Maryland Injury Attorney Blog

June 8, 2009

Maryland Workers Compensation: The Top 3 Reasons Employers Tell Injured Workers Not to File (And Why You Shouldn’t Listen to Them)

In our work as Maryland Workers Comp attorneys, we hear this all the time: People who are hurt on the job will say, “My employer said that I don’t need to file for workers’ compensation because we have disability insurance.” Or, “They said they would pay me under the table while I take time off to recuperate.” Or, “They said they would continue to pay me legitimately (i.e., on the books) while I’m off.”

Those are the BIG 3 EXCUSES we hear employers using to discourage injured workers from filing Maryland Workers Comp cases. What happens in those scenarios, inevitably, is the employee gets paid for the time that they’re off, but they really get shorted on the two most important things:

1. They don’t get compensated for any permanent physical problems they’re having.

May 27, 2009

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Accident: Maryland Families File Lawsuit Over Traffic Deaths

by Jeff Butschky

This past Memorial Day weekend, hoards of Baltimore, Maryland, and other Mid-Atlantic residents and visitors traversed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The dual-span bridge is one of Baltimore’s most memorable historic landmarks and the subject of picture postcards. It’s also been the subject of controversy surrounding its maintenance, repair and safety, and the site of Baltimore traffic accidents — some of them deadly.

If you live or work in the Baltimore-Washington Metro area and you use the bridge to get where you need to go, you’ve no doubt been driven crazy time and time again by the bottlenecks that occur on the Bay Bridge. You’ve experienced headaches and frustration due to the ongoing redecking and restoration project, which causes officials to close lanes in spans of the bridge. If you don’t like heights, being stuck in a traffic jam over the water isn’t your favorite place to be. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, we’re aware of the legal cases that arise following traffic accidents on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

For example, a current lawsuit in the news concerns a fatal car crash that occurred on the Bay Bridge in 2007. The families of three men killed in a multi-car accident are suing the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) and a number of drivers for $19 million. The accident occurred when a trailer being pulled by an SUV disconnected, setting off a chain reaction that involved multiple vehicles. Three men were killed and five other people suffered injuries.

May 21, 2009

Maryland Car Bike Accident Injures Two on Bike to Work Day

by Jeff Butschky

According to the Annapolis, Maryland police, two bicyclists were hospitalized last Friday for injuries suffered in an Anne Arundel County bicycle-car accident. The accident took place when a motorist parked on Main Street in Annapolis opened his car door into the path of the oncoming cyclists. One injured cyclist was taken to Anne Arundel Medical Center and the other to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.

The accident occurred on Bike to Work Day, a national and regional event to promote bicycling as an alternative means of transportation. The event attracted more than 1,000 riders in Baltimore. An experienced Maryland car accident lawyer helps families of a bicyclist injured or killed in a traffic accident determine if they have a legitimate claim against the operator of a motor vehicle.

Maryland Bicycle Traffic Accident Statistics and Helmet Laws

May 15, 2009

Cecil County, Maryland Truck Driver Dies in Conn. Highway Accident

by Jeff Butschky

A trucker from Cecil County has been killed in a commercial truck accident on Connecticut’s Interstate 95. According to news reports, Woodrow Phelps Jr., 68, of Elkton, Maryland, was killed May 13 when his tractor-trailer rig, heading northbound on I-95 in Milton, Connecticut, around 5:30 a.m., struck an SUV, setting off a chain-reaction.

News reports say six vehicles were involved in the chain reaction accident, including one other tractor trailer. According to State Police, Phelps, who had been driving a 2005 Freightliner for Penske Truck Leasing, struck an SUV that was merging onto the highway from a right-lane on-ramp. Phelps was pronounced dead at the scene. The SUV driver, who complained of leg pain, was taken to an area hospital.

The Associated Press reported that stretch of highway where the fatal motor vehicle crash occurred was undergoing work by the Department of Transportation, with traffic reduced to one lane. Police reported that the work crew was picking up from an overnight project when the accident occurred. Highway traffic was closed for eight hours following the crash. State police are investigating this fatal highway accident.

May 8, 2009

Baltimore County Single-Vehicle Accidents: Causes and Fatalities

by Jeff Butschky

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that single-vehicle traffic deaths in Baltimore County, Maryland have declined in recent years — 45 deaths in 2007, as compared to 51 deaths in 2003. (Source: NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts for Baltimore County 2003-2007).

Single motor vehicle crashes may be caused by a number of factors, including

driving under the influence

April 28, 2009

Maryland Construction Accidents: Stricter Crane Regulations May Save Lives

by Jeff Butschky

With the goal of reducing Md. construction injuries and deaths, the state has added teeth to what are already among the strictest crane regulations in the country.

New regulations went into effect for Maryland earlier this month following several serious construction crane incidents, such as a fatal Anne Arundel County accident that occurred in April 2008. According to a Baltimore news report, workers in Annapolis Towne Centre were dismantling an end section of a crane when an accident occurred, crushing a construction worker between two sections of the crane 200 feet up. Another worker was injured.

The new regulations will require all construction workers operating cranes as well as those who load and signal them to receive intensive training on the equipment, to avoid serious and possibly fatal Maryland construction accidents. Employers are now required to carry out daily inspections and to keep training records. Maryland Labor and Industry Commissioner Ronald Julius told a local news outlet that state inspectors will be checking on projects where construction cranes are in use.

April 14, 2009

Baltimore County Motor Vehicle Accidents: Fatalities Down for Cars & Trucks (But Up for Motorcycles and DUIs)

by Jeff Butschky

Last week, NHTSA announced that projected numbers of motor vehicle fatalities across the U.S. in 2008 will fall to a near 50-year low (the actual counts will be released this August). A continued drop in Maryland traffic accident deaths is expected, in keeping with trends across the country. Let’s look at some Maryland car crash statistics available today:

In 2007, a total of 614 people died in motor vehicle accidents in Maryland, down from 650 fatalities in 2003.
Of those 614 fatalities, 179 involved alcohol-impaired driving and 216 involved speeding.

April 7, 2009

Maryland Car Accident Statistics: NHTSA Reports Fatalities Down to 1961 Level

by Jeff Butschky

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) predicts that the nation’s motor vehicle traffic fatalities for 2008 will have declined to a level not seen since 1961. NHTSA projects that the total number of traffic-related fatalities for the U.S. in 2008 will be 37,313 deaths — down 9.1 percent from the 2007 statistic of 41,059 fatalities. (NHTSA will report the actual numbers in August 2009.)

NHTSA attributes the decline in car crash deaths to a number of factors, including…

improvements in motor vehicle technology

March 31, 2009

Maryland Workers Comp Eligibility: Hurt at Work? “Report and Record”

by Jeff Butschky

Earlier this month, I talked about how the Maryland Workers Comp system is tilted in the employer’s favor, and how important it is for injured workers to take charge of their situations right away. (See “Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer on Maryland Workers Compensation System,” March 18, 2009, below.)

My partner and I have handled personal injury cases for injured workers in Maryland for more than two decades. We’ve seen all kinds of work comp cases, from people who throw their backs out lifting something heavy, to typists who develop carpal tunnel syndrome, to a client who got bit by a mosquito and contracted malaria while on a sales call to a foreign country. We’ve seen industrial accidents resulting in burns and other serious injuries, and people who suffer shock and psychiatric problems as the result of a traumatic event at work, like a robbery.

Advice for Injured Workers in Maryland

March 25, 2009

Maryland Motorcycle Helmet Law Debate

by Jeff Butschky

Some Maryland motorcycle riders would like the state to relax its mandatory helmet law, which was enacted in 1992 to decrease the rate of Maryland motorcycle crash fatalities. Senator John Astle (D-Annapolis), who is himself a biker, is behind the latest push in the General Assembly to allow exemptions to the helmet law for some cyclists.

Sen. Astle presented a proposal to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee in Annapolis, Maryland, earlier this month which would allow a helmet law exemption for motorcycle riders aged 21 or older who have been licensed to operate a motorcycle for at least two years, or who have completed a safety course approved by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation or the Motor Vehicle Administration.

Maryland Fatal Motorcycle Crash Statistics