Cincinnati Personal Injury Law Blog

With Ohio being home to some of the busiest highways and interstates in the country, a high fatality rate associated with car accidents is to be expected. Although the number of traffic-related deaths occurring in the state in 2009 showed an encouraging downward trend, the number still stood close to 1,000.

When deaths from other states are added to that number, the figure comes to nearly 40,000 a year. It is a figure that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says has an American going about every 10 seconds to an emergency room somewhere for treatment concerning a motor-vehicle injury.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio recently dismissed a $2 million wrongful death lawsuit brought by the mother of an Ohio woman who was kidnapped and murdered by her estranged husband in November 2006.

Lori Bailey obtained a civil protection order against John Bailey, her husband, from the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas on October 25, 2006. The order stipulated that Bailey must immediately vacate the couple's home and turn over all the deadly weapons he owned. Three deputies - including Patricia Bailey, John Bailey's sister - went to the home. Once there, Patricia Bailey stated that the order was not properly executed, and the deputies allowed Bailey to cause damage to the home and take weapons out of the house.

The following reminder might seem just a bit premature, with winter snow still many weeks - if not months - away, but the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus seeks to give us all a bit of a forewarning as to the number and severity of child injuries caused by sledding accidents each year.

Many of us tend to underestimate the dangers associated with such a traditional and time-honored activity, focusing instead, perhaps, on the enduring memories of bonding, laughter, crisp air, cocoa and all the other positive elements related to childhood.

There is both positive and sobering news to report in Ohio regarding motorcycle safety and motorcycle accidents. As to the former, Ohio Safety Office statistics indicate that there were fewer bike fatalities last year than in 2008. Notwithstanding that, though, numbers from the state Department of Public Safety's Traffic Safety Office show that cycle-related deaths are once again up this year when compared to the same time frame last year; moreover, motorcycle crashes and fatalities continue to occur at a much higher rate in Ohio than they do in the neighboring states of Michigan and Indiana.

"We are watching fatalities very closely," says Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Thomas J. Stickrath, "and it is crucial that we continue to educate everyone that riding and driving alert will save lives."

Country music songwriter Darrell "Wayne" Perry wrote nearly 3,000 songs during his lifetime, many of them hits for major country stars. When he died at the age of 55 in 2005, his assets became immediately embroiled in accusations and acrimonious exchanges between his four children and his sister, who became executor of his estate.
 
That acrimony included a wrongful death lawsuit that the children filed in 2006 against their aunt, Darlene Bishop, alleging that she sought to have her brother eschew medical care in favor of prayer to combat his cancer. Bishop is an evangelist and co-pastor of an Ohio church. She denied the wrongful death charge, stating that she encouraged Perry to consult with his doctors.

In a motorcycle accident such as the one that Columbus resident Lisa Taylor was involved in on a West Virginia road in 2007, it is slightly short of a miracle that she now lives to even tell the tale.

Taylor's story has more than a tinge of irony. At the time of her accident, she was a crash investigator for the Ohio State Highway Patrol. She was also a skilled motorcycle rider, as well as a major in the patrol and the highest ranking woman in the patrol's history.

Her career and her passion essentially ended on her 2007 trip with friends to West Virginia, when a car driven by an impaired driver slammed into her bike while rounding a curve. Taylor states that, "We had a combined impact speed of somewhere around 66 mph."

Ohio roadways are among the busiest in the nation, with the high number of motor vehicle accidents that routinely occur being a strong testament to that fact. Commercial truck accidents are of particular concern, given the severity and comparatively high incidence of death that accompanies them.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") has long been focused on both the dangers inherent in commercial trucking and safety measures that ameliorate trucking injuries and fatalities. In a study it has just conducted with University of Michigan researchers, the agency examined a stability control system that it describes as "a really powerful technology" for reducing truck accidents, especially rollover incidents.

This blog serves to update an earlier posting (July 23) in which a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died after being stunned by a Taser in a Cincinnati hospital was discussed.

That incident seems ever more topical following the recent report concerning the nephew of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Derek Thomas was admitted to a Louisiana hospital last month after an alleged suicide attempt. While trying to leave the hospital, a security guard shocked him with a Taser. Thomas is epileptic and suffered a seizure.

The use of Tasers in hospital settings is becoming increasingly controversial. A Washington Post article recently reported that, while most commonly confined to more traditional police settings, the use of Tasers in health-care settings is growing. The newspaper states that 151 hospitals across the country now have security teams with Taser weapons.