Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

A two car crash over the 4th of July weekend has tragically claimed the lives of Houston area parents Josh Berry (41) and Robin Berry (40) and has left their three children Peter, Aaron and Willa in a Lubbock Hospital. Josh and Robin died in the Saturday July 2nd collision as the family drove back home from Colorado. A Toyota sedan carrying two people veered into the opposite lane of Highway 285 in Fort Stockton and collided with the Berry family’s 2003 Chrysler minivan. 28-year old Colleen Doyle of Phoenix Arizona, a passenger in the Toyota car, also died in the accident. Michael Scott Doyle (also from Phoenix) the 31-year old driver of the Toyota, is in hospital in serious condition. 9-year old Peter Berry and 8-year old Aaron Berry were in critical but stable condition at Covenant Hospital in Lubbock, while their 6-year old sister Willa Berry was conscious on Monday afternoon but remained in serious condition.  KHOU’s story indicates 8-year old Aaron underwent abdominal surgery on July 2nd to repair lacerations to his internal organs and on Sunday doctor performed a spinal surgery, installing hardware to stabilize his spine. 9-year old Peter also underwent a spinal surgery. A family friend named Jennifer Deutsch was quoted as saying it is unknown is the boys will regain use of their legs, and they will require significant rehabilitative therapy when they return to Houston. A fund has been established to help Peter, Aaron and Willa.  The fund is called the Perlo-Berry Family Fund and donations can be made online through the Congregation Beth Yeshurun web site here.

Our hearts go out to Aaron, Peter and Willa and their extended family. It is a tragedy for a child to lose a parent at any age, but for these children to lose both parents at once while they are so young is devastating. God bless them.

Josh Berry (41) and Robin Berry (40) with Peter (9), Aaron (8) and Willa (6). Mr. and Mrs. Berry were lost in an automobile accident on Saturday July 2nd, 2011.

Update: On Thursday July 7th KHOU and other local media outlets reported that the Berry children have been returned to the Houston area and are in a hospital in the Houston Medical Center. The funeral service for Josh and Robin Berry was held at Beth Yeshurun synagogue in Houston on Wednesday July 6th, was attended by approximately 1,000 mourners and lasted for three hours. The Perlo-Berry Family Fund remains open and is accepting donations: you can donate as little as $10. Everything will help.

Click2Houston.com is reporting a fatal collision on State Highway 6 near Lake Shore Boulevard between a car and a backhoe carrying a load of rebar in an area that was under construction. Missouri City Police indicate the wreck happened around 8:15am Tuesday June 28th. Both vehicles were traveling in the same direction at the time of the wreck and investigators are working to determine which driver had which lane. Under consideration is whether the rebar load extended too far from the backhoe or if the driver changed lanes too quickly. The driver of the car died at the scene. The construction company operating the backhoe was not identified in the article. Typically when an accident involves a fatality and there is a question as to how the accident happened and who is responsible, the law enforcement agency investigating will conduct a full-blown accident investigation, probably performed by a specially trained accident reconstructionist.

Several Houston media outlets are reporting a deadly crash in the 13700 block of South Main in Houston near Hillcroft at around 12:10am Wednesday June 29th. The names of the two drivers involved have not been released: after the wreck they were both rushed to Memorial Hermann Hospital where one driver, a man, was pronounced dead. The surviving driver apparently sustained a head injury, but fortunately he was conscious and talking at the accident scene and is expected to survive the crash. Houston Police Department said the driver of a Suzuki SUV made an illegal u-turn by driving over a grass median to turn from the northbound lanes to the southbound lanes on Main. A Ford Explorer traveling southbound collided with the Suzuki as it entered the southbound lanes. The driver of the Suzuki was killed.

The Houston Chronicle’s report is here. ABC Channel 13 News describes the Suzuki SUV as a minivan and does not mention an illegal u-turn, but says the minivan veered into oncoming lanes.

A Brazoria County Deputy Sheriff was killed and another deputy riding with him was seriously injured in a collision on Highway 6 at FM1128 in Manvel, Texas at around 10:30pm Sunday June 26th. The two deputies were traveling in their patrol car on Highway 6 when a pickup truck made a left turn in front of them into a Chevron gas station. Apparently the pickup truck driver did not see the deputies’ vehicle.  The patrol car t-boned the pickup truck, killing one of the deputies. The two people in the pickup truck were injured and were life-flighted to Memorial Hermann along with the injured deputy. A Texas DPS trooper stated the pickup truck appears to be at fault based on their preliminary investigation for failure to yield the right-of-way to the deputies patrol car. The deputy who died in the collision was riding in the front passenger seat of the patrol car. Channel 13 Eyewitness News’ story is here. The Chronicle’s story is here.  The Chronicle’s story identifies the deceased Deputy as 27-year old Charles Allen Vanmeter, and the injured Deputy as 26-year old Joshua Mark Waldrop. The same story also lists the driver of the pickup truck as being 18-years old and the passenger as 17-years old.

Three separate accidents involving a total of 8 vehicles occurred one after the other on I-45 near Cavalcade and police believe alcohol to be a factor in two of those accidents. The first car involved two cars: nobody was hurt in that crash. Investigators had stopped traffic to investigate the first crash when a GMC failed to stop (believed to be stolen), crashing into two other cars and then a police car. The only injury was to the Yukon driver, who police believe was intoxicated at the time.

The last accident happened at the top of an overpass near Patton: 25-year old Christopher Trumpower, driving a black Jaguar, came up the hill and did not see the two cars stopped at the top of the hill. Police believe Trumpower tried to swerve around the vehicles at the last minute, but the passenger side of his Jaguar struck the rear of a silver-colored Lincoln MKX SUV. Tragically the passenger riding in Trumpower’s Jaguar was killed and Trumpower was taken to hospital with non life threatening injuries: he has been charged with intoxication manslaughter. A female passenger riding in the Lincoln was taken to hospital in extremely serious condition. Police found two open liquor bottles in the Jaguar.

Read Click2Houston.com’s report here. Video from the scene of the collision is here. KHOU’s report is here.

This Lincoln MKX sustained massive rear-end damage when struck by Christopher Trumpower's Jaguar

Thursday June 23, 2011: three people were injured in a collision between a Houston METRO rail and a passenger car on Main Street at Elgin. The accident happened on the northbound tracks at around 2:30pm. METRO says that a passenger car heading eastbound on Elgin disregarded a red light and crashed into the light rail car, then spun out and hit another vehicle. The second vehicle then hit a third. Three people were injured in the accident: two were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital to be treated for their injuries. One of the people injured was on the light rail, the other two injured people were in the motor vehicles. Here is ABC Channel 13’s Eyewitness News report. The Houston Chronicle’s story is here. Smith & Hassler represents the person who was injured while riding in the light rail car.

A car ran a red light at Main Street and Elgin in downtown Houston, crashing into a METRO light rail and other vehicles.

A car accident is a very disruptive event for most people.  A damaged vehicle may mean you cannot get to work, grocery shop, take your kids to school or sporting events, and so on.  Injuries may mean you are unable to work, hence unable to support yourself or your family due to lost wages.  And not only are you missing income because you are unable to work, but you now have unexpected debts for medical treatment, sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars.  Dealing with all of these challenges at once can feel overwhelming, particularly if you have never been involved in an accident before.  If the at-fault driver had insurance, you are probably dealing with requests for information from the insurance company too.  Smith & Hassler firmly believes that the earlier in the process you get sound advice from an experienced personal injury attorney who is willing to listen to you, answer your questions and provide you guidance, the better.  The insurance company will press you early on to give a recorded statement about the accident, your injuries, your medical history and more: don’t do it, the statement is for their benefit, not yours.  You can call or email Smith & Hassler any time for a free consultation on your car accident injury claim.

Click2Houston.com is reporting that a white-colored box truck left the roadway and smashed through the wall of a Papa John’s pizza restaurant in the Houston Heights area at the intersection of 11th Street and North Durham.  The truck penetrated the exterior wall and went into the restaurant building. According to investigators a wreck caused the truck driver to lose control and leave the roadway. At least three people in another vehicle were injured, though their exact condition was not reported. ABC Channel 13’s coverage of this story is here. KHOU’s coverage of the Papa John’s truck crash is here and includes photographs showing major damage to the passenger side rear of a Hyundai car.

This box truck crashed through the wall of the Papa John's pizza restaurant at the corner of 11th Street and Shepherd in Houston Heights.

This Hyundai car sustained damage to the rear passenger side.

View of the accident scene facing eastbound on 11th Street.

Smith & Hassler has previously posted to this blog about the importance of photographing your injuries for a personal injury claim. This post discusses photographing damage to your vehicle and how property damage photographs may be useful evidence in presenting an injury claim to an insurance company.

Generally speaking insurance companies think in a linear way when it comes to the interaction of property damage and injury claims. The worse the damage to your vehicle, the more likely an insurance company is to believe you that you were injured and need medical treatment (assuming you do not have an obvious or objective injury, such as a laceration or broken bone). On the flip side, if there is very little damage to your vehicle, an insurance company will question whether you were injured at all.  In fact it has routinely been our experience at Smith & Hassler that shortly after an injury claim is set up, insurance companies mail us photographs of our client’s vehicle showing minor damage with a letter enclosed stating that due to the minor damage, the insurance company expects that there would be very minor injuries and very little medical treatment.  State Farm Insurance particularly likes to mail minor property damage photographs.

The reality is that while there is a relationship between property damage and the likelihood of injury, the relationship is not simple or straightforward. Different types of vehicles react differently to collisions.  For example: you would expect to see different types and amounts of damage to the back of a Honda Civic than you would a Chevrolet Suburban: the vehicles are made of different materials, have different ground clearances and bumper heights and weigh different amounts.

Another example is when one full-size pickup truck rear-ends another full-size pickup truck. Texas is “truck country” after all, so at Smith & Hassler we see a lot rear-end automobile accidents involving pickup trucks. Because of the way pickup trucks are constructed many makes and models can weather a hard rear-end collision yet show very little damage for it, often not much more than a somewhat bent-down rear bumper.

There is also the fact that people react differently to impact forces. A person who has had decades of neck pain and a prior neck surgery may suffer significant pain and injury from an apparently quite mild rear-end collision, whereas the person sitting next to them who has never had neck pain may experience no injury at all.

Still: insurance companies know that photographs showing minor damage to the injured person’s vehicle can create problems if the injury claim winds up in front of a jury. Insurance defense attorneys use the photographs to characterize the accident as extremely minor…barely a tap…not the type of accident that could cause a person injury.

Some insurance companies, most notably Allstate Insurance, make a special effort to take plenty of photographs of an injured person’s vehicle that has little damage.  They will keep the photographs in their file and seek to introduce them as evidence if a lawsuit is filed on the claim. However: they go out of their way NOT to take photographs of an injured person’s vehicle that has been badly wrecked. They don’t want to take photographs of a badly wrecked car because they would be required to produce those photographs to the injured person’s attorney if a lawsuit is filed, and they know the photographs will help the injured person at trial. There is no guarantee that a judge will allow photographs of the vehicles into evidence at trial, but many many insurance companies try to skew the evidence in their favor from the beginning.

Before you take photographs of the damage to your vehicle you should keep in mind that if your injury claim goes into litigation (in other words, you hire an attorney and a lawsuit is filed over your injuries), the photographs will have to be produced to the insurance defense attorney if they request them (and they always do request them).   If there was severe damage to your vehicle you should take lots of good quality photographs from multiple angles showing the extent of the damage.  Here are a few bullet point suggestions:

1. Take plenty of photographs.  Digital photographs are free to take and easy to store on a computer, so it costs you the same to take 50 pictures as it does to take 5 pictures.
2. If the airbags in your vehicle deployed, take some interior photographs showing the airbags were deployed.
3. Look for “transferred damage” and photograph it. Transferred damage is damage to your vehicle that was not the result of a direct impact to the damaged area, for example: in a severe rear-end collision the rear roof pillars or the roof itself may become buckled from the force of the impact.
4. In a rear-end impact, particularly to a a large SUV or full-size pickup truck, look underneath the rear of the vehicle because bumper mounting brackets may be buckled or broken.  Take photographs.
5. In a rear-end collision involving a pickup truck, check to see if the bed of the pickup truck was pushed forward and damaged the rear of the cab. An example of this type of damage is inserted below.
6. Don’t just leave the photographs on your camera and assume they will be safe.  What if you lose your camera or there is a problem with the memory card?  Transfer your photographs to your PC or laptop and think about uploading them to a web site that hosts pictures for free, such as www.kodakgallery.com or www.photobucket.com – make sure that the photographs are private and not available to just anyone.
7. Don’t put the photographs on your Facebook or MySpace page! If you post the property damage photographs to a social networking web site and your injury claim goes into litigation, you open the possibility of the insurance defense attorney being able to get discovery of your Facebook page because you posted information related to the car accident.

This photograph is an example of damage from a rear-end collision to a pickup truck where the truck bed was pushed forward into the cab.

If you, a friend or a family member have been injured in a car accident, Smith & Hassler’s experienced personal injury attorneys are available to give you a free consultation either in-person or by phone.  Sometimes people injured in car accident wait before consulting an attorney. They have good intentions: not wanting to seem “sue happy,” waiting to see if their injuries will get better or because an insurance adjuster is discouraging them from seeking legal advice (that happens).  It is better to know your rights early in the process and have an experienced Houston personal injury attorney explain the steps involved in car accident injury claim and what you can do NOW to increase the chances of a good outcome.

A two car wreck happened last night at the intersection of Westheimer and Fountainview in southwest Houston. Firefighters had to cut out one the drivers out of his vehicle before transporting him to the hospital. Police reportedly said this driver smelled of alcohol and ran a red light, causing the collision. It was reported the occupants of the other car were not hurt, but “not hurt” often means they were able to get out of their vehicles and move around at the scene, and not everyone who is able to walk after an accident is totally uninjured. Here is Channel 13 Eyewitness News’ brief report on the crash.

Channel 11 News also reported on the same crash, only Channel 11’s report indicates that the vehicle struck by the suspected drunk driver was  Honda Odyssey minivan occupied by two adults and two small children. The same report also states the suspected drunk was driving a Honda Civic car.

If you or your family have been injured by a drunk driver, call Smith & Hassler for a free initial consultation (either in-person or by phone) with a personal injury attorney. All of the litigators at Smith & Hassler have experience handling both claims and lawsuits against intoxicated drivers. Smith & Hassler aggressively pursues compensation for clients injured by the selfishness of drunk drivers. Insurance companies want to settle claims involving drunk drivers EARLY and FOR AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. The insurance company knows Harris County juries have little sympathy for intoxicated drivers who hurt others and damage their property. Don’t let an insurance adjuster talk you into giving away your legal rights.

A wrong-way driver was killed Monday June 13 when he veered into oncoming traffic on the Crosby Freeway near Sheldon Road at around 12:35PM. Three vehicles were involved in the accident and the driver of one of the vehicles struck by the wrong-way motorist was seriously injured and had to be taken by life flight helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital for treatment. The male driver was headed eastbound on the Crosby Freeway when he entered the oncoming lane, hitting one car and pushing it into a third vehicle. Click2Houston.com’s report states it isn’t known at this time why the driver crossed into oncoming traffic.

A car accident is a very disruptive event for most people.  A damaged vehicle may mean you cannot get to work, grocery shop, take your kids to school or sporting events, and so on.  Injuries may mean you are unable to work, hence unable to support yourself or your family due to lost wages.  And not only are you missing income because you are unable to work, but you now have unexpected debts for medical treatment, sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars.  Dealing with all of these challenges at once can feel overwhelming, particularly if you have never been involved in an accident before.  If the at-fault driver had insurance, you are probably dealing with requests for information from the insurance company too.  Smith & Hassler firmly believes that the earlier in the process you get sound advice from an experienced personal injury attorney who is willing to listen to you, answer your questions and provide you guidance, the better.  The insurance company will press you early on to give a recorded statement about the accident, your injuries, your medical history and more: don’t do it, the statement is for their benefit, not yours.  You can call or email Smith & Hassler any time for a free consultation on your car accident injury claim.