By Rachel E. Montes on Wednesday, May 5, 2010

State Farm Insurance Company has filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Insurance after the Texas Department of Insurance posted two rate hike proposals requested by State Farm over the past eight months. State Farm is seeking to obtain approval to raise its insurance rates its charges by an average increase of 13% on homeowner premiums .

According to a story in the Dallas Morning News, Texas Department of Insurance spokesman Jerry Hagins advised that the Department’s position is that all documents associated with a rate filing are public information, and that the decision to post was partly the result of increases filed so close together.

Rachel Montes

Montes Law Group, P.C.

1121 Kinwest Parkway, Suite 100

Irving, Texas 75063

(214) 522-9401

Megan Small (21) was killed in an automobile collision when the vehicle she driving was struck by another driver that was distracted because he was texting while driving. In addition, Laura Gleffe, another driver involved in the collision was also injured. Megan Small was killed while driving from her home in Houston back Baylor University. The wreck occurred on Highway 6 near Calvert, Texas when. Reed Vestal crossed the center line and hit Small head-on. Gleffe, Small’s lifelong best friend, was following behind her and was run off the road, causing her car to roll. Vestal initially denied having a phone when the wreck occurred, but phone records indicated that he had sent and received 15 text messages and made seven phone calls in the 45 minutes before the wreck, Craft said. In addition, evidence was presented at trial that Vestal has received multiple speeding tickets since receiving his license. “I think the jury understands it is a growing problem [eventhough] Vestal tried to say he didn’t know any better, and he didn’t know it was dangerous.”

Hunter Craft, a lawyer for Small’s family, said “This case isn’t about money,” Craft said of the Nov. 25, 2007 wreck. “This case is about sending a message to everybody and protecting people in the future, and in order for them to be able to accomplish that, we told them they were going to have to make a significant award.” Craft said the Small family’s intention was always to send a message about the dangers of texting while driving, not to collect damages.

A Texas A&M University student has been ordered to pay $22 million in damages after a Robertson County jury found that his texting while driving caused a car accident that killed a Baylor University senior biochemistry major.

Lawyers said the damages awarded to the family of Megan Small, who was 21 when she died, and Laura Gleffe, the driver of another car that was run off the road in the accident, may be the most a jury has handed out in Robertson County.

Approximately one in five drivers admit to texting while driving at least once in the last 30 days. The popularity of texting is unquestionable. About two-thirds of Texas teenagers surveyed said they have talked on a cell phone while driving in the past six months, according to the Transportation Institute. More than half said they had read or sent text messages while driving. A 2007 study said cell phone use was among the primary causes of fatal car crashes among teens. According to CTIA, the number of monthly texting messages reached 110 billion at the end of 2008, a more than 11-fold increase in three years. AAA is asking drivers to go to its website at www.aaafoundation.org/multimedia/headsup.cfm to learn more about its efforts to stop driving while texting.

The Montes Herald Law Group, L.L.P. is a law firm with offices in Irving and Dallas Texas. We are experienced and qualified attorneys who dedicate our practice to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of car accidents and other cases where people are severely injured through the negligence and reckless conduct of others all across the state of Texas including Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Please visit our website at www.MontesHerald.com for more information concerning our law firm and lawyer Rachel Montes and Tom Herald. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (214) 522-9401 or email us at Rachel@MontesHerald.com or Thomas@MontesHerald.com for a free case evaluation.

Last week, a Dallas County jury sentenced James Giraldo (27) to 20 years in prison for killing Juliana Rincon-Cuartos in October of 2009. Twenty years is the maximum sentence. Meanwhile, the sentencing of a Steward Richardson in Tarrant County was delayed as prosecutors are forced to appeal a ruling of the court that would prevent them from seeking a life sentence against a 7 time convicted drunk driver that crushed a child in a car seat.

Wrong Way Drunk Driver James Giraldo

James Giraldo’s case is the first of several highly publicized cases involving wrong way drunk drivers that caused a head-on collisions on the North Dallas Tollway in 2009. After a night of drinking at a bar, James Giraldo got in his vehicle and drove the wrong way directly into oncoming traffic on the tollway and struck a vehicle in which Juliana Rincon-Cuartas was a passenger. Three hours after the crash, Giraldo’s blood alcohol level was still 0.18 — more than twice the legal limit. Mr. Giraldo plead guilty to charges of intoxication manslaughter and asked the jury for leniency, saying he has thought about the death of 27-year-old Juliana Rincon-Cuartas every day since the accident

Giraldo’s claims of remorse fell on deaf ears when the jury heard that after being involved in this deadly drunk driving wreck, Giraldo was arrested again on another charge of DWI while driving on the tollway. According to police records, Mr. Giraldo refused to submit to a breath test or to provide a blood sample following his second arrest. While Giraldo claimed that the incident has been “one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to deal with in my whole life, and that I think about it every day. … I think about the girl. I think about her family. I think about what I took away from the family because of my own stupidity.” According to Dallas County Prosecutor, Hermus, Giraldo’s second arrest shows that the defendant didn’t learn a lesson and needs the supervision of prison to protect the community.

7 Time Drunk Driver Trying to Avoid Life Sentence

Meanwhile, Tarrant County prosecutors have been forced to file an appeal of a pre-trial ruling that would prevent them from seeking a life prison term against Stewart Richardson for the horrific injuries he inflicted upon Abdallah Khader in a February, 2009 wreck. Tests show that Stewart Richardson’s blood alcohol content (BAC) was three times the legal limit when his truck rearended Loubna Elharazin’s car at an Arlington stoplight.

Abdallah was crushed while belted in his car seat. Doctors say that up to 80 percent of his brain was destroyed in the crash. While Abdallah’s life has all but stopped, his body keeps growing, and swelling from all the steroids and medicines that keep him alive. His face and cheeks are abnormally chubby. His eyes roll, but don’t focus. His mother says, “Sometimes you see tears coming out of his eyes, but to be honest with you, we don’t know what makes him mad. All we do is hold him and try to make him comfortable.”

Prosecutors had hoped to send Richardson to prison this week for life. After all, prosecutors uncovered 7 prior drunk driving convictions in 4 other states including one drunk driving accident that resulted in injuries to several people in a 1994 crash in Iowa. However, all of the drunk driving offenses were considered to be misdemeanors. If any one of them had been classified as a felony, Richardson would have been subject to receiving a life sentence. Instead, the maximum prison sentence he can receive is 20 years. Prosecutors are appealing the judge’s ruling, and say they hope for a reversal. The appeal could cause a delay in the sentencing of Mr. Richardson by as much as a year.

Meanwhile the family of Abdallah Khader is forced to wait for justice, and to hope for a miracle to happen, something little; I lost hope.”

We at Montes Herald Law Group, LLP believe that punishing those who engage in driving while intoxicated is important, especially when the drunk driver proves time and again that he or she will continue to drive drunk. Once an intoxicated driver gets behind the wheel of a vehicle, everyone’s well being and safety is at stake. If you or a loved one has been injured by a drunk driver, contact Rachel Montes. We will discuss your case with you for free and at no obligation. Contact us at (214) 5222-9401 and visit our website at www.MontesLawGroup.com for more information regarding our firm and our attorneys. Please visit Montes Herald Law Group, LLP’s Facebook website as well to get involved in our efforts to fight drunk driving.

A new study that is scheduled to be released tomorrow shows that drivers of commercial trucks that text while driving are 23 times more likely to be involved in an automobile accident that drivers that do not engage in driving while texting (DWT). This is the first study of the relationship between the distraction drivers of 18 wheelers incur when they drive while texting or when they use of cell phones while driving.

The study was conducted by the Virgina Tech Transportation Institute and financed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration which has as its mission promoting and improving the safety in the operation of buses and commercial trucks. The study involved outfitting long-haul trucks (interstate18 wheelers) with video cameras that monitored the actions of the drivers and of the truck during an 18 month period. It is certainly no surprise that the activity of driving while texting is a dangerous behavior or that it increases the risk of being in a crash. After all, driving while texting is a behavior, which by definition, that involves distracting the driver from his or her primary focus of watching the road and maintaining control over the truck. The study shows that the risk of being in a car wreck not only sharply exceeds previous estimates based on laboratory research, but it and far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractions. Rich Hanowski, who oversaw the study, characterized the level of distraction that driving while texting by saying that compared to other distractions, “texting is in its own universe of risk.” In light of these findings, it is no surprise that Tom Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech institute, one of the world’s largest vehicle safety research organizations, echoed the feelings that our website has been saying for some time now. Mr. Dingus said the study’s message was clear. “You should never do this [driving while texting], and “It should be illegal.”

Sadly, only 14 states have made driving while texting illegal while other states continue to say that they need more data and more research before they decide to make it illegal. The problem with this wait and see approach is not only are more people going to be killed and seriously injured in an accident that could have been prevented or minimized, but that until the conduct is illegal most police agencies that investigate collisions do not gather or report information on accidents that are believed to have caused because the driver was distracted because he or she was driving while texting using a cell phone.

One of the most revealing findings that is being released from the study is that, “In the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices – enough time at typical highway speeds to cover more than the length of a football field.” In other words, drivers traveling at highway speeds lose at least 5 seconds of precious time to react to hazards and to reduce their speed in order to minimize the damage and forces involved when there is a collision.

Just recently, we saw locally how dangerous driving while texting can be for drivers of an 18 wheeler. As our blog reported, a chain reaction collision involving 9 vehicles, including an 18 wheeler has left two people dead and seven more injured in Gainseville, Texas along northbound Interstate 35 (I-35). According to reports, traffic was backed up and flowing slowly due to construction on Interstate 35 when Randy Crume, the driver of a semi truck failed to control speed and struck the rear of the stopped traffic causing multiple collisions. Fort Worth residents, Gervious Hinkle and his 13-year-old grandson Casey Ishak were both killed in the crash. Read the entire post in our blog under 18 Wheeler Accidents: 18 Wheeler Involved in Deadly Wreck In Gainseville: Possible Driving While Texting.

The results of the Virginia Tech study were somewhat surprising because the findings were so much greater than the findings of a University of Utah study of college students who drove a simulator while textings. In the Utah study of college students, the study found that the risk of crash was increased 8 times when the students were driving while texting as compared to when they were not texting. While the difference in the risk in these studies is significant, David Strayer of the University of Utah emphasized that “You’re off the charts in both cases. It’s crazy to be doing it.” As we all know, the problem is that so many people are doing it, and doing it so often. According to CTLA (a cellular telephone industry trade group), in December of 2008, phone users in the United States sent 110 billion messages, a tenfold increase in just three years.

Even though trucks take longer to stop and are less maneuverable than cars, the findings generally applied to all drivers, who tend to exhibit the same behaviors as the more than 100 truckers studied, the researchers said. Truckers, they said, do not appear to text more or less than typical car drivers, but they said the study did not compare use patterns that way.

Let’s hope that our state legislatures and that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Congress get the message we are sending. Driving While Texting is extra-ordinarly dangerous and needs to be illegal in all fifty states.

The Montes Herald Law Group, L.L.P. is a law firm with offices in Irving and Dallas Texas. We are experienced and qualified attorneys who dedicate our practice to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of car accidents, premises liability claims, insurance and bad faith claims, construction accidents and other cases where people are severely injured through the negligence and reckless conduct of others. Please visit our website at www.MontesLawGroup.com for more information concerning our law firm and Rachel Montes.

By Rachel E. Montes on Sunday, July 12, 2009