Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

Mayra Castillo Torres (37) and her teenage son Christopher Nuno (14) were killed when a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe struck their Nissan minivan along North Gessner Driver near Brookriver Drive at about 4:15pm Monday. Harris County Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Susan Cotter has issued a statement that, according to witnesses, the 17-year old driver of the Tahoe was racing another vehicle driving alongside him. When Ms. Torres pulled away from a stop sign, the Tahoe hit her vehicle. Torres and Nuno were killed on impact. Nuno was a student at Jersey Village High School and was just leaving band practice when the accident happened. 6-year old Katia Nuno, Christopher’s sister, died at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital on Tuesday.  The teenage driver of the Tahoe involved in the fatal collision gave a statement to a Houston area television station on Tuesday denying that he was engaged in a race at the time, and stated he was driving alongside a friend who had a “loud truck” which is probably why witnesses thought he was racing. The driver claimed he was speeding perhaps a little bit above the 50MPH speed limit. The Sheriff’s Department will conduct a full reconstruction of the fatal collision to determine exactly what happened, which will probably include downloading crash data from the “black boxes” of the vehicles involved. Christopher and his mother were in the front seats and were buckled at the time of the collision, however Katia may not have been.

Early Sunday morning a man died in Houston when his car crashed through a bridge and into the bayou below. The man was driving a Chevrolet Impala in the 6800 block of Lawndale around 2:45am when he left his travel lane.  The car crashed through the guard rail and fell more than 20 feet into the water below. The man’s body was recovered by a police dive team.

Watch video of the incident here.

The Transportation Department is reporting that traffic deaths fell 9.7 percent in 2009 to 33,808 fatalities, the lowest number since 1950.   In 2008 an estimated 37,423 people died on the highways.  A total of 41 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico saw reductions in fatalities, lead by Florida which had 422 fewer deaths, and Texas which was down 405 deaths. Economic downturns are often accompanied by a reduction in motor vehicle fatalities because people are out traveling the roads less in a bad economy, but last year’s reduction in the number of fatal accidents on roads came at a time when the estimated number of miles traveled by motorists increased by 0.2% over 2008 levels.  The annual highway safety report also found that:

* Motorcycle deaths broke a string of 11 years of increases, falling 16% from 5,312 motorbike accident deaths in 2008 to 4,462 in 2009

* Alcohol impaired driving deaths declined 7.4% in 2009 to 10,839 deaths due to drunk driving, compared with 11,711 in 2008.

A collision occurred early this morning in midtown Houston when a police officer’s patrol car collided with a white-colored Chevrolet Impala driven by a 19-year old man suspected of drunk driving.  The two-car collision occurred at Gray and Louisiana at approximately 2:20am. The injured officer was rushed to Memorial Hermann–Texas Medical Center with complaints of neck and back pain, and fortunately he sustained no broken bones. The suspect, who was arrested at the scene, t-boned the officer’s patrol car in an intersection. The Impala had two passengers who reportedly told officers that they had just left a nightclub and their driver had been running red lights prior to the collision. A wrecker driver witnessed the collision and stated the officer had the green light in the intersection.  The Houston Chronicle’s story is here.

Unfortunately experience tells us this will probably be one of many injury accidents caused by drunk drivers in the Houston area this weekend. Harris County leads the nation in drunk-driving injury accidents. If you have been injured due to the gross negligence of a drunk driver, call the attorneys at Smith & Hassler for a free consultation.

An independent accident reconstruction expert has reviewed information related to a collision between a Baylor medical scientist and his wife and a City of Houston Police Department patrol car driven by a first year officer.  Professor Estela Medrano (67) was killed in the collision and her husband Jorge Medrano (71) was seriously injured.  The collision occurred when the couple’s Toyota Scion turned left in front of Officer Kyle Dozier’s police car in the dark. Houston attorney Richard LaGarde who represents the Medranos has stated that HPD told him accident reconstruction expert that Officer Dozier was driving 57MPH, 22MPH over the speed limit, when the car accident occurred.  Officer Dozier was responding to an emergency call but had not activated his flashing lights or sirens. Mr. Medrano remained in Ben Taub General Hospital where he is being treated for a serious head injury. The Medranos four adult children are calling for a review of the HPD’s policies for officers responding to emergency calls and the use of sirens and emergency lights. The Houston Chronicle’s story is here.

From the Texas Department of Insurance’s web site:

Texas law requires people who drive in Texas to be able to pay for the automobile accidents they cause. Most drivers do this by buying automobile liability insurance. Liability insurance pays to repair or replace the other driver’s car and pays other people’s medical expenses. It does not pay to repair or replace your car or for your injuries.

The minimum coverage amount required by the state’s financial responsibility law increased on April 1, 2008, to $25,000 for each injured person, up to a total of $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage. (The limits prior to April 1 were $20,000 for each injured person, up to a total of $40,000 per accident, and $15,000 for property damage per accident.)

The limits will increase again on January 1, 2011, to $30,000 for each injured person, up to a total of $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 for property damage per accident. Drivers will be required to comply with the new limits as their policies are issued or renewed on or after the effective dates.

This is good news for automobile accident victims.  All too often the insurance coverage carried by a negligent driver is not sufficient to cover the injured person’s damages.

Monday August 30, 2010: The Houston Chronicle is reporting that a 67-year old woman is dead and her 71-year old husband is critically injured after an early morning car accident with a City of Houston police car. The accident occurred in southwest Houston in the 7500 block of South Braeswood near Braesridge at around 12:30am. The woman and her husband were taken from the accident scene to Ben Taub hospital where the woman died. The names of the couple have not been released. The police officer was taken to Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center: police say the officer suffered a broken neck, arm injury and a gash to his forehead. The officer, who has been with HPD for about a year, was responding to an urgent call for assistance and was in a marked patrol car at the time of the car accident. The patrol car’s siren and emergency lights were not on at the time of the crash according to police.

News Channel 2 is reporting that Gina Wiggins has been accused of driving drunk and causing a car accident in Houston that resulted in the death of another driver. Harris County Sheriff’s Office states that Wiggins was driving a Nissan Xterra SUV southbound in the 21000 block of FM2100 in Houston at about 6:15pm on Wednesday August 25, 2010. Detectives say Wiggins failed to stay in her lane and hit a Ford Escort coming from the other direction nearly head-on.  Angela Maxwell, driving the Escort, sustained injuries that proved fatal. Wiggins was transported to hospital where a blood sample was drawn, and she was subsequently charged with intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault.  Wiggins is being held in the Harris County Jail in lieu of $60,000 bail. The Houston Chronicle’s report is here.

The Texas Department of Transportation compiles a lot of facts and information on car accidents, including factors that contribute to car crashes in rural and urban areas.  In an urban area such as Houston, some of the leading factors contributing to car accidents are:

Failure to control speed, which caused 93,552 total crashes in 2008 of which 358 were fatal crashes and 11,621 caused serious injury
Failure to drive in a single lane, which caused 22,217 total crashes in 2008 of which 257 were fatal crashes and 3,062 caused serious injury
Speeding over the limit, which caused 5,237 total crashes in 2008, of which 256 were fatal crashes and 1,537 caused serious injury
Driving under the influence of alcohol, which caused 10,071 total crashes in 2008, of which 241 were fatal crashes and 2,072 caused serious injury
Driver inattention, which caused 76,276 total crashes in 2008, of which 176 were fatal crashes and 8,805 caused serious injury.

These statistics are compiled from information gathered from police accident reports, a report a police officer completes after investigating an automobile accident.  A portion of a Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report often referred to as “contributing factors” allows the officer to list his or her opinion as to factors or conditions that caused or may have caused of contributed to the collision.  If you have been involved in an automobile accident and would like advice on how to interpret what the officer has written in your crash report, you can contact Smith & Hassler for a free consultation.

It is a common perception that in a rear-end car accident, the rear car that collided with the car in front is always found to be at fault.  While that makes a certain amount of common sense, there is no law in Texas that says the rear vehicle is always at fault, and there are different accident facts where it would be unfair to hold the driver of the rear car responsible in a rear-ender car accident.

Texas Transportation Code Section 545.062 is the statute that speaks most directly to rear-end accidents.  The statute says: “An operator shall, if following another vehicle, maintain an assured clear distance between the two vehicles so that, considering the speed of the vehicles, traffic, and the conditions of the highway the operator can safely stop without colliding with the preceding vehicle or veering into another vehicle, object, or person on or near the highway.” Tex. Transp. Code Sec. 545.062(a).

In plain language this means that everyone driving on public roads in Texas has a duty to keep enough distance from the vehicle in front that, considering speed, road condition, traffic, and so on, the rear vehicle can stop safely without hitting the car in front. This does not mean however that simply because a vehicle hits the vehicle in front, the rear vehicle is 100% at fault for the accident.

We have all had the experience where we are driving on a busy freeway and traffic backs up near a heavily used exit.  Sometimes people will ride the lane next to the exit lane and then cut in at the last minute, usually because they don’t want to wait in the lane that is backed up. If another driver cut in front of you at the last minute and locked up their brakes, causing you to rear-end their vehicle, the other driver would probably be found at fault because they cut you off and interfered with your stopping distance.  Put another way, you were driving at a safe and reasonable speed in your lane and the only reason the accident happened is because the other driver cut in front of you and braked suddenly.  Fact patterns such as this can make for difficult claims unless the driver who cuts you off is completely honest about what they did.  Unfortunately the person who did the cutting-off often seems to forget how they cut-in at the last minute when the police arrive, and will just tell the officer they were rear-ended.  In a situation such as this, an independent witness can be extremely important: the witness can state that they saw the front car cut-off the rear car and cause the collision.

If you were involved in a rear-end collision, whether as the front car or rear car, you can consult with a Smith & Hassler attorney at no charge for advice on your specific case.