Cincinnati Personal Injury Law Blog

We've been hearing a lot more recently about the dangers of texting and driving and how the practice has led to countless car accidents. But no age group appears to be more prone to both causing and suffering injuries and death from this mode of distracted driving than teenagers. According to a U.S. government website devoted to the perils of distracted driving, drivers are23 times more likely to crash if they're texting. In 2009, 16 percent of teen drivers involved in a fatal crash were reported to have been distracted.

The family of a teenage girl who died in a car accident while she was texting has been touring the country, her mangled vehicle in tow. They've been speaking at schools nationwide, including one in Cincinnati, warning of the dangers of texting and driving. They say that parking her truck outside schools for everyone to see sends a clear and jarring message to students who don't think a serious accident could happen to them. They're also asking students to sign a pledge to stay focused behind the wheel. While students aren't required to participate, most of them do.

When a person dies in an accident caused by someone else, it can be hard for the victim's family to process his or her death, along with the associated expenses. In addition to any initial medical expenses, there are usually funeral and burial costs. Many families elect to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the person who caused the death. But what if that person hasn't been found or been proven guilty?

An elderly woman from northeast Ohio is denying she was the driver of a car that fatally struck a 13-year-old boy and then left the scene. The crash happened in October when the boy was walking along a road with friends, handing out invitations to his birthday party. The driver left the scene after crashing into him, and he died the next day in a hospital from blunt force trauma to his head.

Those of us who have relatives in nursing homes place a lot of trust in the people paid to care for them. We rely on these workers to make sure our family members have a good quality of life and are protected from injury and illness. But sometimes harm does come to nursing home and hospice residents, and when that happens, our first instinct is to look for gaps in our loved one's care. If those gaps are found to exist, a lawsuit may follow.

This was the case of a nursing home resident who died in December 2010 after living at a West Virginia care facility for just over a year. A family member of the relative has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home, its parent company and the employment service it uses. The Ohio woman claims that the nursing home and its employees failed to provide adequate nutrition and sufficient hydration to her family member, who was transferred to hospice care seven days before her death due to her deteriorating condition, according to the lawsuit.

In a car accident that seriously injures someone, the driver who caused the crash can expect to face not only criminal charges, but also a personal injury lawsuit or even one alleging wrongful death if the injuries were fatal. Injury accidents can result in long-term medical expenses, and it's understandable for a driver at fault to be held liable for those costs.

But a Cincinnati man benefited from someone else's kindness after an accident he caused back in August. The man's car crossed the center line of the road and struck the vehicle of a police sergeant who was on his way to work. The impact pushed the sergeant's car into oncoming traffic, where it was hit by two more vehicles. Several months later, the officer is still recovering from his injuries.

Traveling by bike has become an increasingly popular way to get around, either for fun or to commute to and from school or work. Whether the motivation is exercise, protecting the environment or sheer recreation, you may have noticed more bicycles attempting to share the road with cars. This increase means it's more important than ever to keep an eye out for bicyclists and to give them plenty of room when you're driving to avoid an accident like the one that happened in Licking County, Ohio, last week.

A teenage boy was injured when his bicycle was hit by a car. The 15-year-old was riding his bike down a road in the middle of the afternoon when a car traveling in the same direction approached him from behind. According to Ohio Highway Patrol troopers, the vehicle went off the left side of the roadway, which caused the driver to overcorrect. He drove back onto the road, lost control and drove back off the left side of the road and into a ditch. As the car swerved, it struck the teen from behind. Troopers said the impact was so great that it caused the boy to go through the windshield of the car and land in the front passenger seat. Both he and the driver were taken to hospitals.

The estate of an Ohio man who died during a vacation has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Sheriff's Department of Lee County, Florida, claiming deputies tortured and pepper-sprayed him to death.

The 62-year-old man was on vacation 2½ years ago when his wife said he showed signs of depression and erratic behavior. Fearing he was suffering a mental breakdown, she called authorities and asked them to take him to a hospital and give him medication, but instead they arrested him for disorderly intoxication. The deputies are accused of then stripping the man naked, strapping him to a chair, covering his mouth and putting a hood over his head. They then pepper-sprayed him 10 times over two days, according to the family's attorney, who likened the actions to torture.

One of the first rules we learn as drivers is to maintain a safe following distance. Vehicles in front of us can stop quickly and without notice, and it's incumbent upon the drivers of cars behind a vehicle to avoid crashing into it. Rear-end car accidents are common and at high speeds, can cause injuries to the passengers in the car that was hit. Fatalities are much more rare in rear-end collisions, but they can happen.

A New Year's Day crash in Providence Township, Ohio, was one such instance. A 49-year-old man stopped his Jeep Wrangler at an intersection just after 1 a.m. Sunday. The Jeep had stopped working, so he was stalled at the stop sign. That's when a woman driving an SUV struck the Jeep from behind, pushing it into a guardrail. The Jeep caught fire with the man inside it. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A Tennessee doctor failed to properly treat a newborn baby, leading to significant injuries, a lawsuit alleges.

The mother of the boy, now 2½ years old, has sued the physician on behalf of her son. The suit contends that soon after delivering the boy, the doctor put the baby in a plastic bin to die.