Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer - Tractor-Trailer Accidents - Most Commented

Multi-car-truck collision in rural Iowa kills two - One vehicle 3 collisions and then catches fire.

Steve Lombardi — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:02:00 GMT

Two people died while another five suffered injuries in Washington County, Iowa. This multiple car collision happened on May 23, 2009 at Highway 92 and Lexington Avenue around 2:37 P.M. The crash seems to have occurred when a 1997 Chevrolet pickup truck failed to stop at a stop sign causing a crash with a 2006 Mercury Mountaineer being driven by Samuel Langstaff of Indianola.

Langstaff’s car suffered more than three collisions and appears to have been the most seriously impacted. The first was with the 1997 Chevrolet truck driven by Andrew Brock of Washington, Iowa. The truck struck Langstaff’s car in the passenger side. That forced Langstaff into the westbound lane where it was then struck a second time on the driver’s side by a 1999 Mack diesel semi-truck driven by Jared Freel. Langstaff’s car after the second collision ended up rolling and came to rest on its top. Rolling on the pavement was the third collision. But that wasn’t all there was because Langstaff’s car then caught fire. Langstaffs died in this series of four collisions. Also, a passenger Jacqueline Langstaff was killed. Both Langstaff’s are from Indianola.

At 17-years of age Brock is a younger driver. He too was injured. The way this report is written if the facts are that Brock ran a stop sign, failing to yield the right of way, then he’ll more than likely be found at fault and be liable for all the damages. That can be significant, to say the least. There are the owner’s property damage for three vehicles one of which is a semi-truck. The semi truck may have had cargo in the trailer that is owned by someone else. Any damage to that cargo will result in a forth property damage claim. The there are the drivers and passengers in each vehicle who can file a claim against him. Young people need to understand how the world works and who pays what and when. Young drivers should heed the lessons in this case. This will be an expensive lesson to learn. Aside from him there were 8 other people injured or killed.

He has his own damages to contend with as well.

The accident report shows both Langstaff’s wore their seatbelts and they were 29 and 30 years old.

The semi truck was owned by Black Hawk Soil Service, Inc. of West Chester, Iowa. The driver of that semi, Jared Steel isn’t shown as one of the injured in the preliminary report although in the summary he was noted to have been taken to the Washington Hospital by ambulance.

What a mess. This is going to be a mentally exhausting lesson for the young driver. Also injured are S. Miller, age 15, D. Haifley age 16 and T. Filben age 19.

I follow just about every accident happening in Iowa that results in a fatality and consistently you see distractions causing the drivers to make mistakes. I have no way of knowing in this case what caused the driver to not stop at the stop sign, but it won’t be surprising if all these young people are found to be in the same car. Were they all talking? Were they fooling around? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

The Iowa State Patrol’s final report will probably be out in the next 7 to 10 days.

This story is also covered by the Des Moines Register and KCCI News.

Highway 92 & Lexington Blvd, Washington, Iowa 52353

Highway 92 is an east west highway. Lexington Road is a diagonal in a northwest to southeast direction. The aerial map from Mapquest shows this to be a rural area between West Chester and Washington.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Who wins and loses when a Ford Focus and a fully-loaded semi-truck crash?

Steve Lombardi — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:45:08 GMT

Devon Glass from Church Wyble, P.C. and I from The Lombardi Law Firm are experimenting with a joint project about highway safety. Here in Iowa we have I-80, I-35, I-235, I-90, I-370, I-380 and I-5 as the bulk of our interstate highway system running throughout the state. For the better part of thirty-years I’ve watching and listening as each client described one accidental crash after another. As a trial lawyer you can’t help but learn, so long as you care about the issues and people involved. Without looking at a map I’m not sure what highway system the lawyers in Michigan have to content with, I’ll let the young Mr. Devon Glass describe those to you. Today’s subject for me is about semi-trucks and how they are dangerous or cause collisions. As Devon instructed yesterday read the posts at the InjuryBoard along with the law firm websites: Church Wyble, PC and The Verdict on the Lombardi Law Firm. We’ve not tried this before so like us you can tell us what works and what doesn’t work.

Before I get to today’s subject there is something bugging me that I’m going to have to post about later this week. A client came into the office describing how after her accident in Des Moines several lawyers (at least 6) telephoned her parent’s home attempting to solicit her case. Telephone solicitation in Iowa is unethical so this is burning a hole in my brain knowing the identity of one of the law firms. Big firm, with what I thought was a solid reputation. I’ll get back to this later. Let’s get back to double-bottomed trucks.

Like the research method used to collect the wrong-way collisions series I’ve been doing the same for highway truck accidents with semi-trucks. Some readers say we are chasing ambulances, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. What the InjuryBoard is about is supposed to be safety from what we’ve learned in this business and for young lawyer like Devon Glass, what they are learning. The older more seasoned lawyers are passing on the touch of knowledge to the next generation. With mediations and settlements being in vogue, we don’t try a lot of cases anymore so this is one way to collectively amass and pass on what we’ve learned over the last 30 to 40 years of being a personal injury lawyer. Yes, I’m not ashamed of being a personal injury lawyer, so those who refer to us collectively in a negative way can forget embarrassing us. If we are embarrassed about anything it’s the ignorance of those who on the one hand criticize us and then run to use our services when they get a boo-boo. Of course the reason why they criticize the personal injury lawyers is because they were turned away by us and are angry about not being able to take advantage of the system to make thousands of dollars for a boo-boo; the very thing they criticize us for doing. There’s a lot of mis-information out there about what we do as personal injury lawyers and presently fear mongers are making a good living off of selling hate, so these bozo’s keep at it out of spite.

When driving on the interstate first use your head and apply common sense. Take a look at the semi-truck: In North America they will have three axles, 18 wheels, perhaps a double bottom, 102 inches wide, 13.5 feet high and can have a gross weight of 80,000 pounds. The double bottomed trailers are 2-axle tractors towing two 1-axle 28.5 feet semi-trailers. Certain states also allow longer combination vehicles known as LCV’s. LCV’s include the following:

LCV types include:

Triples: Three 28.5-foot (8.7 m) trailers; maximum weight up to 129,000 pounds (58.5 t).

Turnpike Doubles: Two 48-foot (14.6 m) trailers; maximum weight up to 147,000 pounds (66.7 t)

Rocky Mountain Doubles: One 40 (12.2 m) to 53 (16.2 m) foot trailer (though usually no more than 48 feet) and one 28.5-foot (8.7 m) trailer (known as a "pup"); maximum weight up to 129,000 pounds (58.5 t)

In Canada, a Turnpike Double is two 53-foot trailers and a Rocky Mountain Double is a 50-foot trailer with 24-foot "pup"

Some states go further allowing longer and heavier trucks that include “larger tandem trailer setups such as triple units, the "Turnpike Double" (twin 48-53 ft units) or the "Rocky Mountain Double." (A full 48-53 ft unit and a shorter 28 ft unit) In general, these types of setups are restricted to tolled turnpikes such as I-80 through Ohio and Indiana, and select Western states. Tandem setups are not restricted to certain roads any more than a single setup. The exception are the units listed above. They are also not restricted because of weather or "difficulty" of operation.”

As you can plainly see these trucks traveling at 60 to 70 miles per hour are going to pack a punch if you crash with one while driving a Volkswagen or small Ford. A small Fiesta by Ford is 140 inches long, 61.7 inches wide and stands all of 53.5 inches. A Ford Focus is just more of the same.

Who do you think will live if a 129,000 pound fully loaded semi-truck comes sliding sideways towards the five people crammed into a beat-up Ford Focus? My guess is the Ford product as good as it is won’t win this contest. The men and women of Detroit can build it like a tank and the truck is still going to win this contest. Even with heavy metal playing on its Sirius radio, the Ford Focus weighs in at only 2,588 pounds.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has a section on their website for vehicle safety research. Follow the links to the section on defects analysis and crashworthiness division. And this section takes me full circle back to semi trucks where we break it down into parts. Trucks are tough to drive because they are long, tall and heavy. Add that there are several moving parts to the vehicle and it gets trickier. One of those pieces is the driver, a man or woman who’s probably bored, been driving too long, isn’t getting enough exercise, has had too much coffee and isn’t being paid nearly enough for the hours they are working. Irritate? Probably they are irritated and can be aggressive with their driving habits. A fact so familiar to America that it’s probably why the NHTSA has under construction a section titled “Heavy Truck Aggressivity”.

So let’s take a step back and compare just weight of each. An F-350 that I drive weighs 12,600 lbs. weighs almost five times that of the Focus, The Ford Focus weighs 2,588 pounds and the semi-truck in excess of 80,000 pounds or almost 31 times heavier. Its simple logic that should tell you which vehicle will come out on top in a crash.

Today’s post is already too long so I’ll quit and take up more the day after tomorrow. But don’t forget to read Devon’s post from yesterday, This May Save Your Child's Life When Driving on the Interstate, and return tomorrow for his next post. Who knows I may even persuade Parson’s from Hawaii, Jon Lewis and Stu McAtee from Birmingham, Schuelke from Austin, Rick Shapiro from Virginia Beach, Fusner from Tennessee, the Egerton’s from North Carolina and Bryant from the Twin Cities to join us. Truckie D probably has something to add as well. It goes without saying if you’re not mentioned you’re still invited to join us for this series and to lend us advice from whatever interstate highways you have webbing across your state. Our goal at the InjuryBoard is sharing our broad base of knowledge from across the country by lawyers with day-to-day experience while trying to teach the working men and women of this country how to protect themselves and their rights.

You can check out any cars safety rating using the NHTSA site.

Check out Safercar.gov a web portal with vehicle safety information.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Yellow Page for Lombardi Law Firm in Des Moines, Iowa on Interstate Driver Safety

Steve Lombardi — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:08:00 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfeGgzlrA3s

Steve Lombardi has written extensively about driver safety and how to avoid being killed on Iowa's highway system. He's litigated cases for over 30 years and lends his expertise in the legal field of personal injury to Iowans and those from out-of-state that hire him. As you can guess he's busy, but he will take time from his busy day to discuss your case to see if it is a case he can help you win.

If you're in an accident on I-35 (Interstate 35) call us so we can help you. Mr. Lombardi has established relationships with a select group of law firms that work the Interstate 35 corridor. Those firms have experience litigating collisions on I-35 from the North Country in Minnesota through to Texas in the south. Lombardi Law Firm can direct you to qualified firms in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska and Minnesota. Call us @ 1-800-383-0331 or 515-222-1110.

For other articles about I-35 Safety engage the following links separately or go directly to this Google search for "Highway Safety":

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Wrong Way Wrecks Are Still A Problem | InjuryBoard Austin

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

The Interstate Highway Graveyard, "Speed Kills"

Steve Lombardi — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:31:00 GMT

I have to admit to liking speed; driving fast, I mean really fast has a certain thrill to it. The fastest I’ve ever driven is 134 m.p.h. Where? I’m not saying, other than that it was an isolated area of Iowa. I was driving a Porsche Boxster S. Very sweet ride. (See below; start at 3:39.) There is something about driving fast that is a thrill, but I realize that speed can kill. The faster you’re driving the longer it takes to stop. The faster your car is going the less time you have to react to unforeseen circumstances. And the faster you are driving the less control you have over the car. Most street cars aren’t designed for high speeds. The tires on most sedans aren’t Z-rated, meaning they are little skinny tires with not much tread on the road’s surface. That means once you’re out of control you’re really out of control with little hope of getting the car back in control and with the shiny side up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elv8_sW6atc

I learned to drive when I was 15 and was taught that for every ten miles an hour you’ll need at least one car length to safely stop without rear ending the car in front of you. When I’m driving and in the rear view mirror can’t see the license plate of the guy behind me, I know he’s too close to stop without rear ending me. On the Interstate that’s just dumb.

Follow the link and ake a look at a speed chart; it’s a quick way to determine skid lengths and stopping distances. I’ve listed links to skid mark calculators on the Lombardi Law Firm website. Here is another speed chart for our European readers.

What if you want a quick and dirty estimate? You could use a speed chart such as the one offered by Technical Services - Forensic Engineering. TSFS offers course for attorneys for The Science of Accident Reconstruction. Look at this chart and study it; you’ll see that you need distance with speed and have less time to react to what isn’t going to be a pleasant ending.

Being in a hurry doesn’t help. Texting or talking on the cell phone just makes it worse by adding distractions and reducing the time you have to evaluate the situation and realize you’re about to get in trouble.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrljWGIHB7c

In the United States we’ve raised the interstate speed limit from 55 to 70 and in some parts 75 mph. During this period what has happened with the number of deaths? Is it 80 or “whatever” in Montana? Take a look at what one researcher wrote about the increased speeds and statistically the increasing dangers.

The University of Illinois School of Public Health studied accidents from 1995 to 2005 to determine the impact on the speed increase on accidents. The study examined deaths and injuries in fatal car crashes on rural interstate highways, urban interstates and non-interstate road, and found the speed increase resulted in 2,545 deaths and an additional 36,582 injuries.

All told, the study found that deaths and injuries increased by 3.2% over the ten-year period, while rural road deaths increased by an alarming 9.1%. Lead researcher Lee S. Friedman says the easy way to solve the increases in deaths and injuries would be to drop the speed limit back to 55 mph, adding "Researchers have demonstrated that lower travel speeds and death tolls usually follow lowering of speed limits, and higher travel speeds and death tolls follow increases in speed limits."

See, STUDY: Raising national speed limit has resulted in 12,500 deaths.

In 2006, 42,642 people were killed in the estimated 5,973,000 police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes, 2,575,000 people were injured, and 4,189,000 crashes involved property damage only.

See Traffic Safety Facts, Updated with 2008 data.

From 1996 to 2006 on average between 42,000 and 43,000 people die each year in the United States from car collisions. During that same period between 3.5 and 2.5 million people were injured. The good news is that the number of injuries from crashes is decreasing.

Speeding is reported in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) as a driver-level attribute that combines “driving too fast for conditions" or "in excess of posted speed limit.” There is a growing need to parse out these two factors, especially for those designing countermeasures. The report, using data from the State Data System quantifies the extent of these two aspects related to speeding using data from six States whose police accident reports actually parse these out. The result of this analysis shows that this really depends on the severity of the crash. In fatal crashes, about 55 percent of all speed-ing-related crashes were due to “exceeding posted speed limits” as compared to the 45 percent that were due to “driving too fast for conditions.” The comparable percentages for speeding-related injury crashes were 26 percent versus 74 percent and those for PDO (property-damage-only) crashes were 18 percent versus 82 percent.

The second aspect examined in this study is how these crashes, which related to the factors “driving too fast for conditions” or “ex-ceeding posted speed limit,” were affected by roadway environments. It shows that the speeding-related crashes that were due to “driving too fast for conditions” were more likely to have occurred on roads with higher speed limits (50+ mph) as compared to other crashes. Roadway environments analyzed also include: roadway surface conditions, roadway alignment, and intersection/intersection-related roadway segment.

An Analysis of Speeding-Related Crashes: Definitions and the Effects of Road Environments

Certainly this isn’t the goal we have in the United States. I too want to get there faster and God knows I hate driving 55; it seems to take so much longer to get to where I’m going. But the math indicates otherwise.

Read what this writer had to say about driving too fast and how often that is the precipitating cause of fatalities in car and truck accidents.

Speeding is one of the most common contributing factors of traffic crashes. Data extracted from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) show that the driver-level attribute “driving too fast for conditions or in excess of posted speed limit” is the critical contributing factor in more than 99 percent of all speeding-related fatal crashes, as defined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A marginal number of drivers were determined to be speeding through citations of speeding violations reported to FARS.

In this study, two aspects related to speeding-related crashes are examined. One is how each of the two individual factors, “driving too fast for conditions” (DTFFC) and “exceeding posted speed limit” (EPSL), contributed to speeding-related crashes. The other aspect is how these speeding-related crashes, which related to the factor DTFFC or EPSL were affected by road environments. Road environments examined include: posted speed limit, road surface conditions, road alignment, and road intersection/intersection-related. Data from NHTSA’s State Data System (SDS) was used in the analyses. ••••••

In fatal crashes, about 55 percent of all speeding-related crashes were due to EPSL as compared to the 45 percent that were due to DTFFC. A marginal number (about 0.4 percent) of all fatal crashes were determined to be speeding-related through citations of speeding violations issued to the driver. In speeding-related crashes that resulted in one or more injuries, about 26 percent of the crashes were due to EPSL as compared to the 74 percent that were due to DTFFC.

…. The variance of the population density, road speed limit, weather conditions, economic status, education level, etc. among the States might have played a role in this difference. Speeding-related crashes that were due to DTFFC were more likely to have occurred on roads with higher speed limits (50+ mph) as compared to other crashes. Speeding-related crashes that were due to EPSL occur on either lower speed limit (less than 50 mph) roads or higher speed limit (50+ mph) roads as compared to other crashes.

In speeding-related crashes that were due to DTFFC, the relative proportions of crashes that occurred under adverse road surface conditions (“Snowy/Slushy/Icy/Slippery” and “Wet”) were much higher during cooler months (December to March), as compared to other crashes. This seasonality was relatively weak as a contributing factor in speeding-related crashes that were due to the factor EPSL.

The relative proportion of crashes that occurred on the curved sections of the road was much higher in speeding-related (DTFFC or EPSL) crashes. There was no important variation of this relative proportion across the month of the year. Speeding-related (DTFFC or EPSL) crashes were more likely to have occurred on non-intersection/non-intersection-related stretches of roads. There was no important variation of this relative proportion across the month of the year.

And the author opined, exactly what we discussed above:

Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes. It reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around curves or objects in the roadway, extends the distance necessary to stop a vehicle, and increases the distance a vehicle travels while a driver reacts to a dangerous situation. Higher crash speeds also reduce the ability of vehicle, restraint system, and roadway hardware such as guardrails, barriers, and impact attenuators to protect vehicle occupants.

Table 1: Speeding-Related Fatal Crashes						by NHTSA Definition During						2001-2007
Driving Too Fast for Conditions or			Racing*					Speed-Related Offenses**
Year	In Excess of Posted Speed Limit*				(Since 1998)					(Since 1997)				Total
	Number	%		Number			%		Number		%		Number		%
2001	11,179	99.21		38			0.34		51		0.45		11,268		100
2002	12,046	99.42		24			0.20		46		0.38		12,116		100
2003	11,798	99.41		28			0.24		42		0.35		11,868		100
2004	11,594	99.31		23			0.20		57		0.49		11,674		100
2005	11,958	99.46		25			0.21		40		0.33		12,023		100
2006	12,016	99.45		27			0.22		39		0.32		12,082		100
2007	11,586	99.37		30			0.26		43		0.37		11,659		100
Notes: Driver-level related factors. Violations charged, which includes: racing, speeding (above speed limit), speed greater than reasonable and prudent (not necessarily over the speed limit), exceeding special speed limit (e.g., for trucks, buses, or on bridge, in school zone, etc.), energy speed (exceeding 55 mph, non-pointable), and general speed-related violations. Source:* FARS 2001-2007.

And so today we’ll end just knowing that speed kills for many different reasons. And let’s post this blog and see what Devon has to say. I see that my Hawaiian friend, Wayne Parsons wrote his post and was right to point out the idea is to encourage people to think and save lives. Save lives in Michigan (Mittelman’s firm), Hawaii (Parsons’ Law Firm) and here in Iowa, through my own posts. Wayne’s point was not missed by me; “The goal we have set up for ourselves requires people to get into a conversation with us about their experiences and ideas. This isn't a lecture, its a plea for help. This isn't telling you what is. Its asking you what you see and what you think. Let me explain.

Speed is a major problem on the tight, curvy, hilly streets on Oahu. When people get out of the narrow streets of the hillside neighborhoods and get on a freeway, they love to open it up and let it roll. No stop signs. Lots of lanes. The pent up frustration is unleashed.”

I agree with Wayne. Here are my suggestions.

1. Slow down.

2. Leave more room between the front of your car and the one in front of you.

3. Leave the cell phone off – stop texting and talking while trying to drive.

4. Avoid distractions that take your eyes off the road.

5. Maintain good tread on the tires on your car or truck.

6. Give the truckers room to maneuver; those trucks are big, heavy and slow to move.

7. Adopt an attitude of being courteous rather than seeing the roadways as a race to the finish.

8. Leave early or get used to being late. Better to arrive late then never.

Those are my suggestions. Now If I can just get Wanye Parsons to show me how to add one of those Google maps to my blog… did you know you can click on that map and see the entire island or zoom in and see Wayne standing in this driveway?

Here is the series so far on Interstate Highway crashes and how to avoid them:

Are Double-Bottomed Semis More or Less Dangerous to You? - Devon Glass from Church Wyble, P.C. (Michigan)

Who wins and loses when a Ford Focus and a fully-loaded semi-truck crash? - Steve Lombardi from The Lombardi Law Firm (Iowa)

And, Hawaii Freeway Chronicles #1: What Are The Danger Points On H-1, H-2 and H-3?, by Wayne Parsons of Wayne Parons Law Offices. (Hawaii)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSICoacOT60

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

What is a pi lawyer and what questions should I ask him after an I-35 collision?

Steve Lombardi — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:48:59 GMT

They will tell you I'm not supposed to be proud to be a "PI Lawyer". I am and I make no apology for being one or for that matter being proud to be one. And until people remember the meaning of do until others as you would have them do unto you, you won't understand why until you need a personal injury lawyer.

So what is a personal injury lawyer?

A personal injury lawyer is one who works for the injured person after they’ve been involved in an accident. In this instance these personal injury lawyers have gotten together to discuss the types of personal injury claims that occur on the interstate highways between Minnesota and Texas. That highway of course is I-35.

What personal injury lawyers do is a daily struggle of battling against the enormous financial power of the insurance industry. They help you navigate through the mixed signals and demands of different insurance companies. For instance after you’re in a highway wreck you end up having a tow bill, a storage bill, a car damage claim, probably medical expenses and certainly time off from work. Your claims originate in one state, not the one in which you live and you need to figure out how to get answers and in what order those questions need to be answered. Literally you find yourself sinking in demands of several insurance adjusters with no one assisting you. That is where the personal injury lawyer is helpful.

We live this day in and day out. We take over the hassles that you find overwhelming. Where you feel like you’re being pushed around by the other guy’s auto insurance company, your own insurance company and the health insurance company, we push back and direct traffic. Personal injury lawyers are here for you, your spouse and family and all those whose interests aren’t opposing to your own. The most important question you can ask is “Are you on my side?”

How many years have you been handling personal injury legal work?

Do you have other lawyers in the state where the collision occurred that you can work with to get my case handled?

Do you like doing this kind of work?

Do you have a blog where I can read what you’ve written?

How do you handle these cases?

You will hear the insurance industry malign personal injury lawyers and you will hear politicians run on platforms with tort reform planks, but when it comes to your personal injury claim none of them are helpful or there to assists you. The fact is you can’t even believe your own insurance company adjuster can be trusted. Why, because if the other guy hasn’t enough insurance coverage you’ll need to file an underinsured motorist claim. And if the other guy doesn’t have any insurance you’ll have to file an uninsured motorist claim. That means you’re insurance company is your opponent; and trust me on this one, they understand that perfectly. In 30 years of practicing law I can tell you what and how they will treat you. Your own insurance company may even hire a lawyer for the at-fault driver, that’s the guy that hit you and caused you injury, to beat your claim so that they don’t have to pay you anything under your own policy.

That’s the way this system works. So now you know why they really don’t want you hiring a “personal injury lawyer” and why they’ve spent so much money convincing you personal injury claims are a bad idea.

Here is our series so far:

Why Hire a Lawyer After an I-35 Collision? | InjuryBoard St. Cloud ... Why Hire a Lawyer After an I-35 Collision? ... St. Paul, and Twin Cities here in Minnesota, but cuts across the country as I-35.

How you Find an lawyer after an I-35 accident. Brooks Schuelke

Injured in an I-35 Accident? Real Life Reasons You Need an Attorney, Posted by Jeremy Thurman October 22, 2009 2:26 PM

Finding a Personal Injury Lawyer for an I-35 Car Accident ... Finding a Personal Injury Lawyer for an I-35 Car Accident.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

What makes a case good or bad?

Steve Lombardi — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:57:38 GMT

There really isn’t any magic formula and I never describe a case as a good case or a bad one. Instead I talk about expectations. You can have good or bad expectations. It all depends on what those expectations are and whether they are reasonable in light of the evidence and the law of the case.

There are two general categories of all evidence. First there is liability and then there are damages. Those two categories make up the entire gamut of evidence and how to think about it. Let’s call them baskets and with each question or bit of testimony you can place each in one of those baskets.

In the liability basket goes all evidence about who is responsible for either violating the standard of care or who is liable and under what theories. If we assume the case is a car-truck collision we can place all questions about how the accident happened, when, where and how in the liability basket. Was the law violated having to do with posted speed limits, lanes of travel, being on the correct side of the road, watching where you’re going, paying attention to the road and traffic conditions and driving using due care. Those are all liability questions.

Then there is the law that will be applied to your case. Is the law favorable to a claim like the one you are involved? That question you will need to ask the lawyer who may be able to answer that question or maybe not. Car accidents tend to be straight forward and the law clearly defined. But in Whistleblower cases the law may be cloudy and not well defined by the case law that interprets the statutes.

When we ask questions about how badly you were hurt, how hard was the impact, medical care or treatment, medical bills, lost wages, reduced earning capacity along with pain and suffering these are all damage type issues and as such you can place them in the damages basket.

So when clients ask if they have a good case, I have to explain it in terms of both liability and damages. You may have a perfect liability case, but when it comes to damages the case is simply not worth what you want. If your case is 100% someone else’s fault but there damages are $1,000.00 it makes little sense to spend $2,000 on expert fees and litigation costs, because the client will get nothing. In that instance we have a good liability case but a poor damage case and one in which the client’s expectations will never be met. If your expectation is one of getting $100,000.00 for a case that has a value of $25,000.00 as the client you might think the lawyer is bad, but in reality the lawyer may have done a hell-of-a-job just getting an offer of $25,000.00. I get asked quite often for a second opinion about the offer and without seeing all the evidence and talking with the lawyer it’s nearly impossible to give such an opinion.

Looking at liability issues you can have a lot of provable damages but if you’re 50% at fault for the collision you will only get 50% of the damages awarded. That means after litigation costs and contingent fees of normally 1/3^rd you may not be a happy camper. But that’s reality. Is that a bad case or a poor result? Probably not; it’s likely the best result the evidence would allow.

Many attorneys call me asking for a second opinion on whether they are missing something about the case and whether the amount of money offered is adequate. Most attorneys hate to go to the client with a final offer that will not meet the client’s expectations. As my firm’s motto we pride ourselves on telling clients what they need to hear not necessarily what they may want to hear. I’m not going to tell a client I can always meet their expectations. Many times we can exceed those expectations but not every time and in those instances I just tell them why.

I wrote an article several weeks back explaining to a woman that she would never be my client. People think we shoe every horse that comes into the barn. Well, we don’t. We turn away many potential cases and clients for various reasons but one reason in particular is the client will not present well to a jury and their expectations are unrealistic, making my job impossible. I have no interest in spending 100’s of hours working a case and hundreds or thousands of dollars in litigation costs only to have the client bad-mouth me to other potential clients. I’d rather not be involved. In those instances the case and client aren’t a good fit and from my standpoint it’s a bad case for our firm.

Sometimes I take small cases because the client’s life will be improved with just a little bit of money from the settlement. I had one lady contact me to thank me for handling it three years after we settled her case for $3,500.00. That seemed like a small case to us, but to her it meant the difference between having to pay medical expenses immediately or not having a Christmas for her kids. She thanked me for taking the time to help her put food in the refrigerator. To many law firms this single mother’s case isn’t a case they will take because the fees aren’t high enough. Is it a good or a bad case? It is a good case to that single woman, her family and to my firm (that is interested in helping people – we focus on people not fees) but to other law firms that refused to take her case, it was a “bad case”.

Good and bad are relative terms. So answering the question, “Do I have a good case?” is difficult to answer. Instead ask do we have strong liability case? And, about damages ask if the damage case is one that will be expensive to prove and likely to settle for an amount that justifies the litigation costs.

If a client sets themselves up with thinking my case has to be worth X number of dollars that’s usually a bad sign right from the get-go. We don’t value cases based on a wish list. I wish I had a million dollars is not the way we value cases. We value cases based on the liability and damage aspects of the case and so should you. And a yes and no answer to that simple question aren’t likely to be accurate.

I’ve asked several of our members of the InjuryBoard attorneys to get together to write a series of posts answering common client questions and providing useful answers that clients or potential clients can review from time to time. They have responded, in my opinion wonderfully. I encourage you to read these posts and to consider InjuryBoard attorneys as people who you would hire to assist with your case, claim or lawsuit. They are a good bunch of people with varied legal experience and we work as a network that I compare to the largest law firms in the country. We share information, cooperate with one another, refer clients and are developing the largest body of written legal resources available on the Internet. We are for all practical purposes your best investment for injury prevention, safety information and for handling your legal work. And I invite you to contact us when the need arises.

Now here are the attorneys and the linked titles to what we have so far written in this series. For the previous series about interstate highway accidents see the last post by Mike Bryant of St. Cloud, Minnesota and you’ll be able to access all of the previously written articles.

Steve Lombardi

Those attorneys writing in this series about client questions include:

Besides Mike Bryant the writers include Devon Glass from Church Wyble, P.C., Steve Lombardi from The Lombardi Law Firm, Wayne Parsons of Wayne Parsons Law Offices, Rick Shapiro from Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton, P.C., and Pierce Egerton from Egerton & Associates.

Series about Common Questions Clients Ask

I was in an automobile accident. What should I do? Ten Tips For Hawaii Drivers, Wayne Parsons on September 14, 2009 - 3:59 AM EST.

What would a caveman bring to meet with the lawyer?

Steve Lombardi , September 15, 2009 11:00 AM

Solving Legal Problems, Being a Client, Back to the Basics

Steve Lombardi , September 15, 2009 8:48 AM

Car Accident Injury Client: What Makes the Case Good or Bad? (The Collision & Medical Care) , Rick Shapiro September 16, 2009 9:38 AM

Being a Client: More Tips To Help Improve Your Case If You've Been In An Car Accident , Devon Glass , September 17, 2009 8:39 AM

Presumed Guilty: How to Avoid Having Insult Added to Injury When You’ve Been Hurt in a Car Crash, Pierce Egerton , September 18, 2009 4:28 PM

What To Do After An Accident When The Adjuster Is There First, Mike Bryant | September 19, 2009 6:26 PM

What Questions Is The Lawyer Going To Ask Me At The Initial Interview For My Injury Or Death Case?, Wayne Parsons | 20 September 2009 12:01

And this one, What makes a case good or bad?, Steve Lombardi, 21 September 2009 12:57 PM

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Vehicle maintenance is nothing to ignore

Steve Lombardi — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:56:00 GMT

On August 23, 2009 Ronald Perrin was driving his tractor when the brakes, “locked up as Perrin drove along the edge of a road”. The tractor than went into the ditch where it rolled killing Perrin. One has to wonder was this a faulty part on the tractor that should have been recalled? Did a shop where he might have taken it into for work make a mistake?

More details would help us to understand more about this incident that lead to the brakes allegedly locking up. The make, model and year and manufacture would tell us more about the aging of the braking system. Also maintenance issues are bound to play a part in determining how it may have affected the braking. Did the brakes actually lock up? With the information provided by the Tama County sheriff’s investigators, there is no way of knowing.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Truck Accident Prevention: Truck backing over pedestrian woman is preventable.

Steve Lombardi — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:56:00 GMT

I've written previously about rear runovers and the use of rear beeping or auditory warning devices. On November 7, 2008 it happened again when a woman in downtown Des Moines was backed over by a garbage truck. I've covered this subject more extensively with an emphasis on prevention. At least four accidents of a similar nature have occurred in the not-to-distant past.

Accidents Described - More common than you might think!

1. The first example comes about on October 27, 2004. In that case we researched this issue involving a situation in Oceola, Clarke County, Iowa. The vehicle was a shag truck with a disconnected rear-warning-device. The driver couldn’t see and simply backed up over a fellow security guard worker. Luckily the woman didn’t die.

2. The second example came up as a news item by the Gazetteonline.com from Cedar Rapids and it caught my attention on June 7, 2008. In that case a Garnavillo woman working at a sand company was backed over by an end loader. She died at the scene.

3. In the third example a 4-year-old child was backed over in Gowrie and it was reported in the Des Moines Register on October 7, 2008. In that instance the driver of a Ford pickup truck didn’t see the child as they were backing out of the driveway, continued and the child was killed.

4. In the latest case a Des Moines woman died of massive head and leg injuries on November 7, 2008 when a garbage truck backed over her while in an alley to the rear of the Aviva USA Insurance Company building. That building is close to the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Park Street, downtown Des Moines.

These are all sad cases and our heart goes out to the survivers and the drivers who live with the pain but according to experts these accidents are preventable.

Rear warning devices have to work, shouldn’t be plugged up or covered or disconnected. They should be appropriately loud and distinct enough for the work zone. If the vehicle was manufactured with a rear warning device it can not be disconnected without a written consent of the manufacturer. If the rear alarm doesn’t work the vehicle shouldn’t be used until it’s repaired. OSHA has specific rules based on the industry and the history of past accidents.

The driver has certain responsibilities as do the company that owns the truck and the pedestrian as well as the landlord.

These accidents are preventable.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Interstate Highway Safety - Ghost Drivers – Part II

Steve Lombardi — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:16:00 GMT

Today we further develop the issue of Ghost Drivers, English as an official language and what it may say about our culture. I ask the question: Is the answer about why some people turn the wrong way on the interstate, any indication of our mindset about diversity in language and one way that we are hurting our own economy?

But what about the language barrier issue; should we be looking at this issue differently? Do our attitudes about being English speaking Americans say something to us about the cost of foolish pride?

If it’s a language issue then perhaps we need to reexamine our own thinking and expand it. In Iowa we legislated English as our official language. In Iowa Code sec. 1.18 the general assembly of the state of Iowa found and declared English to be our official language. So while that law declares that Iowa is comprised of individuals from different ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds the idea of assimilation requires the state of Iowa to print in English. I’m not sure what this does for our state culture or what is says about us as an open-minded and tolerant people but after visiting several foreign countries I can tell you how being treated as a foreigner made me feel.

The U.S. Census Bureau tells us that Spanish follows English as the language spoken by the largest number of people in the U.S. They point out there are 34 million people in the United States who speak Spanish. Iowa has 97,876 Spanish speaking people, accounting for 3.51% of the population. That number doesn’t account for seasonal workers temporarily residing in Iowa or those traveling across Iowa on the interstate highways. Spanish is the most widely taught second language in the U.S. [Foreign Language Enrollments in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2002.] French is second. There are almost four times as many people studying Spanish as there are French. Ask yourself when you last ran across someone in the U.S. who spoke French and wanted to buy groceries or gas or anything? Not so with Spanish.

The top ten Internet languages are English, then Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Arabic, Portuguese, Korean and Italian. In millions: English 430,Chinese 276, Spanish 124,Japense 94,French 68,Gerrman 61, Arabic 59, Portuguese 58, Korean 34 and Italian 34. That’s interesting there are 124 million Spanish speaking consumers using the Internet. That’s a lot of people that could be consumers within our state because as you know unlike the State of Iowa the Internet has not borders. And also has no official language. The 1990 Census Bureau figures showed over 17 million Spanish speaking people within the United States. That number has to be low due to those for various reasons who are not counted.

“The Spanish language is the second most-common language in the United States after English. There are more Spanish speakers in the U.S. than there are speakers of French, Hawaiian, and the Native American languages combined. According to the 2007 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 34 million people aged 5 or older.^[1] The U.S. is home to more than 45 million Hispanics, making it the world's second-largest Spanish-speaking community, only after Mexico and behind Colombia, Spain, and Argentina.^[6] Roughly half of all U.S. Spanish speakers also speak English "very well", based on the self-assessment Census question respondents.^[7]”

In the United States, the melting pot of the world, there are an amazingly diverse number of languages spoken. As an example did you know that Tagalog and Vietnamese have over one million speakers in the United States? Spanish speaking people are a growing percentage of our nation. Presently there are 10.7% of the population.

Russian Border Control Sign

Perhaps we need to post signs in more than just English. You might think this is not the American way or an expense Americans should not have to incur. But I disagree with you. A recent trip to Ireland taught me something about how selfish it is to adopt this point of view we seem to have in America. In Ireland highway signs are in Gaelic as well as English. Gaelic is Ireland’s native tongue. The town of Shannon is English for the Gaelic Sionainn. Galway is Gaillimh and Ennis for Inis. Imagine if you needed to drive to Dublin and the interstate sign read: Baile Atha Cliath, Town of the Ford of the Hurdles. If Gaelic were Iowa’s official language what would the interstate signs read for the City of Cedar Rapids, The City of Five Smells?

Ireland interstate highway sign - Gaelic and English

The “official” signs were just one way that the Irish try to make us fit in. In Ireland they drive on the left side of the road and from the right side of the car. I drove and as you can guess it’s quite and adjustment. Barbara would have no part of driving. As a part of the foot traffic in Dublin we toured north and south of the River Livey. At crosswalks the City of Dublin painted on the street “look left”. This was their way of accepting our language limitations while trying to keep us safe from oncoming traffic. It did make us act and feel safer. It was one of those small gestures that did make us want to return to Ireland.

Now I hate to go back to Sarah Palin but she is the most recent example of what I’m talking about. Her mindset was as appalling as was her understanding of the world. Just this morning she admitted to not knowing that Africa was a continent. I have to wonder why so many people would vote for a team, sorry John, which includes a person who believes visiting a foreign country includes a fueling stop where you never get off the plane. If the flight entertainment included the travel channel would that qualify for visiting whatever country was being explored on film?

Some things are so well recognized that even the Russian language can't confuse or dissuade us.

What we need in this country and in this state are political leaders who have traveled outside of the state of Iowa and who have a more diverse way of thinking. People who run for highest offices need to have an understanding of other cultures. Being educated about other cultures adds to the generation of new ideas that can help us here in Iowa or any other state. We need politicians who tell us what we need to hear not what we want to hear; and who have the ability to explain why our culture needs to change in a way that it includes rather than excludes. It was insulting to my intelligence for the President of the United States to tell me what color state I lived in and whether that meant we collectively were loyal Americans. I suspect the majority of Iowans felt the same way. It was equally an insult to watch the salesman in Chamonix, France ignore the college students who spoke only English.

Consider if only in Gaelic - This is a 500 foot drop at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.

Do we have it in us to open up our minds about what languages we promote?

Don’t worry I have no intention of writing any blog post about driving on the left side of the road from the right side (our passenger side) of the car.

Right side driving.

A Universal Languge – Guinness! Is what Americans need plenty of, after an oncoming Irish tour bus passes you while driving on roads designed for the 4th Century horse drawn wagon traffic, from the left side of the road and the right side of the car.

"Blame the guy who doesn’t speak English." A quote from Homer J. Simpson.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Interstate Highways and Wrong-way Collisions, the Carnage Continued...

Steve Lombardi — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:09:00 GMT

We’ve been covering wrong-way collisions for the month of July and have continued to update during the month of August in 2009. This is the second update since writing the wrong-way series that started on August 3, 2009. You can read the complete list of wrong-way collisions in the recap posted on August 15, 2009.

Part 1 of 20 - Wrong-way Interstate Collisions, Don't blink a car is ready to hit you head-on, August 3, 2009

Wrong-Way Accidents - Complete Recap of All July 2009 Collisions, August 15, 2009

Twenty-Six More Wrong-Way Interstate Highway Drivers, August 18, 2009

Analyzing July 2009 Wrong-way High Speed Collisions in America, August 3, 2009

Wrong-Way Accidents: Call for articles, posts, studies and related information on wrong-way drivers – ghost drivers!, June 23, 2009

Wrong-way drivers on I-80 Interstate are a problem, June 3, 2009

Here is the update for wrong-way collisions for this series with Devon Glass and Dave Mittleman from Michigan and Wayne Parsons from Hawaii Injuryboard. Wayne, I’m wondering aloud if you see many wrong-way driver collisions on any of your three highways? And Devon, what are you seeing in the Michigan area on the Interstate highway system? I’d like to hear what if anything Mike Bryant is seeing in that maze of Interstate highways around the Twin Cities of Minnesota. And maybe we can get an Al Franken report. In fact before we get too serious, these wrong-ways tend to be extremely deadly, let’s start out with that YouTube video of the talking fish from the Franken-Coleman Senate race. I love that talking fish ad. It’s gotta be a classic. Sorry Norm (we attended college together at the University of Iowa) but this is way too funny to leave alone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4RfT7J0_5Y&feature=related

Now back to the serious stuff about wrong-way drivers. We’ve had a wrong-way collision not more than ½ a mile from my house on I-35 southbound. It’s at the end.

Detroit, Michigan – August 28, 2009 wrong-way collision on Lodge Freeway. A 31-year-old man died after he drove the wrong-way. Accident occurred at around 12:45 a.m., driving southbound. Alcohol is believed to have been a factor.

Haltom City, Texas – August 28, 2009 – State Highway 121 wrong-way driver collided head-on with a semi-truck and was killed. This man was heading north in the southbound lanes around 2 a.m. This driver safety stopped in the emergency lane, but when police approached he took off, again the wrong-way colliding with the semi-truck. Additional details were provided by the Star-Telegram. The wrong-way driver was 53-years of age. A map and video are available with WFAA Latest News.

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania – August 27, 2009 - No deaths in this southbound wrong-way driver in the northbound lanes of traffic in the HOV lane of Parkway North near the McKnight Road ramp. There was personal injury and OWI charges were pending against the wrong-way driver.

Allentown, Pennsylvania – August 27, 2009 – This wrong-way collision occurred around 3:30 A.M. at 8th and Linden Streets when the driver turned and drove the wrong way on Linden Street. One man was killed and another seriously injured.

St. Louis, Missouri – August 26, 2009 – In this wrong-way collision three died and one was injured on Illinois 255, about 11/2 miles north of I-270. The wrong-way driver is reported to be a 46-year-old man driving with a revoked license with multiple arrests and six convictions on alcohol related offenses. He lived, but the driver and a passenger in the other car were killed. Emergency calls shortly before this collision reported a wrong-way driver heading south in the northbound lanes of I-255 and then another call came in reporting a car heading north in the southbound lanes. Confused or drunk driver, you be the judge.

Detroit, Michigan – August 28, 2009 – A 28-year-old man was driving northbound in the southbound lanes of M-10 near Larned. The driver died and a passenger in the wrong-way vehicle was taken to the hospital and listed in fair condition. Alcohol was reported to be a factor, according to reports of what the police said.

Maderia, Ohio - August 28, 2009 – This wrong-way collision occurred on I-71 involved a 27-year-old driver and two passengers, one 18 and the other 24. Drugs and alcohol are believed to have been a factor.

Maderia, Ohio – August 2009 – In this second wrong-way crash in a two-day period a 64-year old man died after driving head-on into the wrong-way driver. The driver of the wrong-way car was a 33-year-old man. The crash involved a third car driven by an 18-year-old who was not injured. This one occurred on I-275 just before 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning.

Milford, Oakland County, Michigan – August 26, 2009 – Police report this collision was caused by intentionally driving the wrong-way by a young girl (16-year-old) who was depressed over her father’s death in November. She took her mother’s SUV and drove the wrong-way in the westbound lanes of I-96 near Lansing. She drove head-on into a semi-truck at around 9:25 p.m. She left a note saying she was tired of being depressed and wanted to see her father.

Birch Run, Michigan – August 26, 2009 – I-75 was the scene of this wrong-way driver that involved a man intentionally driving the wrong-way while police chased him in a stolen vehicle. The driver was 22-years of age.

Allentown, Pennsylvania – August 26, 2009 – This wrong-way collision happened in downtown Allentown at 3 a.m. Not much detail was given in this report although it appears to be a one-car crash with the driver dying and the passenger critically injured. They crashed into several fixed objects including a parking garage and a restaurant.

Boston, Massachusetts – August 23, 2009 – The 42-year-old wrong-way driver was being chased by police when he intentionally drove the wrong-way on state highway 24 and I-495. No one was hurt although the chase went on for nearly a half-hour.

Landrum, South Carolina – August 22, 2009 – The 33-year-old wrong-way female driver collided head-on with another vehicle. The collision caused one death, one person was seriously injured and the wrong-way driver was charged with “two counts of felony driving under the influence of alcohol -- one count involving great bodily injury and one county involving death.” The driver was heading westbound on I-26 near mile marker 2 near Landrum around 5:20 a.m. A front seat passenger was reported to have died.

Edmonton, Canada – August 22, 2009 – A wrong-way driver heading south in the northbound lanes of Wayne Gretzky Drive was operated by a 49-year-old woman reported to be impaired by alcohol.

Hickory, North Carolina – August 18, 2009 – The report is of an elderly couple (driver was 75) driving the wrong-way (northbound in the southbound lanes) on U.S. 321 just before 2:00 p.m. They drove head0n into a pickup truck killing the elderly driver and severely injuring his wife, a passenger.

Ontario, California – August 20, 2009 – This wrong-way driver died after striking a tow truck on Highway 60. The female driver was heading west in the eastbound lanes when the head-on crash occurred.

New Orleans, Louisiana – August 19, 2009 – It seems no state is immune to wrong-way driving, well maybe North and South Dakota. In this wrong-way collision in the eastbound lanes of I-12 a young female driver drove head-on into an 18-wheeler killing her. She drove the wrong-way for at least 6 miles. Police suspect alcohol was involved. The driver was not wearing her seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle.

West Des Moines, Iowa – I-35 northbound in the southbound lanes of traffic. The wrong-way driver was not killed but the driver of the car struck head-on was killed. The explanation for this collision is that the wrong-way driver was suffering from a diabetic condition and became confused, entered the wrong-way on Highway 5 and continued all the way off 5 and onto I-35 heading north in the southbound lanes.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=41.556509,-93.760414&spn=0.050483,0.139389&t=h&z=13

I'll have more on this later this week.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi