Category: Auto Accident Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska
Keating, O'Gara Attorney Doug Peterson Files Tort Claim for Defectively Designed Roundabout in Southwest Lincoln
Posted by Jeff Downing in Auto Accident Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Auto Accidents, Car Crash Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Defective Design, Defective Products, Defective Signage, Nebraska Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer, Nebraska Wrongful Death Attorney, Personal Injury, Product Defect Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Wrongful Death Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska Monday, 28 June 2010 11:56 No Comments
Attorney Doug Peterson of the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm has filed a tort claim on behalf of a seriously injured client regarding an accident that occurred at a poorly designed roundabout in southwest Lincoln.
From the Lincoln Journal Star:
WOMAN SAYS COUNTY IS PARTIALLY LIABLE FOR MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT
By Algis Laukitis
Lincoln Journal Star
Posted: Sunday, June 27, 2010 5:22 pmA woman who was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in May 2009 has filed a $1 million tort claim against Lancaster County.
An attorney for Lycebeth Loy alleges the county is partially liable because of inadequate warning signs and street lights at a roundabout in an undeveloped area of Lincoln.
Lycebeth Loy was a passenger on a motorcycle driven by her husband, Robert, when it struck a median as he approached the roundabout at Southwest Fourth Street on May 6, 2009.
Police say Robert applied his brakes, but lost control of the motorcycle and his wife was thrown to the concrete. Both Loys were wearing helmets.
As a result of her severe head injury, her attorney, Douglas Peterson of Lincoln, says Lycebeth Loy required emergency medical treatment and long-term medical care and therapy, the cost of which currently exceeds $300,000. She also asks to be paid for future medical care and past and future wages.
Tort claims are required by state law and are a prerequisite to filing a lawsuit in district court. A political subdivision can approve or disapprove a claim. Lycebeth Loy is asking for not less than $1 million, the maximum amount under the state’s Political Subdivisions Tort Claims Act.
The County Board is scheduled to vote on the tort claim on Tuesday. Such claims are routinely denied.
The Hallam couple filed a tort claim against the City of Lincoln in March because it was involved in the “design, maintenance and control” of the Denton Road detour along Amaranth Lane, which leads to the roundabout.
Peterson alleges Amaranth Lane was created for a proposed development of a Walmart shopping center and other commercial property. He says the lane was designed to be fully illuminated with a roundabout in the middle. The development was never built.
“Once the project went dormant, the road became a dark cornfield with an unlit roundabout in the middle of darkness,” Peterson wrote in the tort claim.
Peterson said the couple were unfamiliar with the road, did not know it had a roundabout, and could not see any reflective markers or any warning signs.
“We contend that it was very foreseeable that drivers would be completely unfamiliar with this area since the road has never been open to the public,” Peterson wrote.
“Drivers would be completely unfamiliar with a roundabout contained in the darkness of this road.”
If you or a loved one have been injured on a Nebraska road or highway due to improper signage or defective highway design, call the experienced lawyers of the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm for a free consultation: 888/234-0621.
Professor Richard Epstein Argues Against Cap on Liability Damages
Posted by Jeff Downing in Auto Accident Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Car Crash Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Constitutional Rights, Keating O'Gara Law Firm, Medical Malpractice, Medical Malpractice Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Nebraska Medical Malpractice Attorney, Nebraska Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer, Nebraska Wrongful Death Attorney, Product Defect Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Wrongful Death Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska Wednesday, 16 June 2010 13:10 No Comments
Arguments against liability caps don’t just come from plaintiff’s attorneys. Highly respected University of Chicago professor Richard Epstein argues against a statutory cap on damages for BP.
From the Wall Street Journal:
BP Doesn’t Deserve a Liability Cap
By RICHARD A. EPSTEINOur national frustration continues to rise with each new drop of BP oil that leaks into the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone knows we can’t legislate away environmental risks without consigning ourselves to the Stone Age. What’s needed going forward is a comprehensive legal strategy that addresses the risks though a combination of regulation before the fact and tort liability (and criminal sanctions where appropriate) afterwards.
Tort remedies are essential to protect people (and their property) who do not have contractual relations with defendants from harms such as air and water pollution. The legal system should never allow self-interested parties to keep for themselves all the gains from dangerous activities that unilaterally impose losses on others—which is why the most devout defender of laissez-faire must insist, not just concede, that tough medicine is needed in these cases. The fundamental question here is one of technique: What mix of before and after sanctions will do the job at the lowest cost?
The first element in the mix is a no-nonsense liability system that fastens full responsibility on the parties who run dangerous operations, no excuses allowed. Accordingly, we have to be especially wary of statutory caps on tort damages, including the current law, under which, in the case of the oil industry, the “total of liability . . . with respect to each incident shall not exceed for an offshore facility except a deepwater port, the total of all removal costs plus $75,000,000.” That $75 million is chicken feed. Fortunately, the law removes that cap if the incident was caused by “the gross negligence or willful misconduct” of any party, or its failure to comply with any “applicable Federal safety, construction, or operating regulation.”
To truly have a “system of justice”, you can not have liability caps–for BP or any other negligent actor.
Survey: Americans strongly support public policies to reduce highway deaths
Posted by Jeff Downing in Auto Accident Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Auto Accidents, Car Crash Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Nebraska Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer, Nebraska Wrongful Death Attorney, Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, Wrongful Death Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska Thursday, 3 June 2010 16:35 No Comments
From USA Today:
Survey: More support road rules
USA Today
By Larry Copeland
June 3, 2010Americans strongly support public policies to reduce highway deaths, including some measures that many elected officials consider too restrictive, such as alcohol ignition interlocks and traffic enforcement cameras, a new national survey finds.
The Center for Excellence in Rural Safety at the University of Minnesota found that most Americans support ignition interlocks for those convicted of drunken driving and automated speed enforcement using cameras and radar. Respondents also support sobriety checkpoints, mandatory motorcycle helmet laws, phased-in privileges for new drivers and laws enabling police to ticket drivers solely for not wearing seat belts. . . .
If you or a loved one have been injured due to a negligent motorist, call the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm at 888/234-0621 for a free initial consultation.
Defective Toyota Accelerator May Have Led to Wrongful Death
Posted by Jeff Downing in Auto Accident Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Car Crash Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Product Defect Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Product Liability, Safety, Wrongful Death, Wrongful Death Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska Tuesday, 2 February 2010 15:29 No Comments
From The Houston Chronicle:
Fatal Houston crash leads to lawsuit against Toyota
By Mary Flood
Feb. 1, 2010, 10:40PM
The family of a Houston woman whose car sped through a stop sign and smashed into a cement wall, killing her on impact a week before Christmas, filed what is likely the third acceleration-related wrongful death lawsuit against Toyota in the nation Monday.Trina Renee Harris, a 34-year-old mother of two, died on impact when her 2009 Toyota Corolla slammed into an East Hardy Toll Road cement divider at Barry, leaving no skid marks, Houston police reported.
Her husband, Michael Harris, filed a lawsuit Monday against Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., gas pedal maker CTS Corp. and Fred Haas Toyota World, which leased her the car. Lawyers involved in the lawsuit said it’s likely the third such case filed in response to acceleration problems that prompted Toyota to recall millions of vehicles and halt some production.
“I want those who were negligent to be held responsible. This problem was there before Dec. 18 when she died,” Michael Harris said. The U.S. Navy petty officer first class had recently completed a stint on an aircraft carrier in the Middle East and was in San Diego when he learned of his wife’s death. He returned to Houston, where the family opened Christmas gifts Trina Harris had bought . . . .
If you or a loved one have been injured in Nebraska due to a defective Toyota accelerator pedal, call the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm at 888/234-0621 for a free consultation.
For helpful advice on what to do if the accelerator sticks, watch the following video:
Failure to Provide Three Point Restraint for Rear Seat Passenger Leads to Verdict Against Ford Motor Co.
Posted by Jeff Downing in Auto Accident Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Car Crash Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Defective Products, Personal Injury, Product Defect Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska, Product Liability, Safety, Spinal Cord Injury, Wrongful Death Lawyer Lincoln Nebraska Monday, 4 January 2010 15:15 No Comments
From Law.com
Already on the hook for the lion’s share of a $17.7 million judgment and waiting for a decision from a jury that was out considering punitive damages, Ford Motor Co. decided to settle with a couple who sued following a Christmas 2005 wreck that left the woman paralyzed.
The agreement came after a Clayton County, Ga., jury ordered Ford on Dec. 18 to pay more than $16 million of the judgment to compensate for what the plaintiffs argued were design defects in the 2002 Explorer sport utility vehicle in which the woman was a passenger.
Lynn Wheeler, then 58, was seated in the back seat between her two grandchildren, who were in booster seats, as her son drove to church that morning along Noah’s Ark Road in Clayton County . . . Wheeler, who was restrained only by a lap belt, slammed forward and down as the rear seat latch failed, and it collapsed on her.
“As a result,” says the pre-trial order, “Lynn Wheeler’s head and neck were driven down and forward into the front seat and/or center console, catastrophically injuring her spinal cord.”
* * *
The complaint asserted that the automaker’s design for both the rear seat latch and decision to install a lap belt rather than a three-point shoulder belt constituted negligence, and it also said Ford should have warned the Wheelers and the general public “of the dangers in a reasonably foreseeable collision presented by the design of the Ford Explorer rear seat, occupant restraint system and surrounding structures.”
If you or a loved one have been injured due to a product defect such as a poorly designed restraint system, please call the Keating, O’Gara Law Firm at 888/234-0621 for a free consultation.
