While commercial tractor-trailer trucks may be an integral part of trade and industry in the United States today, they are also one of the biggest contributing factors to the unsafe nature of America’s highways. According to Channel 14 News, 111,000 commercial tractor-trailers were inspected in Indiana in 2011. Of those vehicles, one in five was deemed unsafe to put back on the highway.

Studies have shown that a staggering 33 percent of collisions between big truck and passenger vehicles were caused by a mechanical failure. One of the most common failures seen on these vehicles is brake malfunctions. Commercial truck inspector for Indiana, Trooper Brenda Tubbs, stated “Brake pads, drums. There are a lot that go with the brakes, not just brakes that are going to put them out of service.”

So how can you avoid being involved in a collision with a tractor-trailer? The best rules to remember include:

• ensuring you can see the truck’s headlights before merging in front of it,
• ensuring you can see both of the truck’s side view mirrors when following,
• passing quickly when needed in the left lane,
• and always allowing tractor-trailers extra space on the road for stopping.

Thousands of lives are affected by Indiana Truck Accidents each year, and the Evansville Personal Injury Lawyers with Woods and Woods Injury Lawyers are here to help you if you’ve been injured in an accident with a commercial vehicle.

The Department of Transportation says that over a twenty-year period, commercial truck accidents have been responsible for roughly 114,000 fatalities.  Hundreds of thousands of other individuals were injured as a result of these crashes as well, and the number continues to grow as the number of commercial trucks on the highways increases.

Take, for instance, two crashes that occurred earlier this week. According to Channel 14 News, the first accident occurred around 2:35 a.m. Tuesday along Pennyrile Parkway. The 54-year-old driver of the truck told police that he swerved to avoid a deer in the road, hit a road sign, and overturned. The driver suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital to receive treatment. Police say that his seatbelt probably saved his life.

The next day, at 8:35 a.m., a 72-year-old truck driver was killed along Route 13 after being involved in a single-vehicle crash. Indiana State Police said the driver left the highway for an unknown reason. The vehicle then crashed through a guardrail before coming to rest on an embankment. The driver wasn’t properly restrained during the accident and was ejected from the vehicle. He was declared dead at the scene a short time later.

An Indiana Truck Accident can affect anyone who shares the highway with these commercial vehicles. That is why the Evansville Personal Injury Lawyers with Woods and Woods Injury Lawyers suggest slowing down and always driving defensively.

It was reported this morning that a second man has died as a result of a Spottsville, Kentucky, crash on Valentine’s Day. According to Channel 14 News, the accident happened on Highway 60 around 5:30 p.m.

Police say that a 58-year-old intoxicated driver was heading west along the highway when he veered off the road. The driver then overcorrected and jerked the vehicle into the oncoming lanes of traffic where it collided with a pickup truck nearly head-on.

The 23-year-old man driving the pickup truck died at the scene. The 56-year-old man who was a passenger in the drunk driver’s vehicle was critically injured and taken to St. Mary’s Hospital, where he died from complications stemming from his injuries just a little more than two-months after the crash.

While the intoxicated driver already faces driving under the influence charges stemming from the incident, the county attorney is working to determine if a murder charge of some kind can be brought against the man since the passenger who was in his vehicle died earlier this week.

The Kentucky DUI Injury Lawyers with Woods and Woods Injury Lawyers say that at current fatality rates, a person will die every 50 minutes from an alcohol-related crash, making up more than one-third of all traffic fatalities per year. Do your part to prevent these accidents by never getting behind the wheel of a car after consuming alcohol.

Research has shown that a disproportionate number of fatal motor vehicle accidents in Indiana happen on rural roads. In an effort to curb these numbers, law enforcement statewide will begin seat belt patrols starting this Friday in rural counties where around 64 percent of these accidents occur, such as Gibson County.

According to Channel 14 News, more than 25 local and state law enforcement agencies will participate in the “Click It or Ticket” campaign, which will run through May 17. During that time, officers will be on the lookout for anyone not buckled up in a moving vehicle as required by state law. If caught, an offender and the person driving could both face tickets and fines.

During a similar ticket blitz that occurred last year, law enforcement issued tickets to approximately 18,000 motorists for not wearing their seat belts.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that every 15 seconds, a person is injured in a car accident and that someone is killed in a motor vehicle crash every 13 minutes. It also says that your chances of survival in a crash can be increased as much as ten times by simply fastening a seatbelt. In fact, seatbelts can potentially save 11,000 lives per year.

That’s why the Indiana Auto Accident Lawyers with Woods and Woods Injury Lawyers would like to remind motorists to always fasten their seat belts before the vehicle goes anywhere.

Last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an official recall on all HeartMate II® Left Ventricular Assist Systems (HM II LVAS) having Catalog No. 104692, 103393, 104911, or 104912. According to a press release from the agency, the recall is due to reports of the sealed graft bend relief not being properly connected to the device.

The FDA added that the defect should only be found in less than 1 percent of all existing devices and that 24 of the 29 incidents reported so far were only found by X-ray or during an unrelated operational procedure. The bend relief is used to prevent kinking of the outflow conduit that connects the HeartMate II pump to the ascending aorta. If the bend disconnects from the outflow graft, a patient may experience one or more of the following symptoms:

• Low pump flow
• Hemolysis
• Fluctuations in pump flow, speed, and/or power
• Worsening symptoms of heart failure

Doctors at the 226 hospitals and offices who have purchased the devices have been given new instructions on how to implant the devices into patients in order to prevent the problem in the future. Any patient currently using the device who has experienced problems has been instructed to seek medical advice from their doctor immediately.

The Kentucky Defective Medical Device Lawyers with Woods and Woods Injury Lawyers want to help if your failed medical device has led to you suffering serious health complications.

Not wearing seatbelts and speed are to blame for an accident that left a 26-year-old Dawson Springs, Kentucky, man dead and his 4-year-old daughter seriously injured. According to Channel 14 News, the crash happened at 11:30 a.m. Thursday on KY-70.

Deputies with the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Department, who conducted an investigation of the crash, stated that the man was driving at a high rate of speed with his daughter in a booster seat when he entered a turn on the road. He failed to negotiate the curb because of his speeding and veered off the roadway just seconds before slamming into a tree. Deputies added that the man was not properly restrained by a seatbelt at the time of the crash and died as a result of his injuries.

The man’s daughter, who survived the crash thanks to her safety seat, was taken to Regional Medical Center in Madisonville for treatment for her injuries. She is expected to make a full recovery.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, speed and a lack of seat belts are the two major contributing factors in fatal accidents in the United States besides alcohol.

The Kentucky Auto Accident Lawyers with Woods and Woods Injury Lawyers would like to remind motorists that the best way to stay safe in a car is to always buckle up and obey the posted speed limit of the road.

A motorcyclist was injured after an accident early Thursday morning in Hopkins County, Kentucky. According to Channel 14 News, the elderly woman who struck the biker never saw the motorcycle.

Kentucky State Police say the accident happened around 6:45 a.m. at the intersection of Hubert Reid Road and Sandcut Road, near Madisonville, Kentucky. They believe that the 84-year-old woman involved, who was driving a Cadillac El Dorado, pulled up to a stop sign at the intersection as she headed north. She never saw the motorcycle, operated by 34-year-old Alabama man, which was heading east on Hubert Reid Road. She pulled into the intersection and struck the motorcycle. The impact caused the rider to be thrown from his bike.

He was taken to Regional Medical Center to be treated for the injuries he sustained in the accident. The rider was wearing a helmet, which minimized any head injuries.

With weather warming up and motorcyclists beginning to pull their bikes out of storage to go on rides, it is vital that motorists stay vigilant of traffic around them in order to avoid an unnecessary and preventable accident.

That is why the Kentucky Motorcycle Accident Lawyers with Woods and Woods Injury Lawyers would like to remind drivers to look twice for motorcyclists. The firm would also like to remind bikers to always turn on your headlights in order to be more visible to traffic around you.

Local teenagers witnessed a disturbing scene in their school’s parking lot earlier this week. Luckily, the scene of a wrecked car surrounded by beer cans and the bodies of fellow students was staged, and everyone walked away having learned a lesson about the importance of using seatbelts and not drinking and driving.

The parents of a teen who tragically died several years ago in a car accident when she was not wearing a seatbelt worked with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and Trinity High School to set up the scenario on Wednesday. According to 14News, students arrived on campus to police and rescue crews surrounding the scene of a drunken driving accident involving other students from the school. Showing the shocking images to the teens was a way to illustrate that their decisions behind the wheel could have life-altering effects.

One parent who also attended said it was “hard to watch,” while a student said she was most impacted by seeing her friend being placed in a body bag.

The scenario will be set up at several other areas in Owensboro throughout the week, including other local high schools. Law enforcement in the area say they will also be conducting random seat belt checks.

The Kentucky Auto Accident Attorneys with Woods and Woods Injury Lawyers hope that these educational programs will help persuade motorists in the area to always buckle up and to not get behind the wheel after drinking.

A two-vehicle accident in Newburgh, Indiana, is responsible for sending three people to the hospital. According to reports from WFIE 14 News, the collision occurred just before 1:00 a.m. Thursday on Sharon Road, near Rose Drive.

Deputies with the Warrick County Sheriff’s Department stated that alcohol may have been a factor in why a 52-year-old man sideswiped the vehicle of a 32-year-old woman. Deputies say the two vehicles were passing one another when the collision happened.

Both the female victim and her teenage child, who was a passenger in her vehicle, were injured and taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center to receive treatment. The allegedly intoxicated driver was also taken to St. Mary’s to be treated for internal injuries stemming from the accident.

Deputies say that charges against the drunken driver are pending the outcome of a full investigation into the crash. He could face charges of reckless driving or vehicular assault, as well as charges for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Statistics from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that one-third of all fatal accidents in the state of Indiana in 2009 were associated with alcohol.

With St. Patrick’s Day this coming Saturday, the Indiana DUI Accident Attorneys with Woods and Woods Injury Lawyers are asking that we all contribute to keeping the state’s highways safe over the holiday by refraining from getting behind the wheel if you have been drinking.

An Owensboro, Kentucky, girl was severely injured during a celebration after her high school basketball team won a game in dramatic fashion. According to reports from Channel 14 News, the accident happened Monday night in the Apollo High School gymnasium.

The Apollo and Muhlenberg County teams were tied with under a second left to play when the home team scored and clinched the victory. Fans immediately began to rush onto the court in celebration. The victim lost her footing, fell into the crowd, and was trampled by other fans. The girl’s father was watching from the stands and saw her lying on the floor and rushed to her side. He was able to use his training as an emergency responder to help her after she told him she couldn’t feel her legs.

She was rushed to the local hospital where she remained for several days. By Tuesday morning, she had regained some feeling in her legs and was able to walk, but was later taken to Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky after doctors determined she might have a spinal injury.

Those who witnessed the incident said that the fans rushing the floor could have been prevented if more security staff had been present.

The Owensboro Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers with Woods and Woods Injury Lawyers wish the young lady who was hurt in this horrible accident a full and speedy recovery from her injuries.