Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

33-year old Nydia Alipaz has been charged with hindering a police investigation and making a false police report in a car versus pedestrian accident at 8:40pm on Thursday October 21st. The accident happened on the U.S. 59 service road in southwest Houston. Police said the 21-year man that was killed, whose name has not been released, was running alongside a Mercedes car shouting at Alipaz prior to the deadly accident. Click2Houston.com has issued a report conflicting with the Houston Chronicle’s report which states Alipaz was NOT facing any charges for the incident.

Graco’s official recall listings are here on the Graco web site

Graco is recalling approximately 2,000,000 of its strollers after receiving reports that a defect with the stroller may have caused the deaths of four infants. The strollers being recalled are older versions of the Graco Quattro Tour and MetroLite strollers and travel systems, all of which were made before 2007 and were distributed by Graco Children’s Products, Inc. of Atlanta.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says that if babies are not properly strapped into the strollers the child can slip through the opening between the stroller tray and the seat bottom where they can become struck and be strangled. The strollers involved in the recall were made before a voluntary standard was introduced in 2008 addressing this issue. The strollers were sold nationwide between November 2000 and December 2007.

A recently published Wall Street Journal article reports an experience common to almost all of us: long waits at the doctor’s office. This issue can be particularly problematic for people injured in accidents who often find themselves facing multiple appointments in the weeks and months following an injury. According to a health care consulting firm, the average wait to see a health-care provider is 22 minutes. More than 2.4 million patients attending more than 10,000 locations nationwide were surveyed. Of significance to accident victims orthopedists have the longest waits at 29 minutes. Dermatologists have the shortest waits at 20 minutes. The report noted that patient satisfaction dropped with each additional 5 minutes of wait time.

Patients can help themselves somewhat by asking for the first available appointment of the day or the first appointment after lunch, the times at which a doctor is least likely to be backed up.

At 2:00am this morning a two vehicle crash has left a person dead and another seriously injured according to Harris County Sheriff’s Office.  The driver of a grey Nissan Altima was involved in a minor fender bender at Aldine Mail Route and Henry, then afterward fled the scene on Aldine Mail. Later the Nissan collided with a Ford Explorer making a left turn. After the collision the Nissan left the roadway, entered a ditch and after colliding with a concrete culvert flipped over. The two passengers in the Nissan were thrown through the windshield: one of them died, the other was life-flighted. The driver of the Explorer was taken to hospital by ambulance and the driver of the Nissan fled on foot and has not yet been found.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has identified its 2010 Top Safety Picks. The Institute rates vehicles for crashworthiness, which is a measure of how well a vehicle protects the occupants in the event of a car crash.  Vehicles are rated good, acceptable, marginal or poor, based on performance in high speed front and side crash tests, a rollover test and also evaluations of seat and head restraints for protection against neck injuries in rear-end crashes. For a vehicle to be a 2010 Top Safety Pick it must earn a rating of good in all four of the Institute tests and must also have electronic stability control. You can view the institute’s list and check to see if your vehicle is a Top Pick by clicking here.

Wednesday October 13: a big rig has overturned near the Houston Galleria causing all manner of traffic problems. The 18-wheeler, hauling a long piece of concrete, overturned on the ramp from I-10 to the 610 West Loop around midday. The 18-wheeler cab and at least one of the trailers it was hauling flipped over, spilling the load onto the roadway. The ramp is not expected to reopen until 8:00pm while officials clean up the accident scene. Fortunately no injuries were reported.

Two people, one of whom was a two-year old child, were taken to hospital today after a crash involving a preschool bus.  The two-year old student was the only passenger on the bus. The accident occurred at approximately 8:00am in North Houston.  The two-year old was seated in a child restraint at the time. According to initial reports the bus rolled over onto its side in the collision. The Chronicle’s story is here.

The American Association of Justice has released a top ten list of the worst insurance companies in America. Admittedly trial lawyer who represent injured plaintiffs, either in third party claims or in first party claims against insurance companies, have an interest in turning the public against insurers.  By the same token, trial lawyer deal with insurance companies daily and have first hand experience of how different insurers handle claims. The ten worst insurance companies from the AAJ’s 2010 list are as follows:

1. Allstate click here for CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s report on Allstate’s claims practices
2. UNUM
3. AIG
4. State Farm
5. Conseco
6. WellPoint
7. Farmers
8. UnitedHealth
9. Torchmark
10. Liberty Mutual

The AAJ’s full report on the 10 worst companies is available here.

A motorcyclist died in a collision on the North Freeway near FM 1960 at around 6:00am Thursday October 7, 2010.  Witnesses told law enforcement officials that the motorcyclist Joell Herrera had been traveling at high speed and changing lanes prior to colliding with a Ford Explorer. After the collision Herrera was thrown from the motorcycle and the bike exploded. Herrera was wearing a motorcycle helmet but died at the scene from his injuries.

A 2-year old girl in Santa Fe, Texas is lucky to be healthy after being rescued by her mother when she became stuck in a car’s electric window. A spokesperson for Galveston County rescue services said the girl had been playing in the back seat of a parked vehicle and had leaned out of the window. The little girl was apparently distracted by a dog outside the car. Her mother walked to the rear of the vehicle to retrieve something from the trunk and got distracted speaking with a neighbor when the little girl got stuck. It is believed the mother revived her child possibly by performing CPR. When rescue crews arrived the girl was conscious and crying. The girl was transported by ambulance to Clear Lake Regional Hospital. The Galveston Daily News story is here. A 2004 Washington Post article reported that power windows were thought to be responsible for 2 to 4 child deaths per year, a relatively small portion of the 43,220 people killed annually in car accidents in the U.S.  Some safety advocates argue any such deaths are unnecessary and avoidable: U.S. made cars typically use a rocker style switch that can cause a window to close if someone accidentally leans on the switch.  Most Asian and European manufactured vehicles use a switch that must be pulled up, rather than pushed down, to cause the window to raise, reducing the risk of accidental closure.