A problem with waking up Americans about the carnage on their roads and highways is that traffic tragedies, though they take an enormous toll, are incremental. Six die in Florida. Two more die in East Texas. It’s news, and it’s shattering to the victims’ immediate families, but in the broader news context of a given day, it tends to slip in beneath the radar.

Of course, at the end of the year will come the news that another 40,000 or more Americans have died in traffic accidents. But that cumulative amount spread out over 365 days won’t have the same impact as if those people had died simultaneously, or from one cause.

Actually, many will share a cause for their accident. It is called an 18 wheeler.

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What will it take to get the message through to Americans that we are slaughtering each other on our roads, highways and train lines, and all for the sake of a phone call or a text message that could have waited?

Perhaps a catastrophic train wreck will be our wake-up call? Or perhaps school bus carnage? Actually, both such things already have occurred this month.

These horrific accidents could have been avoided if the driver of a semi truck and a commuter train had been paying attention, rather than being distracted by using a cell phone.

In Florida, four young students are in critical condition and a 13-year-old eighth-grade girl is dead because a man driving a large semi truck was talking on his cell phone and slammed into the back of a school bus as it was stopped to let students get off.

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And so, it continues. More than 10 days after Hurricane Ike’s onslaught, hundreds of thousands in southeast Texas still lack electrical power. Debris is piled high, trees are downed and buildings are damaged. With traffic lights out, congestion rules, and hotter weather is sparking hot tempers. Hurricane fatigue has set in.

Yet the Houston area will survive. Why? Because its boomtown spirit knows no other way. Progress may be slow, but it’s happening, and the region eventually will get back to normal — which is to say, bustling, thriving and alive.

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From homeowners to businesses, those who suffered from Hurricane Ike have a lot of cleanup to do — and a lot of insurance claims to file. But sadly, insurance coverage isn’t always promptly or adequately paid. If you have trouble with hurricane insurance fraud, you may need a Houston hurricane insurance fraud lawyer with Jim S. Adler & Associates.

Many businesses have business interruption insurance, which covers their losses when they are forced to shut down temporarily due to circumstances such as a fire or hurricane. Their business interruption insurance normally should provide coverage for lost net profits, as well as for continuing expenses related to the interruption.

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For anyone who thinks they aren’t responsible for their pet dog’s behavior, think again. A woman in Michigan has been sentenced to spend up to 15 years in prison because her bulldogs mauled and killed two people.

The woman had a horse farm on her property, about 45 miles west of Detroit, but the fence surrounding it was inadequate to keep her 10 dogs from leaving the property. Four of the dogs attacked and killed a 91-year-old man who was standing in his driveway and also killed a 56-year-old woman who was jogging nearby.

The woman also must pay restitution, and she will serve at least 43 months in prison. Her 10 dogs have been euthanized by authorities.

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Now that Hurricane Ike has taken a hike and the battered Gulf Coast is recovering, more than 2 million residences and many businesses still lack power. That includes Jim S. Adler & Associates’ Channelview office. But the firm’s Houston office is fully powered and reopened Tuesday morning, while its Dallas and San Antonio offices remain open and completely operational. Also, the Channelview office staff is working out of the Houston office and can be reached via phone or email.

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It’s  bad enough that cell phone and text messaging distractions have meant many fatalities and serious injuries on America’s roads and highways. Now such driver distractions also may be to blame for up to 25 fatalities in a horrendous train collision in California.

A commuter train slammed into a freight train last Friday reportedly due to human error by the commuter train’s engineer, who failed to stop for a red signal. Now authorities are investigating the possibility that the engineer was text messaging to two teenagers — who were train enthusiasts — just before the fatal crash which also took his life. (more…)

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Teens aren’t going to like it, but what’s to like about being dead? Spurred by the fact that 5,000 teen drivers die annually in traffic accidents — and are 10 times more likely to have a crash than drivers 30-59 years old — some are calling for raising the driving age.

In Texas, that age is now 16. The lowest driving age is 14 years and three months (why the three months extra?) in South Dakota.  The highest driving age is 17, in New Jersey. And what’s happened in Bruce Springsteen country? The number of young drivers killed in teen driving crashes is consistently lower than in neighboring states with lower driving ages.

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Fall is coming, the air is cooling, and fall fun is in that air.

Just be sure your fall fun doesn’t lead to a fall — or other accident — involving an all terrain vehicle.

Small ATVs such as Yamaha Rhino ATVs are not road-worthy — in fact, they’re illegal to drive on Texas streets and highways. Rather, they are meant for off-road recreation. The trouble is, thousands of ATV users are having so much “recreation” that it’s maiming or killing them.

High-profile victims have included rocker Ozzy Osbourne, who broke six ribs, his collarbone and a vertebra in his neck in a 2003 ATV accident, and sax player LeRoi Moore of the Dave Matthews Band, who died two months after an ATV accident last June.

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In many ways, driving is all about margin of error. Or in gambling terms, it’s about odds. When you drive defensively, you enhance your odds, along with the margin of error by you or another driver. If you tailgate, drive too fast, change lanes suddenly, cut off other cars and otherwise are reckless, your margin of error – your odds – will only shrink.

Many reckless drivers have been lucky for so long that they figure this margin of error doesn’t apply to them. They figure they’ve been able to tailgate, speed and whip in and out of lanes so many times without an accident, that why shouldn’t they keep doing it? Of course, sooner or later such odds may catch up with them. Sooner or later, someone may pay a horrible price for their recklessness. (more…)

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