Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

A bicyclist was killed in Houston yesterday in an accident with a garbage truck. Police say the collision happened on Briar Forest Drive near Wilcrest at around 9:50am. Authorities say the trash truck was heading westbound on Briar Forest and had started to make a right turn onto Wilcrest. The garbage truck hit the front tire of the bicycle throwing the bicyclist to the ground. The bicyclist, whose name has not been released, sadly died at the scene.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/25672260/detail.html

A woman died this morning in a multi-vehicle collision in North Harris County at the intersection of Hopper Road and Bentley Street at around 8:30am. Deputies say a woman driving in a pickup truck with a child passenger ran a red light, causing the accident. The pickup truck hit a car, pushing the car into a flatbed truck.  The woman in the car, whose name has not been released, was killed. The woman in the pickup truck was transported to Memorial Hermann with non life threatening injuries. News Channel 2’s report is here.

Some of the most challenging cases for personal injury attorneys and their clients are automobile accidents that involve minor property damage.  The insurance industry has a term for these cases: M.I.S.T. for Minor Impact, Soft Tissue.

The acronym MIST is problematic in itself because it uses the term “Impact” interchangeably with “Property Damage.”  Just because a vehicle does not have heavy damage on visual inspection does not mean a vehicle sustained low impact forces.  For example: if one armored car rear-ends another armored car at 35 miles-per-hour, neither armored car will sustain much visible damage but that doesn’t mean the occupants inside the armored cars weren’t subjected to a significant impact.  Of course, we don’t all drive armored cars but the example illustrates the basic concept.

SUVs and pickup trucks typically sustain significantly less damage in a car accident than passenger cars, particularly when the car or SUV is rear-ended.  Insurance adjusters are very quick to point to the minimal damage to the injured person’s pickup or SUV and claim that is evidence the impact was minor, hence there should be little or no injury to the people inside.

An interesting journal article published in a 2005 edition of Pain Research & Management and written my medical doctors found little support for the insurance industry’s position that injuries due to low property damage collisions are in people’s heads.  That article is available here: A Review of the Literature Refuting the Concept of Minor Impact Soft Tissue Injury

One occupant of an SUV was killed and another hurt when the SUV crashed into a concrete embankment early this morning. The SUV apparently left the southbound lanes of Highway 288 shortly after 2:00am and crashed through a concrete barrier and a guardrail.  Investigators report that the SUV went airborne and flew over a backhoe and Braes Bayou before smashing into the concrete embankment. One man was killed on impact and the other was transported to hospital. Given the distance the vehicle traveled before impact it appears very clear speed was a factor in the crash, and police are still determining if alcohol was involved.  Click2Houston’s full story, including pictures, is here.

James Brett Melton, aged 20, of Katy Texas, has been charged with felony racing in connection with a car accident authorities say he caused and that injured a bystander. The criminal complaint filed against Melson alleges that on Friday October 22nd he participated in a two vehicle race on Franz Road in Katy. Witnesses to the car accident have said that a dark colored Toyota Scion and a black Volkswagen Jetta engaged in the street race as they pulled away from an intersection. The Toyota then rear-ended a silver vehicle, causing the silver vehicle to flip over four times. Warren McFarland, driver of the silver car, was taken to a local hospital to be treated for his injuries which included a suspected fractured arm. Melton has been released from Harris County jail on $5,000 bail.

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.

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.

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.

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.