Posted on June 09, 2017 in Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents

It's not easy to lose a loved one no matter how it happens. When the loss of someone close to you comes without notice, however — and when you expected to spend the rest of your life with that person by your side — the loss can be devastating beyond words. Many Virginia residents never fully recover emotionally from such a loss.

Aside from the emotional aspects of losing a loved one in an unexpected accident, however, there can be massive financial repercussions associated with a death in the family. If a family loses its father — who was the primary income earner — the family may face serious financial difficulties after losing the father's financial support. Those financial losses will be felt immediately after the father's paycheck disappears. They'll also be felt when it comes time to pay for funeral and memorial expenses.

When a death was caused by another party's negligence or unlawful behavior, close family members of the deceased may have the ability to pursue wrongful death claims in Virginia civil court. The pursuit of these claims — if successfully navigated — can serve to bring family members money as compensation for lost future income, end of life expenses, lost family relationship, loss of consortium, lost family services, lost future inheritance and more, depending on the facts pertaining to the case.

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 Posted on June 02, 2017 in Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents

Before rescue workers started using the Jaws of Life, injured people in car crashes might get trapped in the mangled metal of a vehicle for many hours before they could be freed. The time it took to free the accident victim represented a significant delay that might result in the worsening of health conditions and death. The Jaws of Life served to speed up the process of freeing trapped victims from car accident wreckage so they can receive the life-saving medical attention they require.

Hurst Performance, Inc., was the first company to manufacture the hydraulic cutting tools known as the Jaws of Life. They were first used during car racing events 30 years ago. Now they're used by emergency workers everywhere.

The Jaws of Life include a variety of hydraulic-powered tools, including rams, cutters, spreaders and power units. The Jaws of Life are used to pull, spread and cut away the metal of car accident wreckage so victims can be rescued quickly. The time-saving benefits offered by the Jaws of Life have saved countless lives.

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 Posted on May 26, 2017 in Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents

Drunk driving laws are strict in Virginia for a reason; quite simply, driving while intoxicated results in unnecessary death and injuries. Police and community members must therefore do everything they can to educate others about the inherent dangers of drunk driving, as well as the criminal and legal consequences of engaging in the behavior.

Drunk drivers who cause fatal or injurious crashes may find themselves spending years in jail and paying thousands of dollars in fines. They may also find them liable for the financial damages relating to the medical care and other damages suffered by their victims.

Virginia residents injured by drunk drivers will have strong claims to seek financial restitution and justice in court. Injured parties can pursue money from the at-fault drunk driver to pay for their medical care, pain and suffering, disabilities, time spent unable to work and more.

However, the pursuit of a personal injury action after a drunk driving crash will not only help you — it will also help bring more attention to the fact that Virginia residents will hold irresponsible and unlawful drivers responsible for the injuries and damages they cause. Sending this message to those who might potentially drive drunk can do a lot of good to encourage people to be more responsible.

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 Posted on May 19, 2017 in Car Accidents

In 49 states, including Virginia, drivers can get a severe fine if they're not wearing a seat belt. Lawmakers throughout the nation have found that if they require motorists and their passengers to wear safety belts, then the use of safety belts goes up and, vehicle-related injuries and fatalities go down.

The fact is, seatbelts save lives; nevertheless, many Manassas residents continue to avoid using them. Here are a few reasons why you should ignore your impulse not to use a seatbelt and buckle up:

— Your chances of death decline by 45 percent when you don your safety belt while riding one of the front seats of a car. They go down by 60 percent if you're riding in a lightweight truck.

— You might think that the likelihood of getting into a high-speed crash is minimal, but accidents can happen to anyone, and they happen when we least expect them to. Think about the physics, if your car is going 30 mph, you're going the same speed. If your car collides with another object and comes to a stop, you'll continue moving forward at 30 mph and whatever you hit will be the same as if you hit it after falling off a three-story structure.

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 Posted on May 12, 2017 in Car Accidents

Manassas residents hurt in a serious car crash need to keep in mind that statutes of limitation will apply to their potential personal injury suits stemming from the event. A statute of limitation is a law that establishes a specific window of time within which you have to file your claim or forever be barred from doing so. At Locklin & Coleman, PLLC, we take statutes of limitation seriously and it's one of the first things we evaluate when a new client approaches us with a potential lawsuit.

In Virginia, two primary laws could limit the time period within which a plaintiff may file a civil lawsuit related to car accident injuries and damages. These laws include:

— Code of Virginia Section 8.01-243: This law applies to injuries in a car accident. The injured party can essentially be anyone — a driver, passenger, bicyclist, pedestrian, skateboarder or motorcyclist. According to this statute, plaintiffs have a window of two years from the date of the accident and injuries in which to file their claims. This same statute applies to property damage resulting from a Virginia car accident. However, the time period for a property damage suit is five years.

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 Posted on May 05, 2017 in Drunk Driving Accidents

A tragic and fatal accident between a motorcycle and a sports utility vehicle highlights the risks and dangers that motorcyclists face every day on the road. Indeed, motorcyclists are virtually unprotected against vehicles in a crash, and this recent collision illuminates the fact all too well.

The incident happened in Portsmouth during rush hour on a recent Thursday morning. Police were notified of the crash at 7:57 a.m. By the time police arrived, they found the 28-year-old motorcyclist unconscious. He was later pronounced dead at the crash site.

Very little is known about the crash. So far, investigators have revealed that the motorcyclist was traveling westbound and the sport utility vehicle driver was heading southbound. It is presumed that the two vehicles got into a head-on collision. The sport utility vehicle did not suffer any injuries and remained at the accident scene to speak with authorities.

Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident, and have yet to reveal any other information about this unfortunate collision. However, once authorities reveal who is at fault for the crash, family members of the motorcyclist will have a better idea as to whether they could pursue a wrongful death claim relating to the incident.

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 Posted on April 28, 2017 in Drunk Driving Accidents

For the average-sized person, it can take between two and four drinks to reach a 0.08 percent alcohol content, which is the legal limit for driving in Virginia. If you're under the age of 21, then any amount of alcohol in your system could render you too drunk to legally drive. Nevertheless, every day and every night there are countless intoxicated drivers on the road.

You may have driven right next to several intoxicated drivers on your way home from work today, or you might have been surrounded by drunk drivers on your way home from a party late at night. The truth is, as a society, we may never completely eradicate the horrible problem of drunk driving until we do away with drivers altogether and switch over completely to computer-driven automated cars.

The worst part about drunk driving, however, is not that it's illegal. It's that the vast majority of drunk drivers never get caught, and sometimes cause injurious and fatal car accidents. Knowing that a DUI-caused death or injury could have been avoided if the DUI driver had been more responsible is a particularly devastating fact for victims and their families to come to terms with.

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 Posted on April 21, 2017 in Truck Accidents

The Easter holiday is supposed to be a time of cheer, when we enjoy days spent with loving family members. As such, when an unplanned car accident interrupts such a holiday to bring catastrophic injury, death and tragedy, it's particularly disheartening. This is exactly what happened to one Virginia family of four last weekend.

The tragedy involved an unexpected semi-truck accident over Easter weekend. The incident left community members — especially the members of Concord Church of Christ — reeling. According to news reports, a family of four was driving through West Virginia on Interstate 77 to visit relatives last weekend when a semi-truck hit them.

Police say that the semi-truck driver lost control of his vehicle before striking the family. The force of the collision caused the truck to catch fire and the entire family was killed. The mother, father, their 10-year-old boy and their 13-year-old girl, did not survive. Funeral services were scheduled for Friday afternoon, April 21, a Catawba College. School officials at Salisbury Academy — where the 13-year-old attended school, also planned a private vigil.

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 Posted on April 14, 2017 in Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents

One of the most difficult aspects for police when it comes to a fatal motor vehicle accident is that they cannot ask a deceased driver what happened in the incident. Perhaps the other driver was in the wrong, but without the perspective of the deceased individual, it makes it challenging to piece together exactly what happened.

Finding the evidence trail that shows fault

At Locklin & Coleman, PLLC, we have handled cases in which — upon deeper investigation — we uncovered evidence to support the fact that a deceased driver died as a result of the negligence or unlawful behavior of another driver. Sometimes, the police in these cases had mistakenly determined that the at-fault party was innocent because they failed to see the issue from the angle we identified.

When police fail to determine exactly what happened in a fatal accident, family members of the deceased could be left to believe that they have no recourse. These family members might believe, for example, that they don't have a viable wrongful death claim and they never even reach out to a personal injury lawyer to review their situations.

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 Posted on April 07, 2017 in Commercial Vehicle Accidents

Most Virginia residents know that a negligent truck driver who hurts them will be liable for the costs and damages stemming from the accident. However, not everyone is aware that the truck driver's employer will also be financially responsible. The reason for this dates back to Roman times when the rich owned slaves who they'd send out into the city to do their bidding.

The legal concept of "respondeat superior" is an ancient Latin term that means "let the master respond." The idea dates back to a time thousands of years ago when slaves would do jobs for their owners. If the slave hurt someone while carrying out his or her master's orders, the master was the one responsible for the damage.

These days, the same concept continues to apply to employers. When an employee is doing the bidding his or her employer, the employer will share liability for the employee's actions. This legal concept may also be referred to as vicarious liability.

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