Articles Posted in Car Accidents

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A brawl between two truck drivers, one fatality, two multi-car collisions, a car fire, and series of fender benders slowed morning traffic for commuters on different freeways in Eastern Massachusetts.

Massachusetts State Police say that two tractor-trailer drivers were reportedly involved in a physical altercation on the side of the road on Route 295 S at the 1B exit in North Attleboro. The fight reportedly occurred after a car fire on Route 95 caused traffic to stall. By the time police arrived at the scene, however, the fight was already over.

On 495N in Andover, one person died in a three-motor vehicle collision. State police are also reporting a series of minor collisions on Route 95 in North Attleboro, Mansfield, and Foxboro. More motor vehicle crashes also occurred in Chelmsford on Route 93, while a tractor-trailer rollover slowed traffic on Route 97 in Georgetown. Another three-car collision occurred on the Masspike eastbound in Framingham.

If you were injured or sustained serious property damage in a motor vehicle collision anywhere in Massachusetts, you should speak with a Massachusetts personal injury attorney immediately.

Steps To Take If You Are In A Motor Vehicle Crash In Massachusetts:

• Stop your vehicle.
• Pull off to the side of the road.
• Notify police of the accident so that they can arrive at the scene and file a report.
• If you are injured, allow medics to assist you at the scene.
• Get the contact and driver’s information of the other drivers involved in the crash.
• Get the contact information of any witnesses.
• Write down as many details as you can about the accident.
• Contact your insurance company right away.
• If you sustained serious injury or property damage, contact a Massachusetts personal injury attorney.

You have three years from the time of the accident to file a car accident lawsuit in Massachusetts.

Breakdown brawl, crashes stall Monday morning commute, Boston Herald, January 28, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Limitations of Personal Actions, General Laws of Massachusetts
Motor Vehicle Accident Statistics
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Dubbed Boston’s “most dangerous intersection,” the corner of Walk Hill Street and American Legion Highway has been the scene of 97 motor vehicle accidents in four years. Residents in the area think that this calculation is on the low end and they call the busy intersection “Kamikaze Way.”

The most recent major vehicle collision at the intersection occurred last December between an SUV, another motor vehicle, and an MBTA bus. Seven people were injured.

The intersection, located in Roslindale, is nestled in between a nature preserve, a cemetery, and strip malls. Neighbors, however, say that the intersection is a popular location for late-night drag races.

Speeding during the day reportedly occurs frequently-as drivers try to beat traffic lights before they turn red. Crossing the intersection is considered by some to be a life threatening experience and some residents say that the sounds of cars colliding several times a day is not uncommon.

For years, residents have been asking Boston officials to improve the intersection. But a disagreement between the state of Massachusetts and the city of Boston on how to make the improvements had delayed the process.

Last year, the Boston Transportation Department began implementing its own improvements, securing its own funding without the help of the Massachusetts Highway Department. Since the project began, Turn lanes have been added, traffic lights are being replaced, roads have new surfaces, curb roads have been heightened, and new bike lanes and street lanes are being added. The project will cost the city of Boston $9 million.

The Boston Police Department has extra troopers patrolling the area to keep drivers on their best behavior while crossing the intersection. Boston Police Captain Frank Armstrong, however, says that the 30mph speed limit sign on American Legion is poorly lit at night.

State and city officials are supposed to make sure that streets, avenues, freeways, intersections, turn lanes, curb roads, traffic signs, and traffic lights are in the safest working condition possible to minimize the chances of a Massachusetts traffic accident occurring.

If your accident occurred because the design of an intersection is faulty, a traffic sign was not working properly, or any other reason that could have been avoided had state or city officials taken the proper steps to ensure that conditions of the road where your injury collision occurred were safe and in proper working order, you may be able to file an injury claim or lawsuit against Massachusetts or the city where the accident occurred.

Help on way for city’s most dangerous intersection, Boston.com, January 22, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Massachusetts 2006 Five Percent Report, FHWA Safety
Boston Transportation Department
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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a ruling earlier this week that says a doctor can be sued for personal injury if his patient caused a deadly car accident.

The case before the SJC involved a mother who wants to sue a doctor because he allegedly did not warn his patient that taking his medication could cause him to become a dangerous driver. The doctor, Dr. Roland Floria, practices medicine in Brockton, Massachusetts.

On March 22, 2002, Floria’s patient, David Sacca, 75, passed out while driving his car. His vehicle swerved off the road and struck Kevin Coombes, 10, who was standing on the sidewalk. Coombes died of his injuries from the accident. Dr. Floria had prescribed oxycodone, prednisone, Zaroxolyn, Paxil, potassium, furosemide, oxazepam, and Flomax to Sacca. Side effects of these drugs can include fainting, drowsiness, and dizziness.

In the court’s lead opinion, Justice Roderick L. Ireland compared Dr. Floria’s failure to warn Sacca about his medications’ side effects to a bartender giving a drunken customer a drink. He said that the physician’s duty of care includes “all those foreseeably put at risk by his failure to warn about the effects of the treatment he provides to his patients.”

This is the first time that Massachusetts’s SJC has issued such a ruling. Two earlier state Superior Court rulings had held doctors liable when their patients struck a pedestrian and biker. The ruling by the SJC, however, could make it easier for similar lawsuits holding doctors accountable for their patients’ actions to follow.

Dr. Dale Magee, the head of the Massachusetts Medical Society that represents the majority of Massachusetts’s doctors says that the ruling “may do more harm than good.” Magee noted that doctors should warn patients of possible medicinal side effects. He expressed concern, however, that informing a patient of every possible scenario could stop them from taking their medication.

The Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling paves the way for a wrongful death trial to determine whether Floria is liable for the boy’s death. Prior to this ruling, a doctor’s liability regarding failure to warn ended with the patient. Now, a physician’s liability could extend to “foreseeable” third parties and nonpatients.

If you or someone you love was injured in a car accident, truck crash, bicycle collision, or pedestrian accident anywhere in Massachusetts, you should contact a personal injury lawyer immediately.

Mass. Supreme Court Expands Doctors’ Liability to Nonpatients, Insurance Journal, December 11, 2007
SJC ruling adds to doctor liability, Boston.com, December 11, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
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Sagamore residents Kelly Downing and Jayne Hill died on November 29 after their motor vehicle was hit by a Ford Taurus driven by 61-year-old Carol Ducey in Wareham, Massachusetts.

Police think that the fact that Ducey, a Wareham resident, may have had a seizure or stroke while driving, which is what could have caused her to lose control of her car.

Ducey’s Taurus reportedly first crossed the double yellow lines and struck a Lincoln Navigator and a Cape Cod Express truck on Cranberry Highway. The drivers of both those motor vehicles were not injured.

The Taurus, traveling at 60-80 miles an hour, then rammed a street sign and mailbox before striking the Saturn Sedan that Downing and Hill, who had just finished breakfast, were riding in. Their car was totaled. Both women leave behind two 12-year-old daughters.

Ducey was seriously injured in the car crash.

Accidental deaths unfortunately do happen even when the person responsible would never ever dream of intentionally harming another person.

In these instances, the family of the person who died may be able to hold the negligent party civilly liable for the wrongful death.

In Massachusetts, surviving family members can file a wrongful death claim or lawsuit against the party responsible for causing their loved one’s death.

Under the General Laws of Massachusetts, CHAPTER 229. ACTIONS FOR DEATH AND INJURIES RESULTING IN DEATH, a person can be sued for wrongful death if:

1) by his negligence causes the death of a person;
(2) by willful, wanton or reckless act causes the death of a person under such circumstances that the deceased could have recovered damages for personal injuries if his death had not resulted;
(3) operates a common carrier of passengers and by his negligence causes the death of a passenger;
(4) operates a common carrier of passengers and by his willful, wanton or reckless act causes the death of a passenger under such circumstances that the deceased could have recovered damages for personal injuries if his death had not resulted; and (5) is responsible for a breach of warranty arising under Article 2 of chapter one hundred and six which results in injury to a person that causes death.

Two women dead, a third seriously injured, in Wareham car accident, SouthCoast Today, November 30, 2007
Chapter 229: Section 2. Wrongful death; damages, The General Laws of Massachusetts

Related Web Resources:

Massachusetts Highway Department

Massachusetts Highway Crash Statistics
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A WBZ-TV report states that Massachusetts state troopers are responsible for close to 500 of the motor vehicle crashes that have occurred on state roads since the turn of the century.

According to the study, close to 120 police officers have had at least four accidents since 2000, with speeding, inattentiveness, and following other vehicles too closely being among the common causes.

State police information shows that most of these collisions took place when troopers were heading to work or during regular patrols and when the weather and roads were in good condition.

In more than half of the crashes that took place, senior state police cleared the officers involved in the motor vehicle collision from blame. Senior officers found police partially to blame in only 7% of cases. Troopers were found responsible for 19% of the accidents.

Just because police are allowed to chase after suspects doesn’t mean they should not be held accountable when a person is injured because a police officer was negligent, careless, reckless, or speeding unnecessarily.

Police chases are sometimes unavoidable. It is unfortunate, however, that 33 to 40% of the people hurt or killed in police chases are innocent bystanders that just happen to be on the road-either as a pedestrian or a motorist-when the pursuits have taken place.

If you or someone you love was hurt anywhere in Massachusetts because a motor vehicle driver was negligent-even if the driver was a police officer-you should speak with a Massachusetts personal injury lawyer right away to find out if you have grounds to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit.

In 2006, there were 38,588 deadly motor vehicle collisions in the United States resulting in 42,642 deaths. Not only did these people lose their lives but their loved ones’ lives were altered irrevocably also.

You are entitled to wrongful death compensation if your loved one died on a Massachusetts road because of a negligent driver. There may even be more than one party that can be held liable for the personal injury accident.

Report: Troopers Have Caused Nearly 500 Crashes in Last 7 Years

Fatality Analysis Reporting System, NHTSA

Related Web Resource:

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
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Kathleen Vasa, the Massachusetts widow of the doctor who died when his 76-year-old cancer patient crashed her motor vehicle into the hospital’s radiation therapy unit where he worked, is suing the driver, Jane Berghold, for wrongful death.

Berghold, who crashed her car into the hospital on October 15, claims that she tried to stop the car but the brakes wouldn’t work. She has been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide by negligent operation and one count of operating to endanger.

Susan Plante, a 59-year-old hospital worker, also died from her injuries.

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A Massachusetts doctor and a hospital secretary are dead following Monday’s tragic car accident involving a cancer patient who accidentaly drove her Oldsmobile into Brockton Hospital’s radiation center.

76-year-old Rockland resident Jane Berghold crashed her car through a glass door and into the center. She is a breast cancer patient at the center. Berghold was going to the hospital to give an X-ray Dr. Mark Vasa, to her radiation oncologist, who was Vasa was killed in the accident. Vasa was the chief radiation oncologist in charge of the center.

Susan Plante, a 60-year old hospital secretary who had worked at the hospital for two decades, died because of the catastrophic internal injuries she sustained in the crash. She had been taken to Massachusetts General Hospital. Two other hospital employees working at the reception desk sustained injuries.

Robert Berghold, Jane Berghold’s husband, says that his wife has a solid driving record and was never involved in a major car accident before this one.

Senior Drivers
Statistically speaking, senior drivers over 75 years of age tend to be at higher risk of being involved in car accidents than their younger counterparts, by 37%–whether as accident victims or as the driver responsible for the motor vehicle accident. Poor vision at night, drowsiness from medication, confusion, impaired memory, and decreased motor skills can easily affect the driving skills of some elderly drivers.

In Massachusetts, about 7,500 seniors over 68 years of age either lose their license after failing a road or eye test or they let their license expire. That said, many drivers 60-70 years of age are also considered to be among the safest drivers. Some states have specific driving laws focusing on elderly drivers. Massachusetts does not have a special driving law for seniors.

If you were injured or someone you love was killed in a car accident that was someone else’s fault, you may be able to file a personal injury or wrongful death claim or lawsuit against the negligent party.

Speeding, talking on the cell phone or text messaging while driving, drunk driving, aggressive driving, reckless driving, or careless driving are also common causes of motor vehicle crashes-regardless of a person’s age. A defective motor vehicle part, such as faulty tires or defective breaks, or a defective motor vehicle can also result in car accidents where a passenger or bystander can get injured or killed. In these instances, the motor vehicle manufacturer could be held liable in a products liability lawsuit.

Second person dies after car crashes into Brockton Hospital, Boston.com, October 16, 2007
Second Death Confirmed In Hospital Car Crash, WCVB.com, October 16, 2007
How Old Is Too Old Behind The Wheel?, AP, July 17, 2003
Senior Citizen Drivers: Are They Menace? Should Licensing Laws Be Tougher?, Senior Journal, June 16, 2005

Related Web Resources:

Brockton Hospital
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The new changes to the Junior Operator License Law takes effect today. The revised law mandates that driving students must log in more driving time with driving teachers and parents.

Parents of teen drivers will also spend two hours in class learning about the driver’s education program. The changes will hopefully help teen drivers become safer drivers on Massachusetts’s roads so that less car accidents and personal injuries will occur.

Under the revised law, teen drivers will still have to spend 30 hours in a classroom studying driving. They will now also have to take 12 hours of driving lessons in a car. An additional 40 hours will have to be spent driving with a parent or another adult.

Not only are teenage drivers at higher risk for getting injured or killed in a car crash, but their experience on the roads increases the chances of other drivers and pedestrians also sustaining injuries in a motor vehicle crash.

The Registry of Motor Vehicles says that in 2005:

• 33% of all 16-year-old drivers were involved in a motor vehicle collision.
• 19% of all 17-year-old drivers were in involved in a traffic crash.
• 14% of all 18-year-old drivers were involved in accidents.

According to Teendrivinginfo.com:

• Annually, 7,887 (14% of all drivers) 15-20 year-old drivers are involved in fatal traffic crashes.
• Each year 2,008 16 to 17-year-olds die in automobile crashes.
• Crash rates are the highest for teens during the 1st six months & 1,000 miles after licensure.

Injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident can be very serious and costly, which is why you should speak to a personal injury attorney if you have been injured in a traffic collision because another driver behaved recklessly or negligently.

Junior driver license law mandates parental role, Telegram.com, August 30, 2007
Teen Driving Information for Everyone

Related Web Resources:

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles

Teen Drivers, DMV.org Continue reading

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A 56-year-old South End female pedestrian who was seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident when she was 6 years old has lost her leg in another hit-and-run accident.

Donna Mills had her leg amputated on August 1 after she was hit by a tractor-trailer while crossing Huntington Avenue near Symphony Hall on July 30. She is recovering from surgery at Radius Specialty Hospital. The driver of the tractor-trailer left the accident scene.

As a child, Mills sustained permanent brain damage and a permanent leg injury when she was struck in a hit-and-run car accident in Boston. No one was ever charged in that crime.

Mills was struck while walking the route that she would travel daily. Police are looking for the driver of the tractor-trailer. Witnesses say the tractor-trailer had the word “FABIAN” in red letters on its side.

If you or someone you love has been seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident, not only has the negligent driver committed a crime, but he or she can be held liable for your personal injury accident and you can file a claim for recovery.

As a victim of a hit-and-run accident, not only are your dealing with the pain and suffering that comes from being injured, recovering from the accident, and finding a way to get your bills paid for, but you are also dealing with the trauma of being struck by a person who has tried to escape responsibility and accountability for your injuries by leaving the accident scene. By fleeing the accident site, the negligent driver has also become a criminal who has made you the victim of his or her crime.

What You Can Expect to Recover as a Victim of a Motor Vehicle Accident in Massachusetts:

• If you were riding a car at the time of the accident, your insurance will cover the first $2,000 of any costs related to your injury accident.
• If you were a bicyclist or a pedestrian who was injured by a car, truck, or motorcycle, then the insurance company of the negligent party has to cover the first $2,000.
• Your insurance company will be asked to cover any medical costs above the first $2,000. If you are able to recover money from a personal injury claim, your health insurance company may be able to collect what it spent from these damages.

Victim twice hurt in hit-runs loses leg, driver sought, Boston Herald, August 26, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Auto Accident Claims

Hit and Run 2004 Statistics, Deadlyroads.com Continue reading

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Milton firefighter Antonio Pickens is in critical condition at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts after being run down by an alleged drunk driver on Saturday. Pickens sustained massive injuries to his head and body when he was hit by a black Buick LeSabre Sedan while assisting motorists involved in a minor fender-bender outside the fire station where he works on Blue Hill Avenue.

Sustaining massive head injuries in a car accident can be very serious, especially if the head injuries result in traumatic brain injuries (TBI), such as hematoma (brain bruising), nerve damage, concussions, skull fractures, and permanent brain damage. Serious head injuries can lead to prolonged repercussions, including seizures, paralysis, changes in personality, changes in mental ability, loss of full use of any of the five senses, speech problems, and coma.

According to Milton Fire Lieutenant Jack Grant, doctors at the hospital have reattached Pickens’s arm, which was partially severed in the collision. Blood flow has been restored to his leg, which had sustained major arterial damage.

Recent drunk driving statistics say that there were 16,885 alcohol-related deaths in 2005. Approximately 254,000 people sustained injuries in a collision where alcohol was involved. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program says that more than 1.4 million drivers were arrested for DUI in 2004.

C.W. Tolbert, the driver of the sedan, pleaded not guilty to charges of third-offense drunken driving, driving drunk, and causing serious bodily injury and negligent driving.

According to Milton officials, the intersection of Atherton Street and Blue Hill Avenue where the accident occurred is one of several busy intersections that needs to be upgraded to ensure that the area is safer for drivers and pedestrians.

Massachusetts Firefighter Hit by Car, Firehouse.com, July 16, 2007
2005 Drunk Driving Statistics, Alcohol Alert.com
Head injury, Medline Plus
Related Web Resource:

Firefighter injuries by type of duty, National Fire Protection Association Continue reading

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