Is Viva Tacoland Partly Liable for Its Employee’s Alleged Crime?
According to San Antonio news outlets, a bartender at the Viva Tacoland bar stands accused of "spiking" the drinks of two female patrons of the bar on March 25. 30-year-old Dillonger Hackett was arrested on Monday April 23 for allegedly drugging the shots and then accompanying the intoxicated women to their nearby hotel, where they...
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...
Haeger Revisited: Faulty Goodyear Tires and the Statute of Repose
Recently the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a preliminary investigation into the field performance of tire manufacturer Goodyear line of "G159" model tires. According to records that were ordered unsealed by a judge last year, the tires--often used on motor homes despite being unfit for the purpose--may have caused wrecks that injured or...
You Had One Job : Kidde Recalls Almost 500,000 Potentially-Faulty Smoke Detectors
Earlier this month, nearly half a million Walter Kidde Portable Equipment Company Inc. ("Kidde") brand smoke alarms were recalled because they had the potential to fail at their sole purpose. What's Wrong With the Smoke Alarms? According to a recall reported by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) roughly 500,000 smoke detectors were manufactured...
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 complicated 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...
Was A Semi-Truck Crash Properly Investigated? Only if it Has ECM Data
It's not uncommon for me, or someone else writing in this space, to suggest that people should almost always seek an independent investigation after a serious 18-wheeler truck accident. For many this is common sense advice, but others tend to ask, "What can an attorney do that the police don't already do?" I appreciate that...
Specialized Bicycle Components, Inc. Recalls Thousands of “Allez” Model Bikes for Faulty Forks
Product recalls happen far more often than I could relay even if that's all I wrote about. The truth is that manufacturers and sellers, from local artisans to multinational conglomerates, sometimes create and sell defective products. When I say "products," though, I should note that it's often a little more granular than that word might...
Nope, Attorneys Aren’t Out to Get You…Unless You Do Something Awful
There's a pervasive legal myth in a large portion of the American public, which leads people to believe that they're just one bad situation away from losing everything they own to an unscrupulous attorney's ridiculous lawsuit. This idea cuts across all levels of the income spectrum. People, regardless of their means, genuinely believe that a...
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...
Why Are People Suing the Makers of Invokana?
I'm sure we've all seen or heard ads with a stern-voiced lawyerly looking actor telling us about the dangers of a particular drug. They're pretty standard fare on mid-afternoon and late-night television. In recent months, a slew of ads targeting the drug Invokana, a diabetes medication, aired on stations around the country. These commercials usually...
Asbestos Continues to Wreak Havoc on Generations of Workers
Society has a complicated history with technological progress. It seems like many major developments in the industrial and consumer sectors were found to be pretty awful ideas after a generation or so of use. Just think about it: From the 1930's through the 50's, cigarettes were endorsed by doctors for the pep that a jolt...
Positive Train Control: What Use is an Inactive or Absent Safety Feature?
The past few months have certainly not been good for trains. Multiple high-profile wrecks--three in as many months--have brought the public's gimlet eye down upon Amtrak, one of the most recognizable names in train transportation. For those who don't follow the news (who could blame you these days?), here's a quick summary of the most...
Is There Any Way a Truck Driver Isn’t Responsible for a Detached Trailer?
One of the most dangerous categories of truck accidents is when the trailer becomes detached from the truck. When this happens, it instantly places the equivalent of a multi-ton boulder in the path of every other vehicle on the road. Even drivers in the largest trucks on our highways have little chance of escaping serious...
Texas DUI Crashes Don’t Just Happen In the Late Hours and On Weekends.
Some people may think that fatal DUI accidents only occur during the times of day when people are most likely to be at a bar--late evening through early morning, after one work day ends and before the next begins. It's true that drunken collisions notably increase during this period, but it's worth remembering that almost...
Don’t Take Airbags For Granted. They Don’t Always Work As Intended.
One of the most recognizable developments in vehicle safety, since the first gas-powered carriages wobbled down dirt roads in the late 19th century, is the airbag. Since they were patented in 1951, airbags have gone into almost every vehicle that can carry one. Everyone's aware of them, but I believe many people take their effectiveness...
Florida Casino Boat Fire Presents A Tricky Legal Situation
It was all over the news recently when a casino boat in Florida caught fire, resulting in the death of Carrie Dempsey, 42, and leading to at least 8 other injuries. At first, I had no intention of writing about the accident, which seemed likely to be a straight-forward case of a negligent boat operator...
Some Dangerous Drivers are Following Unsafe Orders.
There are times when we should weigh the morality of a decision against its profitability. Occasionally in the name of progress people in charge make decisions that, while not necessarily illegal, are certainly questionable. This kind of "me first" thinking is often most obvious when looking at certain businesses' expectations of their workers. Trucking companies...
No One Is Above Traffic Laws, So Learn and Abide By Them.
I work in an industry that continually sees the worst consequences of reckless driving, and for all my exposure to these cases, I am still utterly confused as to how they occur. Surely few people truly believe they're justified in running red lights or whipping in and out of traffic lanes, but it happens every...
Who’s Going to Investigate A Semi Truck Crash? Maybe Not Who You Think.
When an accident happens, who's the proper authority to investigate? Check the comments sections of news articles about the wreck and you'll find no shortage of armchair authorities who think they know exactly "who you gonna call." Their ideas on that are often wrong, but they'll treat them as the gospel truth when discussing the...
How Do We Know that Most Wrong Way Drivers Are Drunk?
When we heard that two men were killed in a wrong-way collision shortly after midnight, New Year's Day, on I-35, near Wheatland Road, folks around the office wondered aloud whether or not alcohol or drugs may have played a role in the fatal accident. I don't want to discuss that in-depth, because the reporting about...
