Posted on May 29, 2014 in Truck Accidents

Anyone who has ever taken a long road trip knows that at a certain point, the body and mind just can't stay awake any longer. With summer just beginning, many in Northern Virginia are likely preparing for their seasonal trips, planning itineraries and places to stop along the way. Traveling on highways and interstates means sharing the road with trucks, which is why it's extra important to leave adequate time for rest. A drowsy driver, either behind the wheel of a passenger car or a semi truck, can easily cause a car or truck crash.

While those who travel for leisure can set their own schedules, truck drivers are held to a different standard. Last summer, new regulations went into effect to address the dangerous issue of truck driver fatigue. Prior to last July, the maximum hours per week a truck driver could work was 82. That number dropped to 70 thanks to the new rule, which also requires a half-hour break during a shift's first eight hours. Finally, the new rules also strengthened an existing regulation that mandates a break period of 34 hours between weeks of work. Now, that break needs to include two consecutive periods in the early morning hours.

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 Posted on May 21, 2014 in Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents

Teenagers are usually the picture of vibrant youth: happy, energetic and ready to take on the world. Since teens are so often the epitome of life in motion, it's always shocking when someone in that age group passes away. Too frequently, fatal motor vehicle accidents steal the lives of those just entering adulthood.

Earlier this month, a 17-year-old boy from Fairfax was riding what is known as a "mini-bike" around Reston Parkway in Reston. He attempted to make a turn onto Wiehle Avenue, but crossed into the path of two other vehicles. One of those vehicles, an Acura MDX, hit the mini-bike and then crashed into another car, a Lexus GX470. The teen was severely injured and, a few days later, he succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital.

Fatal car accidents involving teens spawn a host of questions for surviving family members: who was responsible for the incident? Were any laws broken? Why were injuries so severe? Could the accident have been avoided? Did medical staff do everything they could to save the injured person's life? In this instance, police noted they don't plan to file charges against anyone because speed and alcohol did not appear to be factors in the crash.

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 Posted on May 15, 2014 in Commercial Vehicle Accidents

Like any other field, the commercial transportation industry is constantly looking for new ways to increase safety, and move forward with progressive improvements. Recently, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute revealed that a new innovation has the ability to save lives by correcting the potentially dangerous behavior of a truck driver behind the wheel.

A truck driver has an enormous amount of power to prevent a commercial vehicle accident. Staying attentive and getting enough rest, refraining from alcohol or other drugs, avoiding distractions, such as eating or cell phone use, all of these are behaviors that truck drivers can exhibit to decrease the likelihood of an accident. Thanks to a new technology, that likelihood may go down in the near future.

The program is known as "DriveCam" and utilizes a camera to monitor driver's behavior. Essentially, it is an onboard system, which carefully scrutinizes the actions of truck drivers. According to the Virginia Tech study of commercial vehicle accidents, focusing on trucks and buses, the safety system could not only cut back on collisions, injuries and deaths, but it could do so significantly. The CEO of Lytx, which powers the program, noted that the technology combines the effectiveness of predictive analytics, cloud technology and video. Interestingly, the CEO also mentioned how 90% of fatal vehicle crashes are preventable.

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 Posted on May 08, 2014 in Drunk Driving Accidents

Due to the imposing size and weight of most trucks, when people hear about a truck accident it may be easy to assume that the truck driver is less likely to suffer and injury. However, truck drivers are just as vulnerable as everyone else when a drunk driver is on the road. An accident is made even more tragic when the tow truck driver is on the road trying to help a stranded driver and is caught in the path of an intoxicated motorist.

Recently in Virginia, a deadly drunk driving accident happened on I-295 that resulted in one man's death and landed a driver inside a jail cell. On May 1, a tow truck stopped to assist a stranded driver on the shoulder of I-295. While standing on the traffic side of the stopped vehicle, the 22-year-old truck driver was hit by an SUV and killed. Apparently the Ford Explorer ran off the side of the road, into the tow truck and its driver, then flipped-over into a nearby ditch.

The dramatic and deadly scene did not end there. After the SUV rolled over, its driver fled the scene and was spotted later in a residential area, where he was promptly arrested. Police charged the 31-year-old with DUI, felony hit-and-run, involuntary manslaughter and refusal to submit to a blood alcohol test. In addition, the driver was charged with obstruction of justice.

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 Posted on April 30, 2014 in Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents

Whether one drives through Northern Virginia's bucolic suburbs or the region's more urban cities, there are always pedestrians to watch out for when behind the wheel. In the suburbs, there are often people engaging in recreational activities such as jogging or biking; in the urban areas, there is the presence of commuters via bike, as well as individuals who are constantly crossing city streets. In both types of areas, there can also be children, either going to school or playing near the roads.

Recently in Virginia, a six-year-old child was struck by a car in Front Royal, which is located about an hour west of Fairfax. Per witness accounts, the little boy was hit by an SUV as he ran out into the road. The child had apparently been confused as to the location of his family and was heading for home, when he was abruptly hit by the vehicle.

Before the accident, the kindergartner had been shopping with his family in a nearby grocery store, became separated from his family and wandered outside toward his home. Running into the street, he was hit by a Toyota 4-Runner and died immediately. According to police, a fight erupted near the site of the incident; the fight was related to the accident, but no arrests were made. Authorities were ultimately able to break up the dispute.

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 Posted on April 24, 2014 in Drunk Driving Accidents

Several recent drunk driving accidents in Virginia have reminded residents that alcohol and driving are two things that should never be mixed together. However, as the weather grows more pleasant, the days get longer and Virginians head outdoors, there is often a predictable increase in the number of drunk driving accidents that mar the state's roadways every year.

Earlier this spring, a woman who police say was driving drunk struck and killed a man on his bicycle. More recently in Danville, a drunk driving accident required a man to be airlifted to a hospital. According to some Virginia police officers, who have tried to make the public more aware of the dangers of drunk driving, alcohol has an array of different effects that can all have tragic consequences.

Having a bit of alcohol in one's system and then getting behind the wheel can lead to a simple rear-end collision or a disastrous head-on collision. Alcohol is a depressant; thus, it tends to relax both the muscles as well as the central nervous system. As a result, a drunk driver is much less able to focus than a sober motorist.

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 Posted on April 18, 2014 in Truck Accidents

A semi truck accident is usually anything but mundane, as the gigantic vehicles can cause all sorts of catastrophic damage. A recent tractor trailer accident in Virginia, though, proved particularly dramatic and left a wake of serious injuries and fatalities.

During the very early hours of the morning on Interstate 81, a tractor trailer overturned. Another car, a Lexus headed in the same direction, collided with the overturned truck. Tragically, the female driver of the Lexus died en route to a hospital, although the semi truck driver managed to escape the wreck. Police later charged that driver with reckless driving.

The series of events didn't stop there, however. The collision apparently caused a piece of guardrail to go into the other lane of traffic, and a semi heading in the opposite direction hit the guardrail piece and swerved off the road and into the center median. The semi continued in the median until it slammed into the edge of a bridge. Following that impact, it then tumbled onto the roadway below, Route 90, where it caught on fire. The 34-year-old truck driver perished at the scene, while a man in the sleeper cab was ejected from the vehicle. That man suffered severe injuries in the accident.

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 Posted on April 10, 2014 in Drunk Driving Accidents

Tragedy struck Roanoke, Virginia recently when an apparent drunk driver struck a bicyclist during the nighttime hours. On March 31, a woman behind the wheel of a van was heading north on Franklin Road when her vehicle struck the 59-year-old bicyclist, who died as a result of the drunk driving accident.

Police arrested the 33-year-old driver shortly after the accident in a nearby parking lot. Police charged the woman with driving drunk and for DUI manslaughter, both serious crimes in Virginia. The accident investigation included blood samples taken at a local jail; authorities revealed that the woman's blood alcohol content level was three times the legal limit after the crash. The day after the incident, police spoke with witnesses and secured search warrants not only for the woman's vehicle, but also for her medical records and cell phone records.

Following an accident caused by a drunk driver, these types of records can prove critical in both criminal and civil cases that arise. Medical records can show if a driver was supposed to be on certain medications or was restricted from driving in the first place. Cell phone records, of course, can show if a driver was exhibiting negligence by texting while driving or using a cell phone in the moments leading up to a crash. Finally, witness accounts can be critical in finding out what each party was doing right before the collision, which in turn can help demonstrate fault if need be.

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 Posted on April 02, 2014 in Commercial Vehicle Accidents

Commercial vehicle accidents, such as those involving semi-trucks, tractor-trailers, buses, box trucks, and other large vehicles, can have many different causes. Some are due to a negligent truck driver or negligent commercial truck company, but other accidents can be caused by the negligence of other drivers on the road.

In some cases, a commercial vehicle accident may be less deadly because the large vehicles protect occupants better than smaller vehicles. However, larger vehicles can also be more prone to rolling-over, and a rollover can have dramatically harmful consequences. Recently on I-95 in Virginia, a bus carrying 16 passengers overturned near Lorton. Near exit 163, a passenger car was apparently speeding and cut into the path of the shuttle bus. The bus and car collided, and the bus went off the road, into a guardrail and overturned.

The 16 passengers, as well as the driver of the bus, were all taken to hospitals. Sadly, one person died and both the bus driver as well as another passenger suffered serious injuries. Most of the accident victims were in their 20s and hailed from Virginia's Prince William County. The deceased victim was just 24 years old and had been working as well as studying computers in community college.

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 Posted on March 26, 2014 in Commercial Vehicle Accidents

One of the most terrifying thing any Northern Virginia driver can encounter is a wrong-way driver. When the vehicle coming at you is a snow plow, the fear factor understandably gets taken up another notch. Recently in Arlington, a snow plow was headed in the wrong direction and another driver narrowly avoided a commercial vehicle accident.

There is video of the frightening scene, which caused a driver to swerve off the road and barely escape a head-on crash. That driver was able to take a cell phone video of the snow plow's travel; the video later turned up on a local news broadcast. The witness narrates the video and comments that the snow plow driver's wrong-way antics could easily kill someone. Later, that same plow struck a car at an intersection, according to officials from Arlington County.

On Arlington Boulevard, another snow plow experienced troubles and was wobbling on a median for a time. Yet another incident resulted in downed power lines in Sterling, after a collision between a box truck and a car. The impact sent the truck off the road and into a power pole. Both the pole and even some live wires were knocked down.

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