Fatal Accidents

June 25, 2024

Steps to Take if Injured by a Drunk Driver in Massachusetts

Being injured in a car accident is an inherently traumatic experience, but it becomes even more devastating when the accident is caused by a drunk driver. Unfortunately, drunk driving accidents are far too common in Massachusetts, and victims often face a long road to recovery.

According to mass.gov, drunk driving accounted for more than one-third of all motor vehicle deaths in MA in 2021. This is notably higher than the national average. If you or a loved one has been injured by a drunk driver, it’s essential to know how to protect your rights and seek compensation for your injuries. Below, we discuss some of the most important steps to take if you’ve been injured by a drunk driver.

Seek Medical Attention

May 16, 2023

Deadly Pedestrian Crashes in Massachusetts Up 35% in 2022

by Altman & Altman

Fatal pedestrian accidents in Massachusetts spiked sharply in 2022, up 35% over the year before. According to a report from the statewide pedestrian advocacy group WalkBoston, 101 pedestrians died in traffic crashes in 2022 compared to 75 in 2021.

The rise in Massachusetts pedestrian fatalities seems to have outpaced last year’s nationwide increase. After reaching a 40-year-high in 2021, pedestrian deaths in the U.S. went up by 5% in the first half of 2022. The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) reported that drivers in the U.S. hit and killed an estimated 3,434 people in the first half of the year, an average of 19 pedestrian deaths every day.

New Report on MA Pedestrian Fatalities

July 20, 2022

Recent Study Show Motorcycle Fatalities at 25 Year High – Drivers Need To Have Better Awareness On The Road

by Altman & Altman

According to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), 2021 marked the deadliest year on Massachusetts roads in over a decade. And the data on motorcycle riders was even more shocking: motorcyclist deaths in the state reached a 25-year high. In fact, the MA Highway Safety Division noted motorcycle fatalities as one of the main reasons for 2021’s high overall numbers — along with excessive speed and lack of seatbelt use.

Is Riding a Motorcycle Really Dangerous?

Although many people find the excitement and freedom of riding a motorcycle attractive, motorcycles do have downsides. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), motorcyclists are overrepresented in fatal traffic crashes. Below are a few statistics about motorcycle accidents from NHTSA and the National Safety Council:

February 1, 2022

Takata Airbag Recall – Defective Airbag Lawsuit Lawyer

by Altman & Altman

Airbags installed in vehicles are supposed to prevent injuries, not cause them. But that’s just what airbags produced by Japanese company Takata are accused of doing.

Defective Takata airbags can explode violently in a crash, causing serious injuries in otherwise minor collisions. As of 2021, at least 19 people in the U.S. had died and more than 400 had been injured by faulty Takata airbags.

And the dangers are far-reaching: defective Takata airbags may have been installed in as many as 100 million vehicles worldwide.

Takata Airbag Recall

As early as 2004, reports surfaced in the U.S. of Takata airbags exploding. The potentially fatal flaw is caused by the airbag’s propellant, which can degrade and cause the inflator to rupture explosively. As accounts of injuries and deaths came in over the next few years, automakers started recalling cars equipped with potentially faulty Takata airbags.

By 2014, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finally ordered Takata to institute a nationwide airbag recall. The recall eventually extended to over 67 million airbags involving 19 different car manufacturers. The NHTSA called these the “largest and most complex vehicle recalls in U.S. history.”

And the bad news didn’t end there. Despite the massive recall, millions of cars with defective Takata airbags are still on the road today. A faulty Takata airbag was implicated in the death of a U.S. driver in 2021, many years after the recall.

Takata Airbag Lawsuits

Hundreds of people have filed lawsuits against Takata, claiming that they were injured by the defective airbags. The lawsuits allege that Takata airbags rupture dangerously when deployed, sometimes shooting metal shards into passengers, causing severe bodily harm.

Takata airbag injuries may include the following:

Brain damage or concussion
Serious cuts on the face, neck, throat, torso, or arms
Fractures to the head, neck, face, ribs, or chest
Excessive black eyes or other bruising
Severe burns
Metal shrapnel injuries
Permanent scarring or other disfigurement
Hearing, vision, or vocal damage or loss
Complications from blood loss
Injury to the fetus in pregnant women
Death

With so many Takata airbag claims being filed around the country, many of these suits were consolidated into mass litigation. These lawsuits allege that the manufacturer knew about the potential dangers for over a decade before finally issuing the recall in the U.S.

Several multi-million-dollar settlements involving Takata and auto manufacturers have been reached or proposed. In 2017, the manufacturer admitted misconduct and agreed to pay a $1 billion fine, in part to compensate victims. Continue reading

April 25, 2018

Lane Departure Warning Systems May Save Thousands of Lives a Year

by Altman & Altman

If you have a newer model car or truck, it is likely that your vehicle is equipped with a lane departure warning system. A recent study conducted by the insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) concluded that this technology significantly reduces the rate of serious injuries and deaths in a motor vehicle accident. Auto manufacturers introduce new vehicle safety features every year, but not all are as effective as planned. This is not the case, however, with lane departure warning systems.

According to the IIHS, “if all U.S. passenger vehicles were equipped in 2015 with a lane departure warning system, nearly 85,000 crashes and more than 55,000 injuries would have been prevented that year.“ A Boston motor vehicle accident attorney can help you determine how to proceed if you’ve been injured due to another’s negligence.

Why are Lane Departure Warning Systems So Effective?

According to the vice president for research for IIHS, Jessica Cicchino, a significant percentage of fatal highway accidents involve a car or truck that drifts from its lane. Distracted driving, drowsy driving, and operating under the influence of drugs or alcohol are often factors in lane drift accidents. Although the best advice would be to never drive drowsy, distracted, or impaired, it is impractical to believe that every driver will heed that advice. As such, The use of lane departure warning systems may be the next best solution.

The IIHS study, which was recently published in Consumer Reports, claims that lane departure warning technology could prevent thousands of deaths annually in the United States, and even more injuries. The institute also reported that injuries suffered in single vehicle accidents, head on collisions, and side swipes may be reduced by up to 21 percent with the use of a lane departure warning system. A Massachusetts personal injury lawyer can help you recover damages if you’ve been injured in a motor vehicle accident.

Motor Vehicle Accident Statistics

Auto accidents are one of the leading causes of accidental death in the United States. You can dramatically reduce your risk of serious injury or death in a vehicle crash by always wearing your seatbelt, never driving while impaired, always driving the appropriate speed limit, and never talking or texting when behind the wheel. The statistics below provide additional information about the frequency and severity of motor vehicle crashes.

In 2016, there were a total of 34,439 fatal motor vehicle crashes in the U.S., in which 37,461 people died.
Across the nation, about 55 percent of motor vehicle crash fatalities involved single-vehicle crashes.
Alcohol was involved in about 61 percent of all fatal car crashes in 2016.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), distracted driving claimed 3,450 lives in 2016.
It is estimated that about 481,000 drivers are talking on cell phones or texting during daylight hours, every day.
In a NHTSA study, approximately one in 25 adults reported falling asleep behind the wheel at least once in the previous month.

February 6, 2018

Highway Guardrail Manufacturer Facing Lawsuits After 11 Deaths

by Altman & Altman

Lindsay Corporation, manufacturer of the X-LITE highway guardrail, is facing lawsuits for negligence after 11 deaths have been attributed to its product. Last week, two lawsuits were filed in Tennessee and South Carolina, both alleging that the company’s guardrails fail to protect motorists involved in collisions due to their defective design.

According to the lawsuits, the “end terminal” of the X-LITE guardrail, which rounds out the sharp edges at either end of the guardrail, is the defective component. During a collision, this end component allegedly fails to “telescope,” or slide properly into the rail line. By reducing the force of impact in a collision, the process of telescoping can prevent the guardrail beams from penetrating a vehicle and seriously injuring or killing its occupants. Unfortunately, the X-LITE’s end terminal hasn’t telescoped properly during multiple collisions. And several people have died as a result.

Last April, Tennessee vowed to replace about 1,700 X-LITE end rails. But such a large undertaking doesn’t come cheap. Removing and replacing these end rails is projected to cost the state of Tennessee several million dollars. And although the defective end rails are installed across 29 states, about 80 percent are installed in Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. A MA defective products attorney can help you recover damages if you’ve been injured by a faulty or dangerous product.

Types of Defects Under Product Liability Law

Thousands of people are injured or killed by defective products every year. Many decide to seek compensation for their injuries by bringing a defective product lawsuit against the manufacturer under product liability law. A product may be considered defective if it malfunctions during proper use. The three types of defects under product liability law are:

Design Defect – These flaws occur before the product is even manufactured. For example, a company designing a playground system could accidentally design a slide to be too short. Let’s say the manufacturer (a separate company) develops the playground equipment based on the faulty design. Children keep getting injured when they fall from the slide. In such a case, the design firm alone may be liable. But the manufacturer may also be on the hook; if they specialize in playground equipment, a judge might determine that the manufacturer should have noticed the short slide.
Manufacturing Defect – These flaws occur occur during the manufacturing process. The design is good, but the product becomes flawed during development. For example, if the slide in the above example is designed properly but a broken mold causes the bottom edge to be sharp, this would be a manufacturing defect.
Marketing Defects – When a product is properly designed and manufactured, injuries can still occur because of marketing defects. These flaws occur in the advertising process or due to faulty or misleading labeling. If a certain medication interacts with another medication but lacks a warning label with this information, injuries could occur. This would be an example of a marketing defect.

A Boston defective products lawyer can help you determine how to proceed if you’ve been injured due to defective design, manufacturing, marketing, or all three. Continue reading

March 22, 2017

How to Stay Safe if Your Car Breaks Down on the Highway

by Altman & Altman

A 45-year old Dennisport woman was struck and killed earlier this week when she stopped to check on a flat tire. The woman was traveling westbound on Route 6 when she pulled onto the shoulder of the Cape Cod highway. According to police, this area of the highway does not have a breakdown lane. As the woman exited her vehicle, she was struck by a pickup truck driven by a 22-year old Dennis man. The victim, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

Safety Tips for Roadside Breakdowns

This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers of roadside breakdowns, especially when they occur at night, and on highways or other busy stretches of road. Obviously, if a tire blows or your vehicle breaks down, you have little choice about when and where to pull over. If the area isn’t safe, what do you do? According to the National Safety Council, the tips below can help prevent serious injury and death in the event of a roadside breakdown.

The moment you notice a problem, gently remove your foot from the gas pedal. Avoid braking hard or fast. Slowly and carefully move your vehicle to the breakdown lane (if available) or to the side of the road. If you are on a highway and believe you can make it to an exit, try to reach the nearest exit before pulling off the road. Don’t forget to signal your turns to the drivers behind you.

Once you have pulled off the road, it’s important to make your car highly visible to other drivers. Preemptively stashing reflective triangles in your trunk is a good idea. If you have these, place them behind your vehicle. Turn on your car’s emergency flashers, and turn on the interior light if it’s dark outside.

If you must change a flat tire, make sure that you can do it away from traffic. If this is possible, proceed with changing the tire. If it is not, however, call for professional help. Even if the added delay will create schedule conflicts or other problems, don’t attempt to change a tire yourself in a dangerous location. A MA injury lawyer can help you obtain compensation if you’ve been injured in a motor vehicle accident.

If the car is beyond repair or you are stopped on a dangerous stretch of roadway, get professional help. Do not attempt to wave down other motorists. If you have a cellphone, call for help. If you don’t, raise your hood and tie something – preferably white – to the antennae to signal that you need help. Stand far away from the vehicle and wait for help.

If your car is beyond repair and stopped in a safe location, you can remain in the vehicle. Keep your doors locked and use your cell phone to call for help. If someone stops to offer help, crack the window slightly and politely ask the person to contact the police. A Boston car accident lawyer can help you determine how to proceed if you’ve been injured in a motor vehicle accident.

Interstate highways and busy roadways are patrolled frequently by police and other emergency personnel. Many highways also have “call for help” phones; if you can reach one safely, use it. However, walking along a stretch of highway is rarely a good idea. Unless you are sure that you can safely reach a call box or other source of help, do not walk. If you do walk, use the right side of the roadway and never attempt to cross a multi-lane highway.

January 18, 2017

Moral questions plague driverless car transition

by Altman & Altman

The hypothetical scenario is frightening. You’re enjoying a relaxing ride in your automated car. Windows down, soft rock on the radio, chowing on a cheeseburger without a care in the world. Your smart car has safely navigated you to and from work a thousand times, and you trust it implicitly.

But one day, something in the car’s CPU goes haywire, and it doesn’t recognize a detoured area until it’s far too late. The car suddenly computes that it will have to sharply turn left or right since braking hard would cause a rear-end accident. The only problem is that to the left is a crowd of tourists taking pictures of a statue, and to the right is a single mother carrying her child.

What does the car do? How can a car choose between endangering the lives of people behind you, or choosing to veer into the path of pedestrians? When there is no avoiding a potentially-deadly accident, what implications does that have for an automated vehicles?

July 12, 2016

Tesla Driver Dies In Accident While Using Autopilot – Self Driving Cars Suffer Setback

by Altman & Altman

In the past few years, various automakers and technology firms have been competing to develop a safe autonomous vehicle. Among the companies involved are many well-known automakers, namely Mercedes, BMW, and Tesla, as well as tech firms like Google. The concept grew from the logic that computers should be able to more safely operate vehicles than humans who commit errors or unsafe driving behaviors frequently. This premise may be under scrutiny after a deadly automobile accident involving a self-driving car. The accident occurred on May 7 in Williston, Florida and involved a Tesla Model S electric sedan. The driver of the Tesla sedan was killed while the car was in self-driving mode. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration made a statement about the incident saying a tractor-trailer made a left turn in front of the vehicle, and the car failed to apply the brakes. This is the first known incidence of a fatal crash in which the vehicle was driving itself by means of computer software. The driver was identified by Florida Highway Patrol as Joshua Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio. Brown was a Navy veteran who owned a technology consulting firm. Tesla made a statement on Thursday saying Brown was a man who “spent his life focused on innovation and the promise of technology and who believed strongly Tesla’s mission.” Brown had previously posted several videos of himself using the autonomous Tesla vehicle. In one, he applauded the technology for successfully preventing an accident involving his car.

The release of this story has been detrimental to Tesla’s efforts in expanding its product line from pricey electric vehicles to more conventional models. It is still unclear whether the car the driver, or both were to blame for the lethal accident. In a news release, the company said, “Neither autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor-trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied.” Many critics of self-driving cars have noted that this is evidence that computers cannot make “split-second, life-or-death decisions” as humans often need to. Companies have been conducting tests using self-driving vehicles in private courses as well as public roads. However, it does not seem that the technology has been tested and developed enough for the government to sign off on the autonomous cars. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recently been working on new regulations concerning testing these self-driving cars on public roads which are anticipated to be released sometime this month. Continue reading

February 12, 2016

Dislodged Manhole Cover Strikes Car, Kills Driver in Boston’s O’Neill Tunnel

by Altman & Altman

A tragic accident on Friday morning has resulted in the death of a woman, and a massive, city-wide inspection of all manhole covers on Boston highways. According to police, the woman’s car was struck by a manhole cover as she was exiting the O’Neill Tunnel, southbound on 1-93. The initial investigation into the incident reveals that the dislodged manhole cover became airborne and struck the windshield of the victim’s vehicle. Contact a Boston Injury Lawyer Today.

The female driver, whose name is being withheld until her family can be notified, was killed on impact. The cause of the incident, which occurred at approximately 7:50 am, is still under investigation. According to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), a typical manhole cover weight 200 pounds or more. “Our sympathy goes out to the family of the victim involved in this horrific incident this morning,” said MassDOT administrator Thomas Tinlin. “This tragedy is leading us to take several steps immediately out of an abundance of caution.”

Manhole Cover Hadn’t Been Inspected Since 2014

Determining what caused the manhole cover to become dislodged is the first step in the investigation. In response to this tragedy, MassDOT crews and state police are conducting an inspection of each and every manhole cover, electrical panel cover, and grate on highways in and around Boston. The manhole cover that struck the victim’s car had been covering a storm drainage system. The metal object smashed through the car’s front windshield, covered the entire length of the vehicle, and exited through the rear windshield. The car continued to careen down the highway for nearly half a mile before hitting a wall near East Berkeley street.

Reporting on a similar incident in New York last year, a Con Edison spokesman told CBS news that manhole explosions can be caused by damaged underground electrical wires that spark, igniting gases. According to MassDOT records, the manhole in today’s incident hadn’t been inspected since June 12, 2014. Continue reading