Posted on June 27, 2013 in Uncategorized

Eric Anthony Munoz was indicted in mid-June in Comal County for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon “after he allegedly held a woman at knifepoint inside her own home,” according to KGNB.am News. The 25-year-old woman called the police after she had been walking “through a hallway in her home when she noticed the man standing in her living room and walking toward the back of the house where her children slept.” She first yelled at the man and told him to leave, and that was when he pulled out his knife and threatened her verbally with it.

The perpetrator allegedly “fled the scene on foot when he apparently realized he had come inside the wrong house,” according to KGNB News, but the woman was able to give the police a description of the man and they were able to track him down only minutes later. The 20-year-old Munoz was being held on a $100,000 bond, which he posted, and then following his indictment was held again on $41,000 bond. “He faces 2 to 20 years in prison if convicted at trial,” according to KGNB News.

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 Posted on June 25, 2013 in Uncategorized

Father’s Day was a holiday during which one Texas family mourned, when a family was torn apart as a result of a fiery car crash caused by George Munoz Jr. Munoz was speeding through Culebra road when his vehicle collided with the vehicle of Wesley Lindsay, aged 27. The victim’s car burst into flames on impact. Lindsay was driving his two sons and wife to a family get together. One son, Travion Lindsay, is currently in a full body cast and under sedation, and he is the sole survivor of the crash. Car accidents are, sadly, a leading cause for personal injury lawsuits.

Munoz was arrested while carrying a gun, which he held onto as he exited his own vehicle. Police officers believe that Munoz may have become distracted while threatening another driver with the gun. A patrol officer had previously identified the driver threatening another person and then leaving the scene of that incident in his vehicle. Police were notified of his description and the disturbance, but Munoz’s car took off to reach more than 60 mph in the neighborhood, leaving police little opportunity to apprehend him before they heard the sounds of the accident.

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 Posted on June 20, 2013 in Uncategorized

According to a recent article, Amanda Hoffman, 23-year-old Texas A&M grad, is currently fighting for her life after being injured in a car accident while on her way to a water-skiing tournament.

Hoffman had been traveling to North Carolina for the tournament with two of her teammates. At the time of the accident, she was sleeping in the backseat with her seatbelt on. Hoffman suffered serious brain injury after being thrown from the car, and has been in a coma ever since.

Samantha Stern, Hoffman’s best friend, stated, “She’s just amazing. She’s smart, she’s beautiful, she’s funny, and she’s the light of anyone’s world who knows her.”

Hoffman had just recently graduated from A&M. She was the captain of the school’s club water-ski team.

Stern is planning to leave her job in Bryan, Mississippi, and stay with Hoffman’s mother for the recovery. “I know it’s going to be difficult to see but she would do it for me and I have absolutely no question about that,” said Stern.

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 Posted on June 16, 2013 in Uncategorized

Constructions workers must take extreme precautions to ensure their own safety and the safety of everyone around them, but sometimes nothing can be done when the equipment they are working on fails. If you are a construction worker or if you work for a construction company, it is important to have a good personal injury attorney in the unfortunate case that an injury should occur. Recently in Bryan Texas, police officials reported that a man was pinned to the ground by two 20-feet-long, 1,500 pound shoring panels and killed. While in some cases, it is possible that construction workers’ negligence can cause accidents, the College Stations Fire Department told the Bryan-College Station Eagle that the shoring had simply “given out.”

When an employee is injured on the job, they can receive workers compensation for their injuries. Workers comp covers things from medical bills to missed wages during recovery time. Your Texas personal injury lawyer can assist you in your workers compensation case. Armando Gonzalez, 49, was pinned inside of a 30 to 40 foot hole as part of a crew that was working on a lift station for the Texas A&M Health Science Center. He was stuck underneath heavy shoring panels and had nowhere to go. He died due to injuries sustained in the accident.

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 Posted on June 12, 2013 in Uncategorized

In early June an 18-wheeler truck collided with a train in the 15-hundred block of Wald Road, according KGNB Radio News, and “one person was airlifted from the scene.” The wreck happened near the many quarries in the area on the south side of the city when the big rig was trying to cross the tracks. It was undetermined just how fast the train was going, but it was going fast enough to split “the big rig in two, knocking the rig portion of the truck off the roadway, leaving the trailer portion of the truck on the other side of the tracks,” according to KGNB. The driver was extricated from the rig and was airlifted to University Hospital. “Crews remained on the scene for about an hour cleaning up a fairly large diesel spill,” according to KGNB.

According to Operation Lifesaver and statistics from the Federal Railroad Association, there were 1,960 collisions involving trains in 2012, in which 271 people were killed and 930 people injured. The number is significantly down from years past—in 2011 there were 2,062, and in 1981 there were a whopping 9,461. That year, there were 728 fatalities and just fewer than 3,300 injuries. The reduction most likely has to do with increased safety measures and technological tools now available at railroad crossings. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and published by Operation Lifesaver, “a motorist is almost 20 times more likely to die in a crash involving a train than in a collision involving another motor vehicle.” A train hitting your car is akin to your car hitting an aluminum soda can—the train is that much heavier and traveling at much greater speeds.

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 Posted on June 06, 2013 in Uncategorized

Car accidents can occur for many reasons. Sometimes it is due to mechanical issues with a car. On different occasions, the road conditions or inclement weather causes car crashes. But one big reason is distracted driving, which the government is looking to curtail by releasing new guidelines to automobile manufacturers when they integrate new technology into the driving experience. The guidelines are in place to limit the amount which a driver has to look away from the road.

Drivers should only have to divert their attention from the road for two seconds at a time and up to twelve seconds total. Some operations are considered too dangerous to complete while driving such as manual text entry, display of text messages and video based communications and should only be allowed while in park. These recommendations are based on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s study entitled The Impact of Hand-Held and Hands-Free Cell Use on Driving Performance and Safety Critical Event Risk. This new research shows that texting, browsing and dialing are responsible for the longest duration of lost focus.

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 Posted on June 03, 2013 in Uncategorized

According to the CDC, around 800,000 Americans seek medical attention each year because of dog attacks. See Center for Disease Control, Dog Bite: Fact Sheet. While it is true that most dogs do not are a danger to people, it is also true that dogs can cause serious bodily injury, especially to those most vulnerable, like children and the elderly. Most of these accidents can be avoided if dog owners exercise proper pet care. Texas ranks in the top ten states in the Nation for dog bite victims. In addition to legislation specifically prohibiting municipalities from enacting legislation that targets specific breeds, until recently, Texas effectively gave one free pass to negligent dog owners who placed others at risk with their carelessness. Also known as the “One Bite Rule”, it shielded owners from liability for injury-inflicting dogs for the first occurrence of a dog attack. However, horrific stories across Texas and elsewhere, forced Texas legislators to enact laws protecting innocent victims. The Texas dog bite statute imposes liability on dog owners when a person:

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 Posted on May 31, 2013 in Uncategorized

A Swedish study has concluded that flashing, digital billboards often take a driver’s eyes off the road for more than two seconds, which could contribute to car accidents. The result of the study was recently published in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.

In 2006, a study by Virginia Tech for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that anything that takes a driver’s eyes off the road for more than two seconds increases the risk of a crash. Researchers in this new study say the digital billboards are brighter, are visible from further away, and show changing advertisements, all contributing to holding a driver’s attention for longer.

A statement from Mary Tracy, president of Scenic America, a national nonprofit group that seeks to limit billboards, says that the new study validates the dangers of digital billboards. “Bright, constantly changing signs on the side of the road are meant to attract and keep the attention of drivers, and this study confirms that is exactly what they do.”

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 Posted on May 26, 2013 in Uncategorized

Unfortunately, young drivers are injured or killed every day in a car crash. Experts are making strides in determining the cause and trying to study ways to avoid such tragedies. According to a recent study, young drivers who reported getting less than seven to nine hours of sleep are more likely to have a car accident. While adults need seven to nine hours of sleep, young adults need more. Between working, going to school and having a social life, young drivers may be forfeiting sleep and that could be detrimental when he or she decides to get behind the wheel of a vehicle. The study involved over 19,000 newly licensed drivers between the ages of 17 and 24 who reported having no more than six hours of sleep. The case study tracks these young adults for two years. After pulling police reports, the study showed an increase in car crashes among younger drivers who got fewer than six hours of sleep. Although studies have shown that 20 percent of car crashes are due to drowsy driving in the United States, most of the data did not include young drivers until now. Sleep deprivation in young drivers and others has an impact on alertness and physical performance. When a car crash can be avoided, people are wise to take notice. If he or she was made aware of these findings it may go a long way in saving a young driver’s life. Getting the proper rest may help to avoid the next car accident. If you or a member of your family have been injured in a car crash due to someone else’s negligence a Texas personal injury lawyer can work to get you the compensation owed by the law. Call today for a free consultation.

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 Posted on May 22, 2013 in Uncategorized

A recent study from Cohen Children’s Medical Center has found that distracted driving is at fault for more teen deaths than drunk driving. On average, more than 3,000 teenagers across the country are killed as a direct result from sending text messages in their car. On a yearly basis, about 2,700 teens are killed from alcohol-influenced driving.

Regular Driving Behavior

Perhaps the spike in teen texting and driving is because teens are likely to have the cell phone with them on a constant basis- whereas a teen may elect to drink and drive far less. What teens don’t realize is that every time they get behind the wheel with the cell phone, their chances of an accident skyrocket. Official statistics from the 2011 study from the same hospital revealed that drivers who text are 23 times more likely to be in a car accident.

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