Charlotte Injury Lawyers Blog

Young Boy Asphyxiates In Same North Carolina Motel Room As Elderly Couple, Police Blame Carbon Monoxide :: Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers in Charlotte, NC

May 30, 2013 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “What if a loved one dies from the injuries sustained in a serious accident while the case is pending?”

A deadly incident of carbon monoxide poisoning is likely to blame for the recent death of an 11-year-old boy at a Boone, North Carolina motel room. Investigators say they believe the death may also be linked to the deaths of a couple found inside the exact same motel room several months ago.

Police say they found carbon monoxide in the room where the 11-year-old was staying over the weekend. A preliminary autopsy has shown that the boy died of asphyxia, a common cause of death when toxic gases cut off oxygen to the rest of the body. Officials with the medical examiner’s office say that they will run toxicology tests to determine exactly what was in the boy’s body at the time of his death.

The 11-year-old’s mother, Jeannie Williams, was also seriously injured and rushed to the hospital for treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning. Police say the mother survived and is now recovering from her injuries.

Back in April, a couple from Washington State was found dead in the same room. Toxicology results have since confirmed that the two died of carbon monoxide poisoning. A spokesperson with the Boone Police Department says that investigators noticed the room is located very close to an indoor pool that is heated by a natural gas heater. Though the department is not willing to say officially that this was the cause of the carbon monoxide, it is one possible answer.

North Carolina Nursing Home Penalized After Ignoring Patient’s Deadly Fall :: Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers in Charlotte, NC

May 28, 2013 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “What information will be helpful for my nursing home negligence claim?”

A nursing home located in High Point, NC has been sanctioned by officials with the state Department of Health and Human Services according to a recently released report. State officials say that the facility failed to properly respond to a dangerous fall by a resident, which eventually led to the patient’s death.

Investigators with the HHS Department cited the nursing home, Westchester Manor at Providence Place, after it was discovered that the staff at the facility never bothered to notify a doctor that a resident had fallen and seriously injured her head. The head trauma ultimately proved fatal.

The NC Department of HHS recommended that the federal government order the home pay $10,000 in fines for breaching its duty owed to the injured patient. Westchester Manor is also required to come up with a plan of action to correct the deficiencies which led to the deadly error in the first place. The home is also prevented from taking on any new patients until it is found to be in substantial compliance with nursing home regulations.

The specific incident involved an elderly woman who was admitted to Westchester Manor in early February for rehabilitation following a stroke. The woman suffered from other health conditions including dementia. Only a month after being admitted, the woman was found on the floor of her room by a nurse who noted that she had hit the back of her head while attempting to take herself to the bathroom. Nurses noticed a big bump on the back of the woman’s head and claim they intended to notify a doctor about the fall, something investigators say never happened.

Charlotte Driver Charged In Deadly Tractor-Trailer Wreck :: Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers in Charlotte, NC

May 23, 2013 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “Are the laws or rules applying to a wrongful death claim different from a personal injury not involving death?”

Police in Winston-Salem say they have filed charges against a driver from Charlotte, NC after a deadly tractor-trailer accident on U.S. Highway 52 occurred earlier last month. Officers say they issued a warrant for Hiep Tan Truong’s arrest on Monday.

Authorities say Truong lost control of his commercial vehicle on U.S. 52 at the beginning of May and drove into a concrete median. The accident set off a chain reaction of collisions that involved four other vehicles and left several injured and one man dead.

Police say that Truong was driving his box truck at more than 15 miles per hour above the speed limit in the midst of a downpour. After hitting an oncoming car head-on, the truck continued and crashed into two more vehicles before finally overturning.

Police say Kenneth Leroy Baum was thrown from his Chevy Impala and died as a result of the accident. Truong was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle for his actions that morning and is being held under a $5,000 unsecured bond. Truong is not set to appear in court until June 24th.

Driver In Deadly Boating Accident Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter :: Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers in Charlotte, NC

May 21, 2013 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

The driver of the boat responsible for a deadly accident over Memorial Day weekend that left a pregnant woman and her three-year-old son dead has ben charged. Police say that the driver, Michael Lynn Greene of McLeansville, was arrested earlier this week and charged with involuntary manslaughter.

According to prosecutors, Greene was arrested and charged on Monday and given a $50,000 secured bond and a court date in July. Davidson County District Attorney Garry Frank says that authorities do not believe alcohol was a factor in the deadly accident but that did not stop his office from pressing charges.

The terrible accident happened on the busy holiday weekend when Greene was crashed his speedboat into a slow moving pontoon boat. The accident occurred in Swearing Creek, a small cove off of High Rock Lake. The pontoon boat was heading downstream slowly and had three adults and a child on board at the time of the accident. Greene was heading upstream with three juvenile passengers at high speeds when he crashed into the pontoon boat.

Ten Fans Injured In Camera Accident At Charlotte Motor Speedway :: Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers in Charlotte, NC

May 16, 2013 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

A bad accident on the Charlotte Motor Speedway took place this weekend at the Coca-Cola 600 when a heavy nylon rope that was holding a Fox Sports overhead television camera fell from the grandstands and landed on the surface of the track.

The freak accident left 10 fans at the Speedway injured and three requiring hospitalization for those injuries. Officials say that two of the fans were taken to the Carolinas Medical Center in Concord and one was taken to the University Medical Center.

Fox Sports has said that it has not been able to identify the cause of the accident and says that until it does it will indefinitely suspend the use of the camera system. The camera consists of three ropes and two guide ropes that are used to move the camera back and forth. A spokesperson says the drive rope failed and then fell to the track. Thankfully, the other ropes were able to hold the camera in place, which spared fans from even more serious injuries.

The rope even caused problems for drivers when it fell on the track and wrapped around Kyle Busch’s car. Busch said he never saw the rope itself, but did hear a very loud thud next to his right front tire, thinking maybe the tire blew out. The rope caused his car to slow down until officials delayed the race to clean the track and tend to injured fans.

Pregnant Woman And Young Son Killed In North Carolina Boating Accident :: Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers in Charlotte, NC

May 14, 2013 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

This Memorial Day weekend ended in tragedy for the family of one pregnant woman and her young son who both died on High Rock Lake in North Carolina in a terrible boating accident. According to police, the woman and her three-year-old son died when a speedboat crashed into their pontoon boat.

Authorities say Melissa Chambers Britt and her son died in the terrible accident on High Rock Lake, located in Davidson County, NC. According to a police spokesperson, the speedboat that smashed into Britt’s boat was traveling at more than 50 miles per hour at the time of the accident.

Witnesses say Britt’s husband, William, who was not injured in the accident jumped in the water after the crash to save his wife and young son. The boy was taken to the hospital, but later died of his injuries. Sadly, William was not able to find his wife’s body which was only recovered several hours later by rescue crews. Police say Britt’s brother, Michael Chambers, was also in the boat at the time of the accident was taken by helicopter to a hospital for treatment of serious head injuries.

However, police say that none of the four people in the speedboat driven by Michael Greene were injured in the crash. According to witnesses, Greene became aware of the pontoon boat too late to slow down and tried to turn away but the two vessels were already too close together to avoid an accident. Police say they do not believe alcohol played a role in the accident, but do believe Greene was distracted behind the wheel. Authorities say they will make a final decision about possible criminal charges against Greene next week.

Speeding Truck Driver Leaves Man Dead On North Carolina Highway :: Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers in Charlotte, NC

May 9, 2013 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “What should I do if I have been injured by another party but I can’t afford a lawyer?”

A terrible accident on wet North Carolina roads left an innocent motorist dead earlier this month. Officials with the state highway patrol say that a truck driver, Hiep Truong, 45, was driving more than 15 miles per hour over the posted speed limit when he lost control of his tractor-trailer on wet, Winston-Salem roads.

Authorities say Truong was driving a produce vehicle for a Charlotte, NC company at the time of the wreck. The accident took place on U.S. 52 a little before afternoon rush hour. Police say it was pouring down rain at the time of the accident and the driver’s speed combined dangerously with the already slick roads.

According to emergency responders, the tractor-trailer was going more than 70 miles per hour in the rain near the Clemmonsville Road exit on 52 when the truck lost traction. At that point, the semi went out of control, crossing over the median and crashing head-on into an oncoming 2008 Chevrolet Impala. The Chevy was driven by Kenneth Baum, who was ejected from the car and died at the scene of the accident.

Police say that the truck continued moving south in the northbound lanes of 52 after striking the Chevy, hitting two more vehicles before finally rolling over onto its right side. Truong collided with a 2006 Ford and a 2009 Mazda, sending a shower of broken pieces of concrete onto several other vehicles. Thankfully none of the occupants in the other cars were injured in the terrible accident. Traffic along U.S. 52 was backed up for hours after.

Terrible Accident Results In Three High School Students Being Airlifted To Hospital :: Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers in Charlotte, NC

May 7, 2013 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “I was involved in a motor vehicle accident with injuries. Do I need a lawyer?”

Police with the North Carolina Highway Patrol say that a wreck that took place near Forestview High School has sent three students to the hospital for emergency treatment.

According to troopers, the accident happened on Tuesday at around 3:45 p.m., just after school had let out. A white Mazda was heading south on Union Road near Wilson Farm road when the driver attempted to pass a slower moving car. Unfortunately, the white Mazda miscalculated the distance needed to get around the slower car and ended up crashing head-on into an oncoming Ford pick-up.

Highway Patrol officials say the accident was serious and sent three 16-year-old students of Forestview High School to the hospital. Two of the students were so badly injured that emergency responders called for helicopters to airlift one student to Carolina’s Medical Center in Charlotte and another to Gaston Memorial. Thankfully, police say that the three students appear to be in stable condition, despite the severity of their injuries.

Many people understand that head-on accidents are dangerous, though you may not know just how dangerous. Head-on collisions are serious and have substantially higher fatality rates than other kinds of crashes, with the notable exception of rollovers. In 2005, two percent of crashes were head-on collisions, but these accounted for 10 percent of all fatal accidents. Head-on crashes more frequently result in death because of their abrupt nature; stopping forward movement so suddenly.

AFL-CIO Releases Report Examining North Carolina Worker Safety :: Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers in Charlotte, NC

May 2, 2013 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “I have been injured on another person’s property. What should I do now?”

A major report compiled by the AFL-CIO was recently released which discussed the current state and health of the average American worker. The report dove into the ways in which workers suffer harm while on the job and examined which workers were at the greatest risk for suffering workplace accidents.

The study, titled “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect,” found that in 2011 there were 148 workplace deaths in North Carolina. Of these, a third involved transportation incidents such as workers dying while on the road. Amazingly, 20 percent of the workplace fatalities involved violence and assault, not something that many people would assume happens in the workplace.

The next biggest category of workplace fatalities was industrial falls. Contact with dangerous workplace equipment is responsible for 24 fatalities in North Carolina each year, harmful substances and chemicals are responsible for 12 fatalities and fires and explosion were found to be to blame for four fatalities.

The study also found that Latino workers were at an especially high risk of workplace death and injury. The reason was not because Latinos are more prone to accidents, but instead because, as a group, Latinos are more likely to work in hazardous industries with poor safety records. These industries include things like construction and agriculture where safety regulations are often lax or totally nonexistent. Another problem identified in the report is that undocumented workers are especially vulnerable to workplace injuries because they are often reluctant to report dangerous working conditions for fear of being deported.

Families In Deadly Charlotte Drag Racing Awarded $6 Million From Subdivision Developer :: Personal Injury Attorneys and Lawyers in Charlotte, NC

April 30, 2013 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “What should I do if I have been injured by another party but I can’t afford a lawyer?”

A recent article in the Charlotte Observer discussed the tragic case of the 2009 accident that left a Winthrop University professor, her two-year-old daughter and an unrelated 13-year-old boy dead.

The accident happened one evening back in April of 2009 when the professor, Cynthia Furr, pulled out into a N.C. 49 intersection. What Furr did not realize is that a Mitsubishi Eclipse that had been street racing another vehicle was currently speeding down the road at more than 100 miles per hour. The Eclipse rear-ended Furr, killing her and her young daughter. The crash also left the passenger in the Eclipse dead.

The two 20-somethings who were drag racing have since been charged and are now serving terms in prison for their actions that night. After the criminal trials were over, the families of Furr and the 13-year-old turned their attention to a developer, Crescent Resources, that had promised but failed to install a stop light at the very intersection where Furr was killed.

Back in 2006, Crescent agreed to install a traffic light at the intersection of N.C. 49 and Riverpointe Drive in exchange for zoning approval to construct a large subdivision in the area. Rather than do as it said, the developer dragged its feet, arguing that the traffic volume in the area was not great enough to justify a light. The plaintiffs argued that had there been a light at the intersection, Furr would never have pulled out into oncoming traffic and the driver of the Eclipse would not have had the opportunity to race for so long or build up so much speed.