10 Things You Need to Know After an Accident
The 10 Most Important Things to Know if You've Been Injured in a Car Accident e've compiled a list of the top ten things we wanted to make sure you know. If you have any questions that aren't covered below, feel free to call us. We're here 24/7 to talk (855) 326-0000 . Put simply,...
Myth: The Rear Driver is Always at Fault in a Texas Rear-End Crash
Of all the legal myths I've encountered over the years, the one that seems to gain the most public traction may be "The rearmost driver is always at fault in a rear-end collision." You may have heard that a few times yourself over the course of your life, and in most cases people say it...
Texas Texting Ban May Help Victims, But Not the Way You Think It Will
In September 2017, the Lone Star State implemented a new law that bans texting while driving. The number of people I've seen glancing down at their laps on the tollway suggests these new rules haven't soaked in just yet. Even if the fines don't persuade drivers to put down their phones, though, our lawyers argue...
How Can New Crash Tests Make Automakers Increase Backseat Safety?
Automobiles used to be literal metal death traps, so crash data scientists and automotive engineers naturally spent decades examining crash patterns and innovating safer vehicles. By necessity, auto manufacturers focused on the most deadly aspects of cars, so front seat safety was a higher priority over the relatively safer back seats. "Relatively" is the key...
What Do I Do If a Uber or Lyft Driver Hits Me?
Ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft are a fact of life in many areas. Given the rideshare company's recent arrival on the scene and its unconventional business model, many questions arise from crashes involving a rideshare driver. What happens if a rideshare driver hits you? Who is a fault, the ridesharing company or the...
3 Types of Rollover Crashes and Why They Matter to Victims
Rollover crashes are frightening and often fatal. Most people know a rollover accident when they see one, but part of our government's work to prevent these crashes involves defining and classifying what a rollover is. The National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), defines a rollover as any crash where a vehicle impacts the ground on its...
Are Automakers Liable if a Roof Collapses in a Rollover Crash?
Rollover crashes account for less than 3% of all passenger vehicle accidents, but are responsible for almost 35% of all highway fatalities, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Of course, automakers cannot create vehicles that will never be in a rollover crash; however, most people assume that rollover crashes will be deadly...
Are Vehicle Fires Always Product Liability Cases?
In July 2018, the United States Fire Administration (USFA) published a Fire Report Series that found that the US averages 345 deaths and 1,300 injuries due to vehicle fires every year. Additionally, the report found that 80 percent of these fires occur in our everyday passenger vehicles. What is most startling though, is that "unintentional actions...
What Do I Do If My Seatback Failed and Injured Me?
I previously wrote about the dangers of seatback failure and how safety experts believe the current design standards are too lax and severely outdated. Now the pressing question for some people is, "What are my options if I was seriously injured or lost a loved one due to seatback failure?" Manufacturers Have a Duty to...
Is My Vehicle Defective if it Doesn’t Have Crash Avoidance Technology?
In this day and age, many in the vehicle safety community believe there’s really no excuse for vehicles not to include Crash Avoidance Technology (CAT) as a standard feature. According to these experts, it is irresponsible and harmful for automakers to exclude the software and hardware that can help drivers stay away from other vehicles...
What Is the Government Doing to Prevent Vehicle Seatback Failures? Not Much.
For years automakers and vehicle safety organizations have gone back and forth about vehicle seat design and seatback failure. Automakers maintain that “yielding seats” limit injuries in low-speed rear impacts, and that if vehicle seats were stiffer, those low-speed rear accidents would result in more severe injuries. The problem is, that this argument originated in...
Would Autonomous Vehicles Eliminate 94% of All Crashes?
A national study on the causes of crashes found that 94% of all crashes have a critical error assigned to the driver of the vehicle. Various organizations and players in the automotive industry have spread this statistic far and wide through advertisements, social media campaigns, blog posts, new outlets, and government websites. If this statistic...
How Many Crashes Are Caused By Vehicle Defects?
According to the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey (2005-07) between 28,500 and 59,100 crashes per year in the United States are due to a vehicle component failure or degradation. Clearly, this is alarming, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this estimation most likely falls short of the actual number....
Can Automakers Start Making Rollover Crashes Less Dangerous?
Rollover collisions can result in severe outcomes like traumatic brain injuries, spinal trauma, paralysis, amputations, and even death. According to national statistics from 2014 to 2018, only 2 percent of vehicles in all traffic crashes were involved in rollover crashes, but 24 percent of all fatalities resulted from rollover crashes. These statistics demonstrate that rollover...
Silver Lining? Dallas County Crashes Cut by 41% (so far) During COVID-19 Outbreak
Public crash data provided by the Texas Department of Transportation indicates that total motor vehicle crashes in Dallas County have been reduced by over 40% since March 11th. While a decline in traffic collisions is certainly to be anticipated as Texans observe shelter in place and social distancing to help slow the spread of the...
Fiat Chrysler Recalls Millions of Vehicles for Cruise Controls That Might Not Disengage
Fiat Chrysler is once again making headlines with a sizable and serious recall. While previous recalls involved everything from fire hazards to disabled seatbelt pretensioners, ranging in scope and severity, the newest recall apparently involves a software bug that could keep a vehicle's cruise control engaged even when the driver tries to cancel it. That's...
New Data Shows Houston Leads the Nation in Distracted Driving
All the major Lone Star cities see their share of DWI injuries and fatalities every year, but as I've noted, Houston is the undisputed state champ in that department—not that the crown is anything to covet. Not content with that infamy, Houston apparently grew even more ambitious. Thanks to information recently put out by a...
Bum Steer: Ford Recalls 1.4 Million Vehicles for Potential Detaching Steering Wheels
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Cars are complex machines, and they've only gotten more so with over a century of technological refinement. Having noted that a working vehicle is something of a mechanical marvel and that the layman might not fully understand its every working, it's also safe to say most...
The Bigger They Are, The Slower They Stop: The Importance of Following and Braking Distance
It no secret that as more people more to Texas, our roads become increasingly crowded. One of the first casualties of crowded roadways is proper following distance between vehicles. An incident in Southeast Texas made me ponder this dangerous element of modern driving culture. Copperas Cove, TX: January 17, 2018 65-year-old Roseann Lucidi of Kempner...
Can We Just Assume That Every Wrong-Way Driver is Drunk?
Wrong-way drivers are scary. How does a driver even find himself on the wrong side of the road, let alone stay there long enough to crash into oncoming traffic? I have a theory about it, actually: Pretty much every wrong-way driver is a drunk driver. I hate to speculate and then be wrong, but when...
