A recent decision by the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest Court, in the case of Lifson v City of Syracuse and Klink highlights the “emergency doctrine”, which can have a huge effect in motor vehicle accident cases, as it did in this case. Irene Lifson, along with the defendant…
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released a study of seatbelt usage among all age groups and races around the United States. The study was conducted in June of 2009, and involved 70,493 occupants in 49,475 vehicles in 1,496 across the U.S. The study is known as the…
On July 26, 2009, Diane Schuler, a 36 year old wife, mother of two and aunt of three, drove southbound in the northbound lanes of the Taconic Parkway for 1.7 miles in an intoxicated condition (with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.19%, more than double the legal limit) with her…
An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that the casino tour bus involved in the March 12, 2011 fatal bus accident that killed 15 passengers was traveling at speeds of up to 78 m.p.h., more than 20 miles per hour over the speed limit. Investigators also…
Robert Donohue, a Southeast resident whose wife and 8 year old daughter were killed by a drunk driver back on June 8, 2009, has filed a Putnam County wrongful death lawsuit against the owner of the vehicle and the property owner where the accident happened. The facts are that on…
A September 23rd report from the American Journal of Public Health indicates that distracted driving fatalities have increased substantially between 2005 and 2008. The report uses data from the National Center for Statistics and Analysis’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which revealed that fatal car crashes due to texting while driving…
The family of Michael and Guy Bastardi, two of the victims of the horrific July 26 fatal motor vehicle crash on the Taconic Parkway which killed eight, commenced a lawsuit in the Westchester County Supreme Court this week. The lawsuit, as announced by Roseanne Guzzo, the daughter of 81 year…
Following the tragic Westchester County fatal car crash this past July, in which Diane Shuler killed herself and 7 others driving while intoxicated southbound in the northbound lanes of the Taconic Parkway, two other allegedly intoxicated drivers have driven the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway. First, in early September,…
In the wake of the horrific Westchester fatal car crash which killed 36 year old Diane Schuler, her 2 year old daughter, three young nieces, and three men on their way to a Sunday lunch with family, there is this question: Was this terrible tragedy avoidable? We have all heard…
We all have witnessed drivers on the highway applying makeup, shaving, looking at maps or other reading materials, and focusing on everything but the road. But in an eye-opening series in the New York Times entitled “Driven to Distraction“, studies have apparently shown that drivers using cellphones are four times…