Arkansas Injury Lawyer Blog

Hit-and-Run Accident Law in Arkansas

September 26, 2014 | Paul Pfeifer

Hit-and-run accidents are more common than most of us may think. These types of accidents occur for various reasons, such as the driver having no insurance, the driver being involved in legal issues, the driver leaving the scene out of fear or the driver is intoxicated. Nearly 30 percent of drivers in the United States are uninsured. For this reason, it is important that you carry uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage on your insurance policy, so that you are protected in the unfortunate case that someone who does not have auto insurance or has minimal coverage hits you.

Here are some helpful tips if you suffer a hit-and-run accident:

1. Get details quickly before the driver gets away. Get the license plate number, make and model of the vehicle, color of the vehicle, and any information about the driver that you observe;
2. Call the police and file a report;
3. Get medical treatment if you are injured;
4. Call your insurance company; and 5. Contact a car accident lawyer.

If you are the victim of a hit-and-run, get details quickly. Try to get the license plate number, or as much of it as possible, and call the police immediately to report the accident and give them your location. If you have passengers in your car at the time, ask them to get as many details of the vehicle as they possibly can, before the vehicle gets away. Details such as make, model, vehicle color, and driver information will be extremely helpful to law enforcement. Getting the color of the vehicle that hit you will not only be important to law enforcement when they attempt to locate the automobile, but your insurance company will also need this information if you make a property damage claim through your insurance policy to help them determine what damage was caused by the hit-and-run accident and what damage, if any, was previous damage to your vehicle.

Arkansas Boating Accidents

August 1, 2014 | Paul Pfeifer

Unfortunately boating accidents happen, and when they do they are often serious. Arkansas has 600,000 acres of beautiful lakes and over 90,000 miles of streams, creeks and rivers. Many of us love spending time boating and fishing, but it’s important to remember boating safety when you’re out on the lake. In an Arkansas 2013 the year-end-report , it was reported that boating accidents declined from the year before, but they still happen far too often.

Simply paying closer attention while you’re on the water could prevent many accidents. When you are operating a boat or watercraft on the lake, you don’t have as much control as you do when you’re behind the wheel of a vehicle, therefore it is important not to put yourself in situations where you might need to stop quickly or change directions quickly. Many accidents happen when excessive speed is involved and the driver loses control. Unfortunately alcohol also plays a large part in the amount of boating crashes that happen.

There are so many forms of entertainment on the water. Whether you are swimming, jet skiing, tubing, wakeboarding, skiing, or simply on your boat enjoying the weather, you must always be paying attention to your surroundings. Drivers have to be aware and watch for other boats and watercraft at all times, as well as swimmers. Jet skis can be a lot of fun and a great form of entertainment but can cause serious injury or even turn deadly when used in the wrong fashion. My family and I were on the lake this past summer and observed two jet skis driving at excessive speeds in a figure 8 pattern when one driver got too close to the other jet ski and they crashed. The driver was thrown from his jet ski and was injured. This is just one example of how quickly a good time can turn devastating. Boating accidents happen in various forms, from hitting other boats, to colliding with jet skis, to running onto shorelines. Most can be avoided if the driver was simply paying attention to their speed and their surroundings.

Arkansas Pedestrian Accidents

July 30, 2014 | Paul Pfeifer

Pedestrian accidents are on the rise. In the past week there have been several pedestrian accidents in the news. Downtown Little Rock is one of many places in Little Rock that pedestrian accidents are becoming more of an issue than ever before. The downtown area is a very highly populated area during rush-hour traffic times, and with more people on foot as they walk to their cars a after a busy workday, coupled with the pedestrian traffic of tourists visiting our beautiful city, it is more important than ever to slow down, put our cell phones down as we drive, and pay attention to the traffic lights and crosswalks. Pedestrians should feel safe when they enter a crosswalk. Taking our eyes off the road for mere seconds could have devastating results. As we all know, there are many times when pedestrians cross the street in areas where there are no crosswalks, so we can’t assume that just because there aren’t crosswalks in our path of travel that there will be no pedestrians stepping in front of us.

It is known that most injuries from pedestrian accidents usually occur in cities. However, fatality pedestrian accidents are distributed evenly between cities and rural areas. Most fatalities involve males above the age of 25, and the majority of injuries involves males ranging in age of 5 to 14 years. Most pedestrian accidents happen during daylight hours.

It is important that we are aware that pedestrian accidents are becoming more frequent. When you are behind the wheel, please be aware at all times of your surroundings. Your attentiveness just might save a life.

Log Truck Driver in Deadly Accident in Arkansas

July 3, 2014 | Paul Pfeifer

A Log Truck Driver in a deadly accident had his probation revoked. According to news accounts, the truck driver admitted to the police that he used meth before a wreck that occurred in Clinton, Arkansas. The reports indicate that it is still undetermined when the meth was used and if it was a cause of the log truck overturning.

The truck accident injured multiple people and killed two construction workers. The initial reports indicate that a tire blowout was the cause of the wreck. It seems that the investigation is still ongoing and the Arkansas State Police are looking at other possible causes. In truck accident case the cause of the wreck is initially undetermined. It is important to look at all possible causes such as tire failure, driver fatigue, reckless driving or intoxication.

Truck accidents cause serious injury and often result is death for the victims. It is important that truck drivers obey all traffic laws and DOT regulations to make Arkansas highways as safe as possible.

GM Auto Defect Recall

March 13, 2014 | Paul Pfeifer

GM has recalled 1.6 million vehicles due to a serious product defect. The following are models being recalled by General Motors:

2005-2007 Pontiac G5 Sold only in Canada

2005-2007 Chevrolet Cobalt Sold only in Canada

Wrong-Way Traffic Accidents

March 5, 2014 | Paul Pfeifer

I am reading more and more about tragic wrong-way accidents happening on the roadways. Today I read in an out-of-state paper of an unfortunate accident in Washington which took the life of a 6-year-old boy and critically injured two others. Recently it was in the news that 11 people died in wrong-way crashes in Tampa, Florida and Pomona, California. It is hard to hear of innocent lives being lost to such a preventable error. Like most, these accidents are avoidable if drivers would pay more attention when they are behind the wheel of a vehicle.

In a 2012 report by the National Transportation Safety Board, it was reported that 3 percent of all crashes are wrong-way crashes and are 27 percent more likely to be deadly crashes. It states that 60 percent of these crashes are caused by a drunk driver traveling too fast. The study also indicates that elderly drivers, 70 years of age and older, were the cause of 15 percent of these types of crashes. The primary cause of wrong-way accidents was found to be vehicles entering via an exit ramp. Often highway design is the problem, with the on and off ramps being next to each other. In an effort to prevent wrong-way crashes, officials suggest lowering the ‘Wrong Way’ signs, making them bigger, adding a second set of signs farther up on the ramp, and installing rumble strips to the pavement so they know they are going the wrong way. And interestingly enough, 78 percent of these types of accidents occur between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., and most collisions reportedly take place in the lane closest to the median.

If you or a family member have suffered from being involved in a wrong-way accident, it is important to speak with an Arkansas accident lawyer to discuss your claim and rights as soon as possible.

Accidents Caused by Texting

January 30, 2014 | Paul Pfeifer

I recently read an article that discussed an injury lawsuit in which a woman was awarded $1.14 million in a texting and driving accident. According to the article, the Plaintiff suffered extensive injuries, including a minor traumatic brain injury and exacerbation of a lower back pain condition. The Defendant, State Farm Insurance Company, argued that her injuries were not related to the wreck. They also did not admit liability until just before trial.

Texting and driving accident cases are becoming more common. It is important to determine the cause of the auto accident to make a proper claim to a judge and to a jury. As this personal injury case proves, insurance companies often take extreme positions to “wait out” the injured party. It is important that information about the wreck is gathered so that these insurance company tactics are not used to deny the injured person justice. Additionally, we find that insurance companies often argue that the injured person’s medical condition pre-existed the wreck. The insurance adjusters fail to understand or give little weight to the fact that the car wreck often aggravates a prior medical conditions like back pain. Arkansas has a jury instruction that handles this situation. AMI 2203 Measure of Damages-Aggravation of Pre-existing Condition. It reads:

In this regard you should consider the full extent of any injury sustained, even though the degree of injury is found by you to have proximately resulted from the aggravation of a [condition][disease] that already existed and that predisposed to injury to a greater extent than another person. [However, you may not award [him][her] damages for any (pain)(mental anguish)(disability) (__________) which [he][she] would have suffered even though the accident had not occurred.]

Employment Laws in Arkansas

January 20, 2014 | Paul Pfeifer

Can an employer be held liable for acts of employment discrimination carried out by another employer? If a non-employing entity controls or can substantially affect the terms and conditions of another employer’s employee, that entity may be considered a “joint employer” for Title 7 purposes. This means that the non-employing entity could be held equally responsible for any discrimination or harassment that may occur. This is referred to as “defacto or joint employment liability” and often appears in situations in which there is a staffing firm, placement agency, or outsourcing company. If the circumstances lend themselves to finding the joint employer relationship exists, a non-employing entity can still be liable for employment discrimination.

I have seen companies attempt to argue that liability for employment discrimination or harassment cases does not exist because they weren’t the “employer.” These employers fail to understand employment discrimination laws. Employment cases involve complex legal issues that are constantly being litigated and argued in federal and state courts. It is important to speak with an Arkansas employment lawyer if you or a family member feels that your employment rights are being violated. If you have been terminated, disciplined, or harassed based upon discriminatory reasons, you should speak to an Arkansas employment lawyer as soon as possible.

Arkansas Accident Fatality

January 6, 2014 | Paul Pfeifer

A recent published study pointed out that In the past 10 years, fatal accidents in the state of Arkansas decreased by more than 30 percent. In 2004, more than 700 people died in car and truck crashes. In 2010, that number of auto accident fatalities went down to just more than 560. Last year there was another decline with 473 fatal accidents in Arkansas.

There are many reasons for this decline. These include increased seat belt use, driver education, increase in safety technology, decrease in DWI accidents and a recent change in Arkansas driving law. The study pointed out that the Graduated Driver License (GDL) law was expanded for Arkansas teens in 2009 to help provide a safe environment for young automobile drivers by placing restrictions on when and with whom they may drive. The Arkansas law was designed to allow teens to gain driving experience through the use of restrictions. The Arkansas driving law provides for teen driver’s licenses in three levels: learner’s license, intermediate license and unrestricted/regular license. The different levels allows drivers a staged learning progression. The study found “that significant reductions in crashes and crash-related fatalities were found. This is especially true for the youngest drivers who obtained their intermediate license to drive for the first time without an adult.”

My own law practice involving personal injury cases has seen this decline in teen accidents as well. Car accidents involving young persons can be some of the more difficult cases to handle since kids are involved. However, as the study found, car accident rates and fatality rates are going down for this set of drivers and we should all encourage young people to take part in driving education courses. Teenage driving is one of the exciting milestones in a child’s life and making sure they are safe is paramount.

Arkansas Car Accidents around Thanksgiving

November 26, 2013 | Paul Pfeifer

Drivers hitting the roads for Thanksgiving have a greater risk getting in a accident, according to one recent study. Some people have named the day before Thanksgiving “Black Wednesday” because car accidents increase between 8 p.m. that evening and 3 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning.

Although I see that auto accidents increase during this time, I see many different reasons in our law practice. The most obvious reason for the dramatic increase in car accidents in Arkansas is more people are driving at night and in unfamiliar places. However, I believe that is only one of the reasons. The weather around this time of the year also plays a huge part in the uptick in car crashes in Arkansas as well as people driving under the influence of alcohol. DWI accidents are typically very serious and involve serious injuries. Arkansas drivers need to be aware that accidents increase this time of the year and we must all be diligent in making sure the roads are as safe as possible.

If you or a loved one are involved in an Arkansas car or truck accident, please seek medical attention immediately. I have seen many cases where injuries go undiagnosed for a long period of time because people wait to seek medical attention believing that they do not have the money to cover the medical bills. An Arkansas lawyer can help make sure auto medical payment insurance (Med-pay) and health insurance cover these expenses. Please contact an Arkansas injury lawyer if you have any questions.