Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

February 6, 2011: ABC Channel 13 eyewitness news is reporting that a Harris County deputy crashed his patrol car into a tree after swerving the vehicle when he was fired upon by occupants of a vehicle he was chasing. The chase started when the deputy tried to pull over a vehicle for not having a license plate in Meyerland on Beechnut near the West 610 Loop in Houston. A chase ensued that ended on Holly in Bellaire. The suspect vehicle came to a sudden stop and the deputy took action to avoid a gun battle according to J.J. Laine of the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable‘s Office. The suspect vehicle fled the scene after the deputy crashed: police are still looking for the vehicle. The vehicle is described as a silver or dark gray Ford Taurus type vehicle; the deputy was transported to the hospital with minor injuries where he was treated and released.

Precinct 5 Deputy Constable sustained minor injuries in an accident during a chase.

Monday January 24, 2011: At 9:00AM Deanne Erdmann, assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine was killed when she was pinned by her own SUV in the Texas Medical Center. Prof. Erdmann was exiting the parking area of the McGovern campus in the 2400 block of Holcombe. Erdmann exited her white Cadillac Escalade to swipe her access card but apparently failed to put the vehicle in park. The Cadillac then rolled forward, pinning her between the SUV and a metal pole near the access gate.  Sadly Professor Erdmann died at the scene. Houston Police Department Captain Roger Goralski said that there was only two inches between the SUV and the metal pole.

Tuesday January 18, 2011: Metro rail service came to a temporary halt when a pedestrian was hit by a car and pushed into the side of a moving metro rail trial near Reliant Park.  The collision happened at around 4:40am at Holly Hall and Fannin according to a spokesperson for Houston‘s Metropolitan Transport Authority. Fortunately the train immediately stopped when the male pedestrian hit the side of it. The man was taken to a nearby hospital, his injuries and condition have not been disclosed. A vehicle traveling southbound on Fannin hit the man and he fell into the side of the northbound train. Houston police are still investigating.

A pedestrian was hit and killed this morning at approximately 5:30am in an accident on Highway 6 near Piping Rock. Details are sketchy at this time, it appears the pedestrian was either trying to cross Highway 6 or was walking along it. The identity of the pedestrian has not been release. Houston Chronicle report is here.

The web site for Safe Kids USA offers lots of valuable information regarding pedestrian safety, including a Pedestrian Safety Fact Sheet. Safe Kids USA reports that:

* Children sustain more than 39,000 nonfatal pedestrian injuries each year.
* In 2005, there were 339 pedestrian fatalities in children ages 14 years and under. The year prior, 583 children died and nearly 70 percent of these deaths were motor vehicle-related traffic crashes.
* 33,571 children were treated in hospital emergency rooms for pedestrian-related injuries in 2005.
* Between 1995 and 2005, the number of child pedestrian fatalities decreased by 51 percent.
* The maturity level of a child under 10 years of age makes him/her unable to correctly gauge the speed of vehicles putting them at greater risk for injury and death.
* Other than in the street, driveways, parking lots and on sidewalks are where young children ages 0-2 years suffer the highest number of injuries as pedestrians.
* 83 percent of child pedestrian deaths occur at non-intersection locations.
* 1 in 4 child pedestrian deaths occur between 6 – 9p.m.
* On average, 12 children die each year in school bus-related crashes

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.

Many people wonder if they have to or should get a police report made when they are involved in an accident.  The answer to the question “Should I get a police report if I am in an accident?” is usually yes.  The purpose of a police accident report (sometimes referred to as a crash report) is to document who was involve, record important information and to document the officer’s investigation and conclusions as to who (if anyone) was at fault. In no particular order, a police accident report will include the following information:

* names of the drivers involved, driver’s addresses, driver’s license numbers, date of birth, driver’s license status (valid, invalid, etcetera), any restrictions (e.g. corrective lenses)
* year, make, model, color, license plate, VIN of the vehicles involved
* street(s) where the accident happened and applicable speed limits
* insurance company for each driver
* the road conditions, weather conditions, lighting
* witness information (if any)
* location and severity of the damage to the vehicles, where the vehicle were towed and the towing company
* who was injured and the apparent severity of their injuries
* statements of the drivers and witnesses
* not-to-scale diagram of the scene of the collision
* the officer’s opinion on who was at fault
* who was issued a citation, and what they were cited for
* the officer’s patrol area, badge number and name

The list above is not exhaustive, there is other information within a police report that is not included here.  Police officers are trained to investigate accidents and gather information that is important, so having a police officer make a report for your accident saves you the worry of trying to get all the necessary information yourself. Police officers should also investigate the accident in a neutral way, not favoring one side over the other, and witnesses may feel more comfortable telling the neutral police officer what they saw rather than telling their story to the drivers involved.

Police officers in Texas now have the ability to verify at an accident scene whether a particular vehicle has valid liability insurance. Having a police report can also speed up the claims process and give the other driver’s insurance company information they need to make a liability decision and decide whether they will pay a claim.

While people often want to be nice to the other driver and feel hesitant to get the police involved, particularly when the other driver is at the scene saying they are at fault, unfortunately sometime people who have caused an accident get home, have a chance to cool off and start rethinking whether they were really at fault. If there are no witnesses and no police report, you may be faced with a swearing match situation (your word against the other driver) which can get messy.

Some clients have told us in the past then when they called the police to request a report be made, they were told that if the vehicles can be moved from the roadway the drivers should swap information and go on their way.  You may need to politely push to have an officer sent to make a report, and it may mean you have to wait. Section 550.062 of the Texas Transportation Code says that an officer who investigates an accident resulting in injury to or death of a person or damage to property to the apparent extent of $1,000 or more must make a report and file that report with their department within 10-days of the date of the accident.

Tuesday July 27th, 2010: The Houston Chronicle is reporting that a pedestrian crossing in the 5000 block of Gessner near Genard was struck and killed in a hit-and-run collision at about 9:00pm.  The pedestrian was using a walker. The vehicle was traveling northbound at the time of the collision and the pedestrian was apparently not in a crosswalk. The area is dimly lit and the man was known to travel slowly while using his walker, police said.