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Toyota stuck accelerator defect didn’t spur recall soon enough for victims

February 3rd, 2010

For decades, millions of Americans have trusted Japanese automaker Toyota. They’ve bought Toyota’s cars and have made Toyota rich. And how has Toyota repaid them? With treachery. How so? Because Toyota knew that its cars had stuck accelerator defects in 2009, and it didn’t recall them until forced to do so by the U.S. government in 2010.

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said as much this week when he revealed that it took considerable pressure from the government before Toyota would recall millions of cars in order to fix their gas pedals.

Because Toyota dragged its corporate feet, many Americans have died in horrific car crash accidents, when their vehicle suddenly sped up and they couldn’t slow it down. Such victims’ survivors now face a life of anguish, but they’re making their voices heard by launching lawsuits against Toyota for its manufacturing negligence.

Such lawsuits should seek punitive damages as well as compensatory damages, since  Toyota should be punished for its outrageous indifference to public safety. The manufacturer seemed willing to pay victims and survivors settlements as part of the price of doing business. Fortunately, that wasn’t enough for the federal government, whose intervention led to the enormous recall of 2.3 million vehicles in America to fix accelerator pedals which might stick.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to a defective Toyota product, let a defective product lawyer or car accident lawyer with USALegalHelpCenter.com go to work for you. He or she will fight for your rights to fitting and fair financial compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Toyota sent a message to American consumers with its early disregard of its stuck gas pedal crisis. Now send a message to Toyota that such callous indifference to public safety will not be tolerated in the U.S. legal system.

Bruce Westbrook Toyota recall, auto accident, car accident, defective product, traffic accident , , , ,

Distracted drivers via calling, texting continue to slaughter innocent Americans

January 29th, 2010

Distracted drivers using cell phones to call or text killed about 6,000 Americans in car crash accidents last year. And more and more states are passing laws banning texting or calling when behind the wheel. Yet some results of such bans are not encouraging.

According to the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), affiliated with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), no reduction in crashes occurred in New York, Connecticut, California and Washington, D.C. after bans on drivers using handheld cell phones took effect. This was based on assessing insurance claims for car crash damages.

Why? That’s a good question, since the link between cell phones and traffic deaths has been clearly established. One conclusion could be that fewer drivers in those states chose to heed the law and continued texting and talking, anyway.

Another possibility is that drivers who’d used handheld phones changed to bluetooth devices or other hands-free phones. Research shows that those phones also involve dangerous driver distractions. So, states changing the law and then drivers changing phones didn’t help.

Answers may be elusive, but they will come — and they must come, because Americans are being slaughtered by those who think driving a heavy vehicle in heavy traffic isn’t important enough when they want to divert themselves by phoning or texting inconsequential messages to friends.

All laws which seek to restrict if not outlaw such driving distractions and cell phone accidents are basically common sense laws. And they aren’t meant to punish, but to protect. After all, every person who drives also has hours each day when they aren’t driving, and those hours are the times to make phone calls, send text messages or surf the Web. Looking away even for a moment while traffic whizzes by is not the right time. It’s the potentially fatal time.

Such laws and their results will bear watching in the years ahead, as American comes to terms with cell phone fixations — even  addictions — of so many citizens. But flatline results in three states do not mean we should back off and cede the progress already made. They only mean we should re-examine our efforts and work harder. The payoff — in spared lives and in whole families — is certainly worth it.

USA Legal Help Center.com supports victims of distracted driving car crash accidents. A cell phone accident lawyer can seek financial compensation in a cell phone accident lawsuit or distracted driver lawsuit.

Bruce Westbrook auto accident, car accident, cell phone accident, distracted driving, texting accident , ,

Injured seamen deserve respect — and an experienced Jones Act lawyer

January 7th, 2010

America’s seamen face physically demanding tasks each day, and for that they deserve our respect. Yet when such seamen are injured in American waters,  they don’t always get the financial compensation they deserve.

That may be because they accept a quick cash settlement from their employer that’s not nearly enough. It also may be because they rely on Workers Compensation benefits, which can be marginal.

A far better source of recovery can be gained under the Jones Act, a law passed in 1920 to protect the rights of American seamen. The Jones Act provides more far-ranging recovery to seamen who are injured on the job, or to their survivors if they are killed.

Financial recovery should be pursued under the Jones Act if a seaman was injured due to unseaworthiness of a vessel or due to negligence on the part of his employer or fellow crew members, for whom the employer is responsible.

If you or a loved one is such an injured seaman, and you still aren’t sure about your eligibility or strategies for recovery, alert an experienced and knowledgeable Jones Act lawyer or attorney, or a maritime accident injury lawyer or attorney, with USA Legal Help Center.

Legal help can be supplied to seamen from all 50 states for injuries suffered on American waters. Simply fill out the free case review form on this Web page, and a USA Legal Help Center representative will respond to you shortly.

Bruce Westbrook Jones Act, maritime injury

Suffer a drunk driving accident injury? Let a USA accident lawyer help

December 10th, 2009

As the holiday season looms, drunk drivers lurk. They can come from anywhere — a home, a bar, an office, a holiday party — and can strike just as unexpectedly, killing and maiming innocent Americans. And it’s all because they choose to drink and drive — a willful act of horrendous negligence which causes about 30 per cent of all USA traffic fatalities per year.

Indeed, drunk driving accidents have killed more than half a million Americans since 1982. That’s more Americans than have been killed by foreign enemies in all wars since and including World War II.

Read more…

Bruce Westbrook auto accident, car accident, drunk driving , , ,

Hang up and drive! Or at least obey no-texting laws

October 9th, 2009

Last week’s national summit on distracted driving brought much needed attention to a malady that’s killing and maiming thousands of Americans. It seems cell phone calling and texting along with web surfing is an addiction, and people can’t seem to stop doing it, even when engaged in the most dangerous thing they do each day: driving.

Since it’s not enough to say “Hang up and drive” and expect everyone to do it, anymore than it’s not enough to say “Just say no” to drugs and expect everyone to do it, states are passing laws to, in effect, legislate common sense. Up to 18 states and the District of Columbia now have laws on the books making texting while driving illegal.

Read more…

Bruce Westbrook 18 wheeler, auto accident, big rig, car accident, cell phone accident, semi truck, tractor trailer, traffic accident, truck accident

Women DUI arrests show alarming rise in drunk driving

August 20th, 2009

Men have always been guilty of enormous wrongs as drunk drivers. No news there. But women are narrowing the gap rapidly, and that’s news — big news.

In fact, it’s alarming news, because if women drinkers become as dangerous on our roads and highways as men, then America’s carnage from drunk driving accidents is going to get far, far worse. And it’s bad enough already, with about 16,000 drunk driving deaths per year.

Read more…

Bruce Westbrook auto accident, car accident, drunk driving, traffic accident ,

After carnage of car accidents, USA steers course to ban texting while driving

August 5th, 2009

State by state, Americans are standing up to resist today’s avalanche of driver distractions, largely spurred by the cell phone industry. And now the federal government is trying to help, too.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, on behalf of President Obama, is calling for a national summit of safety experts to address the explosion of irresponsible driving that’s accompanied the invention of cell phones and texting. Millions of Americans talk by cell and send texts while driving, and many of them have killed their fellow Americans in the process.

So far, 17 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws making texting while driving illegal. Congress also is mulling legislation which would cut states’ highway funding by 25 per cent if they failed to pass such laws.

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Bruce Westbrook auto accident, car accident, cell phone accident, traffic accident ,

USA car accident deaths decline, yet driving errors persist

July 15th, 2009

Fatal traffic accidents involving a car, auto, truck, bus, motorcycle or other vehicles are declining in America. That’s the good news. The bad news is that at least 37,000 Americans still die on the USA’s roads and highways each year, and almost all of them die due to persistent and, in some ways, increasing driver errors.

Indeed, drivers are the most vital variable in car wrecks and other traffic accidents — not weather, defective parts or road conditions. Though such reasons and many others do arise in wrecks, most collisions continue to be due to drivers who — quite simply — make a momentary but lasting mistake.

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Bruce Westbrook MRI, auto accident, big rig, car accident, motorcycle accident, traffic accident, truck accident , , , , ,

Drunk driving plague merits law reforms — and drunk driving lawyers

July 7th, 2009

If terrorists were killing many thousands of Americans, injuring far more and causing billions of dollars in damages each year, something would be done about it. Sadly, homegrown “terrorists” are doing just that, and not enough is being done about it. These are the killers and destroyers also known as drunk drivers.

Drunk driving in America is a tragedy seemingly with no end. Though DUI or DWI accident fatalities have declined since as many as 26,000 died yearly three decades ago, the current annual death rate of around 16,000 is a horrendous price to pay for allowing drunks to roam freely on America’s roads and highways.

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Bruce Westbrook auto accident, car accident, drunk driving ,

Let a food poisoning lawyer take a bite out of industry negligence

June 24th, 2009

Almost daily, word spreads that more innocent Americans have been harmed by food poisoning. At first it’s news, then the hubbub subsides as the Food and Drug Administration or other watchdogs trace the source and fix the glitch. Yet victims continue to suffer quietly, and others keep joining their ranks.

Despite new get-tough policies by the FDA, is the problem ever truly solved when so many contaminants seep and ooze into America’s food supply chain, whose weak links have become alarmingly prevalent?

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Bruce Westbrook food poisoning , ,