Delivery Drivers and Their Duties to Drive Safely

In Virginia, a pizza delivery man killed two 5-year-old girls when he struck their minivan during a delivery run. An employee of Chanello’s Pizza, the man received 60 days in jail, a 90-day driver’s license suspension, and a $250 fine. Witnesses to the accident said that the driver ran a red light while en route to making a pizza delivery. A judge convicted the driver only of reckless driving, as prosecutors concluded that there was not enough evidence to convict him of a more serious manslaughter charge.A UPS driver killed a newspaper editor and severely injured his 9-year-old daughter last fall in Washington D.C. when he ran a red light. Officials charged the driver with failure to stop at a red light, negligent driving, and failure to obey a traffic device. UPS officials immediately suspended and then, after an internal investigation, fired the driver. A Lufkin injury lawyer can provide the legal guidance and assurance you need if you have been involved in an accident with a delivery vehicle.

Delivery Driver Accidents

Despite time deadlines always bearing down on them, delivery drivers owe it to others on the road to drive safely. Some of the more common accidents that delivery drivers are involved in include:

• Accidents in urban areas. Delivery drivers pose more threats to others’ safety in congested areas. They are rushing to make deliveries and may ignore the many quick-moving pedestrians or cyclists in the area.
• Failure to engage the parking brake. Delivery drivers for services like FedEx and UPS commonly park their trucks just outside of the location where they are making a delivery. If they fail to engage the parking brake, the truck may roll forward or backward and cause damage.
• Accidents relating to trying to find an address. If drivers realize they passed an address, they may make quick turns or backup without stopping to make sure no one is in the way.
• Basic negligent driving. Delivery drivers from those delivering pizza to those delivering important overnight documents know that time is money. They sometimes disobey traffic laws in order to make their deliveries on time, and, when they do this, they put others’ safety at risk.

Unfortunately, delivery companies know and expect that their drivers will be involved in accidents at some point. They and their insurance companies will do their best to avoid giving you compensation if you are involved in an accident with a delivery driver. Be sure to contact an experienced Lufkin injury attorney at Mike Love & Associates, LLC if you have been hurt in an accident with a delivery driver.

Distracted Driver Accidents in Texas

Distracted driving caused by a cell phone led to the death of a 7-year-old Texas boy a few weekends ago. The driver of the 2004 Chevy Suburban was distracted by the use of a cell phone when the driver left the roadway and overcorrected, causing the SUV to roll over and land on its passenger side. The young girl, the only one in the car not wearing a seat belt, died on the scene as a result of a head injury after the force of the accident threw her from the vehicle. Four other passengers in the SUV were not injured, and troopers reported that the driver was in normal condition.The Texas Department of Transportation keeps track of car accident-related statistics. Since 2005, cell phones have contributed to 17,519 accidents, leading to 7,519 injuries and 167 deaths. San Antonio leads the states with 1,611 cell-phone related accidents in the past five years. An experienced Lufkin injury lawyer can assist you if a distracted driver has injured you in a car accident.

Distracted Driving

While cell phone calls and texting have been a popular target of late, a number of factors can cause distracted driving accidents, including: eating meals, putting on make-up, fiddling with the controls of the stereo, speaking to passengers, using a GPS system, or reading.Distracted driving causes problems on the road for several reasons:

• It can cause you to take your eyes off the road. It only takes a few seconds for a car to approach you or for someone or something to dart in front of your car, and, if you are not paying attention for those few seconds, an accident is inevitable.
• It can cause you to take your hands of the wheel. You cannot maneuver your car quickly if you are not in control of it at the time.
• It distracts cognitively. If you are engrossed in a conversation or managing a cell phone, it takes you longer to process other information for the simple reason that it is difficult to do multiple things requiring concentration well. Studies have shown that using a cell phone, for instance, delays one’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent.

Distracted driving is serious business. Nearly 6,000 people die every year as a result of distracted driving accidents, and such accidents injure more than half a million. Contact a Lufkin injury attorney at Mike Love & Associates, LLC to discuss any problems related to distracted driving accidents.

Baby Birth Trauma and Their Consequences

Babies are particularly susceptible to life-changing injuries during the birthing process, and, unfortunately, any number of things can go wrong during this important moment. Medical professionals must closely monitor the mother and her baby in the time leading up to birth. A lack of oxygen during birth can cause brain damage in babies. Discuss your case with a Lufkin injury lawyer if your baby has suffered injuries during his or her birth.A British woman sued her health care providers in the past week for injuries her baby girl suffered during birth. The woman alleges that the doctors improperly allowed the pregnancy to continue too long because the baby was significantly undersized, and, as a result, she was born with no fluid around her. Doctors should have delivered the baby girl earlier, her mother claims, to avoid the problems that ensued. Baby Isabelle was born unconscious and only weighed 3 pounds, 12 ounces. Doctors diagnosed her as having cerebral palsy, and she spent a month in the neo-natal intensive care unit after her birth. Isabelle now requires constant care, has disabilities that affect all of her limbs, and has limited speech abilities.

Consequences of Baby Birth Trauma

If injuries occur to a baby during birth, there are several consequences from both a medical and a legal standpoint of which parents should take note:

• Traumatic Brain Injury - As the case above demonstrates, traumatic brain injuries such as oxygen deprivation during birth can have disastrous consequences. Negligence on the part of doctors or other medical professionals can also lead to traumatic brain injuries. Improper use of forceps or a vacuum device, for instance, risks damaging a baby’s brain. The consequences last for a lifetime - speech impediments, decreased motor abilities, and constant supervision are all possibilities.
• Insurance Disputes - Medical professionals keep medical malpractice insurance to guard against the risk of lawsuits. If you pursue a lawsuit to recover for your baby’s injuries, the doctor’s insurance company and its team of lawyers will do their utmost to limit their liability and avoid fully compensating you.
• Product Liability - Sometimes medications or medical instruments are to blame for injuries suffered during the birthing process. Courts can hold companies and manufacturers liable for employing unsafe designs, providing inadequate instructions, or failing to test their products sufficiently that medical professionals use during births.

Contact a Lufkin injury attorney at Mike Love & Associates, LLC is available to assist you and your family if your child has suffered a birth injury.

Apartment Complexes and Their Duty to Protect Tenants

Apartment landlords have basic duties to ensure the safety of their tenants. While courts have not required landlords to take extraordinary measures, they are increasingly permitting tenants to sue landlords when landlords fail to take basic measures to protect their tenants’ safety. New York’s highest state court permitted a woman to sue her landlord after an ex-convict attacked her in her apartment. The man beat and raped her after he got into the apartment complex. The woman sued the building owners for failing to properly staff the security desk or secure the complex, and she sued the firm that provided security for negligently performing its security contract.The woman’s case was particularly strong because the landlord knew the ex-convict well. He had relatives in the complex, police had arrested him several times for criminal acts in the complex (including robbery, attempted rape, and the beating of a security guard), and the landlord kept an arrest photo of him. When landlords have a particular reason to be on guard for criminal activity, courts are more likely to find them liable for crimes on their tenants and guests. An East Texas injury lawyer will discuss your options with you if a landlord’s negligence caused you injury in your apartment complex.

Apartment Landowner Liability

Here are some of the more important aspects of landlord liability that tenants should be aware of:

• If a landlord knows about dangerous conditions on apartment property and does not tell his or her tenants, a court could hold the landlord liable if someone is injured. This includes everything from a broken stair to dangerous dog that belongs to one tenant or a string of recent robberies or assaults.
• A court will generally not hold a landlord liable if a tenant creates the dangerous condition him- or herself and does not report it to the landlord.
• Landlords have a duty to inspect apartment complexes to ensure that they are reasonably safe from dangerous conditions. This includes safety concerns such as inadequate or broken lighting or security issues such as gaps in fences or a lack of child safety precautions surrounding an apartment pool.
• An important, general legal standard for landlord liability is that that landlord must have known, not merely should have known, about the dangerous conditions. This standard asks: how foreseeable was the accident or crime? If something has occurred for the first time, a court will likely not conclude that a landlord could have foreseen that.
• Another standard that courts use for landlord liability is to consider how much it would have cost the landlord to take preventive steps. For example, if an apartment complex is in a high crime area, courts might expect landlords to take basic, non-costly measures such as installing building and room locks and ensuring that they function properly.

Contact an experienced Lufkin personal injury attorney at Mike Love & Associates, LLC if you have been injured in an apartment complex as the result of the landlord’s negligence.