Category: Car Accident

Again, I was riding my bike to work today.  A part of my route gives me two options.  Neither option has bike lanes. The first option is to ride south on Pennsylvania Street from 16^th street to Ohio.  Pennsylvania is a one way south with four lanes and is a busy artery into the city from the north side. The other route is Delaware Street.  Delaware Street, south of 16^th street is also a four lane street, but it is a one way north.  It had 8 foot wide sidewalks and in the morning is not really heavily travelled.  I choose to take the Delaware Street route because it is less congested and I think is safer than the Pennsylvania Street route.   I have noticed a few things about this decision that I would like to share.  The first is that when cars come to Delaware Street, whether they are coming out of a parking lot, a street or an alley, the driver inevitably looks only to the south (the direction from which car traffic is traveling).  At first I was kinds put off by this.  Then it occurred to me that this was only natural because that is the only direction the driver expects a hazard my come from.  Given this fact, whenever I come to an intersection or any outlet on to Delaware Street, I always yield to the car.  I never pass in front of them because I know they probably with not look for me.  Those who do look, always look startled to see me waiting for them to pass. This surprise always gives way to a thankful smile as I waive them on. It is a little curtsey that has saved my butter on many occasions.

When I ride south on Delaware, I ride on the sidewalk when traffic is so close that we may pass.  If I ride on the road the drivers do not seem to know what to expect from me.  I think they think that if I am crazy enough to ride south on a one way north street, I may be capable of doing anything.  They give me weird looks and sometimes the looks are hostile.  I think that to be safe, I want the driver to believe that my actions are going to be predictable.  To this end, I ride on the sidewalk when cars are coming at me.  If there are people on the sidewalk, I slow down, give them the right of way at all times and make sure they are aware I am there with an audible signal.  Pedestrians appreciate knowing what is going to happen the same as a driver does.  If the sidewalks were not so wide on Delaware Street, I may have to choose another route, but they are wide, and with a little courtesy, my rides are accident free.

Yesterday, I was coming back to our serious injury offices in Indianapolis, from Richmond.  We just concluded a significant hearing. I was travelling west on I-70 near the Keystone interchange (Mile marker 83.5, just east of the I-65-I-70 split). At that location, I-70 is five lanes wide.  I was in the second lane from the right.  (I was travelling the speed limit, but there is not much of that at that location).  There was a small car to my right.  My front bumper was just about even with his back bumper.  I was in his blind spot.  He put on his left turn signal and immediately started to move into my lane. He obviously did not know I was there and did not bother to turn his head to look before moving over. There were cars immediately to my left so I could not move left.  Although there was a car on my tail I hit the brakes and the car moved into my lane with about ten feet to spare. 

 To my surprise, he just kept moving left.  The car to my left hit the brakes and the merging car barely missed him, then his luck ran out.  The merging car kept on going, but in the next lane was a semi tractor-trailer.  The semi cannot slow as efficiently as a car and the merging car hit the semi on the passenger front corner.  The merging car was suddenly fully in front of the semi being pushed down the road.  The driver of the merging car could only see the grill of the semi as he looked left.  Unfortunately both the semi and the merging car were not only moving down the road, they were also merging into the left lane.  An SUV clipped either the merging cars front or the semi’s front lost control and started to roll.  The SUV landed on the wheels.  I do not know what happened to the merging car.  I pulled over, called 911 reported the collision, gave the State Police my name and telephone number.  I thought about going back to the scene, but many, many people had already stopped to help and I was on the opposite side of the highway from where they all came to a stop, so to reach the scene I would have had to cross three lanes of traffic, which oddly enough barely seemed to slow down.

 The point of this story is that we want to you to be careful when merging into another lane.  Every car has a blind spot.  To properly merge you must signal your intent and then look to make sure no one is in your blind spot.  If the merging car, in my story, had followed this simple rule, there would have been no collision and several families would have made it home safe.

As your Indiana Serious Injury Attorneys, I spend a lot of time thinking about safety.  I come by it honestly, my dad was Indiana’s Serious Injury Lawyer, the go to guy for 60 years.  Around our dinner table and in our lives we heard a lot about things that nobody else seemed to be talking about. In any event, I was reading today about a couple events that sparked the following question.  What do school buses and mini bikes have in common?  Of course they are both motorized vehicles, but short of that there seem to be a lot more differences than there are similarities.  Well, School Buses carry children and that is exactly what mini bikes are designed to do.  

 Two school buses collided yesterday.  The Mount Vernon School buses were carrying students in northwestern Hancock County.  The bad news is that about thirty children were injured.  The good news is that none of them were injured seriously.  The collision occurred when one bus rear ended another.  The bus driver told police that she was distracted because of a student acting up.  If this account is accurate, this student’s action, likely without any thought about the possible consequences, put the lives of all the children in danger. Parents, take this time to talk to your children about the danger of distracting the driver.  Tell them that if they are standing up in the bus while it is moving that their bodies are moving as fast as the bus and that if the bus has to stop quickly, their standing body  will continue to move at the same speed and will either hi a metal seat or another student, both likely to result in bad injuries.  Give them the tools to tell the other students, no, they are not going to do something dumb and put the others on the bus in danger.

In another story, two preteens were injured yesterday when the mini bike they were riding left the road and crashed.  Unfortunately, and as is likely to happen, the passenger, who had no control over the bike or where it was going was injured.  The passenger suffered significant brain injury and is a patient at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.  Although the story does not mention it, I will bet a dime two things combined to allow this to happen.  First, the children were not under the supervision of an adult.  As a corollary to this, the adults left the min bike is such a position as to allow the children access to it when they were not around.  The old saying is true, if something can happen, it will.  If a child can get to something they will use it.  The parents must make sure this cannot happen.  The second thing is that I bet the parents who bought the mini bike for the child did little or nothing to teach the child safe operation techniques.  Giving a child a mini bike and not teaching them safe riding techniques ids inviting a crash.  Parents, let this be a lesson.  Teach your children.  They are smart, they will learn.  Help them to help themselves and others.

I was reading in the paper today about a hit and run collision which caused the wrongful death of one Hoosier and seriously injured another.  Apparently David Smith and Jason Pedigo were hit by a ford traveling east on Morris Street.  Mr. Smith was killed.  There is some indication that that two men were walking in the travel lane of Morris Street at the time of the collision.  However, this does not justify the driver of the Ford in leaving the scene of the collision.  We may never know, but what if Mr. Smith could have survived if the driver of the Ford stopped and immediately called for medical help? This series of events started me thinking about what the average driver should know and do if there is a collision.

The first thing to do is to stop and stay at the scene of the accident.  Sometimes it is a tricky call as to whether you should move the cars if you are able.  If the damage is slight and there are no injuries, it may be helpful to move the cars out of traffic to help keep traffic moving and to protect the drivers and their passengers from another collision.  You should assess whether you are hurt and if anyone else in the car is hurt.  If there is any question have the injured person stay put.  Sometimes adrenaline surges through the body after a collision, masking pain.  Keep this in mind.  If you have a cell phone call 911 and ask for a police officer and emergency aid.  If you can walk and talk without endangering yourself, effort should be made to talk with the other driver. You will want to exchange insurance information and addresses and telephone numbers.  You should always keep you insurance information in your glove compartment just in case of an accident.   You may also want to call family to let them know what has happened.  You may want to consider and ICE button on your phone.  ICE stands for in case of an emergency and should be the number of the person(s) most likely to be able to assist you.

Being involved in a collision involves time and forethought.  If you are prepared and keep your cool, you will reduce stress and make the process less scary.

As Indiana serious injury lawyers, we tend to see dangers exposed that were not really obvious just before the injury occurs.  We represent seriously injured Hoosiers all over the state from our Indianapolis offices.  Over the last 57 years we have come to understand that safety does not necessarily meet the eye.  Take for instance the situation which occurred yesterday in Marion County. A 53 year old man was sitting on the bench in a metro bus shelter waiting for his bus as he has done for the last several years.  Without warning a car near the shelter is struck in the rear by another car which is not paying attention to the rules of the road.  The car is pushed out of control and into the bus shelter where our waiting passenger is sitting.  In an instant, the shelter is collapsed and destroyed.  Our passenger is seriously injured with a broken leg.  The driver of the car, who must be as shocked as the bus passenger is also seriously injured.  Both the passenger and the innocent driver were taken to area hospitals, and their conditions are not known at this time.

The impact of this story is that the passenger, and even the innocent driver had no way of knowing that the other driver would violate the rules of the road and place them in danger.  There was nothing our two seriously injured people could have done to prevent their injuries. We wish them a full and speedy recovery.  As to the individual who violated the rules of the road and caused the collision, we say it is now time for you to step up, take responsibility for the harm you caused and fully and fairly compensate your fellow Hoosiers for all the harm you caused.  If your insurance company plays games with your fellow Hoosiers claims, we encourage you to take the insurance company to task.  Tell them to do the right thing.  If they refuse to listen to you, tell them you are switching to a company that will, heaven forbid, in a future incident, do the right thing.

Ah spring is here and with it the sap is rising in the trees. What you may not know is that the tree sap escapes from the tree and falls to the ground. Not all the sap escapes of course, and what does escape is in particles small enough to escape our attention. So, why are your Indiana serious injury lawyers going on about tree sap? Many cars park outside.  Many of those cars are parked under trees.  Many of those cars parked under trees are catching sap oozing from the trees.  Some of that sticky stuff is hitting the wind screen.  If enough of the sap hits the wind screen it starts to catch the dust and pollen floating around the air.  If the car is parked in the shade and you are backing out of your drive you probably will not notice a problem. However, when you drive into the direction of the sun, the glare on the wind screen sap and dust will blind you.  It can be a lot like driving with a frosted windscreen.

There are a few steps you can take to avoid this problem.  If you can avoid it do not park under trees.  If you cannot avoid that, you can place a screen on the wind screen that catches the sap.  Inspect your wind screen before you drive to make sure your visibility will not be a factor.

You might be thinking to yourself, “C’mon, the glare can’t be that bad” but glare causes a lot of car crashes with serious injuries.  Take for instance a collision which happened on Wednesday April 13, 2011.  A young girl was crossing the 1800 block of Washington Street when she was struck by a motorist who states he was temporarily blinded by glare.   Unfortunately the girl was taken to Wishard Hospital in critical condition.  We wish this young girl Godspeed with her recovery.  We also ask you to take the glare seriously and keep you wind screen clear.

We are your Indiana serious injury lawyers.  Our experiences, in travelling all over the State of Indiana representing seriously injured Hoosiers, has taught us a great deal about the dangers cars pose to pedestrians. It may seem obvious that in a pedestrian car accident, the car will always win, but these injuries keep happening.  We are saddened to read of the untimely wrongful death of Hadliegh Cave. On March 4, 2011 Ms. Hadliegh cave was hit, and killed along Franklin road south of Thompson Road.  Unfortunately, Hadliegh Cave was apparently tempting fate by running into traffic with her friends.  It is not clear if this account is accurate, but if it is, let it stand as a warning to all pedestrians.  As much as you can, walk in areas where there are no cars.  Never, play chicken with cars.  Always keep yourself safe first.

 Some safety tips for pedestrians.  If there is a sidewalk, use it.  If there are two routes that will get you to the same place and one route does not have a sidewalk, use the route with the sidewalk.  If there is no sidewalk, always walk against traffic so you can always see what is coming at you.  Never assume a car can see you.  Of course you should wear bright clothing, preferably reflective clothing, but always know that you may not be seen and be prepared to reach a zone of safety on a moment’s notice.  If there is no sidewalk, do not walk on the edge of the road, walk as far from traffic as you can.

 Always expect the unexpected.  Car drivers make mistakes, especially if they are talking on a phone or texting. Keep this in mind as you are walking and be prepared to move fast.  Pay attention to what is happening around you at all times.  If you are not, you cannot react quickly and may be in danger. Obey all traffic lights as you are walking.  Walk in cross walks.  Walking at night, especially where there are no street lights and or it is raining presents additional danger for not being seen.

Be careful out there.

It is happy time.  Mother and child are returning from a long overdue vacation.  Mom is taking care of her baby, 5 months old.  He is in a car seat in the back seat facing backward. Mom is singing softly to her baby as the child drifts off to sleep. Suddenly a car to Mom’s right pulls out into the path.  Mom reacts, but she has no chance.  The crash shakes the neighborhood.  Mom is seriously injured, but with proper medical care, she will live.  The driver of the other car dies from crush injuries.  The first responders arrive at Mom’s car, upside down and smoking fearing the worst.  The responder gets to her knees and sees the car seat.  She smiles as the babe stares at her wide eyed, trying to understand what has just happened.  The baby is alive and well thanks to his mother’s care in placing him in a car seat.

This story is a combination of a number of stories we are happy to report because car seats are highly effective in preventing serious injuries and wrongful death in highway accidents.   It is important to use a car seat, but it is equally important to use the car seat correctly. The car seat must be buckled in tightly.  Check those straps each time you put your child in the seat. Be sure that the car seat does not tip forward or move from side to side more than an inch.  Make sure that the booster is secured with lap and shoulder belt.  If your car is equipped with an anchoring system compatible with a LATCH system (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children. This system combines the previously existing top tethers with lower anchors, built into the rear of the car. Some cars built between 1999 and 2002 also have the system. Toddler/booster combo seats are required to have both the upper and lower attachments; booster seats are not required to work with LATCH. Owners of earlier model cars may want to consider having their car retrofitted with the LATCH system. Check with your local auto dealership for information on cost and feasibility.

Remember, car seats are for cars. Car seats, not anchored can be a hazard.  Placing a child on an unstable surface in your home, such as the side of a bed may cause serious injury or even death. In Indianapolis, IN a six month old child fell from a bed face down to the floor while in a car seat and died. The details of the tragedy are not yet fully known, but we do know that this loss is devastating.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.

The new measures also address distracted driving, keeping teens from receiving their licenses if they are caught texting or talking on the phone while driving.  As personal injury attorneys here in Indiana we have seen the devastation that can occur from distracted driving or situations for which an inexperienced driver is not prepared to handle.  Automobile/car crashes, motorcycle crashes, collisions with trucks etc often lead to life altering injuries such as brain injury, broken bones, amputation and even death.   When they happen, the injuries caused by these tragedies affect our young drivers even if they are not the one who suffers the injury themselves.  The emotional trauma of watching a friend or family member seriously injured or killed can scar a child for life.

 So, when our children complain about these new rules and restrictions, and they will, we all have to remember the most important thing to us is the safety and well being of our children.  It will take time to know the overall effectiveness of these new rules and restrictions, but initial results are very positive.

We all have been in situations where we have thought afterwards ..”I wish I had known that before this happened” or “I only wish I had known”. Well in the world of personal injury we as lawyers hear that all the time. The following are things you should know before you are in an accident that will make your life less stressful and more able to deal with the events you have been forced to confront. These informational tips will help you understand what might confront you and how to best prepare yourself to minimize your stress and negative consequences . Whether you are confronted with a car crash, construction injury or any other type of injury which results from someone’s negligence these will help you. It does not matter whether your injuries include broken bones, lost wages ,scars ,brain injury or any other type of impairment these tips will ease your stress and help you to protect yourself from the trained representatives of insurance companies whose sole motivation is to minimize the amount they have to pay to save their companies money.

#1  ALWAYS REQUEST AN CRASH OR INCIDENT REPORT

If you are in a car crash, motorcycle or truck accident always call the police and wait for them so they can document the event with a crash report. If you are injured on the property of another ask for an incident report to be completed and ask for a copy of it before you leave. Even if you think you are not hurt seriously it is important to get the facts including date, time witnesses names and address etc.documented  as soon as you can. It is not unusual for symptoms to appear hours or even days after an event. Always ask how you can get a copy of any report and do not sign unless you are given a copy of what you are asked to sign or at least told how you can obtain a copy. It is not unusual for someone to accept fault at the scene and try to get on their way without having a report prepared.Then later if they change their story the truth can be harder to ascertain and prove without a report .

If someone suggests they will take care of  any damages  on their own and ask you not to call the police, be sure to call the police. Exchanging names , addresses and insurance information does not guarantee that what you are given is accurate. This one precaution can save you much stress as you attempt to  deal with the  issues that confront you.