Highway work zone crashes kill hundreds nationwide, including many innocent Texans. Now the Texas Department of Transportation is hosting a 20-foot traveling wall memorializing such work zone deaths. Those tragedies occurred largely because drivers were too distracted or in too big of a hurry to heed the orange cones and barricades alerting them to work zones and urging their caution.

“People just need to learn to slow down and pay more attention to what’s going on on the road,” Central Texas DOT spokesman Ken Roberts told the Waco Tribune Herald. “There’s speeding and people doing things like talking on the phone, texting, eating.”

Tell us about it. As many as 6,000 American motorists yearly are now slaughtered by distracted drivers, often for no more reason than someone acting as if a call or text about lunch was an urgent matter while driving at high speed in heavy traffic.

Now you can add more than 800 persons nationwide who die in highway construction zones or other work zones, and another 40,000 who are injured — many of them seriously. These include transportation workers, law enforcement personnel and highway road crew members who are just trying to do their job. After all, if highways weren’t improved via work zones, you’d have no place to drive.

Also killed are many of the motorists who cause such crashes. But those laboring in work zones are especially vulnerable, as are pedestrians walking near a road or people who pull onto a shoulder to change a tire or make repairs. Just because you’re off the road — or behind work zone barricades — doesn’t mean a negligent driver barreling at 90 miles per hour can’t kill you anyway.

Often the culprit is a large truck, which can’t slow down as quickly as can a car. Out of 1,074 work zone fatalities nationwide in a recent year, 235 — or more than one in five — involved a large truck. Beyond that, the biggest cause of work zone accident deaths is speeding and inattention.

Roberts says Texas may have as many as 1,000 work zones set up across the state at a given time. Work zones will be especially prevalent in coming years due to many road projects planned along Interstate 35.

Texas DOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz hopes the traveling memorial will help raise public awareness of the dangers around work zones and prompt more drivers to heed signs and speed limits around them. Besides Waco, the memorial is making stops in Beaumont, Amarillo, El Paso and Laredo.

Jim S. Adler & Associates urges all Texas motorists to drive with special caution in and around highway construction or road work zones. Respect the job that workers must do and curb your  impatience when encountering their labors.

You wouldn’t want cars careening around you while sitting at your office, would you? Well, highway work zones are some workers’ “office.” Respect that.

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This week’s horrifying Mexico-bound tour bus accident killing two and injuring dozens south of San Antonio is still more tragic evidence that buses, in many ways, are unsafe. And something should be done about it.

This bus, at least, was part of a legitimate bus line: Americanos USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dallas-based Greyhound Lines Inc. That was not the case when 17 persons traveling from Houston to a religious retreat died in a bus crash north of Dallas in 2008. That bus was not legally licensed to operate.

But even sanctioned tour buses or charter buses can have deadly bus accidents. And why are bus wrecks so dangerous, if not fatal? It starts with seat belts.

We don’t know yet if the tour bus headed to Mexico today had seat belts, but we do know that many buses do not — even school buses, in most states. In fact, only six states have passed laws requiring that school buses have seat belts, including New York, New Jersey, Florida and California. In the other states, kids are out of luck — and in a school bus accident, they may be out of time.

Connecticut is currently weighing a measure to require safety belts on school buses, following a January crash that killed a teen student there. Opponents say school buses are a statistically safe way to travel and point to the cost of installing seat belts. But what about the cost of a lost human life?

Lacking bus seat belts isn’t the only safety glitch aboard a school bus, tour bus or charter bus. Due to their bulk and height, buses also have a tendency to roll over in a traffic crash, and that can prove deadly. A bus is extremely heavy, and when it rolls over onto its roof, that roof can give way and crush victims inside.

Buses also have large amounts of glass via windows throughout the vehicle. This glass can shatter and injure occupants in a bus crash. And with their massive open space, buses have room for loose objects to fly across the interior and harm occupants.

These reasons and more show that bus safety reform is vital in America before more innocent people pay the ultimate price, like today’s doomed Texas bus passengers. Jim S. Adler & Associates strongly supports measures to increase bus safety and stands ready to assist bus accident victims with their legal needs.

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The following is a guest blog by Dolan Law Offices of Chicago, IL.

In the 20^th Century, seatbelt laws and speed limit laws saved lives. While not everyone wears seatbelts or obeys the speed limit because states require them to do so, these laws educated many people and encouraged safe behavior.

In the 21^st Century, Texas and other states are faced with additional driving problems that are making the roads dangerous. The Governor’s Highway Safety Association lists several types of possible laws that could make roads safer. Texas has significant laws banning drunk driving and requiring child safety seats. However, many current Texas laws do not provide as much protection as they could for drivers. For example:

· Aggressive Driving: Texas has no applicable state law;

· Cell Phones and Texting: These are banned only for school bus drivers and new drivers;

· Helmets: The state’s law was repealed in 1997. Helmets are currently only required for motorcyclists under age 21. Helmets are not required for bicyclists;

· Sobriety Checkpoints: These are illegal; and

· Speed and Red Light Cameras: These are not allowed by state law but may be permissible under local ordinance.

Texas Personal Injury Law

Despite the lack of state laws for aggressive driving, cell phone usage, sobriety checkpoints and speed and red light cameras, Texas personal injury victims may recover damages if they are hurt by an aggressive driver, a distracted driver, a drunk driver or a driver who is not complying with speed, right light or other traffic laws.

A Texas personal injury lawyer can represent a victim, or the survivors of a victim, in a negligence action. The lack of statutes regarding these issues does not take away a victim’s right to recover damages, but it may lead to more victims. The data from other states is not yet conclusive as to whether cell phone bans, for example, prevent personal injury accidents. It will be important to analyze the data from other states so that 21^st Century driving dangers can be adequately addressed as were 20^th century problems.

Dolan Law Offices is located in Chicago, IL. We represent victims of serious Illinois personal injury accidents. We are committed to helping each of our clients recover full and fair compensation for their injuries.

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Driving deaths overall are down in America, but could be much lower without one thing: distracted drivers who call or text at the wheel. A new report by the U.S. Department of Transportation reveals the United States had 33,963 traffic fatalities in 2009, a drop of 8.9 per cent from 2008. With driving deaths declining for 15 consecutive quarters, this also was the lowest level since 1954.

But imagine how much better it could be without the onslaught of cell phone addiction. Millions of Americans drive with one hand on the wheel — at best — while calling and texting with the other. And when only a moment’s inattention can cause a lifetime of misery, these driving distractions are among the biggest threats on our roads today.

Indeed, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that distracted drivers are killing 6,000 Americans and injuring another half a million each year. Subtract that 6,000 from the yearly death total and Americans would be making enormous progress in fighting the No. 1 cause of deaths among those 3 to 35 years old: traffic collisions.

Clearly, the job is far from won, which is why Jim S. Adler & Associates urges all drivers at all times to “hang up and drive.” As a public service ads says, no text message is worth losing or taking a life. And how many calls and texts from the road are vital, anyway?

“Our work is far from over,” NHTSA Administrator David Strickland says. “We must continue our efforts to ensure seat belts are always used and stay focused on reducing distracted and impaired driving.”

He attributes the overall decline in driving deaths to public service campaigns such as “Click it or ticket” that increase seat belt use, and new state laws to combat drunk and distracted driving (which are almost the same, with studies showing distracted drivers are as bad as drunk drivers). Also helping are safer roads and safer cars (non-Toyota models, anyway) and the fact that, in a down economy, people are driving less.

But when nearly 34,000 persons die on our roads in one year, no progress can be deemed sufficient.

“Texting while driving, like talking on cell phones while driving, is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening practice,” says DOT Secretary Ray LaHood. That’s why the NHTSA has helped produce sample legislation to guide states in writing new laws that ban texting at the wheel.

“Our top priority is safety,” Strickland says. “We are determined to help the states eradicate the dangerous practice of texting while driving.”

If you or a loved one has been injured by a distracted driver, alert a car accident lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates. Holding negligent drivers financially accountable is another means of turning the tide toward a safer America.

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Child safety requires constant vigilance on the part of parents and anyone who takes care of small children. But even those persons can be led astray, as with accident injuries from defective products that claim to be safe for kids. That was the case with a 16-month-old boy who was found strangled to death in his crib by his mother in 2007, with a window shade cord wrapped around his neck.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, around 500 young children have died due to such cords since the early ’80s, or about one per month. Clearly, such shades and blinds are potentially deadly products, yet the federal government hasn’t mandated that their manufacturers make them more safe. Instead, it’s let the industry police itself.

But that hasn’t done much good, as evidenced by the fact that the fatality rate hasn’t changed much over the years. Though the CPSC has the authority to demand improvements, its refusal to do so may have meant more child deaths. The window shade industry has recalled many of its products, yet adjustments have been insufficient to reverse the horrible trend.

What can be done? Legal action to force the issue could help. Then better safety devices could be integrated into window shades so that, if a child becomes entangled, the cord automatically is released, rather than remaining taut and tight.

Cords also can be designed so that they don’t form a potentially deadly loop. Such loops often form on inner cords of blinds which aren’t meant to be pulled, but rather to raise or lower the blinds’ material when outer cords are pulled by hand.

Even when applied, some such safety devices have broken or failed to function, resulting in child deaths. In fact, it only takes about one minute for an infant to strangle to death when his or her neck is caught in a looped cord. The CPSC says such deaths largely have impacted children from 9 to 17 months of age.

Parents have a right to insist that all products they buy to which their children will be exposed have safety in mind. Clearly this has not been the case with window shades and blinds, whose cords can form a loop or noose and kill. In such cases, victims’ families have a legal right to seek financial compensation from negligent manufacturers for their part in the child’s death, and to demand that such companies fix the problem.

Jim S. Adler & Associates is dedicated to child safety and to helping families who have suffered tragically due to others’ negligence. If a child in your family has been harmed by a defective product, alert a personal injury lawyer with an Adler & Associates office in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or Channelview, TX, and get the support you need to fight back and correct a tragic situation.

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As a Texas driver, what should be your biggest concerns on the road? Drunk drivers? Right up there. Speeding drivers? Certainly. But don’t forget drivers of 4.1 million more vehicles. That’s how many are uninsured, says the Texas Department of Insurance.

This is not to say all 4.1 million uninsured vehicles are driven recklessly and may hit you. But if one does, you’re in big trouble — even if you weren’t to blame. That’s because it can be hard to collect car accident damages when the at-fault driver has no insurance. Your own insurance company won’t want to pay, and the other driver probably won’t be able to pay. Checkmate.

Those millions of uninsured vehicles represent 22 per cent of all cars and trucks on Texas’ roads. If that doesn’t make them Texas’ biggest road menace, what does? In fact, it’s staggering to think that nearly a fourth of all vehicles in Texas are in clear violation of a law which mandates drivers be financially responsible for the damages they cause in a collision.

What’s being done about it? Not nearly enough. But some steps are being taken.

One is that the state of Texas soon will issue warning letters to uninsured drivers, as identified by a cross-check of an auto insurance database with state vehicle registrations. To be mailed this spring, those warning letters will affirm that these persons appear to be violating the law and must provide proof of insurance.

Violators can be fined up to $350 for their first conviction and up to $1,000 for later ones, with possible suspension of their driver’s license. Also, thanks to the new database, law officers are less likely to be fooled by a bogus proof of insurance provided by drivers. They can quickly confirm or dispute that on their own.

Even better is a solution devised by the Houston-area cities of Richmond and Pasadena. You say you have no insurance, as required by law? Say bye-bye to your car. It will be impounded in those cities until the driver gets it insured properly. And why not? Every inch those vehicles roll is a violation of state law.

Houston doesn’t bother doing that, and Houston pays a price. The city records up to 15,000 such violations per year, though that’s clearly a small fraction of total uninsured drivers in the nation’s fourth largest city. But those traffic citations lack teeth. Want proof? More than 100 persons in a recent year were ticketed five times for driving uninsured — yet they kept on driving anyway.

What can you do about it? First, tell your elected representatives what you think. Also, consider buying uninsured motorists coverage from your car insurance provider. This can protect you if you are hit by an uninsured vehicle.

Meanwhile, watch out for those drunk and speeding drivers, too. Of course, many are probably uninsured as well. Some people have no respect for the law.

And if you are injured by another driver — whether they’re insured or not — alert a car accident lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates. In many cases, insurance won’t be all you’ll need to protect your financial well being.

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In the SOS over Toyota stuck accelerators causing death to innocent Americans, a new element is entering the sad and disturbing picture: EMI. That stands for electromagnetic interference, which is what some say is causing the fatal bursts of sustained acceleration.

In theory, EMI can be caused internally by components of a car’s own systems, or via cell phones or airport radar. EMI essentially disrupts or alters the electronic commands that a car should be receiving from its internal systems in order to brake, accelerate or perform other driving tasks.

Some believe cars other than those in the massive Toyota recall of 8 million vehicles could be subject to EMI, including cars from other manufacturers. Yet automakers resist the idea that their systems could be thus compromised, and it’s been difficult so far to ascertain or prove that EMI has caused major automotive malfunctions.

Nonetheless, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into the issue in regards to Toyota, as are members of Congress now probing Toyota negligence. Also, at least 14 lawsuits are pending alleging EMI as the cause of sudden acceleration.

Since the 1990s, most vehicles have replaced mechanical gas pedal and throttle systems with electronic throttle controls. Such controls could be subject to EMI disruptions, as when ignition systems are poorly wired.

That doesn’t mean mechanical problems or floor mats aren’t responsible for stuck accelerator car crash accidents. The important thing is to press for answers and hold Toyota accountable for its negligence that has caused deaths and injuries to innocent Americans.

If you or a family member has been harmed by such a defective vehicle, alert a car accident lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates, and begin getting the clarity and financial compensation that you deserve.

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The negligence of Toyota toward innocent American consumers seems to know no end. The latest sign of Toyota putting profits over public safety is found in an internal Toyota document from July 6, 2009, in which a company executive bragged that it was saving $100 million by negotiating a limited recall for Lexus ES and Toyota Camry vehicles for accelerator malfunctions.

That limited recall may have saved Toyota millions at the time, but Toyota’s failure to address the problem fully led to more stuck accelerator car crash accidents and what’s now become the largest recall in its history: more than 8 million vehicles.

The month after the Toyota executive boasted about saving money on the limited recall, a family of four riding in a Lexus in California was killed when its gas pedal stuck to a floor mat. It wasn’t until November of 2009 that Toyota issued a full recall to fix the gas pedals of its defective products.

And in December of 2009, four Jehovah’s Witnesses were killed in a Dallas suburb when their Toyota Avalon mysteriously accelerated through an intersection and crashed upside down in a pond, even though the floor mats had been removed.

As we’ve learned, Toyota and Lexus cars can have problems beyond floor mats snagging on an  accelerator. Some Toyota gas pedals have internal defects which lead to rapid acceleration, while other Toyota-made vehicles have brake problems, and still more have defective drive shafts.

But the real defect seems to lie at the top: in Toyota’s management. The company even has been shown to have suppressed information pertinent to SUV rollover lawsuits. Now U.S. prosecutors are opening a criminal investigation into the automaker’s safety flaws.

The internal document noted above was part of a company presentation last July on Toyota’s government relations.  At that time Toyota complained that the Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration were “not industry friendly” under President Obama.

A House committee has a copy of Toyota’s presentation, in preparation for questioning Toyota president Akio Toyoda on Wednesday. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors are beginning a criminal investigation of Toyota’s safety problems.

Olivia Alair, a NHTSA spokesperson, told CNN that automakers have a responsibility “to come forward when there is a problem. Unfortunately, this document is very telling. And that’s why (DOT) Secretary (Ray) LaHood has been saying we’re going to hold Toyota’s feet to the fire and make sure they do what’s necessary to make their cars safe for the driving public.”

Toyota insists it’s been doing that all along. But that’s hard to buy when the company considered it a “victory” to negotiate a limited recall for defective vehicles which later would kill innocent Americans.

Tell us, Toyota: Do you have a right to complain our government is “not industry friendly” when your own vehicles and practices have led to the deaths of American consumers whose purchases have helped build your wealth? If anything isn’t friendly, that’s it — and that’s an understatement.

If you or a loved one has been harmed due to Toyota’s negligence, alert a car accident lawyer or defective products lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates. The longtime Texas personal injury law firm will fight for your right to financial compensation. Fill out the free case review form on this page or call 1-800-505-1414 and launch the process of gaining your recovery.

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Drunk driving accounts for a whopping one third of all U.S. traffic fatalities, or about 12,000 Americans killed in the past year. But drunk driving isn’t the same throughout America. Some cities have worse problems than others with alcohol, as surveyed by Men’s Health magazine. It found Fresno, CA as the “most drunk city in America.”

The magazine’s survey included a city’s alcohol-related car crashes, its number of drunk driving arrests and the severity of its drunk driving penalties. It also based conclusions on death rates from alcoholic liver disease and the frequency of binge drinking.

These criteria show Reno, NEV just behind Fresno, followed by Billings, MT; Riverside, CA; Austin, TX; St. Louis, MO; San Antonio, TX; Lubbock, TX; Tucson, AZ; and Bakersfield, CA.

In short, three of the most drunk cities were in California, and three were in Texas, with Nevada, Montana, Missouri and Arizona having the rest.

Which were the least drunk cities? Men’s Health found Boston, MA to be best, followed by Yonkers, NY; Rochester, NY; Salt Lake City, UT; Miami, FLA; Newark, NJ; Durham, NC; New York, NY; Fort Wayne, IND; and Manchester, NH.

Houston, TX ranked 47th on the list, with Los Angeles, CA 48th and Dallas, TX 77th. Remember, the higher the number, the better the city’s alcohol results. Boston was No. 100.

What does this mean for you? A lot, if you live in the worst cities for drunks. A drunk driving car crash or drunk driving fatality can happen anywhere, but it’s more apt to happen where more drunks reside.

That doesn’t mean anyone is helpless. We all can do our best to avoid driving drunk and to keep others from doing so. Also, drive defensively around erratic drivers, and report severe cases of what appears to be drunk driving to police via 911.

If all else fails and you or a loved one is harmed by a drunk driver, the fight doesn’t stop there. Alert a drunk driving lawyer or attorney with Jim S. Adler & Associates to seek compensation for your car crash injuries, including medical costs, lost wages and pain and suffering. Jim “the Texas Hammer” Adler hammers drunk drivers anywhere and everywhere, regardless of their ranking on Men’s Health’s list.

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Many American women have taken antidepressant drug Paxil during their pregnancy. Now many American newborn children are suffering birth defects as a result. Since 2005 Paxil has been shown to have serious side effects in newborn babies, including ailments of the heart, brain, spinal cord, lungs and other vital organs. Such Paxil side effects injuries often require surgery or even repeated surgeries to correct.

That’s a high price to pay for the negligence of a pharmaceuticals giant such as Paxil creator GlaxoSmithKline of London, England. GSK reaps almost $1 billion per year in Paxil sales in America alone, and that huge amount is only about 2 per cent of its total annual drug sales. Meanwhile, American children are suffering horribly due to Paxil side effects injuries.

Fortunately, the legal system provides a means for addressing such negligence. Already, more than 100 Paxil lawsuits have been filed. Indeed, last fall a Philadelphia, PA jury awarded $2.5 million to a family whose infant son was born with heart problems requiring several surgeries after his mother took Paxil during pregnancy.

If you, too, need to press a Paxil lawsuit to recover damages for your child’s Paxil birth defects injury, alert a defective drugs lawyer or attorney with Jim S. Adler & Associates and launch the process of gaining  economic recovery. A Paxil side effects lawsuit can send a strong message to negligent multi-billion dollar corporation GSK that Americans will not tolerate the harm its defective drug has inflicted on innocent newborns.

Fill out the free case evaluation form on this Web page, or call toll-free to 1-800-505-1414, and an Adler legal representative will respond shortly to help you assess your case. You need not be alone in this fight. A Paxil birth defects lawyer from Jim “the Texas Hammer” Adler can make sure of that.

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