South Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog

Your Charleston personal injury attorneys at Howell and Christmas, LLC found an interesting wrongful death case that alleges police owed a duty to protect the decedent's safety after his arrest and release from police custody. The polarizing lawsuit has made its way to the District Court of Appeals in Florida and raises questions about strict adherence of codified (or statutory) law and the interpretation of applicable common law principles. However, the judgments do not concern case resolution, rather the holdings discussed below determine whether the Plaintiff's (decedent's father) wrongful death claim meets the minimum threshold to establish a duty of care, a requirement needed for the suit to proceed.

In September 2007 a 24-year-old man was arrested by Boca Raton police for a number of traffic violations. After a night of heavy drinking the 24-year-old man, against the wishes of a family member, got into his truck and began driving erratically. Said family member, a cousin, followed him and called 911. Police took the man into custody, told his cousin to leave, arranged for his truck to be towed, and transported him to the police station. Police issued five traffic citations, none of which were for driving under the influence (DUI), and after calling the man a cab, released him from custody, still noticeably intoxicated. At 5:20 a.m. that morning (about an hour after his release) the man was laying next to railroad tracks a short distance from the police station. An approaching train struck and killed the man. At the time of his death, his blood alcohol level was .199; well over two-times the legal limit.

The man's father (Plaintiff) filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Boca Raton Police. As mentioned above, the suit claims police had a duty to protect Plaintiff's son's safety and not merely release him into the night. The suit was thrown out by the trial judge, a three-judge panel of the court ruled that Plaintiff could proceed with the suit; upon which the City of Boca Raton asked the full appeals court to review the panel's decision.

The Fourth District Court of Appeals in West Palm Beach, in a narrow six to five majority decision, ruled that police had no further responsibility for Plaintiff's son's safety after he stepped out of the police station door.

Continue reading "Future of Wrongful Death Lawsuit Uncertain After Narrow Court of Appeals Decision " »

During the summer months your Charleston accident lawyers at Howell and Christmas, LLC came across a number of train-related accidents occurring at railroad crossings. Links to the entries covering these incidents can be found directly below this post. But, over the last month there have been two fatal accidents involving trains. The happened in mid-November when a 27-year-old woman from Alabama either jumped off or fell from a CSX transportation train. According to a Post and Courier report, the train was about two miles south of U.S. Highway 17 and S.C. Highway 162 in Charleston County when the serious accident occurred. According to the Charleston County Coroner's Office, the woman died of blunt force trauma and it is thought that the fatal injury was not caused by direct impact with the train, but rather from the fall or jump from the moving locomotive.

After the accident, it was discovered that the woman was not riding alone on the train, she had illegally hopped on the train with a 29-year-old man from Connecticut. The man has since been charged with breaking and entering onto a train. According to an affidavit signed by the man, he continued on the train until it stopped in Georgia, where he told railroad officials about the incident.

More recently, a man was killed in Hanahan when his car was hit by an Amtrak passenger train. Witnesses on scene told authorities and investigators that a 1997 Pontiac Sunfire sedan was sitting on the railroad tracks when the crossing arms came down at Mabeline Road. Furthermore, witnesses said that the man in the vehicle appeared to be intoxicated at the time a southbound Amtrak train collided with the car, ripping the vehicle in half and killing the driver.

Continue reading "Vagabonds Hop Charleston Train Leading to Fatal Incident" »

As is the case with many South Carolina injury lawyer blog posts, there are often new incidents that bear a striking similarity to older entries, and this one is no different. Earlier this summer there were a couple entries posted concerning fatal auto and truck accidents involved with trains. And in today's Post and Courier there was an article reporting on another of these devastating accidents, however, by some miraculous means, this incident did not take any lives.

This past weekend, more specifically Saturday night around 11:30 p.m., a car sitting on the railroad tracks at U.S. Highway 52 and Red Bank Road was struck by a train. The driver of the vehicle was ejected from car and transported to Medical University Hospital for treatment of a head injury. Fortunately for the driver, the injury was reported to be non-life-threatening. According to Goose Creek Police, the driver of the vehicle was charged with blocking a railroad crossing. At this same railroad crossing on May 20, a car stopped on the tracks for a funeral procession and was hit by an oncoming train. That driver was also ticketed for obstructing a railroad crossing.

Both of these drivers beat the odds when it comes to train on automobile collisions. As your railroad accident attorneys at Howell and Christmas, LLC have cited in an earlier entry this summer, Troopers from the Louisiana State Police say that a train can drag an automobile at least a mile down the track, and keeping in mind the weight of a train, it is highly unlikely for an individual to survive a crash. The two drivers involved in these two Goose Creek incidents should be thankful they were able to receive their tickets for obstructing a railroad crossing.

Continue reading "Second Summer Collision at Railroad Crossing in Goose Creek" »

A couple weeks ago your South Carolina workers' compensation lawyers published a blog post concerning a growing threat to consumers that has severely injured a number of people across the Nation, as well as right here in the Charleston area. That threat is popular decorative ceramic firepots filled with dangerous pourable gel fuel. In last Thursday's Post and Courier, there was a report saying that these gel fuels have been recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

The reason behind the recall is that these flammable gels can ignite unexpectedly and splatter onto consumers and other objects nearby when it is poured into an already lit firepot, or as mentioned in the earlier post, when lighting the fuel.

The dangerous defective product is manufactured by Napa Home and Garden Inc. of Georgia. So far, the company has received 37 reports regarding the fuel, 23 of these reports outlined serious burn injuries to consumers. Lawsuits have already begun to be filed by burned consumers, including one from a West Ashley women who suffered serious burns from a Napa Home product. Also included in these suits are the stores where the firepots were sold.

According to the CPSC, the product being recalled is the pourable NAPAfire and FIREGEL Gel Fuel bottles and jugs. The product itself is a clear gel, packaged in a clear containers sized at 1-quart plastic bottles and 1-gallon plastic jugs. It comes in either non-scented or citronella scents and was sold at retailers between December 2009 and June 2011. The gels have been sold at many popular retailers like Bed Bath & Beyond, Shopko, and Restoration Hardware, and other specialty and gift shops, furniture stores and home and garden stores nationwide, as well as through internet megastore Amazon.com, home and garden catalogs, and by home decorators and landscape architects.

If you have purchased one of these products, you should immediately stop use of the product and return the bottles, or jugs, to the retailer where you purchased the product for a full refund.

Continue reading "Your Charleston Personal Injury Lawyers Update Older Posts" »

Not too long ago your South Carolina wrongful death lawyers discussed several train accidents that occurred within a 24 hour span, as well as noted how dangerous, not to mention illegal, it is to go around railroad crossing arms when they are down. But, last Friday, Friday the Thirteenth, a dump truck made an illegal left turn onto a set of tracks and was hit by a commuter train.

The monstrous impact of truck and train was described as something similar to an explosion by passengers, sending the train off the tracks, shattering windows, and starting a fire on car one. As for the dump truck, your truck accident attorneys mentioned in the last post on trains that it is highly, highly unlikely for an individual inside a motor vehicle to survive a collision with an oncoming train, and sadly this incident sided with the statistics. The driver of the dump truck was killed.

Thankfully, none of the passengers onboard Metra Train 636 suffered serious injuries. But, 30 or so people, including the train's engineer, were taken to local hospitals after the collision.

Continue reading "Your Charleston Personal Injury Attorneys Talk Train-Truck Accidents" »

Earlier in the week the Charleston boating accident attorneys shared an entry regarding the high frequency of train accidents in Louisiana. Noting the dangers trains pose to motor vehicles and pedestrians attempting to cross railroad tracks. And just this afternoon there was a breaking case reported by CNN that outlines of an incident involving two U.S. Border Patrol agents who were killed today when their vehicle was struck by a train.

At the time of the fatal accident, the two Patrol agents were in an on-duty SUV and were the process of assisting in the apprehension of suspected unauthorized immigrants, just south of Gila Bend, Arizona, in an area patrolled by the Yuma Sector of the Border Patrol.

According the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) website, The Yuma Sector patrols 126 miles of border with Mexico, between the Yuma-Pima County line in Arizona and the Imperial Sand Dunes in California. The sector has responsibility for Yuma, La Paz and Mojave Counties in Arizona, the Eastern-most areas of Imperial, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties in California, and the entire State of Nevada.

Continue reading "Train Strikes U.S. Border Patrol SUV, Kills Two Agents" »

Near the end of April there were 3 train accidents in a 24 hour span in Louisiana, reports a New Orleans news source. Such an abundance, in such a short amount of time truly astonishes the Charleston railroad accident attorneys, as well the residents of the state, especially considering the accidents left two people dead.

In one of the accidents a 41-year-old female driver tried to go around the railroad crossing arm in her Toyota Camry and was struck by an Amtrak passenger train. Needless and unfortunate to stay the impact from the locomotive killed the woman, she was pronounced dead at the scene of the Jefferson Parish railroad crossing.

One of the other incidents also involved an Amtrak train, but this one collided with an 18-wheeler in Slidell, Louisiana. In this case, no serious injuries were reported, which is a miracle when one thinks of the kind of collision created by two large vehicles.

The second fatality occurred when a woman was hit and killed by a train as she walked along a set of tracks in Calcasieu Parish. This type of fatal pedestrian accident begs the question of, "what was the state of mind of this woman when this happened?" But, without any mention in the article of the woman's reason for being on the tracks late at night, it would be unfair to make any presumptions as to her condition at the time.

Railroad safety advocates say it is not uncommon for people to underestimate the serious threat of oncoming trains, hence why some try to "beat" trains by going around railroad crossing arms. Due to the size of trains it is difficult to gain an accurate perception of how fast trains are coming, and that is often the underestimation, which leads to serious injuries and deaths.

Continue reading "Frequency of Train Accidents in Louisiana Heighten Public Safety Concerns" »