Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

A dramatic crash involving a Houston METRO bus happened this morning near the Texas Medical Center according to a Click2Houston report. The crash happened around 8:45am and occurred in the southbound lanes of state highway 288 near MacGregor Way. The METRO bus was an articulated bus, the kind designed to bend in the middle. According to a witness the bus driver appeared to lose control of the vehicle while changing lanes, and the bus crashed into a concrete support pillar beneath a railway bridge. The bus driver apparently was returning the bus at the end of his shift and fortunately no passengers were on board at the time.  Investigators are working to determine the cause of the accident.

ABC Channel 13 Eyewitness News is reporting that the driver of the METRO bus was killed in the collision, and states that before the collision the METRO bus came into contact with a dump truck.

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.

On Monday June 27th, HBO will screen the critically acclaimed documentary Hot Coffee, a documentary that examines the effects of tort reform on individuals and families in Texas and throughout the United States. The documentary uses the story of Stella Liebeck, the plaintiff in the famous McDonald’s coffee case that many members of the public think they know the facts of (but typically don’t) and that is often held up by tort reformers as an example of frivolous litigation or juries making unjustified damage awards. Hot Coffee follows four people, including Stella Liebeck and also Jamie Leigh Jones, currently a Plaintiff against KBR and Halliburton

Anyone with an interest in the preservation of individual rights and the access of Texas families to the civil justice system would do well to watch this important documentary and educate themselves as to the dangers uncontrolled tort reform poses.

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.

On June 17, 2011 Governor Rick Perry vetoed a bill that if enacted would have banned texting-while-driving in Texas. Governor Perry said he vetoed the bill because he viewed it as “a government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults.” Car & Driver Magazine, which can hardly be viewed as a politically partisan media outlet, performed a study in 2007 on the dangerous effects of texting while driving: you can read the Car & Driver article here.  The conclusion Car & Driver reached through their experiment is that texting while driving is more dangerous than driving while intoxicated.

Results from Car & Driver Magazine's test comparing text-driving to drunk-driving

It is hard to imagine how the alleged “micromanagement” of adults’ lives would not be justified in banning a driving behavior that is known to create a potentially deadly distraction to drivers on Texas’ public roads. Obviously just because text-driving is banned doesn’t mean people won’t do it, but it certainly can’t hurt to try and remedy the problem and the possibility of prosecution may cause some people to think twice. Just ask Californian Ling Murray whose 2-year old daughter Calli was killed by a text-driving teen and the mother and child walked hand-in-hand in a crosswalk. Or the family of 32-year old Martha Ovalle, a nanny on her way to work in Newport Beach, California who was hit and killed in a crosswalk by a texting driver who was later convicted of felony vehicular manslaughter. And pedestrians are not the only potential victims of driver’s distracted by text messaging: 17-year old driver Alexandria “Alex” Marie Brown died November 2009 in Lubbock, Texas after she rolled her truck and was ejected while driving to school. Alex’ cell phone record indicated she replied to a text message moments before losing control of her vehicle and crashing.

During the same legislative session Governor Perry designated the latest round of tort reform a legislative emergency, moving it to the top of the list of bills up for debate and consideration. Banning a notoriously dangerous driving behavior that has undeniably cost Texan lives (and will continue to do so) did not merit such prompt attention however. What a shame.

An alleged drunk driver in a pickup truck rear-ended a Honda near Silver Island and Mesa Peak in Houston at around 2:45AM Sunday. The female driver of the Honda lost control of her car after being struck and traveled through a yard and into the side of a home. A family was at home sleeping at the time, but fortunately nobody in the home was injured. The driver of the pickup truck was arrested at the scene on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. KHOU’s report did not state whether the driver of the Honda was injured.

If you or a loved on have been victimized by an automobile accident, motorcycle accident, pedestrian accident, bicycle accident or truck accident caused by adrunk driver, call the experienced Houston personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler for a free consultation. The earlier in your case you call, the better: theinsurance company will want you to settle for a small amount as early as possible and have you sign a release. This will limit the insurance company’s liability and prevent them from having to pay more later. Smith & Hassler’s personal injury attorneys have aggressively represented injured people in the Houston area and throughout Texas for more than 20-years, including bereaved family members bringing wrongful death lawsuits.

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.

Channel 13 Eyewitness News is reporting that a 4-year old boy narrowly escaped drowning when he slipped away from his mother and fell into a swimming pool at Pine Lakes apartments in North Houston on Greens Parkway near Sharmon. The little boy’s mom discovered him under the water, and when he was pulled out rescuers were able to resuscitate him. He was transported to hospital where he is in serious condition. Click2Houston.com’s report of the incident is available here and states the incident happened around 11:00pm when the mother was swimming and playing with her three children. When they had finished playing the mother took two of the children inside and had assumed the 4-year old has also gone inside with his aunt. She was unable to see that the 4-year old was in the pool because the water was discolored and the little boy has sunk to the bottom of the pool.

Ideally swimming pools are properly secured with a childproof fence and gate, whether it is a pool at a private residence or a shared pool at an apartment complex or fitness center. Swimming pools should also have rescue equipment on hand at all times, such as flotation devices or a pole that could be used by a non-swimmer to assist someone who has fallen in and needs help. Persons or businesses who control the pool area should make sure the pool and equipment are properly maintained, that warning signs are in place and that the pool does not pose a danger to those around it, particularly to children. If you live in a shared housing unit such as an apartment or condominium complex and you believe there are defects or dangers with the pool, you should notify building management right away, ideally in writing or by email. Discolored pool water poses a number of dangers, including an inability to see how deep the water is which may injure someone diving or jumping into the pool, and also the danger that some who falls into the pool cannot be seen.

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.

At 2:30am on Saturday a speeding Corvette left the roadway on NASA Road 1 and slammed into the wall of a home. Alcohol and speed are thought to have contributed to the collision: reports indicate the driver of the Corvette was racing a motorcycle and may have been traveling at or about 100MPH when he wrecked. A female passenger riding in the Corvette died at the accident scene, her identity has not been released.

This silver Corvette convertible crashed into a home on NASA Road 1 in Pasadena killing the female passenger

If you have lost a loved one due to another’s negligence, call the experienced personal injury attorneys at Smith & Hassler who have successfully handled a great many wrongful death cases for Houston families.