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A driver was recently critically injured following a three-car crash that ended with one vehicle slamming into the front of the Gothic building in downtown Belfast, an hour south of Bangor. 

According to The Bangor Daily News, officers believe an older man in a Sedan with Massachusetts plates was speeding down the hill on Maine Street around 1 p.m. when he suddenly crossed into opposing traffic and slammed into a van at a five-way intersection. He then drove straight into a parked vehicle and then into the front of a building. The parked vehicle was also sent flying up over the curb, just in front of the Bangor Savings Bank.

The occupants of that parked vehicle – which included a toddler in his car seat – were not seriously injured.  Continue reading

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A defective auto part cost a young boy his bright future, prompting the Texas jury deciding his car accident injury lawsuit to award $124 million in damages to his family. 

The 7-year-old suffered severe and irreversible brain damage, as well as blindness and partial paralysis as a result of the rear-end collision. The boy was seated in the backseat, behind his father, who was driving. His father had stopped for a school bus. The car behind him failed to stop.

But while the boy’s younger brother, who was seated next to him in the back, emerged from the crash relatively unscathed, this young man suffered severe injuries. That’s because upon impact, the father’s seat collapsed backward, causing the father’s head to collide with son’s at high force. The result was that the boy almost died.  Continue reading

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The Maine Supreme Judicial Court was faced with a number of interesting personal injury liability questions of first impression in the recent case of Murdock v. Thorne. 

For instance: Does a motorist who waves forward another driver have a duty to ensure it is completely safe for the driver to move ahead? Further, does a driver in the outer lane of a four-lane road approaching stopped traffic and a driveway on the right have a duty to anticipate traffic turning into his lane when vehicles in the inner lane are stopped short of that driveway for this purpose?

To answer yes to both questions would be to substantially expand the scope of potential liability for motorists. But the state high court wasn’t ready to do that just yet. Justices didn’t completely foreclose on the possibility, but rather concluded the case at hand wasn’t ripe for such a decision. They dismissed the appeals and told litigants they could appeal again once all other relevant matters were resolved by the lower court.  Continue reading

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An auto accident in Waterville is being blamed on a mechanical failure.

According to the Kennebec Journal, the problem had to do with the front end of a Volkswagon Jetta. The 31-year-old driver  reported he was operating the vehicle on North Street when he suddenly described feeling in the steering wheel as if he’d struck a pothole. He swerved and struck a large white van head-on.

Inside the van, the 62-year-old driver and two passengers sustained minor injuries. One was transported the hospital. Incredibly, the driver of the Jetta wasn’t seriously hurt.

Police investigators reported there was no pothole in the area. However, they came to the conclusion that a mechanical failure in the vehicle was responsible for the collision.

Both vehicles had to be towed from the scene.  Continue reading

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Drunk driving accidents and the devastating injuries and deaths they cause are 100 percent preventable.

Maine legislators believe this as well, which is why criminal penalties for causing an accident while drunk are severe – especially if someone is seriously hurt or killed. Maine Revised Statute 29-A, Section 2411 spells out  penalties for OUI offenses, aggravating factors and penalties. Generally, if you are in an accident that results in a major injury or death, you will be facing a felony and a long-term license suspension.

But how does that help the victims, whose lives have been irreparably affected? Other than ensuring the at-fault driver is off the road, it really doesn’t. The only way to recover damages is to pursue a claim for damages against the driver (and by proxy his insurance company). If the driver doesn’t have insurance or the coverage is paltry, victims may recover through their own uninsured/ underinsured motorist coverage policy. Continue reading

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An apparent lack of communication between health care providers proved nearly fatal for a Maine man, to whom a jury recently awarded $1.785 million in a medical malpractice claim.

The patient, 71, and his wife, 63, from Millinocket, alleged harm to his health could have been prevented had health care workers acted according to professional industry standards – which is the proof burden required in these cases. The couple sought between $3 million and $3.7 million in damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering, emotional distress and permanent damage to patient’s heart resulting from a months-long delay in treatment in 2010 for a strep infection. In the eight months between when the patient was first seen and when he had to undergo emergency open heart surgery, the infection caused severe damage to the valves in his heart.

The civil trial was heard in the Penobscot Judicial Center before a Superior Court justice.  Continue reading

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It was five years ago that a high school cheerleader in Maine suffered a horrifying head injury during a “basket toss” stunt, in which she fell some 20 feet after being thrown in the air by her teammates at practice. 

In a lawsuit she filed three years ago, the former Poland Regional High School student described the aftermath of her concussion, which involved dizziness, sensitivity to light, awful headaches, long sleeping stretches and difficulty concentrating that resulted in slipping grades. The lawsuit alleged the school didn’t properly supervised the practice, failed to halt the practice once the student athlete was injured, didn’t observe her injury or provide prompt medical attention and violated a host of industry rules and standards as well as Maine law.

Now, according to a recent report published in the journal Pediatrics, we know these injuries aren’t all that uncommon among cheerleaders. There are approximately 400,000 students nationally participating in high school cheerleading. Of those, about 124,000 are in competitive “spirit squads.” These squads demand discipline, skill and increasing athletic ability, and that has meant the risk of injury has risen.  Continue reading

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A man driving a car on a rural road in Waterville was reportedly blinded by bright sun when he rear-ended a horse-drawn hayride recently, injuring seven people – one critically. 

According to the Bangor Daily News, the collision happened on Christmas Day when the operators, S&S Carriage Rides, were offering rides to volunteers and guests of the Waterville Elks Lodge.

The force of impact was such that a 56-year-old woman was knocked off the back of the wagon and onto the road, where she was then run over by the car. The seat in which the 42-year-old wagon operator was sitting was broken, though the horses were not hurt. The 73-year-old car driver wasn’t hurt. Seven people in total were taken to the hospital, though the 56-year-old woman had to be flown by helicopter to a health care facility in Portland.  Continue reading

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When serious or fatal injuries are caused by another person’s negligence, the victim and/or surviving family have a right to pursue compensation for their losses. However, when the injuries sustained are the result of an intentional act, collecting becomes a more complicated matter. The reason is that while victims are still entitled to damages insurance companies often have policy exclusions for intentional criminal acts resulting in injury or death. That often leaves a plaintiff’s only recourse collection directly from the wrongdoer.

In many instances, that individual lacks the resources and assets to adequately compensate the victim(s). That doesn’t necessarily mean it is not worth it to pursue such a case, but the viability must be carefully weighed.

Recently, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court considered a lawsuit against a homeowners’ insurance company brought by the family of a man killed by another on property belonging to attacker’s grandmother. In Metro Prop. & Cas. Inc. Co. v. Estate of Benson, the court was asked to consider whether insurer could be liable for wrongful death despite its intentional tort exclusion in the policy. Continue reading

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The Bangor Daily News recently reported the arrest of a 22-year-old man on a charge of elevated aggravated assault after he allegedly intentionally struck a Bath Iron Works employee who was walking to his job.

It was a Wednesday morning, and the victim would later say the driver made some offensive comment to him just before he barreled into him with his vehicle. The force of impact caused victim to be propelled over the hood and windshield of the car before rolling over the roof and falling hard off the rear. The driver then reportedly fled the scene. Victim, despite serious injuries, managed to walk the rest of the way to work, where the incident was reported and he was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Authorities searched for the vehicle based on victim’s description, and later found the car in a wooded area owned by suspect’s family. Suspect was inside the resident and later arrested. At the time of the incident, he was out on bail for a previous DUI arrest. Continue reading

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