Articles Tagged with Boston car accident attorney

While just a few years ago, self-driving cars seemed more like science fiction than reality, it now appears they will be regular fixtures on the road sooner rather than later. While Google is still devolving its system that uses advanced radar, GPS, an an array of camera’s, the high end electric car company Tesla has managed to get its models on the road already.

The Tesla version is not a true self-driving car like have seen in movies such as”Demolition Man.” In that movie, a person could get in the car, tell the car where they want to go and let the car do the rest.  This is what Google is working on, and they have taken some fully automated rides around California, but the company is not where it needs to be yet in terms of safety testing and reliability. Continue reading

Boston area car accidents often involve only  vehicles owned by private citizens, but on occasion, they can involve vehicles owned by a municipal  government.  If the driver of the government owned vehicle was responsible for the crash, the legal doctrine known as sovereign immunity comes into play.  In the Commonwealth, that doctrine is codified in Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 258, Section 4, which is the tort claims act.

The tort claims act was designed to protect  state and local governments from liability in lawsuits, and to limit the extent of the damages awards in lawsuits that can be filed. This goes back to the time when there was a king of England and he did not want the crown to be sued.  Eventually this morphed into what we know today as the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Continue reading

It is the responsibility of every motorist to drive in a safe and responsible manner to prevent a foreseeable injury to persons and property.  Failure to do so is considered a form of  negligence. This act of negligence could be the basis for a Boston car accident lawsuit.

While there is a lot of personal responsibility in preventing serious and fatal car accidents, there is also a lot the city can do to prevent car accidents.  This involves making the streets as safe as possible for everyone driving, walking, and riding a bike on the streets of Boston and the surrounding areas.  The city can also make sure signage is helpful and appropriate and drivers are properly educated.

Government agencies that fail to correct poor road design, maintenance or dangerous conditions may also be held liable if it contributes to a crash. These cases, however, can be more complicated than a typical negligence lawsuit because one must first overcome hurdles like sovereign immunity, which is waived under the circumstances outlined in M.G.L. Chapter 258, Section 2.

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While some cases will go to court and require an actual trial before a judge (bench trial) or even a jury, the clear majority of Boston car accidents will settle prior to going to trial.  The reason for this is because, whenever there is a car accident, we are virtually always dealing with an insurance company.

Car insurance companies make a lot of money in what is essentially a gamble.  They are taking money from the insured and betting there will not be an accident, or at least if there is, it will cost less to pay for that accident than the amount they receive in premium payments.  However, the insurance company really can’t lose this bet, because they have more than one insured motorist.    They have so many clients that the risk is spread over a pool of drivers.  This means that, as long as they do not pay out more in claims for all of the their insured than they collect in premiums, they will make money. Continue reading

When an accident involves more than one vehicle, this can greatly complicate matters.  In some cases, it means there was one victim and more than one at-fault defendant.  While this may mean there is more insurance coverage, and the victim can therefore receive a full and appropriate financial recovery, it can also mean that the insurance companies will blame each other’s customers and try to deny liability.

Eventually, the insurance companies will typically work something out that avoids them fighting for indemnification in court, but it sometimes comes to that.  On the other hand, we have accidents with multiple victims and not enough money to go around. This can create a more challenging case, as each insurance policy has a per-claim maximum that the customer has purchased, and this is the most the insurance company will pay. Continue reading

Many jurisdictions have what are known as no-chase policies for police.  As the name implies, this means that police are not allowed to pursue a suspect via the high-speed car chase. The reason for this is because high-speed chases can result in serious personal injury and property damage to any number of innocent bystanders and may not even result in the apprehension of a suspect.

As it turns out, a radio or cell phone signal can travel a lot faster than a car, so it is better to just radio to units ahead who can set up a road block, or that can deploy tire damage strips to disable the fleeing vehicle. The police can also deploy an air unit to tag the suspect’s vehicle using a forward looking infrared radar (FLIR) system, and that will make it very difficult for the car to escape, because it combines the heat signature of the vehicle and the radar signature of the vehicle. Continue reading

One of the more common injuries suffered in a Boston car accident involves damage to the neck or spine.  A neck injury can range from mild discomfort to permanent paralysis or even death.   One thing to keep in mind is that even in a seemingly minor car accident, a neck injury is possible, and this can result in a permanent pain and suffering, including headaches and other types of physical discomfort.

One of the more common types of injury involves damage to the soft tissue.  A soft tissue injury (STI) can occur anywhere in the body, but the neck is a major site for the trauma in a car accident lawsuit. A soft tissue injury can include a strain or contusion to the soft tissue and often results in considerable pain and suffering.  It will often be of necessity to have a neurological examination to rule out any more serious injuries and for victim to undergo physical therapy until the pain subsides. Continue reading

Each year, as millions of Americans celebrate Memorial Day with backyard cookouts and family get-togethers to mark the unofficial start to summer, there is another period we enter known as the “100 Deadliest Days for Teen Driving.”

As discussed in a recent news article from CBS Baltimore, during the roughly 100 days between Memorial Day in May and Labor Day in early September, thousands of traffic fatalities occur each year, and many of these deadly car accidents involve teen drivers.   As we have discussed in previous years, this has been the case for quite some time.  For example, in 2013, more than 371,000 people were injured and around 3,000 people were killed in car accidents during this period alone. Continue reading

According to a recent report by The New York Times, car accidents are still a leading cause of child deaths nationwide. Many of those killed were not wearing seat belts. In children under the age of 15, the top cause of death is from unintentional injuries, and the clear majority of these injuries are caused by car accidents.

Looking at the actual numbers, one study showed that between 2010 and 2015, 2,885 children were killed in car accidents.  That is an incredible number.  This number does not include those who were killed as pedestrians, on motorcycles, bicycles, or those riding in the back of a pickup truck.  Basically, we are only talking about kids who were in a normal passenger vehicle. Continue reading