Woman Sustains Head Trauma and Dies at Scene of Accident Reports Austin Personal Injury Lawyer
Jan 18, 2012
Austin, TX (Law Firm Newswire) January 17, 2012 – Poor road conditions and blurred windshield vision can cause fatal accidents.
“This reported case saddened me as I read it. But if bad road conditions were not present, this accident might not have happened,” commented Brooks Schuelke, an Austin personal injury lawyer with Perlmutter & Schuelke, L.L.P. “On reading the case for a second time, however, this was more than bad luck. If you dig deeper, and that is what personal injury lawyers do, this could have been another story.”
Two men and one 44-year-old woman were in a single-vehicle accident on I-81 close to the midnight hour. It was raining at the time. The man driving the car involved in the accident, a 1995 Buick Century, veered off the road after he had been passed by two other vehicles. The car slid down an embankment and slammed into a tree. The driver sustained minor injuries and the other male passenger made it to hospital with critical injuries. The woman was declared dead at the scene.
When EMS crews arrived on scene, they had to extract all three occupants as they were trapped in their car. At that point, first responders were able to determine the woman had died of severe head trauma. None of the car’s occupants were wearing seatbelts. “Evidently, based on what the injured driver told police, his vision was temporarily blocked when an 18-wheeler passed him and sprayed sheets of water onto his windshield,” explained Schuelke.
Some questions that may arise in this case are whether or not the driver had his wipers activated, and if so at what speed? Was he speeding? Going too fast for the existing road conditions? Not paying attention? Why would the man not pull over if visibility was such an issue? Why would the driver not reduce his speed and drop back when he saw a semi-tractor trailer approaching and spraying water on passing vehicles?
“There may well be grounds for two lawsuits in this case: a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the dead woman and a personal injury lawsuit by the other injured passenger. It is quite possible that the man was driving negligently and as a result of making poor decisions or demonstrating poor driving skills, a woman died and another person was critically injured,” Schuelke said.
The moral of the story is that when it comes to injury accidents never assume that what it looks like on the surface is what actually happened in reality. This is the main reason why people choose to be smart and make a call to a competent Austin personal injury lawyer for information about their legal rights.
“People involved in accidents that have been caused by someone else should make their first call to an Austin personal injury lawyer. This is not the time to try and settle things up with an insurance company on their own. There is a big risk they could miss out on compensation they are entitled to receive,” added Schuelke.
To learn more or to contact an Austin personal injury attorney or Austin injury lawyer, visit http://www.civtrial.com.
Perlmutter & Schuelke, LLP
1717 W. 6th Street, Suite 375
Austin, Texas 78703-4868
Call (512) 476-4944
