Articles Tagged with Car Accidents

If a plaintiff accepts any money from an insurance company following an accident which was not their fault, an insurance company may offer money in exchange for signing a general release and waiver of further liability in connection with the accident. Victims of an accident  involving personal injury should not sign such a document or accept any money until first speaking with an experienced personal injury attorney to see if signing this document is really in their best injury, and in most case, signing the document is not.

If a person in involved a serious car accident in Boston,  at-fault driver’s car insurance company will typically have a claims adjuster contact plaintiff, (or plaintiff’s family in cases where plaintiff is incapacitated) within 48-hours after the accident. These claims adjusters will generally act friendly, as if they are just trying to help. It is essential to understand they work for the insurer, not you.  This means they do not necessarily have the injured party’s best interest in mind. They are tasked with settling cases for as little money as possible so their employers can make more money.

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Traveling by bus is generally pretty safe. Millions of people do it without issue each year, and we know on the whole it’s safer than being in a car. Still, bus crashes do still happen and when they do, they tend to be catastrophic. That’s what reportedly happened recently in North Carolina.

According to NBC, a bus carrying a college football team crashed on a highway there. As of this writing, as least four are dead and 42 others are injured.  The bus driver is one of those who were killed in this fatal bus accident, as was the 10-year-old son of one of the coaches.

This bus was transporting the football team from Clinton College in Rock Hill, South Carolina to University of God’s Chosen in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Authorities have said that while the bus was traveling at normal speeds, the driver lost control, and it veered into the median of the divided highway and crashed. Continue reading

Every day, tens of thousands of people ride public transportation in the greater Boston area.  While it is generally safe to ride on the T, accidents do happen, and sometimes they are the fault of the driver or Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). If an accident occurs and results in a personal injury, and that accident was the fault of a bus operator, you may have valid case for a full an appropriate financial recovery.

Of course the MBTA is not the only major transit system in the country.  In New York City, there is the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), and according to a recent news feature from the New York Post, a man was just awarded $12.5 million in connection with a bus accident lawsuit. Continue reading

Snaras v. Richard Lundgren, a recent summary decision from the Massachusetts Court of Appeals involves a wrongful death claim that was dismissed after a motion for summary judgment was allowed in favor of the defendant.

In this case, defendant gave a loaner vehicle to a person who was having his car serviced.  When he got the loaner vehicle, he signed an agreement that said he was not an agent of the defendant, and was not an employee or servant of the defendant in anyway.  He also agreed that while driving the service loaner vehicle he would not carry more than five passengers and would comply with all local, state, and federal laws.  He agreed that he shall be responsible for any violations, and not the defendant. This particular agreement was signed by the defendant, but it was not ever signed by this third party who borrowed the loaner vehicle. Continue reading

Whenever we walk on the street or even drive down a highway, we frequently come across metal manhole covers.  We don’t usually give much thought to them, but, as it turns out, they weigh over 200 pounds and can lead to serious personal injury or death in the event they come loose.  While, obviously, it is possible for someone to fall in an uncovered manhole, the covers themselves can also be quite deadly if they are knocked loose by a car or truck.

According to a recent news feature from WPRI, a manhole cover that did, in fact, weigh 200 pounds, was knocked loose by a vehicle on Interstate 93 by the O’Neil Tunnel in Boston.  The manhole cover was then clipped by another vehicle and was launched into the air and came crashing through the windshield of a car moving at highway speeds.  Continue reading

There is no question that driving in the ice and snow is dangerous. There are many accidents as a result of people driving too fast for dangerous conditions. There are also accidents caused by people in cars that are unable to drive safety in the snow, and there are accidents caused by people being overconfident in vehicles that are designed to handle winter conditions like an SUV with four-wheel drive.

However, in addition to acts caused by driving on the snow and ice, there are many accidents caused by snow and ice still on the roofs of cars and trucks while driving at highway speeds. Anyone who driving in Boston or on the Mass Pike during the winter has surely seen huge chunks of ice and snow falling off the top of a car or truck. You have probably also seen giant sheets of ice that are several feet long flying off the top of a semi-tractor trailer, and you may have had to swerve out of the way to avoid being hit by them. Continue reading

According to recent article from the Boston Herald, a 67-year-old woman was on her way to a community theater where she volunteers her time to make costumes for the theater company’s productions. While she was driving, a 4×4 wood board smashed through the front windshield of her vehicle and ended up just a few inches from her head. Had the board hit her, it would most likely have caused serious personal injury or death. The woman told police it all happened in an instant. She could not believe what had happened and knew how close it came to hitting her in the face.

At the time of what is being described as a freak accident, the woman was headed north on I-91 in Springfield. A box truck hit the wooden board that was already lying on the road surface in the middle lane. When the truck hit the board, it flipped and went flying behind the truck and into this woman’s windshield. Continue reading