Archive for June 2009
University of Texas Football Player Involved in a Driving While Texting (DWT) Accident | Dallas, Texas Personal Injury Attorney Blog
University of Texas Football Player Involved in a Driving While Texting (DWT) Accident
By Rachel E. Montes on Monday, June 29, 2009
University of Texas linebacker Sergio Kindle was involved in a motor vehicle accident. According to the football player’s attorney, Mr. Kindle was “either sending or receiving” a text message while driving when his car slammed into an apartment building in Austin, Texas. Fortunately no one was hurt in the accident other than Kindle who reportedly suffered a concussion.
As our blog has been reporting, incidents of Driving While Texting are becoming more and more common. While several states have enacted laws to make this conduct illegal because studies are showing that a driver who is distracted by driving while texting is just as impaired as a driver who is driving while intoxicated, Texas has not yet taken that action. However, even without a state law making Driving While Texting illegal, the conduct is still extremely dangerous and subjects people to a high risk of severe bodily injuries or even death. If you or a loved one has been injured in a wreck caused by someone who was distracted by driving while texting, contact Rachel Montes or Tom Herald at Montes Herald Law Group, LLP to discuss your rights.
Irving Prohibits Roadside Solicitation | Dallas, Texas Personal Injury Attorney Blog
The City of Irving strengthened its solicitation and handbill ordinance to increase pedestrian and motorist safety, and improve traffic flow and the aesthetics of major roads. The revised regulation prohibits:
- Roadside solicitation except as allowed by state law.
- Costume/sign-holding advertisers in a roadway or on public property adjacent to a roadway.
The new ordinance makes good safety sense. Clearly the people who stand near the roadway and wave signs such as going out of business and advertising sales are doing so to catch the attention of passing motorists. It is just that distraction that the City of Irving does not want drivers to be operating under.
In addition to a basic prohibition against roadside solicitation, the new ordinance also prohibits “Aggressive Solicitation” which is defined as:
- Intentionally touching or causing physical contact with another person or an occupied vehicle without the solicited person’s consent.
- Intentionally blocking, either individually or as part of a group of persons, the passage of the solicited person.
- Following closely behind, ahead or alongside a person after he/she has been solicited or
- Using violent or threatening gestures toward the solicited person.o Approaching or speaking to a person in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to believe he/she is being threatened with imminent bodily injury.
The new ordinance is also designed to prohibit solicitation in settings where people are believed to be at risk for theft because they are either in a potentially vulnerable position or they are likely to be handling their money or engaged in a consumer transaction. By making solication in these settings illegal, the City of Irving is acknowledging the fear that people have when their personal space is invaded by unwanted solicitors, especially when we are in a particularly vulnerable location or position. In addition to making it unlawful to engage in direct solicitation in places such as a public transportation facility or public restroom, the new ordinance also makes it unlawful to engage in such solicitation within 25 feet of:
- An automated teller machine –
- An entrance or exit of a bank, credit union or other similar financial institution –
- A pay telephone located outdoors or on the exterior of a structure –
- A self-service car wash –
- A self-service fuel pump –
- A public transportation stop –
- An outdoor dining area of a restaurant, cafe or cafeteria
- Distribution of handbills/fliers on any vehicle without consent.
The adoption of the improved ordinance will help residents who feel “uncomfortable or threatened by unwanted solicitation” to “have the law on their side,” said Assistant Police Chief Terry Zettle. “This is another element being implemented to ensure a safe and secure city.” For more information, call the Irving Police Department at (972) 721-2518
If you have legal questions, contact Montes Herald Law Group, LLP at (214) 522-9401. We are located in Las Colinas (Irving) Texas. We handle personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis. Visit our website at www.MontesLawGroup.com for more information concerning our law firm and our practice areas. We handle all types of injury cases from automobile accidents, drunk driving accidents, 18 wheeler cases, insurance and bad faith cases, premises liability claims and a variety of other claims involving significant injuries or death.
Survey Evaluates Difficulties in Diagnosing RSD | Dallas, Texas Personal Injury Attorney Blog
Those who suffer from Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) know how debilitating, painful and mysterious this condition is. As the attached survey details, RSD is commonly caused by injuries and more women than men tend to develop this condition.
In 1994, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), after development of consensus by a group of pain medicine experts, suggested that the term complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) should replace reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) and causalgia-CRPS type 1 for RSD, and CRPS type 2 for causalgia. However, the IASP diagnostic criteria were never fully validated, and several pain specialists raised concerns about their clinical and scientific value. The criteria have poor diagnostic specificity and may result in overdiagnosis of CRPS.
If you or a loved one develop RSD as a result of being injured, you should contact an attorney to discuss your case. These cases tend to be very complex just like the disorder. Because RSD is difficult to treat and because the pain and physical limitations that pain causes, people who develop RSD often tend to incur substantial medical bills and to be unable to work for extended periods of time. Call Rachel Montes or Tom Herald at (214) 522-9401 for a free, no obligation case review. Our offices are located in Las Colinas (Irving), Texas in the middle of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.
wo Dallas Neighborhoods Given “Most Dangerous” Status by the FBI | Dallas, Texas Personal Injury Attorney Blog
Two of the Top 25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods are located in Dallas, according to a recently released study of FBI crime statistics. The neighborhoods include:
9th Most Dangerous Neighborhood in the United States: Route 352 at Scyene Road
12th Most Dangerous Neighborhood: 2nd Avenue and Hatcher Street.
The study ranked the danger in a neighborhood by calculating the number of violent crimes per 1,000 residents in a census tract, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Only Cincinnati, Miami, Kansas City, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Memphis had worse showings.
In Texas, a business owner is supposed to take reasonable efforts to protect their customers from violent crime that occurs on their premises. These rankings should put businesses on alert of the need to take additional efforts to protect their customers from the risk of violent crime. Typically, those measures include security patrols, additional lighting, and video monitoring of the premises. When a business is or should be aware of an unreasonable risk of harm to its customers and fails to take action to protect its customers and employees, the business can be determined to be negligent in providing a safe work place for its employees or negligent in providing adequate security measures to protect its customers from a risk that it knew or should have known about, the business can be held liable for its proportionate amount of legal responsibility for incidents when customers are injured or killed as a result of a violent crime on that took place, in whole or in part on the premises. If you or a loved one has been seriously injured while on a business premises, contact Montes Herald Law Group, LLP for a free consultation of your case. Visit our website www.MontesLawGroup.com to learn more about our firm.
FDA Issues Zicam Warning & Manufacturer Recalls Zicam | Dallas, Texas Personal Injury Attorney Blog
Company officials are bracing for additional lawsuits after the Last week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning letter linking Zicam nasal gel and swabs to loss of smell. Matrixx Initiatives Inc, the manufacturer of Zicam initially declined a recall of the product, but has since responded by voluntarily recalling its Zicam Cold Remedy nasal gels and swabs from retailers nationwide. The company has more than a dozen oral Zicam products that were not targeted by the FDA and remain in stores nationwide. William Hemelt, Matrixx’s acting president and chief operating officer, last week said the FDA’s warning letter and following publicity “undoubtedly” leaves the company vulnerable to additional lawsuits.
Monday, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of 117 people who claim they have suffered loss of smell or a loss of the ability to taste food after using the popular nasal spray.
Matrixx is certainly aware that people claim to have lost a sense of smell after using Zicam. The company has already faced more than 400 lawsuits over the past decade from people who claimed that Zicam’s Cold Remedy gel has caused anosmia, or loss of smell. In 2006, the company settled a batch of lawsuits with 340 plaintiffs for $12 million. Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Monday include Richard Kennedy, 62, of Glendale.
If you have taken Zicam and believe that you suffer from a loss of a sense of smell or the loss of the ability to taste food, contact Montes Herald Law Group, LLP for a no obligation, free consultation to discuss your case.
11-Year-Old Killed After Being Struck by a Personal Watercraft OnLake Worth | Dallas, Texas Personal Injury Attorney Blog
John Henderson, III, an 11-year-old Fort Worth boy was killed on Saturday afternoon. The boy was being pulled on an inner-tube behind a boat on Lake Worth when he was hit by a personal watercraft pulling another raft. Witnesses said the boat and personal watercraft were trying to avoid each other when the accident happened, the man on the personal watercraft jumped into the water and pulled the boy to safety on the boat. No citations have been issued.
Although this case does not appear to be an alcohol-related event, it points out the dangers that we all need to be aware of while on local lakes and rivers. If you or a loved-one has been injured or killed as a result of a boating incident, call Montes Herald Law Group, LLP immediately to investigate the incident on your behalf. While police and game warden officials will usually do a very thorough job of investigating incidents where alcohol or drugs are suspected because criminal charges are often filed in those case. However, in cases where criminal charges are not anticipated, often times the police do not preserve all of the evidence you will later need to prove that even though the incident does not involve drugs or alcohol, that the person responsible for causing the incident was negligent, and is therefore legally responsible for the incident. Visit our website at www.MontesLawGroup.com for more information about our law firm and about Rachel Montes and Tom Herald.