Four killed in crash along stretch of Route 3 | Richmond VA personal injury lawyer

The Culpeper Star Exponent has recently published several articles about four people killed in a wreck on Route 3 last week.
Investigation continues in deadly wreck.

The accident happened around 3am on March 22 when there was a head-on accident between a 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV driven by Eugene Green and a 2004 Toyota Corolla driven by Tyler Harlow.

Green was driving the wrong way when he caused the accident. Four of the five people in Harlow’s car were killed, including Harlow, Joseph Sahnow, Tianna Jones and James Cook. All died at the scene of the wreck.

Green and the other passenger in the Toyota, Howard Steiniger were taken to Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg.

Alcohol is suspected to have been the major cause of the accident.

This stretch of Route 3 has seen several deaths in the past few years and local residents report many near misses. Some people call this dead man’s curve or Jake-break corner.

It is such a tragedy to hear of young people like this getting killed through somebody else’s fault. Hopefully the county can do something to fix the problems that cause this area to be so dangerous before another unfortunate accident occurs.

Raptiva linked to deadly rare Brain Infection | Richmond VA medical Malpractice Lawyer Wayne O’Bryan

LaBovick & LaBovick of Florida have just written a new blog entitled:Raptiva linked to deadly rare Brain Infection : Injury Law Blog.

The tragedy of the “cure” being worse than the disease has become more and more frequent since the FDA Fast Track program started in 1997. Originally implemented in order to get an AIDS drug to market more quickly, it has now become the norm for many drugs. This has caused more drugs with long-term side effects to become readily available to the American public.

I handled many cases in the Fen Phen fiasco. Fen Phen was a drug cocktail to treat obesity that ended up causing heart problems in many users.

The point here is to be careful what drugs you take. Also realize that most of the drugs you get in America are now made in China, which has quality control issues you may have heard about recently. There are many things that proper eating and exercise will cure much more effectively than a pill.

For more information go to Richmond, Virginia personal injury lawyer Wayne O’Bryan’s site.

Child airlifted following I-81 wreck | Richmond Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer

The News Leader of Staunton, VA reports of a child airlifted following I-81 wreck.

Traffic was stopped for more than an hour on Interstate 81 on Sunday, March 22, 2009 because both northbound lanes were closed around 2 p.m. following a three-vehicle wreck near mile marker 222 that caused a a 9-year-old boy to be airlifted to the hospital.

Virginia State police officials said that Francisco E. Garcia, 40, of Harrisonburg, was driving in a 1994 Chrysler minivan with Adelina Garcia, 33, and two children, ages 5 and 9, when Mr. Garcia changed lanes and struck a Toyota Prius, driven by Mary Ann Neumann, 62, of Rockville, Maryland. The van then hit the guardrail, spun into traffic and struck a tractor-trailer, driven by Richard Lee Freeman of Kings Court, Tennessee.

Both children were unrestrained and the 9-year-old was ejected from the vehicle, and he was flown by helicopter to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville. The 5-year-old received minor injuries.

Police charged Garcia for an improper lane change, and he was issued two tickets for failing to restrain the children in the vehicle.

It is important to remember that children need to be properly restrained at all times when driving. Children are greatly at risk for being ejected from a vehicle during an accident due to their small size. Also an unrestrained child can be very distracting and can be the cause of an accident.

According to the Virginia Department of Health , children need to ride in a car seat until their eighth birthday, and children must wear their seat belt until they are 16 years old.

For more information visit Richmond, Virginia personal injury lawyer Wayne O’Bryan’s site

Two injured in U.S. 29 wreck | Richmond Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer

The Culpeper Star-Exponent reports: Two injured in U.S. 29 wreck .

According to the Virginia State Police, around 12:45 pm, Hamideh Fahoul, 19, swerved around a slowing vehicle making a right-hand turn into the Battlefield Ford car dealership on the southbound side of U.S. Route 29. Fahoul’s 1996 Honda Accord then ran off the left side of the road, lost control and was struck in the rear by a tractor-trailer.

Fahoul was issued a summons for reckless driving, and she and her passenger, Fardin Jamacreca, 23, were taken to Culpeper Regional Hospital for injuries. Fahoul’s Honda suffered extensive rear-end damage and along the passenger side. The tractor-trailer driver was not injured.

Sgt. Les Tyler of the Virginia State Police noted that everyone was wearing seat belts. “This probably attributed to no one being seriously injured in this accident,” he said.

For more information visit Richmond, Virginia personal injury lawyer Wayne O’Bryan’s site

Pedestrian killed on Midlothian Turnpike | Richmond Virginia accident lawyer

Pedestrian killed on Midlothian Turnpike. The Richmond Times Dispatch reports:

Chesterfield County police said that William R. Evans was crossing the 8700 block Midlothian Turnpike, just east of Powhite Parkway around 10:40 p.m. on Tuesday March 10, when he was struck and killed by a 2008 Mitsubishi Gallant. Mr. Evans was wearing dark clothing at night and was most likely not even seen by the driver of the car who caused the accident.

If you are a pedestrian, it is important to remember that you are very hard to see at night by cars. Make sure you cross the street only when you have the green light and try and wear light colored clothing to improve your visibility.

For more information visit Richmond, Virginia personal injury lawyer Wayne O’Bryan’s site.

Powhatan, VA man killed in crash while en route to hospital | Richmond, Virginia car accident lawyer

Richmond Times-Dispatch writes about a Powhatan man killed in crash while en route to hospital.

Danny H. Gentry of Powhatan, Virginia was being driven to CJW Medical Center for medical treatment when the 2006 Nissan Xterra SUV in which he was traveling attempted to make a left turn onto Johnston-Willis drive and was struck by a 2005 Jeep Cherokee SUV traveling west.

Gentry had some sort of heart condition. His door was struck in the accident and he died after being taken to the hospital.

Both drivers suffered minor injuries.

St. Patrick’s Day Don’t Drive Drunk | Richmond, Virginia Accident Injury Lawyer

Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles has issued a new press release about St. Patrick,s Day Celebrations.

St. Patrick’s Day is a dangerous time to be driving. According to the press release:

On St. Patrick’s Day in 2008, 45 alcohol-related crashes occurred in Virginia involving 71 drivers. Sixty-five percent of the 71 drivers were drinking. Thirty-five, or 78 percent, of the 45 crashes happened between 4 p.m. and 3 a.m. The three Virginia jurisdictions with the most alcohol-related crashes on St. Patrick’s Day last year were Fairfax County, Richmond City and Smyth County.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 851 people nationally lost their lives in crashes during the St. Patrick’s Day holiday over the past five years. Out of that number, 327 were killed in crashes that involved a drunk driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher.

Please have a designated driver if you must go out drinking this St. Patrick’s Day and remember that Virginia has some of the most stringent DUI laws in the country.

Convicted drunk drivers in Virginia could get jail time, several thousand dollars costs in fines and attorney’s fees, higher insurance rates, and loss of their job.

There are also those who have accidents and get horribly injured of die, or kill another innocent person.

Virginia has the HERO Program to encourage designated drivers and many establishments across Virginia are offering free non-alcoholic beverages to designated drivers.

If you are unfortunate enough to need a good DUI Lawyer in Richmond, Virginia then Bob Battle is about as good as they get. He is very experienced and funny, but please try and avoid calling him by getting a designated driver.

Five hurt in wreck at Fort Lee gate | Richmond Va car accident lawyer

Five hurt in wreck at Fort Lee gate.

Five people were injured last Thursday morning, around 8:20 am March 5, in a multiple-vehicle collision on Virginia state Route 36 at Fort Lee‘s main gate.

Marcia Jones of Danville, Virginia, a Department of Defense civilian employee who was the most severely injured, was flown to VCU Medical Center in a MedFlight helicopter. She was listed in stable condition yesterday afternoon, authorities said. Ms. Jones was stopped at a light when her SUV was hit from the back three times and she was tossed about inside her big truck. She was apparently not wearing her seat belt which made her injuries much worse.

Sgt. Tim Wilson of Fort Lee Police says,

“She was thrown backwards, then her vehicle turns and she was thrown against her door and then at that time, when her vehicle made contact with the 3rd vehicle, she was thrown towards the rear of the vehicle.”

Three soldiers were among the injured. Spc. Passion Walker and Staff Sgt. Fred Saunders were taken to John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell, where they were treated and released.

Chief Warrant Officer Gary Brown was transported to Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg. His condition was unknown yesterday afternoon.

Another civilian suffered minor injuries and refused to be treated, officials said.

It is unfortunate that Ms. Jones was not wearing her seatbelt. If she had been wearing it, then this wreck would have likely caused little or no personal injuries. Just taking a few seconds to buckle up might make the difference between life and death.

Two die in separate traffic accidents | Richmond Virginia accident Lawyer

Richmond Times-Dispatch reports Two die in separate traffic accidents.

On February 28 around 5:20 am, Shedrick Damaine Barner, 21, of Bassett was driving south on U.S. 220, half a mile north of state Route 689 in Henry County, when his car ran off the road to the right and struck an embankment and some trees.

Barner was not wearing a seat belt and died at the scene of the auto wreck, police said.

Eleanor P. Severs, 79, of Dagsboro, Delaware, was a passenger in a car traveling north on U.S. 13, one-tenth of a mile south of state Route 639 in Accomack County, when it ran off the road, struck an embankment and overturned about 2 p.m., police said.

Severs was wearing a seat belt but died at the scene of the car crash. Unfortunately seat belts are not as effective when the car turns over in the accident.

Their deaths brought the 2009 state car accident death toll to 95, compared with 131 at the same date last year.

For more car accident news and tips go to Wayne O’Bryan Law.

Who should I talk to after my accident? | Richmond Virginia auto accident lawyer

Richmond, VA and southside Virginia lawyer Wayne O’Bryan answers the question “Who should I talk to after my accident?”