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Semi-Truck Accident On I-15 Kills 2 People

rwt — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:58:31 +0000

Another Tragic Semi-Truck Accident Killing Two People on I-15

On Sunday, July 19, 2010, Russell W. Welsh and Emelda Welsh, of Finleyville, Pennsylvania were tragically killed when, according to news reports, a driver of a semi-truck traveling northbound at a high rate of speed failed to see that the traffic had slowed and swerved into the Southbound lane, killing Russell and Emelda Welsh.

This tragic accident happened on I-15, in Southern Utah, near Pentura in Washington County. Our heartfelt condolences go to the Russell and Emelda Welsh family.

According to one news report, officials believe that the driver of the semi-truck was not paying attention to existing traffic conditions. Because this accident involved a semi-truck, a post-accident drug test should be performed pursuant to the provisions of 49 CFR 382.303, which provides, in relevant part:

“(a) As soon as practicable following an occurrence involving a commercial motor vehicle operating on a public road in commerce, each employer shall test for alcohol for each of its surviving drivers: . . . (2) Who receives a citation within 8 hours of the occurrence under State or local law for a moving traffic violation arising from the accident, if the accident involved: (i) Bodily injury to any person who, as a result of the injury, immediately receives medical treatment away from the scene of the accident; or (ii) One or more motor vehicles incurring disabling damage as a result of the accident, requiring the motor vehicle to be transported away from the scene by a tow truck or other motor vehicle. (b) As soon as practicable following an occurrence involving a commercial motor vehicle operating on a public road in commerce, each employer shall test for controlled substances for each of its surviving drivers: . . . (2) Who receives a citation within thirty-two hours of the occurrence under State or local law for a moving traffic violation arising from the accident, if the accident involved: (i) Bodily injury to any person who, as a result of the injury, immediately receives medical treatment away from the scene of the accident; or (ii) One or more motor vehicles incurring disabling damage as a result of the accident, requiring the motor vehicle to be transported away from the scene by a tow truck or other motor vehicle.”

In any accident involving a semi-truck, immediate action should be taken to prevent destruction or loss of the following important information:

1. The truck driver’s complete employment file, including but not limited to his or her qualification file and all incident reports involving the driver.

2. The truck driver’s logs and other driving records.

3. Any and all pre and post-accident drug tests administered to the driver – DOT regulations require mandatory drug testing under certain circumstances.

4. Any and all compliance audits involving the driver and the trucking company.

5. Any satellite tracking information relating to the truck and its whereabouts.

6. Any and all information contained in or from on-board data recorders, such as ECM units, also called black boxes, inclinometers, etc.

7. Records of any and all communications between the truck driver and his employer or any other person at time periods relevant to the collision.

8. Maintenance records, pre-trip inspection reports, post-trip inspection reports and annual inspection reports for the truck involved in the collision.

9. Any and all incident reports relating to the truck driver.

10. Any and all incident reports relating to the trucking company.

11. Any and all trip receipts, weight tickets, bills of waiting and other operational documents relating to the trip the driver was on when the collision occurred.

12. The truck driver’s cellular phone records for several days before the collision.

Technorati Tags: I 15, road rage, semi trucks, truck accidents

AAA’s Top 10 Teen Driving Mistakes

admin — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:57:57 +0000

Teen Drivers make a lot of mistakes and are in the realm of being one of the highest demographics that are involved in car accidents. There are several reasons that you could think of why teen drivers are involved in more accidents, but here are the top 10 teen driving mistakes from AAA.

Risk taking — Know that it can happen to you. Car crashes are the leading cause of injury and death for people ages 15 to 20. It’s not just about you: Crashes affect pedestrians, passengers and other drivers, as well as their families. You don’t want to do something you’ll regret the rest of your life.
Not wearing a seat belt — Use a safety belt and insist that all your passengers do so as well. About two-thirds of teens killed in vehicle crashes were not wearing safety belts. Wearing a seat belt reduces your chances of being hurt or killed in a crash by 45 percent.
Speed — Stick to the speed limit. One-third of teen fatalities involve speeding. Obeying the speed limit reduces the severity of a crash you can’t avoid.
Rowdy riders — Don’t load up your car with friends. Adding one teen passenger to a vehicle increases a 16- or 17-year-old driver’s crash risk by about 50 percent. With two or more teen passengers, the crash risk increases fivefold.
Cell phones — Focus on driving. Save the phone calls, text messaging and other gadgets for after the driving is done. Talking on a cell phone while driving can double reaction time.
CD players — Turn the music off while learning to drive. Research shows that adjusting the radio is the most common distraction for drivers between the ages of 16, and driving and channel-surfing don’t mix.
Late-night cruising — Don’t drive late at night. Teen crash rates at night (9 p.m. to 6 a.m.) are twice as high as daytime rates. Obey parental curfews.
Driving under the influence — Stay sober. Of 16- to 17-year-old drivers killed in crashes, one in six would have been considered legally intoxicated by adult standards.
Peer pressure — Make good choices and don’t be afraid to “speak up.” Before you get in a car with a friend, ask: Is this a person you trust? Is he in the right frame of mind to drive safely? Are you prepared to speak up if he drives dangerously?
Overconfidence — Inexperience and overconfidence can lead to crashes when new drivers encounter unfamiliar or unexpected situations. Parents should supervise and monitor their teen drivers, even after they get their license.

Technorati Tags: AAA, car accidents, safe driving, seat belts, teen driving, teen driving mistakes

20 Safety Tips for Winter Driving

attorney — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:37:31 +0000

Winter weather in the neighboring states of Utah and Nevada can bring harsh and ever-changing road conditions. The Department of Transportation works hard and effectively to clear roads for safe winter travel, with maintenance experts plowing and applying anti-icing and deicing chemicals and sand to keep winter roads safe for winter driving. Whether you are traveling to Las Vegas, St. George or further north, here are some winter driving tips from the Nevada Department of Transportation:

Only travel in winter weather when necessary, leave enough time to safely reach your destination and plan your route to avoid snowy/icy areas and steep hills

Before leaving home, check weather and road conditions by dialing 511 within Nevada (or 1-877-NV-ROADS outside of Nevada)

Turn on headlights to see and be seen

Share your travel itinerary so others know when to expect you

Remove snow and ice from all vehicle windows, mirrors, lights, turn signals and license plates

Buckle up

Avoid quick starts, stops and fast turns. Accelerate, brake and steer smoothly and gradually

Reduce speed. Speed limits are based on normal road and weather conditions, not winter road conditions

Do not slam on brakes. Apply steady pressure on ABS-equipped vehicles and pump the brakes if necessary on non-ABS vehicles

If your vehicle has snow tires, install and use them between October 1 and April 30

Keep additional distance from other vehicles

Turn off cruise control

Watch carefully for snow removal equipment

Do not pass without good distance and sight clearance

Use extra caution on bridges, ramps, overpasses and shaded areas- they may freeze first

Maintain a high fuel level

If vehicle begins to skid, steer in direction of slide and slowly remove foot from accelerator

Be aware of black ice

Always carry tire chains, especially when traveling in mountain passes or typically snowy areas

Remember – 4-wheel-drive vehicles cannot necessarily turn or stop any better than 2-wheel-drive vehicles

For more winter driving tips, visit the state Department of Transportation website.

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How to Increase Driving Reaction Time to Avoid Injury

attorney — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:46:34 +0000

In the past two months, 10 troopers have been hit on Utah’s roads, said UHP Col. Danny Fuhr, and eight patrol vehicles have been totaled. The financial cost of the crashes and the strain they put on the agency’s limited manpower are staggering, Fuhr said. But those aren’t the primary reasons the agency is asking drivers to slow down and move over.

Fuhr said the outcome of a crash where police, firefighters and other emergency responders are hit by someone driving at freeway speeds is almost inevitable. “You will kill them,” said Fuhr, who stood Tuesday with almost a dozen troopers who have been hit while on patrol — some of them more than once.

“Sadly, we have a wall of officers that have proved that very point with their lives,” the colonel added. Ten of the 129 Utah officers killed in the line of duty died as a result of injuries suffered when their patrol vehicles were struck by inattentive motorists, according to the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial.

Fuhr said drivers should take the following steps when they encounter emergency vehicles on the side of the road:

Slow down immediately when they see emergency vehicles ahead with their lights activated.
Move over at least one lane, and if that is not possible, move over as far as possible.
Look for hazards or other warning signs of danger ahead.
Focus on driving and avoid distractions like talking on the phone or texting.

“These four things will help drivers increase their reaction times,” Fuhr said.

Utah Highway Patrol Cpl. Terry Woodward was investigating a crash last month on I-215 near 5200 South when he “heard the sound that every trooper hates to hear.” “I heard tires sliding on the pavement,” Woodward said Tuesday. “It was kind of that ‘Oh, crap’ feeling.” Woodward, who was injured by another, said he saw a car sliding sideways toward his patrol car. He tried to jump out of the way, but the car hit the back of the patrol car, which was pushed sideways and struck Woodward.

He remembers calling for help on his radio and seeing emergency crews arrive at the scene. “Then things went fuzzy from there,” said Woodward, who suffered a broken left leg, left ankle and right foot and had to be hospitalized in intensive care for internal bleeding in his pelvis. The crash that injured Woodward remains under investigation by the Taylorsville and Unified police departments. It marked the fourth time in his UHP career that Woodward has been hit while on duty.

“I’ve jumped over many barriers many times,” said Woodward, who still cannot put weight on his broken left leg and ankle. “I just wasn’t able to get out of the way this time.”

Technorati Tags: driving, emergency personnel, policeman, reckless driving

Texting Unsafe at Any Speed: U of U Study

attorney — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:10:44 +0000

Deseret News: Wendy Leonard

Texting and driving are two things that cannot be done at the same time, at least not psychologically.
Those are the findings of new research from the University of Utah that will be published this week. The research is the first peer-reviewed study that details the psychological effects of texting while driving.

“When we look at dual-tasking — doing two things at once — there is a limited amount of attention that we can dedicate to each of those tasks,” said Frank Drews, associate professor of psychology at the U. “With text messaging and driving, it’s not one or the other; it’s either, or.”
Our brains, he said, can’t maintain control of one while doing the other.

“During the time people are text messaging, they are driving blind,” Drews said, adding that when performing both those tasks, attention and efforts are switched between the two and not shared, as in other tasks.

The hazards of texting while driving continue to receive broad national and international attention as accident rates attributed to this practice increase. Utah law already bans texting while driving, and most people already know it isn’t safe, but new U. research actually quantifies the risk.

“People who text message while driving are six times more likely to get into a crash than people who are not text messaging while driving,” Drews said. Not only are they more likely to have or cause an accident, but texting while driving decreases response times to traffic signals and brake lights by about 20 to 30 percent, according to Drews’ study, which used 40 participants in simulated driving situations. Talking on the phone while driving slows reflexes by about 9 to 10 percent, much less than that of text messaging, which requires more attention to execute.

The study also found that drivers who text have difficulty maintaining lateral control of their vehicle, which causes them to swerve within and often out of their lane of travel, having two times as many lane crosses as usual, Drews said.

“It’s the first peer-reviewed research that has said why texting while driving is unsafe and how it is unsafe,” he said. “It leads to a degradation of driving ability.”

Drews has been researching the effects of dual-tasking for more than a decade and is specifically focused on how people sacrifice performance on one task to do another. In addition to texting and talking on the phone while driving, he has looked at the behavior of multi-tasking intensive-care nurses. Like some things in life, he said, traffic is not forgiving.

It is estimated that more than 6,000 people die every year as a consequence of multi-tasking while driving, and many more are injured by another. However, those figures cannot be proven because some circumstances are unknown and not all people who cause road deaths admit what they were doing before an accident occurs, Drews said.

Unfortunately, drivers have to look out for themselves and be aware of any distracted drivers around them.
“They are putting a significant burden on everyone else to keep themselves safe,” Drews said. Distracted drivers often increase their following distance from other cars, move more slowly than other traffic and move more within their lanes, among other signs…

“You want to get away from those drivers,” Drews said. Drivers who are text messaging, he said, aren’t prepared to react to unpredictable situations and therefore won’t in the case of a potential accident.
“People who are using a cell phones while driving have an impaired ability to self-monitor what they are doing,” he said. “Their ability to criticize their own performance is impaired.”

Drews’ research, performed with several other psychologists and researchers at the U., is available online and will be published in the upcoming issue of Human Factors, from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Technorati Tags: driving, texting, university of utah, wendy leonard

Why Vegas Has More Accidents

attorney — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:54:16 +0000

The possibility of being injured by another in an accident is exponentially higher in a city like Las Vegas. With the combination of alcohol and driving, Las Vegas tops the charts for accidents. Clark County has over 8,000 DUI arrests every year, in conjunction with its share of automobile accidents and fatalities. In addition, Las Vegas has gridlock streets with stoplights posted every mile, as well as the heavy use of cell phones in automobiles. Consequently, this all equates to negligent driving and reckless car crashes. To avoid traffic due to these accidents, check out http://www.nvdpspub.gov/nhp/roadhazard.aspx before your commute.

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Technorati Tags: Accidents, alcohol, avoid accidents, clark county, injury, Las Vegas, traffic

What Everybody Ought to Know When Injured by Another in an Accident

attorney — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:06:55 +0000

Remain as calm as possible.

Call the police, even if the accident is minor. File a complete report with the police.

Get the names, contact information and insurance information of the other drivers. A car description and license plate number are also helpful.

If a camera is handy, photograph the scene. Limit your discussion of the accident to the police and insurance agents. Be truthful. Only sign documents for them.

Notify your insurance agent immediately after the accident, even at the scene with police present if possible.

Seek medical attention. Naturally, your health and safety should be your first concern and your top priority. If you are injured, get immediate medical help from a qualified doctor. Don’t delay. It is a good idea to have a card with relevant medical information for you and your family in your car.

Seek legal counsel. It is a good idea to talk to an attorney shortly after your accident. An attorney can help you deal with the difficult insurance issues and help you obtain and preserve valuable evidence that will increase the value of your claim. Your initial consultation with an attorney will be free of charge if someone else caused your injury. You have absolutely nothing to lose, but much to gain.

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Technorati Tags: Accidents, drivers, injury, insurance, police

Safety Patrol to the rescue

attorney — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 22:27:02 +0000

Schools all across the country are starting back up. Now more than ever its important to keep your eyes on the road and watch out for children. Paula F. Downey, President of Via Magazine wrote an article in the September-October 2009 issue about The importance of safety patrol and a hero from right here in St. George.

Paula writes:
Lulu Beltra thought the driver of the oncoming car would notice her yellow green safety patrol uniform as she helped a first grader cross the parking lot at Dixie Downs Elementary School in St. George, Utah last December. Then Lulu, who was 10, saw that the driver was talking on his cell phone and she sensed that he might not even slow down. She yanked the first grader back by the hood of her sweatshirt just as the car passed them. Lulu’s first action saved the other girl’s life.
In 1935 when such records were first kept, children had the 2nd highest pedestrian death rate of any age group in the US; today, they have the lowest. Experts credit the AAA School Safety Patrol with helping to bring about this change. And with schools facing budget cuts, the safety patrol is needed now more that ever, education officials tell us. Teachers say that it provides a cost effective way to keep children safe around congested drop-off areas at the same time that it teaches leadership and responsibility. In northern California, Nevada and Utah, the AAA safety patrol program has grown by more than 20% over the past two years. 555 elementary schools now participate. If you are interested in starting a patrol at your child’s school, please visit AAA.com/safetypatrol.

Technorati Tags: Accidents, cross walk, driving, Personal Injury, safety patrol, southern utah, st george, st george utah

School Yard Safety

attorney — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:15:20 +0000

The count down to the 2009-2010 school year has begun for residents of Washington County and we want to remind you of a few safety tips. Each year, more than 200,000 kids are treated in hospital ERs for playground-related injuries, many of these could have been prevented with the proper supervision. Remind your children about playground/recess safety, if they know the rules prior to playing, they are less likely to get hurt. Talk to your school to make sure your child is properly supervised during outdoor activities. It’s ok to ask questions like, What is your schools policy on recess? What’s the student to child ratio outdoors? What polices are in place if there is an emergency? If you don’t like the answers you receive, get involved, join the PTA ,School Safety Council or other groups and help make positive changes. Remember it will still be hot outside when school resumes, sunscreen might be in order, have your child drink plenty of water, remind them to test the temperature of the playground with a finger, prior to placing their body on a hot surface. Recess and outdoor play is meant to be enjoyed, let’s make sure our children our supervised and safe.

Technorati Tags: accident injury, Accidents, damages, Personal Injury, st george, st george utah, traffic accidents

Take care to Prevent Accidents this Summer

attorney — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:35:28 +0000

Prevention

June 24, 2009

By nature, accidents are unintentional. That’s not to say that accidents are always unavoidable.

Regardless of our precautions and preparations, there will always be true accidents — things that happen that are not preventable. So what do you do when an accident occurs?

“Examine the injury. If it is isolated and not too critical, you may be able to treat it at home, or immobilize it and transport the victim to help,” said Dixie Regional Medical Center emergency department physician Dr. Gordon Larsen. “Remember though, some serious problems can be present but not visible.”

Sometimes it is best to call for an ambulance.

Things to look for include:

Injuries or pain in the chest, abdomen, or head.
Trouble breathing.
Excessive bleeding.
Loss of consciousness, even if it is only temporary.
Patient is confused or shows signs of shock (pale, lightheaded, nauseated).

Read more tips about preventing accidents in the Living Well column in Thursday’s Southern Utah Life, a section of The Spectrum & Daily News. Story from The Spectrum.com

Technorati Tags: Accidents, ambulance, dixie regional medical center, emergency, prevention, southern utah