Worcester, Massachusetts Personal Injury Blog

There is no question that drunk driving has led to the injuries and deaths of thousands of innocent victims - so, too, has texting and other distracted driving practices. Unfortunately, sometimes both alcohol and texting jointly lead to severe accidents. This dangerous combination was illustrated recently when Massachusetts law enforcement responded to an accident allegedly caused by a texting drunk driver. Apparently with senses and reflexes dulled, the distraction of texting drew the driver's last bits of attention away from the road leaving an innocent woman injured.

On Monday, March 12, 2012, police arrived on scene and discovered a red Subaru Legacy with a damaged driver's side. Additionally, white paint had been smeared along the side and the side mirror had been torn off. The female driver was injured from being hit by the side mirror that flew through her open window.

Witnesses reported seeing a small white car drifting in and out of its lane. Upon closer inspection, the driver's head was down. Witnesses saw the white car hit the red Subaru and then leave the accident scene. Police put out a call with a description of the car, and about 30 minutes later, a car matching the description was found. It even had body damage, a flat front tire, a missing mirror and transferred red paint. But no driver was present.

A new study indicates that headphones are posing a serious danger to pedestrians and drivers. In the past six years, serious injuries caused by pedestrian accidents have more than tripled due to blaring music in pedestrians' headphones, according to the new study.

The population impacted at the highest level is young men - they are listening to their music so loud that they cannot hear trains or cars honking, leading to deadly results. In three quarters of the cases, pedestrians have died from their injuries.

The study looked at 116 accidents involving trains or cars striking pedestrians that occurred from 2004 to 2011. Many of the vehicles honked their horns before the accident, but the pedestrians could not hear it. In 70 percent of the crashes, the pedestrian's injuries were fatal.

This problem is significantly affecting young people. Two thirds of the pedestrians injured were men under 30-years-old. The other one third consisted of teens under 18 years of age. Parents may have to step in and alert their teens of the dangers of using headphones and ear buds while walking in high traffic areas.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed cutting the hours a truck driver can spend behind the wheel. Currently, the law allows 11 hours of driving per day, but the proposal aims to cut it back to 10 while requiring more breaks.

The Hours of Service regulations were initially introduced with the goal to reduce truck-crash injuries and deaths while maintaining transportation efficiency. As the rules stand, there are companies and drivers who observe the rules and there are those who do not. Those who do not do what it takes to maximize driving time and increase income; often, this requires drivers to skip sleep and rest breaks and later falsify their logbooks to hide the violations.

Though ignoring Hours of Service regulations may financially benefit the driver and/or the carrier company, studies have shown that fatigued drivers are more prone to make poor decisions and careless mistakes.

Last month, Andres Guzman, Joel Rodriguez, and Jesus Molina were riding in their Acura down Chandler Street, in Worchester Massachusetts. Suddenly another car barreled down the road and crashed into the car carrying the three teens. Guzman and Rodriguez were killed, while Molina was rushed to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, in critical condition.

Mystery surrounded the accident until the Worcester Police Traffic Accident Reconstruction Team located the driver of the other car - who had left the scene of the accident after speaking with paramedics. According to police, the driver had been transferred to Memorial Medical after alleging he had been injured in a bar fight. Authorities arraigned the driver while he was still in the hospital. The driver, who reportedly drove between 80 to 100 miles per hour, stands charged with a number of charges including, two counts of motor vehicle homicide by negligent operation, leaving the scene of an accident causing personal injury, speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Preliminary investigations of the accident indicated that the driver has a history of driving infractions dating back to 2005. In the first nine months of 2009, he received four speeding tickets. At the time of the fatal November 2011 accident, his driver's license had been suspended; however, he did not have any prior criminal convictions.