Charlotte Injury Lawyers Blog

Older North Carolina Drivers and Road Safety

May 31, 2012 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

As the Baby Boomer generation continues to age, one thing is certain–the roads will be increasingly filled with older drivers. Currently, thirteen percent, or 34 million Americans, are over sixty-five years of age. That number is expected to increase by 60% over the next fifteen years. Based on these numbers, it is projected that one in five drivers will be 65 or older by 2025.

While the older drivers may have more experience on the road, they are also responsible for a disproportionate number of accidents. A report released by TRIP states that although drivers over 65 account for 8% of all miles driven, they are involved in at least 17% of all reported crashes.

North Carolina is towards the top of the list in multiple statistical categories pertaining to older drivers. The state is fourth in the nation in raw number of older drivers killed in car accidents and fifth in the number of accidents involving at least one driver over the age of 65. North Carolina is ranked ninth in the nation for number of older licensed drivers. Unsurprisingly, the number one state in many of these categories is Florida.

Older drivers are more susceptible to serious injury from car accidents for a number of reasons. First, age comes with increased physical frailty and related medical issues. These issues include slower reaction time, poorer eyesight, and reduced muscle dexterity. Furthermore, when such accidents happen, injuries tend to be more severe due to this increased frailty. TRIP singles out “safely moving through intersections” as especially hazardous for older drivers.

Despite these numbers, no one is suggesting that we revoke the licenses of all older drivers. One of the major determining factors in quality of life is mobility and to deny that to an ever-increasing proportion of the population could only lead to trouble. Rather, it is being suggested that steps be taken to make the roads safer for older drivers. Some of the more prominent suggestions include clearer signs with larger lettering, increased width of pavement markings, widening lanes, and brighter lighting.

Severe Injury Caused by Magnets

May 29, 2012 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

A few months back one unfortunate couple made a purchase they’ll likely regret for the rest of their lives: a box of magnets. They were shopping near their hometown and came across a bag of high-powered magnets that could be used to form various shapes and chose to buy them for a little amusement. When they arrived back at their house they made sure to put the toys away on an upper shelf. Apparently it wasn’t high enough to keep their young son, 2-year-old Braylon, away. He found the bag of magnets and ended up swallowing eight of them.

Rather than just simply passing the round balls, they magnets fused together and, in the process, wreaked havoc inside the little boy. The high-powered magnets attached to each other and, in doing so, twisted and ultimately perforated the boy’s intestinal tract.

Since the terrible accident the child has been in the hospital, coming up on two months now. Most of the time was spent in the ICU given the severity of his injuries. Braylon has had six surgeries, developed a blood infection and had to be fully sedated for three weeks. He is thankfully supposed to leave the hospital soon, but will have to return for more surgeries. He’s scheduled to get an intestinal transplant given the amount of tissue that had to be removed during all his surgeries.

Shockingly, given the horrible damage inflicted on Braylon and other’s just like him, there has not yet been a thorough study of the impact of magnets ingested by children. The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has said that since 2008 it has received some 200 reports of similar incidents involving children and high-powered magnets. As a result, one of the doctors that worked with Braylon, Dr. Adam Noel, decided to conduct a survey of his own. He asked a group of pediatric gastroenterologists for their thoughts on the issue. The 33 physicians who responded to Dr. Noel’s survey said that they have seen a total of 82 young patients who have swallowed magnets. Sadly, the vast majority of these children suffered bowel perforations, just like Braylon.

Dr. Noel and a group of other concerned doctors will be meeting with officials from the CPSC to discuss ways to ensure that additional children don’t suffer from similar accidents. The companies that make the toys insist that their products are perfectly safe if used per the instructions. Treat them like any dangerous item in a house, like a stove, and the children can be perfectly safe from the danger they present.

Study shows that turn signal errors contribute to 2 million car accidents per year

May 24, 2012 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

In driver’s ed most of us learned to follow a few simple rules before changing lanes: turn on your blinker, check your mirrors and check your blind spot. Only after these had been done is it safe to change lanes.

According to a new study by the Society of Automotive Engineers discussed on MSNBC.com, almost half of all drivers are getting that first, and arguably most crucial step, wrong. The study found that, when changing lanes, 48% of drivers either fail to engage their turn signals or forget to turn them off. When turning, the error rate drops considerably but still remains at a surprisingly high 25%.

Whatever the reason, forgetfulness, laziness or poor driver’s education, the signal errors are having a major impact on driving safety. According to the study, improper blinker use causes roughly 2 million traffic accidents every year. By comparison, distracted driving causes around 950,000 crashes each year.

Drivers who fail to use their turn signals properly might not think their mistake is a big deal, but the fact is that such a slip up puts everyone else on the road at risk. Even if an accident does not happen, drivers could still run into trouble with the law. After all, failing to signal a turn or a lane change is a crime and is treated as severely as speeding or running a red light.

The people at the Society of Automotive Engineers have come up with a novel and potentially useful solution to the problem. It’s called the “Smart Turn Signal,” the group claims it can go a long way to reducing the rate of car accidents across the nation’s roadways.

The “Smart Turn Signal” would automatically shut off a signal once a certain amount of time had passed. The device is also capable of being programmed to automatically turn off after detecting a lane change. Such a feature is similar to what happens now after drivers complete a turn.

Social Media Can Play Important Role in North Carolina Personal Injury Cases

May 22, 2012 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Before the Internet, insurance companies, attorneys, law enforcement, collection agencies and other individuals responsible for investigating information had to work a lot harder to check out individuals. Today, people volunteer much of the information such investigators are searching for.

The rise of social networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and other online communities have encouraged people to post anything and everything about themselves. Friends and acquaintances are not the only people taking notice. It has also become a crucial tool used by insurance companies, and other organizations, to gather evidence and seemingly innocuous posts on popular websites can damage an otherwise great personal injury claim.

Attorneys use social networking websites to verify what the opposing party is doing. If someone gets into an accident and claims to have an injury while submitting documentation that he or she cannot work, an investigator can easily go look up the person’s Facebook page. If the person’s Facebook page displays pictures of them dancing or rock-climbing or doing something that contradicts what was told to the insurance company, that person has just sabotaged their case.

Being tagged in a photograph by a friend who does not have privacy settings on a Facebook page can also spell trouble. If a supposedly injured person is seen doing something they claim not to be able to do, it can be used as evidence to deny a settlement offer or dismiss a court case seeking money for injuries. While this post should not be read as encouraging deception, injured parties should be aware that anything posted online is not 100% private.

It is recommended that you take down or deactivate all individual social networking pages while a claim is being pursued. If you’re not prepared to take the big step of deactivating your accounts, there are other precautions that can be taken short of that.

1. Immediately make your profile “private,” and set all privacy settings to the highest level.

2. Remember to not discuss your accident, injuries or treatment, including any prescribed medication, on ANY social networking sites.

3. Avoid discussing recent activities you’ve engaged in, physical exertion, abilities and limitations, or any other information that may bear on what you can and cannot do because of your injuries. It’s important to avoid this even if you’re not directly talking about activities related to your lawsuit.

4. Remove all photographs and videos of you taken since your injury, and refrain from posting until your claim has been resolved.

5. Be sure you know everyone who is your “friend.” Do not accept friend requests from people you do not personally know.

6. Review your friend list and block anyone you are not 100% sure you trust. Opposing parties could pose as a friend or get information from others who are to gain access to potentially incriminating information that could negatively affect your lawsuit.

“Transformers” Personal Injury Victim Receives $18.5M Settlement

May 17, 2012 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

According to a recent report by the Charlotte Observer, a young woman was injured on the set of the third Transformers movie and has received a significant personal injury settlement. Personal injuries can sometimes be freak accidents that no one expects. However, if someone failed to do something they were supposed to do, regardless of whether it was an accident, legal liability will exist. That is what happened in this case.

Nearly two years ago in September 2010, Gabriela Cedillo was working as an extra on the set of the third “Transformers” film. She was in a scene with other vehicles and a stunt vehicle. During the filming of the scene, a steel cable snapped, came into Cedillo’s car and hit her in the head. A truck had been pulling the stunt vehicle, which was unoccupied, that was set to roll over in the movie scene. Cedillo, like all of the other extras on the set that day, was in her own car. The truck was pulling the stunt vehicle by the cable, but the cable snapped and smacked her in the head.

Cedillo’s lawyer says that as a result of the injuries, she has significant brain damage. She has had to have numerous surgeries. The cable took off a portion of her skull and her brain. She now suffers from hallucinations, loss of memory, and some limited loss of movement on the left side of her body. A portion of the $18.5 million settlement she was awarded was set aside to pay for her constant medical care.

High School Student Tragically Dies in Bicycle Accident

May 15, 2012 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Recently, WCNC.com reported on the tragic death of a young man killed while riding his bike to school. No child deserves to have his or her life cut short due to such an unfortunate tragedy.

Tragedy does not even begin to describe what happened to 14-year old, Drew Wright. Wright was a freshman at Myers Park High School in Charlotte. On Tuesday, May 26, 2012, Wright was riding his bike down the sidewalk on his way to school. In this part of the city, trash pickup occurs on Tuesdays. As he was riding down the sidewalk, Wright swerved to avoid hitting a trashcan that had been set out for the sanitation workers to empty on their morning run. Wright, however, lost control of his bike, wobbled a little, and fell over into the middle of the street. He was hit by a US Foods truck on Sharon Lane, near Providence Road. Wright later died from his injuries. He was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

The police have said that no charges will be filed against the driver of the truck. This was nothing more than a tragic accident, but this is an opportunity for all of us to take a step back and begin to rethink bicycle safety. While most teenagers are driving to school by the time the turn 16, there are still a few who choose to ride their bikes to and from school. Parents should work diligently to keep their children safe even while they are riding their bicycles on sidewalks. Wearing a helmet is critical to proper bicycle safety. Head injuries are extremely serious and in this case, fatal.

In addition, some responsibility rests on the drivers of our communities who ride past children on bicycles. Children are impulsive and quick to react without thinking. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the drivers to keep a watchful eye on those bicycle riders and drive slowly so as to avoid hitting a child that may have made a quick maneuver in front of you. While nothing in this report says how fast the US Food truck driver was going at the time, or how close he was to Wright when he fell in the roadway, it is possible that if he had been going slower, he would have either avoided hitting Wright altogether, or he would have done less damage because the impact would have been less severe.

North Carolina General Assembly Files Bill to Compensate Eugenics Victims

May 10, 2012 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Earlier this year, we told you about North Carolina’s sterilization victims being approved for compensation if the legislature would pass the appropriate law. Since the posting of that article, the Charlotte Observer has reported that the North Carolina legislature has filed a bill that supports the victims each receiving $50,000 in damages. North Carolina is the first state in the nation to compensate victims of a nation-wide eugenics program designed to strip women and men of their ability to have children if they were found to be mentally ill or deviant.

Legislators on both sides of the aisle are in support of the victims receiving compensation. The bill says the following, “[T]he General Assembly wishes to make restitution for injustices suffered and unreasonable hardships endured by the asexualization or sterilization of individuals at the direction of the state between 1933 and 1974.” Between 1933 and 1974, nearly 8,000 men and women were sterilized without their effective consent.

Not only is the legislature on board, but Governor Purdue has included the eugenics victims’ compensation into her budget proposal. She has included $10 million which will give $50,000 tax free to any victim of sterilization. All claims for the money have to be filed by 2015 and if some of the victims have died, their personal representatives would be entitled to their share.

Deadly Car Crash Raises Questions for Gastonia Police

May 8, 2012 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

According a recent article on WCNC.com, police in Gastonia, North Carolina are conducting an investigation into a car crash with deadly consequences. It happened in the wee hours of Friday, May 18, 2012 on Beaty Road. The incident began at the intersection of Beacon Hills Drive and the police are still unsure about what caused the car crash.

The driver, Fionjela Knox, and her boyfriend, Justrivius Chambers, were driving a 2011 Chrysler Sebring. After the crash, the car came to rest on the side of the road in the middle of some bushes. Chambers was killed instantly but Knox survived the crash and is now in critical condition at an area hospital.

What is bothering investigators is the extent of the injuries to both crash victims. Doctors disagree on whether all of the injuries were caused by the crash. One doctor believes that the wreck was severe enough to have caused the substantial injuries to both victims, especially the survivor. Another doctor believes that Knox may have sustained injuries before the wreck. A police report, which has still not been finalized, claimed that Knox had been the victim of an aggravated assault shortly before the crash that seriously injured her.

The tow truck driver who was called to haul the crushed car away to a nearby lot said the police were acting very strange and he was told that he was not to touch the car in any way. Obviously the police believe that the car is of some evidentiary value and do not want to take the chance that the tow truck driver will contaminate the evidence.

Some of the neighbors told police that they heard gunshots. Glass was found several hundred yards away from where the car eventually came to rest after the crash. Some speculate that the window had been shot out just prior to the crash. Chambers had been previously convicted of possession of a firearm. Several questions still remain about what happened that night between Chambers and Knox.

Semi-Truck and Freight Train Collide in North Carolina

May 3, 2012 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

The residents of Long View, North Carolina got a surprise early in the morning when a semi-truck and a freight train collided. A Long View police officer, Raymond Denton, observed a semi-truck stalled on the railroad tracks at 8:00 am on the morning of May 14, 2012. Denton tried to get communications to tell Norfolk Southern, the freight line that operated on that track, to stop the train. Norfolk Southern responded saying that they were not able to stop the train and to inform the semi-truck’s drivers to clear the track immediately.

There was no time to clear the track. Seconds after Norfolk Southern responded, the train smashed into the semi-truck stalled on the track, splitting the tractor-trailer in two. The two parts of the truck ended up on opposite sides of the train tracks. The train was traveling at a relatively slow rate of speed because it was coming through Long View and it is customary for the train to slow down as it traveled through the town.

The damage was not limited to the train and truck. The semi was carrying a chemical called disodium trioxosilicate, a white powdery substance. The chemical can have adverse reactions, but since it had been raining that morning, the rain likely diluted the effect of the chemical. However, HAZMAT crews were on standby to assist with the cleanup. In the end there was no significant impact on the environment.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the crash, but there was significant property damage to both the train and the tractor-trailer. There has been no determination of fault for the accident. If the truck stalled on the tracks due to some negligence on the part of the trucking company, then the trucking company will be responsible for the damage to the truck and the train. If however, a mechanical failure happened that was not the fault of the trucking company or the drivers, then the company will not be liable for the damage.

Legal Problems for Troubled NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield

May 1, 2012 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

A judge in Forsyth County awarded a mail carrier $1 million in damages after she was attacked by NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield’s five dogs. Mayfield has been no stranger to legal trouble. He recently had had his home auctioned after he failed to pay the $3 million debt he owed on the property. He is also facing several criminal charges for drug possession and larceny in three different North Carolina counties. He was recently suspended from NASCAR for failing the organization’s substance abuse policy.

The judge, William Z. Wood, awarded the mail carrier, Mary E. Bolton, $1 million after she filed a lawsuit against Mayfield and his wife Shana Mayfield. The Mayfields failed to answer the plaintiff’s complaint and never bothered to appear in court. Thus, a default judgment was entered against the couple and the judge set the amount of damages.

Bolton’s complaint claims that Mayfield and his wife were negligent when they allowed their dogs to be loose on their property. On the morning of April 21, 2011, Bolton was delivering mail on her normal route. She was delivering a package to the Mayfield residence that was too big to fit into the mailbox on the side of the road, outside of the gate to the Mayfield residence. Bolton proceeded to drive her mail truck into the gate. Posted at the entrance to the gate were “No Trespassing” and “Beware of Dog” signs. She drove past those signs and onto the Mayfield property. It was then that she was attacked by the Mayfields’ dogs. Mayfield heard the attack and quickly came to Bolton’s aid. The dogs were confiscated and later euthanized. Bolton was taken to Catawba Medical Center to be treated for her injuries.

As a result of the attack, Bolton suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. She also has nerve damage and was forced to miss several months of work. She claimed that she lost nearly $15,000 in wages because of her injuries.

Mayfield told reporters that he offered to pay Bolton’s medical expenses, but her attorney turned down that offer. From the facts as told to the News Herald, it seems that Mayfield may have been able to successfully defend against the lawsuit had he retained a personal injury lawyer, and answered the Complaint. However, because he did not show up to defend against the suit, the court only had the plaintiff’s Complaint as evidence on which to base a judgment and damages.