Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

ABC Channel 13 has reported a crash late last night that injured three men. It was a single vehicle accident on Hollydale Drive in Houston. The report is that the vehicle, which appears to be a white-colored Buick crossover, was traveling at considerable speed when a change in the road surface caused a loss of control; the vehicle then struck two parked cars and flipped over. The driver was ejected from the vehicle and is in critical condition, the two passenger were transported to the hospital for treatment. Harris County Sheriff’s Office investigators are looking into whether alcohol-impairment was a factor in the crash.

A man was loading a lawnmower onto his truck when a speeding driver struck a parked car, pushing it into the man and seriously injuring him. The accident happened late Wednesday evening in the 10,000 block of Pine Cone Lane in Houston, and was witnessed by the man’s son David Mena, who was interviewed by Channel 13. The 20-year old driver who was at fault for the crash fled the scene, leaving the victim unconscious. The victim was transported by Life Flight helicopter in critical condition, and police were able to arrest the suspect who had been chased by the victim’s neighbors.

30-year old Arnesia Washington has been charged with murder after a multi-vehicle accident this weekend that claimed the life of a motorcyclist. Channel 13 reports that Washington was driving on the 610 West Loop in Houston with two young children as her passengers around noon Saturday when she rear-ended the motorcycle. At the time she was being followed by two other motorists whose vehicles she has previously struck in two separate hit-and-run accidents.

Washington appearing in court

Reportedly Washington also attempted to flee the scene after striking the motorcyclist but was blocked-in by the vehicles that were following her. Washington has previously been charged in Harris County with possession of a controlled substance, and is believed to have been under the influence of hydrocodone, a prescription painkiller, at the time of the fatal crash. Blood results are pending. Normally this type of accident (which is all too common in Houston) would be charged as intoxication manslaughter, but Washington has been charged with felony murder because she had the young children in her vehicle.

The deceased motorcyclist has been identified as Steven Rudoff who is from Sugar Land. Mr. Rudoff leaves a wife and three children.

One driver is dead and another is possibly facing failure to stop and render aid and intoxication manslaughter charges after a crash on Hiram Clarke near Orem at 2:00 this morning. KHOU reports that a gray-colored Infiniti was traveling around 80 MPH southbound on Hiram Clarke when it rear-ended a white-colored Pontiac Sunfire that may have been turning at the time. The Pontiac was struck so hard that the driver was thrown out of the vehicle through the rear window. The Infiniti traveled about a block before coming to a stop due to mechanical failure.

Some of the most heartbreaking cases we handle involve victims of drunk drivers. One person’s decision to drive under the influence can quickly turn into a tragedy that can ripple across many lives. It not only affects the victim who is injured or killed in an accident caused by an impaired driver. The negligent driver’s behavior has a profound impact on the families and friends who lost someone they loved.

In an April 19 story covered by Click2Houston, we read about a man who was charged with intoxicated manslaughter after he allegedly struck a victim who was standing next to a vehicle on the Southwest Freeway in Houston.

According to the news report, police said the victim got out of his car after he struck a disabled vehicle that was stopped in a moving traffic lane.  As the victim was standing next to the driver side door of the disabled vehicle, he was hit by a car driven by a man who police allege was drunk. According to Click2Houston, police said the driver allegedly first struck the victim’s vehicle and then hit the victim who was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Harris County Drunk Driving Accidents Are Common

Back in 2009, a report in the Houston Chronicle stated that Harris County leads the nation in drunk driving fatalities among the most populous counties.

Since then, law enforcement has stepped up efforts to keep impaired drivers off the road. The district attorney’s office started a no-refusal policy that forced drivers suspected of being drunk to submit to a breathalyzer or blood test.

Unfortunately, tragic accidents involving impaired drivers continue to be a problem in Harris County, as the crash on Southwest Freeway illustrates. While that accident remains under investigation, generally speaking a drunk driving case may lead to serious criminal charges – and, separately, a civil lawsuit if someone is injured or killed. Our attorneys have extensive experience representing clients who need to pursue compensation for their losses in drunk driving cases.  While we applaud the efforts of law enforcement in bringing the drunk driver to justice, we also know that criminal cases alone won’t necessarily pay for all of the related losses.

In many cases, the only recourse a victim has to recover damages for medical bills, lost wages and damage property is to hire a lawyer and file a civil action. In some cases, we have been able to secure compensation for non-economic losses, including pain and suffering. And because the drunk driver’s actions were particularly reckless, we may seek damages to punish that person. These are known as punitive damages.

While negligence in a drunk driving accident might seem clear, securing full compensation from the insurance company can be a difficult process. That’s why it’s critical for victims and families who lost loved ones to consult with experienced attorneys promptly after the accident. Our law firm knows how to gather evidence and conduct thorough investigations that produce the results clients need. Call Smith & Hassler today at (877) 777-1529 for a free consultation.

A Jaguar sedan and a Chevrolet Camaro were involved in a major crash on Interstate 45 North at Ritchey Road early this morning. A third vehicle, an 18-wheeler Dr. Pepper truck, was also involved when the big rig’s trailer was hit in the back by one of the two cars. Both the Jaguar and the Camaro sustained major damage in the accident, particularly the Camaro. The crash happened around 3:30 a.m. and temporarily shut down all of the northbound lanes. The drivers of both cars were transported to the hospital and the truck driver was apparently unhurt.

The damaged Camaro

There was a three vehicle crash in the Montrose area of Houston at 2:30 this morning, and one of the drivers is facing several charges, including a likely DWI charge. The crash was at Montrose and Westheimer. A westbound Infiniti sedan ran a red light where it was struck by a southbound silver-colored Toyota Corolla. The Infiniti then struck an SUV that was stopped at the light. The driver of the Infiniti jumped out and tried to make a run for it but was restrained by bystanders until the police arrived. This will likely prove to be a costly mistake for that driver.

Scene of the Montrose crash this morning

Two vehicles collided head-on at 9:45 p.m. on Sunday March 27th and one of the drivers has been charged with intoxication manslaughter. The allegedly drunk driver was traveling eastbound on W. Mount Houston in a silver-colored pickup truck when he crossed the center line and struck a Chevy Impala sedan traveling westbound. A woman driving the Impala was killed in the collision and her front seat passenger was critically injured. The pickup driver was taken to the hospital, presumably where blood was drawn.

Sunday night’s fatal crash

A woman was rushed to hospital yesterday when a car crashed through the front of the Bon Express drying cleaning business on West Alabama in River Oaks. Channel 13 says that the 69-year old man driving the silver-colored Lincoln sedan, who apparently had some prescription medications sitting in his front passenger seat, mistakenly hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. The injured woman was an employee of the business.

The silver Lincoln being removed

Some new developments intended to improve safety have mixed results

Auto accidents cause tens of thousands of fatalities, countless more injuries, and billions of dollars of property damage every year. It’s no surprise, then, that the auto industry has been working for years to create new technologies to help prevent accidents, or to make them less severe when they do occur. While safety systems such as airbags and seat belts can and do save lives in the event of an accident, the best way to prevent deaths and injuries is to stop collisions from happening in the first place.

While many technologies are still in the “too soon to tell” stage of their history, the early returns on some of these technologies are mixed. Some systems do an effective job of avoiding accidents, but others, as best we can tell, do not.

Front Crash Prevention

Front crash prevention systems use sensors such as cameras and radar to detect whether the vehicle is too close to the vehicle in front of it. Most such systems will warn the driver and pre-charge the brakes; many will autonomously brake if the driver doesn’t respond to the warning. The idea is to prevent a collision or, failing that, to reduce speed when impact does occur.

Insurance data shows that front crash prevention systems do an effective job of preventing accidents. However, the level of safety varies from system to system. For instance, some systems only recognize moving vehicles, which means they won’t prevent certain collisions such as rear-ending someone stopped at an intersection or in heavy traffic. Only a few advanced systems are sensitive enough to spot pedestrians or bicyclists.

Other Alert Systems

Two more systems that alert drivers to impending risks are lane departure warnings and blind spot detection. These systems use warnings such as visual alerts and steering wheel vibration to let the driver know when the vehicle is in danger of straying into the oncoming lane or colliding with a vehicle in a blind spot. There isn’t yet enough data to say whether these systems effectively prevent accidents.

Anti-Lock Braking

Anti-lock braking systems (ABS) are intended to prevent wheels from locking up while braking, causing a vehicle to skid uncontrolled. Data on the effectiveness of ABS brakes has been mixed, with some researchers theorizing that they do not held due to “risk compensation” – that is, motorists drive more aggressively with ABS brakes because they assume the brakes will prevent them from losing control. However, electronic stability control (ESC), an evolution of the ABS concept, has been shown to prevent many single-vehicle accidents, including deadly rollovers.

Curve-Adaptive Headlights

These advanced headlights pivot in the direction of travel to help drivers see better on dark, curved roads. Early results indicate that these headlights do prevent accidents, even beyond expectations – which ironically casts doubt on how much the curve-adaptive technology itself helps. Some researchers believe that the success of curve-adaptive headlights has more to do with brightness and beam pattern than the actual headlight-steering technology.

Autonomous Driving

The ultimate in accident-prevention technology is the self-driving car, currently being pioneered by Google and some other companies. Autonomous vehicles use a variety of sensors to detect potential collisions and can often “see” hazards that would be impossible for a human driver to spot.

While autonomous vehicles may be the future of crash prevention, they’re not there yet. Recently, a Google driverless car hit a bus in San Francisco, the first such accident for which Google acknowledged that the autonomous vehicle was partially responsible. According to Google’s own records, 13 other, similar accidents have been avoided only because a human test driver took manual control of the vehicle; in 10 of those, the autonomous car would have been at fault. However, as autonomous vehicles are tested in more adverse driving situations and the software that drives them is further refined, the hope is that they will be able to avoid accidents much more consistently than human drivers.