Source

In mid-July, two pedestrians were struck and hit at around 11:30 p.m. near Midtown Houston. KHOU reported that the pedestrians were in serious condition after the accident, which occurred on Tuam Street near Helena Street. The driver who was involved in the accident was allegedly intoxicated at the time and was arrested following the crash.

Our Houston lawyers know that those who are walking, jogging or biking are often at risk of sustaining very serious injuries in the event they are involved in a pedestrian accident. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that a pedestrian is one-and-a-half times as likely to be killed in a car wreck on each trip as compared to motorists in passenger vehicles. Unfortunately, lifelong injury or death are common since these accident victims have little or no protection from the force of the impact.

Pedestrians in Danger from Intoxicated Motorists

With so many pedestrian crashes causing injury or death, it should come as no surprise that there were 4,280 people killed and 70,000 injured in 2010 alone. The two Texas pedestrians who were involved in the recent accident on Tuam Street will be among those counted as injured in pedestrian accidents for 2013. The pedestrians – a man and a woman – were reportedly walking very close together, which is how a single driver hit them both. The two were taken to different hospitals. Both were listed in serious but stable condition.

Read more…

Pedestrian Lawyer

Share this:

SAN ANTONIO, Texas

Ramirez, Kristie Mayhugh, 40, and Cassandra Rivera, 38, along with Anna Vasquez, 38, were found guilty of molesting two girls in alleged assaults in 1994 that an expert has described as reminiscent of the Satanic ritual day care abuse cases of the 1980s and early 1990s. The women, known nationally as the “San Antonio 4,” always maintained their innocence. On Monday, after the district attorney agreed the group was entitled to a new trial on the grounds that recent scientific advances undermined testimony pivotal to their convictions, Ramirez, Mayhugh and Rivera were released on bond. Vasquez was paroled last year.

“I couldn’t sleep last night. I couldn’t believe I was here,” said Rivera, a mother of two who met her granddaughter for the first time Monday night. Rivera said she found herself staring at her 20-something son and daughter, who were just 9 and 8 years old when she first went to prison nearly 14 years ago. “I can’t believe they’re with me,” she said.

John Brecher / NBC News

Liabilty attorney in texas

That finding was debunked on Monday, when the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney’s office and Ware said that scientific advances undermined the doctor’s testimony, leading to the three women’s release from prison. The women now await a decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on whether to grant them a new trial. If that happens, the district attorney will decline to prosecute them, and their convictions would be overturned, said Rico Valdez, the chief assistant criminal attorney who oversees the office’s post-conviction review.

The new scientific information was allowed to be presented under a “junk science” law passed in Texas earlier this year that gives defendants the chance to submit findings that may cast doubt on their conviction.

The agreement between the attorneys was a huge breakthrough for the women, who had felt they were railroaded at trial, partly because they are lesbians.

Cassandra Rivera hugs her son Michael on Nov. 19, his 22nd birthday and her first full day out of prison in nearly 14 years. “I made it in time for your birthday,” she told him Monday just after her release.

Vasquez and Rivera, who entered prison three years after Ramirez, said a woman in their initial unit wanted to jump them until she heard their side of the story: they told her they were falsely accused.

The group ended up doing the same with other inmates, but some still called them child molesters, Rivera said. “I still walked with my head held high because I knew I was innocent. We were innocent,” she said. “We know what happened, and the truth is going to eventually come out.”

The women, except for Ramirez, could have avoided prison. Plea deals were offered, but they refused to accept them on the grounds that they were innocent. They could have left prison earlier, too, if they agreed to participate in a sex offender treatment program, which they all rejected.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/19/21540535-san-antonio-4-speak-out-after-prison-release-were-actually-innocent?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1

Share this:

Source

A Detroit motorist has been charged with first-degree murder after a dispute over speeding led to a road-rage fueled shooting. The 32-year-old motorist was driving an SUV and shot the young victim out the window of his vehicle approximately an hour after the victim yelled at him to slow his car down in an area where children were at play.

This incident, reported by CBS Detroit, was one of many violent altercations arising from road rage in 2013. Car accident lawyers in Detroit, MI know that a DOT survey identified road rage as the number one problem on U.S. roads, and that traffic experts agree road rage problems are increasing. Amidst an increasingly violent climate where traffic disputes seem prone to escalation, it is important for every motorist to recognize signs of road rage in himself and to take steps to prevent becoming dangerously angry.

Road Rage Incidents on the Rise

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not separate accidents and deaths caused by road rage in its database of traffic accidents, and many road rage altercations do not lead to car accidents but instead to acts of gun violence or other physical aggression.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, however, reviewed police records of 10,000 reported incidents of road rage that occurred over a seven-year period. During this time, 218 people were murdered and 12,610 injured.  A review by Canadian researchers of 5,624 complaints made on a website called RoadRagers also indicated that hostile displays (including displays of guns) occurred in 11.7 percent of reported incidents of driver aggression.

Increased traffic congestion and distracted driving are described as possible causes of road rage incidents, but regardless of why road rage is happening, AOL Autos makes clear that road rage and guns have become a serious public health issue endangering motorists.

Read more…

Road Rage Incidents

Share this:

Source

Distracted driving is incredibly dangerous behavior, and more states than ever before are taking steps to try to reduce the number of people on the roads who are distracted by cell phones and electronic devices.  In fact, the Governors’ Highway Safety Association (GHSA) released a report entitled “2013 Distracted Driving: Survey of the States” indicating that there has been a 45-percent increase in the number of states with texting bans in place for all drivers as compared with just three years ago.

Florida became one of the states with a texting law this year when Governor Scott signed a texting ban into law after five years of attempts to get such a law passed.   Florida’s ban is relatively weak, allowing for drivers to text when stopped in traffic or at traffic lights and making texting a secondary offense with a fine of only $30 plus court costs for a first-time offender.   Still, the fact that texting is now illegal means that those injured in a texting accident may have an easier time of recovering compensation with the help of an auto accident lawyer in West Palm Beach since negligence per se rules allow victims to prove negligence by pointing to a law that the other driver broke.

While the law may help accident victims to recover compensation, however, it may be difficult for police to enforce. In fact, as the Huffington Post recently reported, texting laws in general are difficult to enforce, even in states that have taken a very tough stance on fighting distracted drivers.  The difficulty of enforcing these laws means that many people continue to text even though it is illegal.

Read more…

Texting

Share this: