaw, who leaves behind two daughters depending on him for love and financial support.

If you or a loved one have been injured at work, call Smith & Hassler‘s experienced personal injury attorneys for advice on your legal rights. Often after highly publicized incidents, particularly those resulting in serious injury or death to employees, company lawyers and insurers move fast to protect the company. Getting legal representation early by a firm such as Smith & Hassler that exclusively practices personal injury law protects the interests of injured workers or vulnerable, grieving families.

Smoke plume from Enterprise Products Mont Belvieu gas plant explosion that killed contract worker Rick Shaw can be seen for miles.

If you weren’t already convinced, the popularity and success of academy award nominated movie The Social Network should have persuaded you that social networking web sites are now deeply ingrained in the fabric of American life. Facebook boasts more than 500 million users world wide: when you consider the world population is estimated at 6,899,200,000 that means about 1 in 14 people in the world have a Facebook account! I think most people would agree that Facebook is the 500lb gorilla of social networking sites, but of course there are others including Myspace and Twitter.

Social networking sites such as Facebook can be a valuable source of information in a personal injury claim, be it a car accident, work injury, slip-and-fall or some other type of injury.  This information can either help the injured person’s case or hurt it. Likewise the Facebook or Myspace page of the person who caused the injury (in a lawsuit, the Defendant) can either help or hurt their defense of the injury claim.

Here is a real life example from an automobile accident lawsuit that Smith & Hassler personal injury attorneys Daragh Carter and Roger Sullivan took to trial in Harris County District Court in 2010. We represented a construction worker whose van was wrecked in an intersection collision with a 19-year old girl who ran a red light. The police report faulted the girl and she got a ticket for running the red light. She was insured with the notorious Allstate, who offered a couple of thousand dollars LESS than our client’s medical bills. When we filed the lawsuit, the 19-year old’s attorneys answered the lawsuit and denied she was at fault for the collision, saying it was our client who was at fault. In her deposition, which is testimony under oath, the 19-year old claimed she had the green light and said she told the police officer the same thing; she also had told us she did not have pictures of either of the wrecked vehicles, which is important evidence in the case…she denied it right up until she was shown her Myspace pages with a picture of her badly wrecked car and a caption she wrote indicating she was at fault. The Myspace pages were admitted into evidence at trial and the jury found for our client, actually awarding him more for pain and suffering than the attorneys suggested.

Of course, the door swings both ways. Injured people can seriously hurt their cases with what they put on their Facebook page, e.g. references to compensation, discussion of the facts of the accident or photographs of them appearing to do things (e.g. water skiing) that are inconsistent with their injuries.

Insurance adjusters weren’t born yesterday. It used to be that they would only research the Facebook pages of younger people making injury claims, but now that social networking sites are so widely used by all age groups, insurance adjusters research almost everyone. Smith & Hassler strongly recommends that you keep your Facebook page set to private where only people you have approved can view the contents of your pages. Smith & Hassler also suggests you be wary of accepting friend request from people you don’t know well, particularly in the weeks and months after a collision: they could be using a dummy account because they want to view your pages.

If you want a rule of thumb, Houston personal injury lawyers Smith & Hassler recommend you think about it this way: take a look at what the general public can learn about you from what can publicly be seen on your Facebook, Myspace or Twitter account. Then imagine it blown up to an 8 foot tall image on a projector screen at the courthouse because your injury claim couldn’t be settled, a lawsuit was filed and the case went to trial. If you think you don’t look good then a jury will think the same.

Smith & Hassler has been representing and advising people in Houston and throughout Texas for more than 20 years. If you have been injured due to another’s negligence and want advice on how to recovery money damages for your injuries and losses, call or email Smith & Hassler today and arrange a free consultation as soon as possible.

Wednesday February 9, 2011: Sadly a contract worker who has been missing since an explosion at the Enterprise Products gas plant in Mont Belvieu has been found dead. The explosions were heard at Enterprise Products plant on Sun Oil Road on Tuesday at 12:15PM. The company said the fire broke out at a storage tank of the west side of the facility. A leak was detected in the plant’s control room shortly before the explosion, and workers said they heard a hissing sound shortly before the blast. The fire was out by early Wednesday but officials were not able to go in right away because it was still too dangerous. Shortly after the explosion contract worker Rick Shaw was not accounted for, and Mr. Shaw was thought to have been working in the area of the plant where the explosion occurred. Mr. Shaw was found dead Wednesday night: he was from Crosby, Texas and worked for Louisiana-based Turner.

ABC Channel 13 reports that Mr. Shaw was 43-years old at the time of his death and was known to his family as Ricky. Mr. Shaw’s family were notified of his death by Enterprise Products, however told Eyewitness News they were disappointed by the lack of information they’d been getting from Enterprise Products. Rick Shaw’s sister said he was a contract worker who would take all the overtime hours he could get because he needed all the money he could get to take care of his two young girls. A family spokesperson said they were thrown off the property Wednesday when they went to speak to Enterprise Products officials. Charles Adams, who indicates he is married to Rick Shaw’s niece, said “…they are not telling us anything….”

The Houston Chronicle reported that Rick Shaw’s brother, Mark Shaw, said that he was told by one of the workers working along side Rick that Rick was inside a large gas cloud at the time of the explosion. Mark Shaw and Debbie Shaw (Rick’s sister) described Rick to the Chronicle as being hard-working and devoted to his 12 and 13-year old daughters. Debbie Shaw said that Rick loved his job and was a very dedicated worker.

Rick Shaw of Conroe, TX - victim of the Enterprise Products gas plant explosion in Mont Belvieu, TX. Mr. Shaw leaves two daughters, aged 12 and 13.

If you or a loved one has been injured at work, call a personal injury attorney at Smith & Hassler for a free consultation and advice on your legal rights.  Smith & Hassler‘s practice has been dedicated to representing injured Texans for more than 20-years.

Explosion at Enterprise Products Mont Belvieu gas plant that killed contract worker Ricky Shaw