Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog

This Maryland Daily Record last month reported on a twice tragic fatal Frederick, Maryland accident case. A woman was killed by a fire truck that was responding to an emergency.

Compounding the tragedy, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that the Plaintiff’s maximum recovery in the case is $20,000 because the Federal Tort Claims Act allows the Plaintiff to piggyback onto a Maryland law that gives fire departments and their agents immunity “from civil liability for any act or omission in the course of performing their duties” except to the extent provided by the maximum coverage limits in Maryland of $20,000.

No reasonable person can argue that judging the negligence of a fire department must be viewed though the obvious lens: they are rushing to put out a fire. But negligence is negligence. What if the jury believed that a woman was killed because the driver was doing something that no reasonable person would do, even in response to an emergency? What if he was looking away from the road because he was in an argument with his girlfriend on his cell phone? Shouldn’t that woman’s family be entitled to an award beyond $20,000 for her death? The law is too inflexible and it provides too little trust in juries.

The Baltimore Sun reports today that a Hagerstown man was critically injured in a single car accident early yesterday morning when his vehicle crashed into a guardrail on Route 32 near Burntwoods Road in Glenelg, Maryland. (Howard County) at 2:45 a.m. Obviously, it is in the Baltimore Sun, it is a serious accident. The driver, who was not wearing a seat belt, was flown by medevac helicopter to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was in critical condition yesterday.

Like the rest of us, I read these reports of auto accidents in Maryland every day and don't spend a lot of time focusing on the human tragedy that is being reported. There is a good reason for this. You can eat your entire life away reading and internalizing sad news accounts. (See David Foster Wallace, who I think is the greatest nonfiction writer of my generation, on this one, may he rest in peace.)

This accident struck me quickly because throughout middle school and high school, I drove by this intersection every school day. It never ceases to amaze me how much more of an impact familiarity with the intersection has on your attention span on these stories.

Jury Verdict Research released fresh data (2001-2008) last week that showed that the median compensatory award for motor vehicle accident lawsuits in Maryland is $11,925. Accident plaintiffs receive compensation in 71 percent of cases that go to trial.

Another interesting tidbit is that rear-end collisions made up 37 percent of the total number of accident verdicts in Maryland. Intersection collisions accounted for 13 percent of Maryland accidents that went to trial. Turning collisions accounted for 9 percent and chain reaction collisions and pedestrian suits each accounted for 5 percent of the total Maryland accident lawsuits that went to verdict.

The Washington Post has a article on a bill proposed by Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons (D-Montgomery) that would make it easier to prosecute reckless drivers by creating a new middle ground between traffic citations and felony vehicular manslaughter, which Maryland prosecutors are loathe to bring in all but the most eggregious cases.

Under the proposal, drivers could be charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to three years in jail in fatal accident cases in which they display negligence that results in "substantial risk" to public safety.

I have dealt with the frustration of the families of Marylanders who are angry that the death of someone they love is dealt with criminally with the same traffic citation a driver gets for a petty traffic offense. On the other hand, there is some question in defining the “substantial risk” test because it is hard to evaluate the risk taken when you know the answer already: the victim died in the accident. Tough issue. I articulated some of these mixed feelings on the Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog back in October.

We have put on the Maryland Accident Lawyer Help Center a sample auto accident trial transcript which I believe is the only complete civil trial transcript - much less an auto accident transcript - available on the Internet.

You can view either as a complete trial transcript from the beginning or pick the part of the trial you want to review.