Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog

The time between Memorial Day and Labor Day is known as the “100 Deadliest Days” for teen drivers, as we typically see an large increase in the number of serious and fatal car accidents involving teen drivers during this period. With this year’s 100 Deadliest Days for teen drivers now underway, it is important to look at the cause of many of these preventable car accidents and what can be done to keep our teens safer on the roads this summer.

According to a recent news feature from Wicked Local Scituate, more than 66 percent of all people injured or killed during these 100 days are not the teen drivers behind wheel. It should be noted, we are talking about large numbers of car accident victims during this period. For example, in 2013, over 371,000 people were injured and nearly 3,000 were killed in car accidents involving a teen driver.

The CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, said with more teens on the road during the summer season than other time of year, this is a good time to remind people who are driving, walking, or riding bicycles to take additional care and safety precautions when they see teen drivers nearby.
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A rollover accident is one of the scariest and most jarring experiences an occupant of a vehicle can have. It can also be one of the deadliest.

According to a recent news article from the Hamden Patch, a driver and passenger were killed in a rollover car crash on the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Authorities say the single vehicle accident occurred on an early Sunday morning. When officers arrive at the accident, they found a van, which had lost control, rolled over, and ended up in the median.

They found driver, a 43-year-old roadie for a Massachusetts-based band, had already died from injuries prior to their arrival. The passenger, the band’s drummer, was also seriously injured in the crash. First responders provided immediate medical attention before transferring him to a local level-one trauma hospital. His injures were considered life-threatening at time of his arrival, and he eventually succumbed to his injuries and died.
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One of the primary causes of car crashes is driver error, or in the terminology of a car accident lawsuit, defendant’s negligence. While we often the use the term accident, many accidents are truly not accidents, but someone’s fault.

However, some accidents are not due to a driver’s fault but are, instead, due to a manufacturing defect in a car, truck, or motorcycle, and some car accidents are the result of negligently performed repairs or routine maintenance at a dealership or private service station. When there is a suspected manufacturing defect, car makers will often send service bulletins to dealerships to be on the lookout for a particular issue. If the defect affects a safety system or other system that is likely to result in a car accident, the manufacturer is required to initiate a recall of all potentially affected vehicles. Some of these recalls are voluntary and others are non-voluntary, as they are ordered by a state or federal agency.

According to a recent news release from Consumer Reports, Ford has now issued a recall on nearly 600,000 vehicles. The largest of these recalls involves the 2013 to 2015 Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ sedans as well as the Ford Edge SUV. These vehicles were built with a defective motor attachment for the steering gear. The bolts used on this attachment are susceptible to corrosion, and, once corroded, they have been shown to fracture. After the bolts fracture, the power steering mechanism could fail, and the driver would have to manually control a vehicle without assistance from hydraulics, as was common on cars built before the 1960s. For those who have never driven a manual steering vehicle, it may be difficult for them to physically turn the wheel in time to avoid a serious car accident. At slower speeds such as driving in traffic, it might be practically impossible to turn a modern car through an intersection, thus putting it at risk of being hit by other car.
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According to a recent news article from WCVB Boston, a wrong-way three-car collision occurred on Interstate 93 just north of Boston. Massachusetts State Police troopers believe an 80-year-old man from Lynnfield, Massachusetts was driving a 2013 Acura in the wrong direction on the highway when he crashed into a 2006 Jaguar and older Chrysler.

After the collision, the Chrysler apparently caught on fire before first responders arrived on the accident scene. Firefighters were able to suppress the car fire, and EMTs provided immediate medical attention for the two victims before transporting them to a local hospital for further treatment. Fortunately, it is believed they were not seriously injured as a result of this three-car accident. The 80-year-old driver who was allegedly traveling in the wrong direction to cause the Boston area car crash was not injured in the accident, and police have not issued any traffic citations in connection with this incident, though they are continuing to investigate.
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According to a recent news report from the Boston Globe, a 34-year-old man from Western Massachusetts was killed in a single-vehicle car accident. Authorities say he was driving a 2000 Nissan Maxima when he lost control. His vehicle hit a large wood utility pole and then ran into a tree on the right side of the roadway. This accident occurred around 11:45 p.m. near Route 20 in Brimfield.

Authorities do not know why the vehicle lost control and are continuing to investigate the cause of the fatal car accident.

Cases involving only a single vehicle may require far more investigation than police are often willing to perform. This is not to blame police, as they have many important duties to perform and may lack resources and personnel to fully investigate every car accident. In situations such as these, since there is no other victim claiming negligence, or accusing someone of drunk driving, officers may simply conclude an investigation when cause is unknown, or in worst cases, assume it was driver error.
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According to a recent news report from The Boston Herald, two victims were killed in a fiery car crash on Interstate 195 in Swansea, about 50 miles south of Boston.

Authorities say they responded to a motor vehicle accident report around 11 p.m. When they arrived on the scene, they found a single vehicle completely engulfed in flames. They believe the vehicle hit a tree and burst into flames after running off the roadway.

Firefighters were able to suppress the fire and get three occupants out of the vehicle. The two victims who were killed in this tragic single-car accident were a 22-year-old female and a 19-year-old male victim. There was a third victim in the car, a 20-year-old male from Taunton, Massachusetts, who survived the accident, but suffered serious personal injuries as result of the crash. First responders transported him to a local hospital for immediate medical attention after stabilizing him on the scene. Authorities are still investigating the cause of this double fatal Massachusetts car accident.

As our Boston car accident lawyers can explain, single vehicle accidents happen all the time, and that does not mean victims cannot be compensated for their injuries. However, these cases sometimes involve a somewhat different procedure than accidents involving an at-fault driver who was driving a different vehicle.
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Most car accidents do not make national news unless there are particular outrageous facts or serious injuries. However one recent Washington state truck accident made big news when it crashed, resulting in millions of honeybees being released onto the highway.

Authorities say the truck was transporting millions of bees to a blueberry farm when it overturned. The crash resulted in bees being thrown from the wreck on the roadway and surround area. It is suspected the truck blew a tire when entering on an on-ramp causing it to roll over. Authorities also say there is a possibility driver was speeding at time of rollover accident, and he may have been falling asleep.

When firefighters arrived at the scene of this truck crash, they found most of the 458 hives carrying up to 30,000 bees each had spilled onto the highway, amounting to around 12 million bees. Firefighters sprayed the hives with fire retardant chemicals, which killed many of the bees. Authorities also found bee keepers to come to the scene, where they worked for hours while wearing protective clothing to contain the rest of bees that had escaped from the truck. Witnesses say there were mounds of dead honeybees everywhere. Bees swarmed onto other trucks on the road, including many belonging to beekeepers and rescue workers. The bees, which did not die from firefighter’s chemicals, were placed in boxes and taken by flatbed truck to the blueberry farm where they were originally headed. It is not believed anyone was injured in this unusual truck accident.
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