Articles Posted in News & Information

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On Thursday, the Supreme Court in Washington State unanimously voted to reinstate a $14 million award to a family who sued a tavern and a bartender after one of the bar’s customers drove away from the establishment and crashed into their vehicle. Their 7-year-old-son is now a paraplegic due to the tragic collision.

According to information from an Associated Press article, the law states that bartenders who serve visibly intoxicated customers are liable for damages to potential victims. At question was the type of evidence needed to prove “negligent over-service”. Most states have so-called “dram shop” laws that can make taverns or bartenders – and in some states, even social hosts – liable for damages if they serve intoxicated customers who leave the premises and harm themselves or others.

It was noted by Washington State’s justices that a forensic consultant found that the bar patron likely drank the equivalent of either 21 12-ounce beers or 30 ounces of 80-proof alcohol, and probably had a blood alcohol content of 0.32 at the time of the collision. The legal blood alcohol limit in Washington State is 0.08.

The man was drinking at the Bellingham Moose Lodge, about 90 miles north of Seattle, just before the April 2000 auto accident in Washington. His girlfriend was the bartender at the lodge and served him the night of the accident.
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The Washington State Patrol reports that between 2005 and 2007, there were almost 5000 commercial truck accidents in Washington alone. These accidents involved drivers of cars who drive unsafely around large commercial trucks. In two-thirds of the accidents, statistics show that the driver of the car was at-fault. These accidents resulted in 175 fatalities and 450 injuries. According to the Patrol, drivers need to leave space for trucks and learn ways to share the road.

John R. Batiste, chief of the Washington State Patrol, says, “Motorists who drive recklessly, or are unsafe around these big rigs, are asking for trouble. When a car and a commercial vehicle are involved in a collision, the car will lose.”

Given these statistics, the Patrol has a worked with other law enforcement agencies to create the Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Truck (TACT) project. In an effort to reduce accidents, the Washington State Patrol is trying to increase the public’s awareness of unsafe driving behaviors around commercial vehicles. These dangerous driving behaviors include:

  • cutting off trucks
  • tailgating
  • failure to yield the right of way
  • speeding
  • aggressive driving

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The website latimes.com reported in an article on April 14, 2009 that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has recently published the results of a series of crash tests. The Institute crashed a Honda Fit into a Honda Accord, a Smart ForTwo into a Mercedes C-Class, and a Toyota Yaris into a Toyota Camry each at 40 miles per hour. Test results showed that small cars may be more efficient but your safety is definitely compromised. The vehicles were tested in “offset” crashes in which the cars do not crash head on; instead, the collisions are made to simulate the type of collision that would occur during an auto accident if a car had veered over the center line where the damage can easily break into the passenger compartment. The institute believes that the cars sustained enough damage that their occupants would also have suffered moderate to serious injuries.

Adrian Lund, president of the Arlington, Virginia based institute said, “Though much safer than they were a few years ago, minicars as a group do a comparatively poor job of protecting people in crashes, simply because they’re smaller and lighter. In collisions with bigger vehicles, the forces acting on the smaller ones are higher, and there’s less distance from the front of a small car to the occupant compartment to ‘ride down’ the impact. These and other factors increase injury likelihood.”

Dave Schembri, president of Smart’s U.S. operations said the tests were an example of “rare and extreme” accidents. The Smart ForTwo meets or exceeds all U.S. government crash-test standards. The other manufactures released similar statements.

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The website philly.com reported in a storyon April 29, 2009 that Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation has plans to order a full departmental review of motor coach safety. This action comes a day after five people were killed when a tour bus carrying French tourists crashed in Soledad, California a small town located in Monterey County. The wrongful death accident prompted the California Highway Patrol to close highway 101 in both directions.

Spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Rae Tyson, stated that the review was issued after an April 21 hearing into a crash in Utah that killed nine people in January 2008.

In 1999 the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that the highway administration develop bus construction standards to reduce injuries during collisions and rollover accidents.

Tyson stated he expected the agency to present new bus safety policies by the end of the year.
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Seattle’s KOMO TV News Station reports in an article that a driver who was texting while driving over 60 miles per hour crashed into the back end of a Boise patrol car on Interstate 84 in Meridian, Idaho.

At Bernard Law Group, we handle personal injury lawsuits that are the results of auto accidents in Washington State every day. Call our attorneys at 1-800-418-8282. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Though the patrol car was empty at the time of impact, the driver suffered injuries and was taken to a hospital in Meridian for treatment. The 37 year old driver had been drinking, but his blood alcohol was under the legal limit.

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Valley Regional Fire Authority reported that two people were critically injured when a vehicle struck a power pole and landed in a ditch in this Algona car accident.

At Bernard Law Group, we handle personal injury lawsuits that are the results of auto accidents in Washington State every day. Call our attorneys at 1-800-418-8282. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Firefighters were dispatched to the scene at Algona Boulevard and Boundary Boulevard.

When crews arrived, they found the car in a ditch. Both people inside the car were trapped and had to be cut out. One was unconscious, the Authority reported.
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The washingtontimes.com website reported on February 16, 2009 in an article released by the Insurance Research Council that estimates that by next year, one out of six drivers may be driving without insurance. This would mean bad news for an uninsured driver or those involved in a car accident in Washington with an uninsured driver. As the nation’s economy worsens and more people are laid off, families are being forced to cut expenses including their insurance coverage. This translates into more than 3 million drivers behind the wheel without insurance than just five years ago.

David Corum, Vice President of IRC said, “We can’t explain why people drive uninsured. We just know that a certain percentage of people do, and it does change with economic conditions like unemployment.”

According to Corum, the percentage of drivers without insurance goes up ¾ of a percentage point for every 1% percent increase in unemployment nationwide.
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A pedestrian, 44 years old, was seriously injured by a Sound Transit bus Friday night in Everett. He is now recovering at Harborview Hospital from the Everett pedestrian accident.

At Bernard Law Group, we handle personal injury lawsuits that are the results of auto accidents in Washington State every day. Call our attorneys at 1-800-418-8282. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The accident occurred just before 5 p.m. at the intersection of Pacific and Wetmore avenues. It is being investigated by Everett police.

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A Kirkland carjacking, followed by a police chase, ended in a serious Seattle auto accident on Interstate 5 on Saturday. It added to traffic already jammed from construction on the freeway’s southbound lanes.

At Bernard Law Group, we handle personal injury lawsuits that are the results of auto accidents in Washington State every day. Call our attorneys at 1-800-418-8282. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The carjacking happened just after noon in the 13000 block of 116th Way Northeast. The driver of a parked Jaguar XJ6 was threatened by a man with a knife. The man appeared to be in his 20’s. He demanded the Kirkland man’s vehicle, according to police.

Medina police officer saw the stolen Jaguar heading west on Highway 520 and chased it, while Kirkland police were at the scene gathering information. The chase continued across Lake Washington and onto I-5 southbound. It ended when the stolen car collided with two other cars and came to a stop on the freeway at Pine Street.
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Four people, including one child, were taken to a hospital Sunday evening after a three-car crash on Highway 99 north of Seattle.

At Bernard Law Group, we handle personal injury lawsuits that are the results of auto accidents in Washington State every day. Call our attorneys at 1-800-418-8282. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Edmonds Fire Battalion Chief Don White said that medics responded to the 21700 block of Highway 99 about 6:30 p.m. They then drove a 9-year-old boy and two adults to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Another woman was taken to Stevens Memorial Hospital. White said that their injuries were not considered to be life-threatening.

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