Dallas Texas Personal Injury Law Blog

Whether through movies or personal experience, you have likely seen the hospital room scene. A patient is hooked up to machines and has various tubes running in and out of his or her body. Obviously, those tubes are important to patients' health; that is why they are kept in the hospital and hooked up to the equipment.

But when medical tubes are not used correctly, the misuse can lead to serious injury or even death. Safety groups have been pushing for over a decade to improve the medical tubes used on patients in order to reduce the rate of medical errors that often end tragically.

The fatal Texas car accident happened more than two years ago, making the last two plus years likely feel like a long wait for the family of the Texas victims who died due to the reckless driving of David Calhoun Jones, 48. But much of their waiting is now over because a jury finally rendered a verdict in the case last Thursday, Aug. 26.

To understand the verdict, however, the details of the car accident that killed the Texas family of five must be discussed. On June 22, 2008, Geoff and Christy Hart and their three kids Rebekah, Kevinnesha and Raven, were riding in their minivan in Plano when a Pontiac crashed through their vehicle. Three of the victims died on impact, and the others died later in nearby hospitals.

Last Friday, two men were seriously injured in a Texas oilfield explosion. Both of the victims were working at the West Texas site as employees of Basic Energy Services, Inc. when the accident occurred.

The sheriff in the area laments that the two men suffered critical burns on their hands and faces, but the men are getting the medical treatment they need in a nearby Texas hospital. Both male victims are Texas locals and in their thirties. Other workers were also present during the potentially fatal incident, but they were not injured in the explosion.

With the economy, health care, the Gulf oil leak and more, one project that the Obama administration has taken on is not being widely discussed, but it is important for the future safety of commercial bus riders, which is an issue close to many people's hearts in Texas.

In 2008, a tragic Texas commercial bus accident killed 17 riders and injured others who were riding the bus just about one hour north of Dallas. Since the fatal crash, investigators have determined that the main reason the passengers in that crash were fatally injured was because they were not wearing seat belts.

According to research, 186 people have died in commercial bus accidents between 1999 and 2008. The Obama administration wants to make public transportation safer and announced this week that it will attempt to require that all commercial buses have safety belts.

A life sentence is about as serious as it gets. That sentence is usually saved for murderers and severely violent offenders, but a recent Texas DWI case has challenged that notion. In July, Bobby Stovall was arrested and charged with a DWI; it was his ninth drunk driving conviction in Texas.

The July arrest occurred after Stovall's drunkenness resulted in his reckless driving. He was swerving across lanes and crashed into an unsuspecting driver who luckily didn't suffer a serious personal injury in the car accident. When police tested Stovall's blood alcohol content level it measured at 0.32.

Senior Corporal Michael Manis is in a dangerous line of work, but work in law enforcement apparently gets even more dangerous once an officer is put on a motorcycle. To safely drive a motorcycle, most riders go through extensive training and protect themselves with the appropriate riding gear.

Those preventative measures are in bikers' control, but what is less in their control is the condition of the roads. What is not often discussed when it comes to the current recession is that cutbacks are endangering drivers and riders on our Texas roads, including trained riders such as motorcycle officers.

Officer Manis' recent crash proves that. On Monday, August 9, Officer Manis was working as part of the Dallas law enforcement team escorting President Obama to an area event. According to reports, Officer Manis got into an accident and suffered minor personal injuries when he hit a pothole on Wycliff Avenue while riding his motorcycle.

A growing trend among law enforcement in the states is for officers to use unmarked police cars. The goal? To instill within more drivers the knowledge that they could be pulled over at any time, despite their keen ability to spot police vehicles.

According to sources, the most habitual traffic law violators tend to identify marked cars on the road in time to correct their reckless driving and avoid being fined. By camouflaging the police vehicles, those violating traffic laws will more easily be caught in the act and faced with the appropriate, hopefully deterring penalties.

This change in strategy is encouraging to safety advocates around the country who are fed up with the number of car accidents that injure and kill victims because of reckless driving. Research shows that nearly one-third of traffic fatalities in the U.S. result from speeding.

Yes, BP is in the headlines again, and this story is not directly related to the massive Gulf oil spill. It seems as though when one scandal nears its end, another develops for the British oil company.

On Tuesday, a class action Texas lawsuit was filed against BP, claiming negligence that resulted in the potential health risks of Texas residents and refinery workers.

This case developed following a discovered gas leak in the Texas City BP oil refinery. According to the lawsuit, the machine responsible in the refinery for filtering out dangerous chemicals from entering the air was damaged on April 6.

Until May 22, the BP refinery did nothing to ensure the safety of the refinery workers and nearby residents. Even their scheduled repair for the machine was reportedly delayed.