Motorists experienced delays of up to three hours as first responders cleared a serious truck crash on Interstate 10.
Details are sketchy concerning the wreck which occurred close to the Whiskey Bay Bridge and Ramah. Authorities state that the two trucks collided just west of the Atachafalaya Basin Bridge and caused traffic delays that stretched up to thirty miles. Before the injured semi-truck drivers could be rushed to local hospitals, they had to be extricated from the wreckage of their vehicles.
Investigators declined to state what the trucks were hauling but they said no hazardous materials were released. [Read more…] about Dual 18-Wheeler Crash Injures Two
Disaster Relief Effort Ends In Tragedy
A 72-year-old flood relief volunteer from Alabama suffered a fatal head injury after a fall at an area laundromat.
Bryant Edwards “Sonny” Ellis had just arrived in Denham Springs from Satsuma, Ala. to assist other relief volunteers who were already on-site. According to Satsuma First Baptist Church Pastor Roy Hill, Mr. Ellis slipped and fell in the parking lot of a Denham Springs coin-operated laundry facility. Friends remembered him as a selfless person who loved to give of himself. “Sonny always wanted to be involved in whatever was going on, and he loved to serve,” Rev. Hill remarked.
Mr. Hill is survived by his wife of fifty years Gloria Hill, daughters Kim Moore and Chris Parker, five granddaughters and a great-grandson. [Read more…] about Disaster Relief Effort Ends In Tragedy
It’s Raining Cats And Dogs And Crashes
A Bergenfield, New Jersey man died in a serious car accident that took place on a rain-slick Slidell Roadway over Labor Day Weekend.
Authorities state that 66-year-old Milton Frank, of Slidell, lost control of his 2007 Tahoe on the eastbound side of Interstate 10; at the time, the road was already covered with a layer of water and the rain was still falling “heavily,” according to a statement. Mr. Frank crossed over to the westbound side and smacked head-on into a 2016 BMW driven by Steven Fernandez, of Bergenfield. Moments later, 24-year-old Irvin Darensbourg, of New Orleans, crashed into the wreckage in a 2002 Honda.
Mr. Fernandez was pronounced dead at the scene; a passenger in his car – 26-year-old Danielle Carballeira of Staten Island, New York – was seriously injured.
Fact Issues in Car Accidents
The duty of reasonable care basically demands that drivers do whatever is necessary and safe to prevent car accidents, and that includes operating their vehicles at a reasonable speed. The posted speed limit is presumed to be a reasonable speed under ideal conditions: plenty of light, dry pavement, and little wind. It stands to reason that if conditions are less than ideal (poor visibility, slick pavement, and/or high winds), drivers must slow down and drive according to the conditions.
This duty may also vary according to the type of driver and the type of equipment. While experienced drivers have no problem operating at or near the speed limit, new drivers may not yet have that much ability. As for the type of vehicle, some pickup trucks are notorious for their uneven weight distribution when the beds are empty. As a result, drivers must exercise care when maneuvering their vehicles, especially if traction is poor.
Legal Issues in Car Accidents
Whenever there are multiple impacts from multiple vehicles, it can be difficult or impossible to determine which impact caused which injury. In these kinds of car accidents, the foreseeability rule from Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad (1928) often comes into play.
In Palsgraf, a woman at a train station was injured when some large scales fell on her. An investigation later determined that the scales toppled over because fireworks accidentally exploded on the other side of the platform, creating a shock wave that pushed against the scales and caused them to fall. The court ruled that the railroad company was not responsible for Ms. Palsgraf’s injuries, since they were not a foreseeable result of the first accident.
In car accident cases, if the injury was a foreseeable result of the tortfeasor’s (negligent driver’s conduct), the tortfeasor is generally liable for damages, regardless of whether the injuries were a direct or indirect result of the car accident.
For prompt assistance with a negligence claim, contact an experienced Lake Charles personal injury attorney from Lee Hoffoss Injury Lawyers. Our firm has a small-town feel and access to nationwide resources.
More Details Emerge In Fatal Bus Crash
The events leading up to a serious bus crash that killed two people and injured dozens are coming into sharper focus, and as a result, some victims are turning to workers’ compensation to obtain money that will help them recover from their injuries.
Several St. John’s Parish Fire Services Operations officers were injured, and 37-year-old Firefighter Spencer Chauvin was killed, when a runaway bus collided with a disabled vehicle. That bus was filled with flood relief workers, and about a half dozen of them plan to file workers’ compensation claims as well.
Although the employer’s identity is clear as far as the firefighters are concerned, investigators are still working on identifying the relief workers’ employer. Apparently, these individuals may or may not have been in the country legally. It seems that Wallace Rush Schmidt Inc. recruited local day laborers to work for Servpro and perform flood restoration work. Kristina’s Transportation owned the bus, but it is unclear what professional relationship, if any, the company had with the bus driver.
That driver was an undocumented immigrant from Honduras who had no commercial drivers’ license. Denis Amaya Rodriguez had evidently been involved in bus crashes before, and some state lawmakers are asking questions about the entire affair.
Workers’ Compensation
About a hundred years ago, labor groups negotiated with management representatives to devise a plan to address the rising number of workplace injuries brought on by the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Essentially, workers agreed to trade time for money. They gave up their right to sue in negligence court and obtain compensation for noneconomic damages, like pain and suffering, in exchange for a no-fault insurance system that compensates injured victims for their economic losses, like medical bills.
In many jurisdictions, the so-called “Grand Bargain” is no longer an even exchange, because workers’ compensation benefits have been reduced so dramatically in recent years. As a matter of fact, workers in several states – including Florida and Oklahoma – have challenged the system in court, claiming that it is no longer a legitimate alternative to a tort system.
However, that is not the case in Louisiana, where benefits are usually a bit more generous. For example, the average workers’ compensation payment for medical bills in the Bayou State is 430 percent higher than the comparable Medicare rate. However, victims must act fast to claim their share of benefits, because there are very strict time deadlines in these cases and administrative law judges almost never grant extensions or mulligans.
Benefits exist to help those injured on the job get back to work and back to life. For a free consultation with an experienced workers’ compensation attorney in Lake Charles, contact Lee Hoffoss Injury Lawyers. We do not charge upfront legal fees in these cases.
Fatal Wreck Raises Liability Questions
One young girl is dead, and another one is seriously injured, following a serious truck crash in Assumption Parish that may have been speed-related.
According to the Louisiana State Police, 38-year-old Frannie Landry, of Belle Rose, was hauling trash cans to State Highway 1000 for retrieval; the two girls were riding on the tailgate of her pickup truck. A few minutes after Ms. Landry parked in the westbound lane facing east, 21-year-old Corey Crochet approached the scene in a separate pickup truck. He reacted late and swerved quickly to avoid a head-on collision with the parked vehicle, but he evidently sideswiped it. 15-year-old Sydny Landry and her 12-year-old sister were both thrown from the bed; Sydney Landry was declared dead at the scene and her sister was rushed to a nearby hospital clinging to life.
Investigators have ruled out impairment as a possible cause and they are still looking into the truck crash.
Speed and Breach of Duty
As discussed in a previous post, excessive speed multiplies the force in a track crash. But, there is more. Speed increases both components of braking distance, which includes both reaction distance and stopping distance. The scientific equation, Vf2=Vo2+2ad, is far too complicated for a country lawyer to understand. However, the concept behind braking distance, and its applicability to truck crashes, is easy for me and jurors to comprehend.
The faster an object travels, the longer it takes to slow or stop safely. At the same time, as speed increases, reaction distance increases as well. That is the amount of ground that the vehicle covers in the half-second or so it takes a driver to see a hazard, mentally react to the hazard, and move his or her foot from the accelerator to the brake pedal. At 50mph, reaction distance is about three car lengths and stopping distance is about ten car lengths. At 70mph, these distances increase to four and twenty car lengths.
So, speeding truck drivers are unable to avoid crashes. Alternatively, as illustrated by the above story, they are only able to partially avoid these collisions. Either way, damages in these cases typically involve compensation for both economic damages, like lost wages, and noneconomic damages, like loss of enjoyment in life. Additional punitive damages are also available, in some truck crash cases.
Just a little extra speed transforms normally careful drivers into negligent drivers. For a free consultation with an assertive personal injury lawyer in Lake Charles, contact Lee Hoffoss Injury Lawyers. Home and hospital visits are available.
Two Dead And Many Injured After Serious Bus Crash
A bus driver who did not have a commercial drivers’ license caused a horrific crash in southern Louisiana.
According to state troopers, 37-year-old Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, a Honduran national, was ferrying flood relief recovery workers in an inter-city bus when he failed to slow down for a fire truck and other first responders that had responded to the scene of an earlier accident. Mr. Rodriguez apparently rear-ended a disabled Toyota Camry, killing 21-year-old Jermaine Starr, of Moss Point, Miss., who was in the rear seat. The force of the bus crash collision propelled the Toyota into a fire truck. St. John the Baptist Parish Fire Chief Spencer Chauvin was thrown off an elevated portion of Interstate 10 and plunged to his death. Several dozen other individuals, including several firefighters and most of the tour bus passengers, were seriously injured.
Investigators are trying to determine the identity of the bus owner and/or Mr. Rodriguez’s employer. Police arrested him and charged him with a number of offenses, including two counts of negligent homicide. [Read more…] about Two Dead And Many Injured After Serious Bus Crash