Author: John Young

An officer with the Indiana state police miraculously avoided the fate that recently befell a trooper in Massachusetts who was killed by a drunk driver during a DUI traffic stop.

Indiana State Trooper Christopher Townsend had just arrested a man early Saturday morning on suspicion of DUI on I-65 northbound in Indianapolis when his cruiser was rear-ended by an SUV. The trooper’s car was parked on the shoulder at the time and had its emergency lights going. The cruiser was totaled in the crash; fortunately, the trooper only suffered a cut on the head and similarly his prisoner only received minor injuries.

"Once I got the subject, the drunk driver, into my car, I seat belted him in, and when I got in my car, it wasn’t five or six seconds after that before I was struck in the rear by another truck," Trooper Townsend told the news media. The trooper also said that he probably would have been killed if he was standing outside his vehicle.

The driver of the SUV was charged with DUI and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. Police say he was traveling at 70 mph.

As we approach the long July 4th weekend, every Hoosier must get the message loud and clear: Please don’t drink and drive. You could ruin your own life as well as those of the innocent victims of your irresponsibility.

If you or a family member have been injured in a highway accident by a driver operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and drugs, it is important to retain legal counsel with the experience and skills needed to obtain full compensation for your injuries. At Young and Young in Indianapolis, our Indiana person injury lawyers have represented thousands of Hoosiers with serious auto accident injuries. We have more than 55 years of experience waiting to help.

John P. Young has been practicing Indiana Truck Injury law for 22 years.  He recently assisted a Hoosier injured in a semi tractor trailer accident.  The facts of the case shed light on the speed limits on our interstate highway system.  Speed limits on the highway system are regulated by Indiana statutory law.  This simply means that the Indiana legislature passed a law which controls speed on our highways. The numerical designation for the statute is I.C. 9-21-5-2.  The “I.C.” stands for Indiana Code.  This is how law enforcement refers to the statute passed by the Indiana legislature. I.C. 9-21-5-2 deals with speed limits for more than just semi tractor-trailer trucks or other large trucks. It also deals with more than just the Interstate highway system.  However for purposes of this blog, we will cite only to the sections applicable to large trucks and semi tractor-trailers, and the Interstate highway system. The statute states:

Sec. 2. Except when a special hazard exists that requires lower speed for compliance with section 1 of this chapter, the slower speed limit specified in this section or established as authorized by section 3 of this chapter is the maximum lawful speed. A person may not drive a vehicle on a highway at a speed in excess of the following maximum limits:

(2) Fifty-five (55) miles per hour, except as provided in subdivisions (1), (3), (4), (5), (6), and (7).

(3) Seventy (70) miles per hour on a highway on the national system of interstate and defense highways located outside of an urbanized area (as defined in 23 U.S.C. 101) with a population of at least fifty thousand (50,000), except as provided in subdivision (4).

(4) Sixty-five (65) miles per hour for a vehicle (other than a bus) having a declared gross weight greater than twenty-six thousand (26,000) pounds on a highway on the national system of interstate and defense highways located outside an urbanized area (as defined in 23 U.S.C. 101) with a population of at least fifty thousand (50,000).

(6) On a highway that is the responsibility of the Indiana finance authority established by IC 4-4-11:

(A) seventy (70) miles per hour for:

(i) a motor vehicle having a declared gross weight of not more than twenty-six thousand (26,000) pounds; or

(ii) a bus; or

(B) sixty-five (65) miles per hour for a motor vehicle having a declared gross weight greater than twenty-six thousand (26,000) pounds.

This is the statement of the maximum speeds.  As you have noted on the highways, trucks with a weight over 26,000 pounds have a lower speed limit than do passenger cars.  Now we all know about the maximum limit, but there is also a minimum speed limit on our interstate highway system. Truckers know this, it is part of their training.  The minimum speed limit is controlled by another Indiana statute.

9-21-5-8 Minimum speed limits

Sec. 8. Whenever the Indiana department of transportation within the department’s jurisdiction or a local authority within the authority’s jurisdiction determines, based on an engineering and traffic investigation, that slow speeds on a part of a highway consistently impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, the Indiana department of transportation or local authority may determine and declare a minimum speed limit below which a person may not drive a vehicle except when necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law. A limit determined under this subsection and declared by appropriate resolution, regulation, or ordinance becomes effective when appropriate sign or signals giving notice of the limit of speed are erected along the affected part of a highway.

The minimum speed limit on Indiana highways is 50 miles per hour.  In the case referenced, the injured Hoosier was traveling 55 miles per hour when a truck behind him moved into the passing lane to pass him.  Just as the truck was passed him, a second truck, which was exceeding the speed limit and not paying attention hit the Hoosier in the rear and hurt him badly.

I hope this is a wakeup call to truckers to maintain proper speed, and look out while on Hoosier roads.

In a famous, recurring sketch, the Monty Python comedy group used to joke that nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. No one really expects a car to come crashing through your front door, either, but the following incident suggests that you can’t be totally safe from the actions of a drunk driver, even if your own car is parked in the garage.

Earlier this week, a motorist swerving to avoid another vehicle wound up smashing into the front of an Indianapolis residence on Troy Avenue. Police arrested the driver on suspicion of driving under the influence. According to news reports, the motorist was only slightly injured in the actual accident but later suffered some kind of medical issue after being admitted to the hospital and is now on life support. Miraculously, none of the family members in the home were injured, but the house itself was damaged to the tune of about $75,000, including a kitchen that will need to be entirely rebuilt.

if you or a loved one have been seriously hurt, or incurred property damage, as a result of the negligence of a drunk driver, please contact the Indiana personal injury lawyers at Young and Young to obtain full information about your legal rights to recover money damages in civil court.

As we’ve discussed previously, the most effective "cure" for brain injury is preventing or minimizing the injury in the first place. And one sure way to minimize most brain injuries is to wear a helmet while riding a bike or motorcycle to absorb the impact of a possible collision. As Michigan orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joseph Guettler writes in an online article: "Cuts, bruises, sprains, and even broken bones will heal, but damage to your brain can last a lifetime. In an instant your head can smack the street, sidewalk, curb, a car, tree or anything else around you. Some of the most tragic cases that I have seen are closed head injuries. Sadly, many would have been prevented if a helmet was worn."

Kids are particularly vulnerable to head injuries, he explains, because of their proportionally larger heads, higher centers of gravity, and less developed coordination skills.

In choosing a helmet for yourself or any member of your family this summer, the doctor recommends getting one that meets the standards of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. He advises that an appropriate helmet should be snug, level, and stable.  It also should be brightly colored so motorists can see you easily.

An unprotected head is an easy target for brain injury. A brain injury can leave permanent life-altering damage including spinal cord injury and/or paralysis. As you or your loved ones enjoy the summer weather on a bike or motorcycle, remember that a helmet is an inexpensive way to minimize the harm of a brain injury in a road accident.

John P. Young is your Indiana Injury Attorney.  Practicing with the firm of Young and Young, in Indianapolis, Mr. Young has been working exclusively for injured Hoosiers for more than 22 years.  Mr. Young represents Hoosiers seriously injured by the negligence of others.  Negligence is the failure to act like a reasonable person.  Examples include that reasonable drivers stop at stop signs and obey the rules of the road, reasonable drivers do not drive drunk, reasonable truck drivers follow the rules of the road and the rules set out for them by the Federal Highway Safety Administration, reasonable contractors put safety first by following OSHA rules and regulations.  It is not tough to act reasonable.  It just takes a little thought. Remember it may be your mother or father in that other car.

Because we represent people with serious injuries, we have learned much about the medicine involved in brain injury, amputation, spinal cord injury, burns, blindness, broken bones, and the factors that lead up to wrongful death.  Unfortunately the roads present an ever present danger along with the multitude of benefits.  In Brownsburg, Indiana Sunday a young woman died in a two car accident. Kaytlyn P. Merritt, a recent high school graduate was pronounced dead at the Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.  The auto accident happened about 10:30 p.m. Ms. Merritt was a passenger in the car driven by Lauren Amburgy.  Ms. Amburgy was travelling on Ind. 267 when she turned left off 267, attempting to head north on Northfield.  Unfortunately, Ms. Amburgy turned into the path of the oncoming car driven by Hunter Weaver. Young and Young offers their sincerest sympathies to the Merritt and Amburgy families.

If the information in this report is true (we always take news reports with a grain of salt because our more thorough investigations sometimes reveal errors in news reports) then Ms. Amburgy was a negligent driver.  The rules of the road require her to wait for the car with the right of way to pass before turning.  Failure to follow the rules of the road, without a good reason for not doing so, is negligence.  We understand that Ms. Amburgy did not intend to be negligent, nor did she intend to harm her friend, but her actions were negligent, and she must make up for the harm she caused to the Merritt family.          

If you, a friend or a loved one, have been injured as a result of another’s negligence, call John P. Young toll free at 1-888-639-5161 or contact him on the web at john@youngandyoungin.com.  Mr. Young guarantees there will be no fee unless you recover fair compensation for your injuries.

Add high-speed road racing to the risks to roadway safety in Indiana. Last week, a Greene County jury sentenced a man to four years in prison for aiding in the reckless homicide in the death of an Indiana motorcyclist. In May 2009, he and another man were allegedly racing each other side by side (one in a Camaro, the other in a Toyota Supra) on State Road 43 when they crested a blind hill on a double-yellow line and at least one vehicle apparently crashed head-on into a motorcycle. Both cars were allegedly traveling in excess of 70 mph on the rural road.  (The other alleged racer is already serving an eight-year sentence for the fiery collision in which two people were killed.)

In imposing the four-year sentence, the presiding judge said that "this was a tragic accident that could have and should have been avoided. Just such a shame." The Greene County jury also found the man guilty of the lesser charges of  criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon and reckless driving. The man insists has denied the road race allegation and will appeal his conviction.

It’s the state’s job to pursue criminal charges against the offender in a horrific, tragic  incident of this nature. Money damages are another matter. If you or a family member have been injured in a car accident owing to the recklessness of another driver, it is important to retain legal counsel with the experience and skills needed to obtain full compensation for your injuries in civil court. The accident lawyers at Young and Young in Indianapolis have represented thousands of Hoosiers with serious auto accident injuries. We have more than 55 years of Indiana personal injury experience waiting to help.

We’ve discussed previously in this blog how a new driver behind the wheel can create a lethal weapon. Minors have less driving experience, and inexperience (and often lack of maturity and good judgment) means less ability to control a car in an emergency. Drinking and texting are usually key factors in a car wreck, and parents must continue to educate their children about the importance of safe driving habits. But a new study out of Virginia suggests that there may be a cause-and-effect relationship between driving accidents involving high schoolers and lack of sleep.

Researchers at Eastern Virginia Medical School found that Virginia Beach had a 41 percent higher teen auto accident rate than neighboring Chesapeake. In Virginia Beach, high school classes start at 7:25 a.m. while students in Chesapeake begin at 8:40 a.m.

Dr. Robert Vorona, the study author, suggests that school systems in general consider a later start time for students who virtually always tend to stay up later than they should. “We think the Virginia Beach students may be sleep-deprived,” he said, “and that is perhaps the reason for the increased crashes. It’s difficult for teens to get adequate amounts of sleep. Anything we can do to optimize things for them is a good thing.”

Virginia Beach officials want to look more closely at all the data before even considering making a time change. Vorona himself conceded that the statistics don’t prove a direct relationship between school starting times and roadway safety.

Leaving aside the age of the offender, if you or a loved one have been seriously hurt in a traffic accident on Indiana roads owing to the actions of a reckless or negligent driver, please contact the Indiana personal injury lawyers at Young and Young to obtain full information about your legal rights to recover money damages in civil court.

There is never a good time to get into a traffic accident, whether it’s a minor fender-bender or a serious car wreck, but having it happen on your wedding day is perhaps the worst of all possible contingencies. Last Saturday afternoon, a shuttle bus carrying a wedding party in downtown Indianapolis collided with an SUV. The impact tipped over the bus on its side, and tragically one of the members of the party was killed from head trauma. Some 14 others suffered minor injuries. The group of celebrants was on its way to take wedding-day pictures.

Police indicate that one of the drivers in the road accident ran a red light; an investigation is ongoing as to who was at fault. Authorities also drew blood samples, which is standard procedure in a fatal accident.

With the help of nurses and others, the steadfast couple exchanged vows in a conference area in Methodist Hospital’s emergency room later that day, with about 100 people in attendance for the brief, emotional ceremony.

A subsequent news media account indicates that witnesses told police that the bus operator failed to stop at the red light. As an added twist, the SUV motorist apparently was driving without a license. No arrests were made at the scene, however. Presumably multiple Indiana personal injury lawsuits will arise out of this incident–a wedding day that no one involved will ever forget.

Greg Zoeller, Indiana’s Attorney General, recently met with AT&T Indiana President Geoge Fleetwood and state lawmakers to urge all drivers to avoid sending or checking text messages while behind the wheel. The attorney general’s office is apparently aligning with AT&T’s national anti-texting-while-driving awareness campaign.

Although distracted drivers come from all age groups, Zoeller noted that “Young drivers may already have a false sense of invulnerability. Couple that with the fact that today’s young drivers are from a generation that has possessed cell phones longer than they have had driver’s licenses, and you have a recipe for a multi-tasking disaster."

The AG also warned drivers of the potential legal liability for a distracted driving road accident: “Texting while driving will put you immediately at fault, and so you should consider whether your auto insurance company will cover your own negligence."

Under an Indiana law enacted in 2009, it is illegal for any motorist age 18 and younger to text or use any wireless devices while driving. Legislation is pending that would ban texting for all drivers regardless of age.  Although enforcement of these kinds of well-intentioned laws may help to improve highway safety and avoid car wrecks to some degree, the best way to avoid a distracted driving highway accident is to never be texting yourself and to keep an eye out for other motorists paying insufficient attention to the road.

For more information on the AT&T roadway safety initiative, visit the company’s online resource center.

Mathias Kiwanuka, the New York Giants defensive end, and his brother Benedict, were riding their motorcycles in Indianapolis on May 28 when Benedict apparently crashed into a car pulling out of an apartment complex. Police indicate that Benedict was not wearing a helmet and was thrown some 100 feet by the impact. Media reports indicate that he was in stable condition in the hospital with multiple injuries including a severe arm injury.

As we’ve noted previously, many crashes occur when a car or truck either pulls out in front of a motorcycle or turns in front of the motorcycle. That may or may not have been the case here. Police are currently investing the incident. That being said, drivers must be extremely vigilant to avoid traffic accidents when the warmer weather brings out motorcycle enthusiasts. Fortunately, report from the Governors Highway Safety Association shows that national motorcycling fatalities dropped by at least 10 percent in 2009, and we hope that trend continues.

And even though a helmet is unpopular with many bikers, and is not required by Indiana law other than for beginners, this incident is a reminder that it is an essential piece of safety equipment.

Participation in a motorcycle training course prior to operating on the road is also recommended. American Bikers Aimed Toward Education (ABATE) of Indiana is a great resource for training and awareness for motorcyclists.  You can also contact your local Bureau of Motor Vehicles for information about safety courses available in your area.  For the summer travel season, and actually year round for that matter, it should always be safety first. Whether you are operating a car, truck, or motorcycle, no Hoosier wants to wind up as an Indiana personal injury statistic.

This blog has previously discussed the clear and present danger posed by intoxicated teenagers who get behind the wheel. Minors have less driving experience, and this lack of experience means less ability to control a car in an emergency. Mix in alcohol, wherein the reaction time is slowed and their bravado might be increased; this lack of concern for dangerous conditions grows–and you have a recipe for disaster.

In a new study, a traffic safety research organization claims that the steady increase in nighttime highway accident fatalities among teen drivers nationally over the past ten years comes more from distracted drivers rather than drunk drivers. All this is happening while overall highway fatal accidents are on the decline, although drunk driving fatalities are apparently increasing for the 20-and-0ver cohort.

A senior research engineer for the Texas Transportation Institute, the study’s author, explained  that nighttime driving is the most common, documented factor associated with crashes involving young drivers. Other factors include darkness, slow response time because of fatigue, and–as we noted above–lack of experience driving under adverse conditions. Additional variables include other minors in the car, speeding, not buckling up, and of course, alcohol. But cell phone use appears to be the major risk factor.

“Being on a cell phone behind the wheel impairs our driving ability,” the engineer said. “When you add the nighttime danger, you create the perfect storm, and that storm is much more severe for young drivers, largely because of their lack of driving experience.”

The report concludes as follows:

The findings of this analysis suggest that alcohol is contributing to an increase in nighttime fatal crashes involving drivers age 20 and older. However, the same is not true for teenage drivers, suggesting that factors other than alcohol are responsible for the trend of increased nighttime crashes for teens…However, it is cell phone use – propelled by rapid technological advancement and increased affordability – that is likely the most notable new driving risk factor for contemporary teens.

To read the entire report, including statistics for Indiana, visit the Texas Transportation Institute’s website.

John P. Young is your Indiana Injury Attorney. Mr. Young has been an Indiana Injury Attorney practicing in Indianapolis for more than 22 years. At Young and Young we work only for Hoosiers who have been severely injured. We handle injury cases arising out of car crashes, highway accidents, semi tractor-trailer accidents, drunk driving accidents, construction accidents and all other types of accidents. In the 56 years Young and Young has been working for injured Hoosiers and their families, we have come to know and understand the medicine of severe injuries. We represent Hoosiers with severe injuries including, but not limited to, broken bones, amputations, burns, brain injuries, wrongful death, spinal cord injuries with paralysis and virtually all other severe injuries.

In previous blogs we have discussed topics of interest to Hoosiers who have been injured by another person’s negligence. We would like to follow up with a few accidents we have been following and then turn to what we believe is encouraging news.

Regarding the very sad story of the three Carmel teens out joy riding in one of the teens father’s car, running from police and crashing, causing the death of his two friends, things are moving forward with criminal charges against the surviving teen. The teen, who has not been identified because he is a minor has been charged in the incident as a minor. The charges include fleeing law enforcement resulting in death and involuntary man slaughter causing death. We want the public to know that apparently this young man did not flee the scene leaving his friends to die, as was originally reported. The young man sustained severe burns upon exiting the vehicle. It was unlikely that he could have done anything to save his friends. This is not to excuse his actions. We believe he should be made responsible to make up for the harm he caused to the fullest extent. However, he is a human being and deserves the benefit of the doubt in these criminal proceedings.

The Man who intentionally ran over a mother and daughter who were collecting money for the Indiana School for the deaf is now claiming he was delusional at the time he acted. Derek Dewitt claims to have seen something evil when he swerved and hit the two women.

In a bright spot, Hoosiers are buckling up. The Indiana Department of Transportation estimates that 93% of Hoosiers are buckling up. Keep the good work, all.