Silver Spring Maryland Personal Injury Law Blog

Combining football and alcohol can result in a good time. Combining alcohol and driving seldom results in a good time. Such a combination resulted in a tragic end after a Washington Redskins football game. The person accused in the case recently entered a guilty plea in Maryland. Tragic motor vehicle accidents frequently result when alcohol and driving are combined.

The man who pleaded guilty in this case had just left a party where he admitted to having consumed 10 beers. He got into his truck and was driving at what may have been a high rate of speed when he crashed into another vehicle that was stopped at a stop light. The force of the impact caused the truck to become airborne and land on top of the stopped car, causing that car to rear-end two vehicles in front of it.

People decide to join the ranks of first responders, such as the police or firefighters, with the understanding that rigorous physical training will be part of their preparations for becoming a first responder. The job of a police officer or a firefighter demands physical strength and the ability to defend and take care of oneself in multiple situations. In the case of a Maryland police academy training course, recruits suffered serious head injuries that resulted in a personal injury lawsuit being brought against the school.

The lawsuit was brought by two former students, a male and a female. The woman suffered a serious head injury as a result of a training exercise that the instructor told her she failed. The recruit was repeatedly struck in the head during five different fight scenarios. The instructor told her she would have to wait to retake the exercise because of the repeated head blows that she incurred but did not offer or recommend medical care. The woman reportedly suffered a severe brain injury as a result of the repeated blows.

Growing up is full of rites of passage, and one of the most eagerly anticipated of these is getting one's driver's license. Teens in Maryland eagerly look forward to the freedom enabled by having a driver's license. What teens must remember is that a license is a privilege, not a right, and as with so many other privileges, there are responsibilities. One of the greatest of these responsibilities is to not be a distracted driver. Distracted driving can lead to motor vehicle accidents.

In today's world, the presence of electronic devices and social media can serve as a constant distraction to young drivers. Such a distraction may have contributed to a recent fatal crash. The accident happened around rush hour on a recent Friday afternoon. A woman was driving north on US 113 when she was struck by a southbound vehicle. The car heading south was driven by an 18-year-old man.

Pedestrian safety requires the buy-in of both drivers and pedestrians. If one group isn’t respecting Virginia’s pedestrian laws, then someone is in danger. Most likely the threatened group is the pedestrian because they don’t have tons of protective steel surrounding them.

A troubling trend has emerged over the last few years. From 2015 to 2018, pedestrian fatalities have risen from approximately 75 per year up to 150. The Virginia Department of Transportation says increasing crosswalk and signage visibility are two things the government seeks to improve in effort of bucking this trend. The possibility of improved traffic controls to give drivers more notice of potential pedestrians.