Although the number of DWI arrests decreased during the recent holiday season, concern about Texas’ drunk driving fatality numbers remain in 2013.  Each year, drunk driving kills more than a thousand people on Texas roadways. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, alcohol-related crashes injure or kill someone in Texas about every 20 minutes.

To help reduce the number of DWI-related fatalities, local and state law enforcement increased patrols from December 21 – January 1.  According to news reports, the increased presence helped.  The number of people arrested for alcohol-related offenses in Harris County over New Year’s weekend dropped from 235 in 2011 to 187 in 2012. Those arrests included 19 felony DWIs, down from 25 the previous year.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office reported 54 DWI arrests made during the recent holiday season. At least one fatality involved alcohol. Last year at least six drunk driving fatalities were reported.

What the numbers tell us is that while increase patrols help keep some drunk drivers off of Texas roadways, too many people are still drinking and driving.  That means innocent lives will continue to be lost.

Impaired Texas drivers continue to get behind the wheel, putting others at risk, and the state perennially has the highest number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities. In 2011, Harris County led the state with 2,657 alcohol-related crashes, based on reported data processed by the Texas Department of Transportation as of June 2012. From those crashes nearly a thousand people suffered serious injuries and 167 died. That is in Harris County alone. Dallas County came in second with 2,332 alcohol-related crashes in 2011. From those crashes, 56 people died and 792 suffered serious injuries.

Considering that Harris County led the state in alcohol-related crashes, it is not surprising that in 2011 more drunk driving accidents occurred in Houston, our hometown, than any other city in the state. What is surprising is that so many people continue to drive after drinking, knowing the serious risk they pose to people other in addition to themselves.

As Houston auto accident lawyers, we see the suffering of families who lost loved ones in traffic-related fatalities way too often. When drunk drivers cause death and serious injuries, ones that were preventable, we feel enraged.

We encourage everyone to do what they can to prevent more deaths and injuries due to drunk driving.  Don’t be the cause of someone’s suffering. Don’t drink and drive, and don’t let others.

Make 2013 the year that turned the Texas drunk driving fatality numbers around!

The workplace can sometimes be a dangerous, even deadly place. In Texas, companies employ many individuals in dangerous occupations that have an increased risk of injury on the job, including shipping, construction, manufacturing, energy and transportation. Unfortunately, this increased risk leads to more actual work-related injuries.

In April, a worker on an oilfield died when he fell from a drilling rig onto a steel floor. According to the accident report, he was doing some service work about 50 feet up, where some pipe was being moved around, when he slipped and fell. The rig is located near Cheapside on County Road 192. It belongs to EOG Resources.

The local authorities also responded to another oil rig accident the next day. An employee suffered unknown injuries after he apparently fell from a rig near County Road 289. Emergency personnel had to climb to reach the victim on the rig flooring 25 feet above, but fortunately he was conscious and responsive.

Common on-the-job injuries in Texas result from industrial accidents, heavy equipment accidents, chemical exposure, maritime accidents, occupational respiratory diseases and railroad accidents. They can be caused by the negligence of co-workers or employers, although “third party” accidents may also be caused by other parties on a job site.

Depending on the nature of the accident, injured parties or their family members may be eligible to pursue a claim for personal injury or wrongful death. Employees may also have a claim for workers’ compensation if the employer is unwilling to pay.

If you or someone you love has been injured on the job, contact an experienced personal injury attorney. A personal injury lawyer can assess your case and help you get the compensation for your injuries you deserve. For more information, contact an attorney today.

Source: The Gonzales Inquirer, “Worker falls to death in oilfield accident,” April 6, 2012.

“Texas is the only state in the country that allows employers of any size to decline to carry state-regulated workers’ compensation coverage.”

Instead of carrying workers’ compensation insurance, many Texas businesses set up their own injury benefit programs thereby saving themselves a lot of money. In other words, they don’t have to pay premiums to carry comp coverage. According to a 2010 survey conducted by the Texas Department of Insurance, 15% of Texas businesses with more than 500 employees do not carry workers’ compensation insurance. Walmart and Target are examples of 2 large Texas employers that choose not to carry formal workers’ compensation insurance. There is, however, a trade off for employers who decide to go “bare” as it is commonly known. In Texas, if an employer has workers’ compensation coverage and an employee gets hurt on the job, the injured employee is limited to making a workers’ compensation claim and receiving comp benefits which essentially consist of medical care and approximately 70% of lost wages for a period of time, and the injured employee cannot make a claim against his employer for negligence. If a Texas employer does not carry workers’ compensation insurance and one of its employees gets hurt on the job in Texas, the employer can be sued for its negligence that caused or contributed to the employees’ injury. In this instance, making a claim for negligence is the only way an injured employee can hold the negligent employer liable and force it to pay for the harm it caused. Damages in a non-subscriber negligence lawsuit include medical expenses, loss of earnings, physical impairment, pain, mental anguish and disfigurement, in the past and into the future.

The New York Times, Sunday, April 8, 2012.

Distracted driving has become a serious problem on Texas’ roads. With the advances in technology in both phones and cars, there are a growing number of ways to become distracted while driving. This poses a danger not only to the driver but also to others on the road as well.

According to statistics compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), over 3,000 people were killed in crashes that involved distracted drivers in 2010, the last year for which statistics are available. In addition to that, over 400,000 people were injured in crashes that involved distracted drivers. Eighteen percent of all crashes that year involving an injury were caused by distracted driving.

The Federal Response

A recently enacted federal law prohibits commercial vehicle operators from using handheld cell phones while driving. The penalties for a violation include a $2,750 fine and a potential loss of their commercial license if there are multiple violations. Trucking companies also face penalties if their drivers are caught using a handheld cell phone while driving.

A Personal Injury Attorney Can Help

If you or someone you love has been injured in an accident due to the negligence of another driver, contact an experienced personal injury attorney. A knowledgeable personal injury lawyer can assess your case and help you get the compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering you deserve. For more information, contact a personal injury attorney today.

Source: USA Today, “Companies Weigh Risks of Distracted Driving,” Larry Copeland.

“Three oil-field workers were killed Monday morning in a head-on collision south of San Antonio, the third deadly crash within two weeks on a South Texas road officials said has become heavily traveled because of a boom in nearby drilling.” The crash happened on Texas 72 near Tilden, Texas, approximately 75 miles south of San Antonio. It is believed that the crash may have been caused by fatigue. “All three fatal crashes – which have killed five people – involved drivers working in the oil and gas fields” according to Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Clint Walker. “The increase in crashes is likely due to an increase in traffic, Walker said, most of which stems from a boom in drilling in the Eagle Ford Shale formation.” It is believed that the three men killed in the crash were from the Rio Grande Valley and were on their way to work. “‘We just have so much more traffic because of all the oil and gas activity,’ Walker said. ‘These guys are working a tremendous amount of hours and not getting enough rest. It’s very, very dangerous.’” The rise in energy prices has led to an increase in exploration for oil and gas in the Eagle Ford Shale region in South Texas and other areas in Texas including the Barnett Shale region. Other regions seeing significant land based oil and gas exploration include the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and Montana, as well as the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio. Houston Chronicle, November 1, 2011.

Drunk driving accidents that cause serious injury or wrongful death can be particularly difficult for accident victims and family survivors to ever put behind them. Negligence that causes harm is intolerable no matter the circumstances, but drivers who get behind the wheel when they are intoxicated are rolling the dice regarding the safety of other drivers and passengers.

For that reason, Texas lawmakers have enacted tough penalties for drunk drivers, including a recent enhancement of consequences for those who have a high blood-alcohol content (BAC), as well as drivers who cause traumatic brain injuries in committing the felony of intoxication assault. But imagine the frustration if you were involved in an accident with an officer of the law whose colleagues decided to look the other way despite his obvious intoxication.

That was the situation faced by Houston school bus driver Teresa Argueta, who was involved in a crash with off-duty police sergeant Ruben Trejo last spring. Despite Argueta’s observation that Trejo smelled of alcohol and had open beer and wine containers in his car, she was the one who was cited (for failure to yield) after the accident.

The Houston Police Department initially announced that Sgt. Trejo was not under the influence. Only after a reporter from KTRK-TV started asking questions did the truth come out: Trejo reportedly had a BAC of .176, which would have met the threshold for an enhanced DWI under the new law that went into effect on September 1. Trejo was fired, and the officers behind the cover up were suspended or disciplined.

A dedicated and aggressive Houston DWI accident lawyer must sometimes take the same initiative as that reporter to shine a little daylight on the actual cause of an accident. Evidence of intoxication due to drinking, prescription medications or illegal drugs is not always readily apparent, but an attorney’s job is to help plaintiff’s explore every theory of negligence and identify every potential source for recovery of damages.

Following high-profile oil pipeline accidents in the U.S., Democratic Senators Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Jay Rockefeller IV of West Virginia proposed legislation to improve the safety of the pipeline network that crosses the nation. Despite strong bipartisan and industry support, however, the bill has sat in the Senate since early this summer as legislators decide which process the bill should go through.

According to the Courier-Journal, the reauthorization bill contains many new safety provisions for pipelines, including:

• Higher civil penalties for violation of pipeline safety regulations
• New civil penalties for obstruction of government investigations
• New safety regulations for digging near utilities and pipelines
• New requirements for shut-off valves in new pipelines
• Increased numbers of safety officials and pipeline inspectors

The safety regulations would continue being administered by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which carries responsibility for overseeing the 2.5 million miles of oil, gas and hazardous materials pipelines throughout the U.S.

In May, the proposed legislation was unanimously approved by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Senate Democrats would like to expedite passage of the bill. However, deviating from normal debate-and-vote procedures with the legislation would require unanimous approval again, and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has objected, stating that debate on the bill should occur.

The bill’s new and enhanced regulations were created after major oil pipeline accidents shocked the nation, particularly the San Bruno, California, pipeline explosion in which eight people were killed just over a year ago. Because the consequences of an accident can be catastrophic, Sen. Lautenberg said, “this bill would help to ensure the safety and efficiency of our pipeline network.”