Pennsylvania Personal Injury Attorney

Two people were tragically killed in motor vehicle crashes that took place in Trumbull County on Thursday evening and early into Friday morning.

Ohio State Troopers are reporting that a 30-year-old man from Warren, OH was killed when the car, in which he was a passenger, drove off the road on Route 82 just west of Route 11 and the Old Avalon Golf Course in Howland, OH, and hit a pole from an overhead sign around 12am.

According to police, the unnamed driver was navigating a 1995 Chevrolet Camaro westbound on Route 82 when he drove off the right side of the road and hit the pole. The passenger was riding in the right front passenger seat and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say that the vehicle's high rate of speed appears to be a major factor in the accident. The driver of the car is still in critical condition at St. Elizabeth Health Center, and two other passengers, both female, are listed in serious condition.

In an unrelated story, a 35-year-old man from Vienna, OH died when he drove off state Route 193, or Youngstown Kingsville Road, near Smith Stewart Road and Route 162 in Vienna. Police are reporting that the man almost certainly died instantly when he ran head-on into construction equipment that is parked in a lost just off the road. Troopers also say that the man was unfortunately not wearing a seat belt. Both of these crashes will remain under investigation by local and state police.

http://www.wkbn.com/content/news/local/story/Two-Dead-in-Trumbull-County-Accidents/sRPWlQ6ZEEqJMb2BSGKC9w.cspx

Gas wells can be found throughout the state of Pennsylvania. Two welders were injured in May 2010, while working for a gas well drilling company. They were at a work site in Derry Township, when a fire broke out around them. The men claim that flammable gas was allowed to escape the well which then covered the worksite in fire. At the time they were over 15 feet above the ground in a lift. Both men sustained serious burns in the incident.

One man said he sustained burns to his face, ears, hands, knees, head, neck, lips and arm. He also suffered from bone and muscle injuries. In addition, the incident reportedly left him with a nervous disorder.

Throughout the state of Pennsylvania, dump trucks are commonly used to transport material from one place to another. Until switched on, the bed on the heavy piece of equipment generally stays flat. Despite its weight, when it collides with another object any occupants of the vehicle may still be hurt.

The driver of a dump truck was injured one morning earlier this week when the bed of his truck collided with a highway overpass. The accident occurred outside of Pittsburgh on U.S. Route 119, in White Township.

Individuals throughout Pennsylvania routinely sustain personal injuries for a variety of reasons. Accidents involving motor vehicles are one of the most common ways in which this occurs. While there are certainly a fair number of accidents like this that involve multiple vehicles, there are also instances when cars hit pedestrians. This particular type of motor vehicle accident can result in catastrophic injuries to the pedestrian, sometimes even death.

Injuries to people hit by cars are unfortunately quite common. While there are likely several reasons for this, a contributing factor is probably the wide spread use of headphones with iPods and MP3 players to listen to music. According to a recent report conducted by the University of Maryland Children's Hospital, between January 2004 and June 2011, 116 deaths to pedestrians wearing headphones were recorded.

Corry, PA-20 January 2012

At around 5:30 Wednesday evening, Pennsylvania state police were called to the scene of a two-car accident on Rt. 6, just east of the Rt. 89/Rt. 6 intersection, and due west of down town Corry, PA.

It has been reported that both vehicles had more than one passenger and that as many as six people were injured in the devastating crash. Police report that both vehicles were completely totaled in what looks to be a head on collision. All victims were taken to UPMC Hamot, and two of them had to be flown by Lifestar from the scene of the collision. At this time, there is no update as to the conditions of those involved in the crash.

Speeding and weaving in and out of traffic are dangerous driving behaviors that often lead to tragic traffic collisions. Head-on collisions are usually fatal and are often due to vehicles crossing over the double-yellow line, or median, driving directly into the path of on-coming traffic. Although this accident occurred in Corry, head-on collisions can happen anywhere, so it is important to always drive carefully.

If involved in an accident such as this it is important that all parties know their rights. Finding a no-nonsense attorney as soon as possible is the best thing a victim can do for themselves. Often times, when someone is injured in a car accident they settle for an insurance company's lowest bid. Under the counsel of a trusted lawyer, victims are regularly compensated far more than they originally assume.

Read full article Several Injured in Crash Near Corry

As if the list of reasons to be truant or skip on any given school day morning is not long enough, records indicate that bus-stop and school bus related crashes and injuries amount to an average of 20 deaths each year. Despite pouring tens of thousands of funded dollars into programs aimed at the safe transport of students, transportation experts say there is no perfect bus stop. The reasons go way beyond school bus stop locations, which are not lightly decided upon. There are also the routes the busses take, weather conditions, adequacy of lighting, sufficient space for students to wait, the existence of nearby crossroads, and even students' apparel.

As such, many entities are involved in the decisions made surrounding school bus stops. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), state Highway Safety Associations, transportation planners, school district and local government officials, local police departments, parents, and bus drivers all place the issue at the top of the priority list. But the issue involves human behavior at a time of day when most are hurried, tired, anxious, and easily distracted. Add school-aged children into the mix and the potential for an accident increases substantially.

There are sensible guidelines in every district's plan for safe bus stops, and seemingly tough enough consequences for drivers who would disregard the laws of vehicular navigation as it relates to school busses and bus stops. But every year, heart wrenching tragedy resurfaces with news stories of young children whose lives are abruptly halted or forever changed due to an accident on their way to or from school.

We reported earlier on the blog the death of a young Erie County student who was hit by a distracted driver while waiting for her bus.  That same crash also injured another student.  Parents in Erie have been calling for changes to the location of that particular bus stop.

In previous posts we have written about the 2007 bus accident in Pennsbury, Pennsylvania, that resulted in one then student, losing a leg. She filed a personal injury lawsuit and was awarded $14 million by a jury in December 2011. The money was intended to help cover medical bills and makeup for the pain and suffering she sustained.

Though the Pennsbury School District carried an $11 million umbrella insurance policy at the time of the incident, it nonetheless claims that it can pay the young woman not more than $500,000. The school district claimed this is due to a state law established in 1978 that capped damages against local governments at that dollar amount. The cap was created at least in part to protect taxpayers from having to pay large damage awards.

If you're an anxious parent who is worried about your son or daughter driving while distracted by a cell phone, there is new technology being developed that will help you sleep soundly at night. Now considered an epidemic by many, the amount of accidents that have resulted while young drivers are talking, texting, or even browsing the internet has skyrocketed in the past few years.

One product called Cellcontrol gives parents peace of mind by preventing their children from using cell phones while driving. The product costs $7.95 a month and can be used on up to six different phones. More and more, proactive parents are beginning to realize that the urges they have to call or text someone while driving are far more difficult to postpone if you're an active high school student with a busy scholastic schedule and social life.

Many parents are raving about this new technology, agreeing that it makes the roads safer for their kids and others, and also provides reassurance at a time when nearly ½ of young drivers use their phones to browse the internet even more than they use an actual computer; and more than one-third use smart phones to access social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

In addition, downloadable applications that thwart drivers from using cell phones while a vehicle is in motion are gaining tremendous popularity with rental companies that provide corporate fleets. As of 1 January 2012, new federal regulations took effect that require commercial truck and bus drivers to pay a fine of up to $2,750 for each time they are cited when texting, talking, and especially dialing while driving.

Some even argue that texting, or any other act that is considered to be driving while distracted, is taking over as the new "driving under the influence." In many states, there are now more accidents reported of drivers driving distracted than there are of drivers driving under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances.

Another company out of Needham, MA called Illume Software has developed a product called the iZUP that is used for Blackberry and Android devices. The product costs $20 per year and blocks people from using their cell phones while a vehicle is in motion. It automatically sends all calls straight to voicemail and holds any and all data interaction (such as texts) while the car is moving.

Other types of technology like Trinity-Noble's Guardian Angel automatically locks the keys of a cell phone when the vehicle is traveling over a pre-determined speed. That speed can be adjusted and is said to greatly reduce the risk of drivers getting into accidents-especially those who will not slow down or pull over when adjusting GPS systems in their vehicle or on their phone.

Many argue that the idea of driving while distracted has come about by force of habit and by using technology to address the overusing of technology we can relinquish ourselves of those poor tendencies and become safer drivers in the process. While the full verdict is yet to be determined, the consensus remains-something drastic must be done.