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This past August, Ford Motor Company and the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) issued a safety recall for the Windstar minivan. Windstar model years 1998-2003 manufactured and sold in Canada and several cold-weather states — Maryland included — are at risk for axle cracking, corrosion and failure, which could lead to serious and even fatal auto accidents.

Ford stated that Windstar minivans sold, owned and operated in snow belt states like Maryland are at greater risk for axle corrosion and failure, due to rock salt used to treat slippery roads. As anyone who’s driven on Baltimore County, Maryland roads on bad winter days knows — the rock salt and sanding truck is a welcomed sight. But that salt can accelerate rust and corrosion on the undercarriage of a motor vehicle, which is the problem Ford describes on Windstars manufactured with “heat-treated axles.” The initial recall of more than half a million Ford Windstar minivans has been expanded by several thousand, bring the total number recalled to 612,000.

Baltimore County auto accident injury lawyers stay current on automotive safety recalls such as this one from Ford. Experienced Maryland traffic injury attorneys are aware of laws surrounding automotive product liability and consumer protection. If you live in Maryland and drive an older Ford Windstar minivan, you’d best contact your local Ford dealer and get the vehicle inspected, to avoid a possible traffic accident.

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A national study on the safety hazards of farm equipment driving on public roads reveals what experienced Baltimore County, Maryland injury attorneys know very well:

Urban drivers sharing narrow, winding back roads with slow-moving tractors, combines, and other agricultural vehicles can be a dangerous, deadly combination.

It’s a serious driving safety problem in rural Maryland counties (such as Carroll County and Harford County) and other farming communities across the U.S. More and more urban commuters are moving to the country — bringing more cars, more traffic, and more hurried driving with them. At the same time, state laws written in the early 20th century have not kept pace with the capabilities of modern farm equipment, passenger cars, nor changes in U.S. driving habits.

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Fifty years ago, Farmer John owned the Maryland farm land that he plowed and tilled, planted and harvested. He worked from sun up to sun down within the confines of his own property. Therefore, the Maryland farmer of yesteryear had no reason to take his farm vehicles out onto the public roadways.

That’s all changed now — creating challenges for both farmers and motorists to avoid serious car accidents with farm equipment on rural Md. roadways.

The dynamic of farming has changed as suburbia has spread into rural Maryland — into small towns in Carroll County and Howard County, Md.; Harford, Cecil, and Kent County, Md., among others. Homeowners buy up what once were huge farms and then subdivide their property, leasing out parcels of land to working Maryland farmers. These farmers must then drive their tractors, combines, and other agricultural vehicles to get from one parcel of land to the next. That’s when accidents with motor vehicles can happen.

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If you’re a parent in Maryland with a teenage driver on the road, you might be interested in a study about teen driving safety and supervision.

The journal Pediatrics reports that teen car accidents are less likely to happen in families where parents lay down ground rules before the kids take to the road.

The study was conducted by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which surveyed 5,500 teenagers. The results showed that young drivers are less likely to be involved in car accidents when parents restrict access to the car keys. Researchers concluded that requiring teens to ask for the car keys gives parents more opportunities to supervise their driving habits and set rules for safety.

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It’s a postcard-perfect picture: You’re driving down a back road in one of the rural Maryland counties, and you pass a farm with a red barn, corral, and horses lazily grazing in a field. It’s a relaxing sight that harkens back to simpler times.

However the spread of suburbia into rural Maryland counties — and the traffic that goes along with it — means increased risk of cars and trucks encountering large animals in the roadways. That picturesque Maryland scene can turn to horror in a heartbeat if a horse, cow, or other large animal gets loose and finds itself in the road — with an unsuspecting driver coming around the bend. Car accidents with large animals often end badly.

In an article in Stable Management magazine (see link below), an attorney who works with the equine industry goes into detail regarding various scenarios where horse and livestock owners may be held liable if an automobile accident with a large animal occurs. Laws vary from state to state, but in general…

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Maryland sports fans who follow the Baltimore Ravens know what to expect when they witness the spectacle that is professional football. It’s rough, it’s fast, and it’s exciting. But now safety advocates and the NFL are growing increasingly concerned about head injuries that can result when men the size of refrigerators hit each other head first.

A New England Patriots safety was fined $50,000 for a helmet-to-helmet collision on a Baltimore Ravens tight end during this past weekend’s match-up. This was not an isolated case: two other teams also received hefty fines for players who used their heads as battering rams in helmet-to-helmet hits on other players.

The NFL regards such hits as “dangerous and flagrant,” while some defensive players contend that’s just how the game is played. As the NFL promises to impose stricter sanctions to avoid helmet-hit head injuries, some players who say they’ll be hamstrung by such restrictions threaten to quit.

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Maryland drivers encounter a lot of hazards out there on our highways and roads — drunk drivers, distracted drivers texting and chatting on cell phones, road construction and detours, traffic congestion, bad weather — the list goes on.

One Maryland driving obstacle we hear less about that causes serious car accidents is the problem of livestock and other animals in the roadways. This includes farming livestock such as cattle, sheep, and bison; game animals such as elk and deer that are raised on private property for hunting; and even large exotic animals that are kept legally or illegally by private individuals as “pets.”

Let’s consider the problem of Maryland auto accidents involving livestock.

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The family of a truck driver killed in a 2008 Chesapeake Bay Bridge tractor trailer truck accident has been awarded a $100,000 settlement by the responsible driver’s insurance company.

According to news reports, a big rig truck driver, age 57, was hauling refrigerated chickens across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge eastbound in the early morning hours of Aug. 10, 2008. Then, a 19-year-old woman who’d been out clubbing with friends in Baltimore, Maryland after a wedding fell asleep behind the wheel, crossed the center line, and hit the tractor trailer truck. The car crash set off a series of events that caused the truck to go out of control, hit another vehicle and break through the opposite barrier — plunging into the Chesapeake Bay waters below. The truck driver was killed.

As Queen Anne’s County car accident injury lawyers know, many factors are taken into consideration in both criminal and civil courts. This fatal Maryland car and truck accident case was controversial: even though the defendant had been drinking in Baltimore prior to the fatal traffic accident, her blood alcohol level was below the legal limit. The Queen Anne’s County State Attorney at the time told the press: “The act of falling asleep while driving and drifting across the center line is not sufficient to constitute gross negligence.”

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A judge has sentenced a local man to two years in jail for a fatal Cecil County, Maryland pedestrian traffic accident.

This fatal pedestrian and truck accident occurred in the Elkton area of Cecil County, Maryland on the evening of June 14, 2009.

According to local news reports, a 57-year-old Cecil County man was driving his truck when he struck a pedestrian, age 44, who was on the roadside helping another man load a moped onto a parked truck. The victim was crushed between the driver’s truck and the parked vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Though nationally and in Maryland, overall traffic accident deaths have declined — distracted driving death rates remain unchanged. So says a new study released by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood describes the problem of distracted driving as a national “epidemic.” Some alarming numbers:

  • One in 8 roadway deaths is blamed on distracted driving.
  • Last year, distracted driving was blamed for 5,474 motor vehicle accident deaths and nearly half a million people injured on U.S. roads and highways.
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