Washington Injury Law Blog

Last Friday I posted about the formation of another police task force.  Washington State Patrol formed DUI “Target Teams,” which I have dubbed “A-Teams,” to fight drunk drivers and eliminate DUI related fatal Washington car accidents by 2030.

The results are in and 57 drunk drivers were cited over the 4th of July holiday weekend.  There was a single fatal car accident, however, it has not yet been determined if alcohol played a factor in the single vehicle car crash that took the life of a Washington woman.

Washington Drivers Beware!  Looks like the WSP Troopers are serious about cracking down on DUI in the King, Pierce and Snohomish County area.  Good news for road safety!

As the 4th of July holiday starts the Washington State Patrol has formed a crack “A-Team” of DUI enforcement troopers to track down more drunk drivers. The new task force will cover three Washington counties: King, Snohomish and Pierce County. The WSP teams only job is to arrest drunk drivers.  The goal is to eliminate all Washington DUI related car accident deaths by 2030.

WSP is actually calling the task force “Target Teams.” The teams are made of the 21 WSP Troopers with the best track record of DUI arrests. The crack teams will be on the roads 7 days a week according to the WSP, with extra man-power on the weekends.

Since 2002 there has been on average a total of 220 people killed per year in Washington car accidents involving drunk drivers. Police are going to be targeting hot spots for DUI drivers. Can anyone say Kirkland!

Do yourself and other drivers a favor and take a cab if you’ve been drinking. The life you may save is more than worth the $30 dollar cab ride.

Toyota has recalled some 8.4 million vehicles.  Although new reports surface almost daily detailing how Toyota new it had a safety defect in its accelerator pedals but did nothing for years.  Toyota’s failure to warn its customers or recall the defective gas pedals has at last count cost 34 people their lives and lesser injuries to hundreds more.  Outrageous!  That’s 34 wrongful death lawsuit Toyota can expect to be defending.

An what’s worse is that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which regulates auto makers, knew about it for the last year and did not force Toyota to recall its cars.  Doubly outrageous!!

It’s corporate gross negligence like Toyota’s that results in huge amounts of litigation.  Companies, like Toyota did, choose profits over human lives all the time.  It’s rare the public gets a glimpse of this under the media spot light. 

I’m obviously a biased Kirkland personal injury trial attorney, but am still amazed at the conduct of Toyota executives.  Trial lawyers get blamed for rampant lawsuits, but is that really the case?  No, of course not.  It’s companies like Toyota blaming others or ignoring the mess hidden behind their front doors that lead to lawsuits. 

A little personal and corporate responsibility would have went a long way in preventing needless injuries and deaths to innocent Toyota customers.  Doing the right thing needs to mean choosing safety over profits.  As a consumer you can send that message loud and clear by putting your dollars behind companies who act responsibly while shunning those who don’t.

A tragic accident happened in Florida involving an escaped pet albino Burmese python and a 2 year-old girl.  The 8 foot long snake strangled the young girl yesterday despite the owners attempts at freeing the girl.  The pet python somehow escaped its glass terrarium and made its way into the girl’s room where it attacked her.  The snake was owned by the boyfriend of the girl’s mother.

The attack is being called a rare incident, but you never know what a wild animal will do.  The python was operating on basic animal instinct despite it being a family pet.  Special care is needed when you have an exotic and potentially dangerous pet.

If this was to happen in Washington state the owner of the snake could be subject to a wrongful death lawsuit.  Investigation at the scene revealed that the python had not been properly secured in its container.   The fact that it happened in the family home with a family pet with the consent of the mother could definitely give the boyfriend a very good defense.  But imagine if the python got out of the house and attacked a child playing outside.  In that case, the snake owner would have a serious problem and likely facing a wrongful death lawsuit in the immediate future.

Exotic pets that can be dangerous require great care and caution in making sure they are kept in a secure environment.  If you know a pet may be dangerous in certain situations, then you as an owner have the duty to take all the reasonable steps you can to make sure that situation does not happen.

The tax man is coming! April 15th is fast approaching, meaning it is time to pay Uncle Sam his due. As a Kirkland Washington personal injury attorney I rarely wade into tax law issues. However, for all my Washington personal injury clients, there is one very important tax regulation that applies to personal injury lawsuit verdicts or settlement money.

If you are the injured victim or family member that recovers money as the result of a personal injury lawsuit or claim – then the money received is not taxed. Under Federal Treasury Regulation § 104(a)(2) Gross Income (potentially taxable income) does not include money (unless punitive damages – which aren’t available under Washington laws) received as the result of personal injury lawsuit /claim settlement, judgment, or verdict.

If you settled your car accident or other Washington injury accident case in the last tax year you will not have to pay taxes on it. You will probably have to report that you received a personal injury settlement or verdict, but no taxes will be charged against it. So when your accountant or tax software asks you about the amount received don’t worry, you won’t pay more taxes by telling the IRS about your injury settlement/verdict money. 

The tax code section reads specifically: “Section 104(a)(2) excludes from gross income the amount of any damages received (whether by suit or agreement) on account of personal injuries or sickness. The term “damages received (whether by suit or agreement)” means an amount received (other than workmen’s compensation) through prosecution of a legal suit or action based upon tort or tort type rights, or through a settlement agreement entered into in lieu of such prosecution.”

Ben Sansone of the Missouri Injury Law Blog had recent post on the same subject. If you live in Missouri you should definitely check out his blog, it is excellent.

Common sense has finally taken hold with a realistic solution to stopping the 98,000 deaths that result from medical errors each year. The Dennis Quaid story on 60 Minutes has thrust the medical error problem in this country into the media spot light. I was watching the CBS evening news Monday night and saw a report that the federal government – specifically Medicare – and several insurance companies have pledged to stop paying for the bills associated with medical care given to fix certain preventable medical mistakes. My wife Shelly’s reaction to this was – Duh! Why have they paid in the past?

Beginning in October 2008 Medicare will no longer pay for eight hospital mistakes – including:

• Urinary infection from catheter
• Bed sores
• Surgical object left in body
• Air embolism
• Giving wrong type of blood
• Blood infection from catheter
• Chest infection after bypass surgery
• Hospital – caused injury

Medicare believes that if they stop paying for mistakes then hospitals will stop making them. Sure makes good sense to me.

The State of Pennsylvania’s Medicare system is already refusing to pay for 27 “never events” including surgery on the wrong body part and medication leading to injury or death. Hospitals and doctors should pay for fixing their mistakes not the patients. In the past 2 years as a result not paying for mistakes Pennsylvania hospitals are seeing fewer mistakes and fewer deaths. Pennsylvania hospitals and doctors have put better safety measures in place – like 40 question pre-surgery checklists – to help prevent medical errors from happening in the first place. The quickest way to enact change is to make it unprofitable – you gotta love capitalism!

Washington should follow Pennsylvania’s lead and make sure all insurance companies stop paying for preventable medical errors.

Source: CBS Evening News – March 17, 2008

I recently wrote a post about a rule change that allows semi-truck drivers to be on the road longer each day. Increasing driving hours can cause more fatigued and distracted truck driver’s to be on the road each day. Last night a truck driver was reaching onto the floor boards of his truck for something and left the roadway, crashed through a cable barrier, crossed the median, and drove into on coming freeway traffic causing a horrible Truck Accident. The 24 year old driver of a Kia Sephia crashed underneath the semi trailer pinning the Kia under the trailer.  The young driver of the kia was from Enumclaw and died at the scene of the truck accident.  The KOMO 4 TV report did not say how many hours the driver had been on the road so fatigue may not have been a factor, but the driver was definitely distracted.

The freeway was guarded by a cable barrier that failed to stop the truck from crossing into on coming traffic. Washington DOT claims that a cement barrier probably would not have stopped the truck either given the truck was doing the speed limit when it left the roadway. I wonder if this is really true?

If I recall correctly about six months ago there were several news stories about cable barriers failing to stop cars from crossing into on coming freeway traffic on a particular stretch of I-5 in Marysville, Washington. It seems to me that Washington DOT had better start re-evaluating whether cable barriers are doing the job needed. Perhaps if a cement barrier was in place – there would have been less chance of the truck crossing into on coming freeway traffic. Too many people are dying on Washington highways for this to be a coincidence.

A young man has been stolen from a family far too early. The family must come to grips with the wrongful death of their loved one. Let’s help stop this kind of tragedy and begin considering why cable barriers are still being used when they fail to do the job needed!

Source: KOMO TV 4

A study paid for by State Farm Insurance found that car crashes cause the most teen and tween deaths annually. The most dangerous circumstances for young passengers are: riding unbuckled with new teen driver on high speed road (over 45 mph speed limit), riding with driver who has been drinking, male teen drivers, and driving on weekends.

Researchers reviewed national data on serious car accidents from 2000 to 2005. During those years 2.5 million kids ages 8 to 17 were involved in a car crash and 9,807 of them died from their accident injuries. The risk of death for kids riding with teens drivers is at least double that of riding with drivers 25 and older. Teens with less than one year’s experience were the most dangerous.

Parents the message is clear – Don’t let your kids ride with a teen driver who has less than a year’s experience. Insist in seatbelts and find ways for your kids to resist peer pressure to ride in cars driven by other teens.

Study data also suggests that restricting driving privileges reduces these risks. Making the age requirement higher, forbidding other child passengers until a certain age, and restricting the hours that can operate a vehicle can all help in reducing the dangers to our kids. Perhaps Washington should look enacting

Source: Seattle PI, March 4, 2008, by reported Lindsey Tanner

A Vashon Island, Washington widow, Jodi Scanlon, has been forced to file a lawsuit against her late husband’s $500,000 accidental-death life insurance policy with CIGNA Group Insurance. Her husband Michael suffered from MS and was living part time in a nursing home, where he fell and struck his head in November 2006. The fall led to a traumatic brain injury which Michael never recovered from. The autopsy report ruled Michael’s death an accident.

Jodi submitted a claim shortly after Michael’s death. The Scanlon’s had been paying Michael’s life insurance policy premiums for 10 years and were stunned to receive a rejection letter from CIGNA. A doctor hired by CIGNA had reviewed Michael’s medical records and somehow determined that the fall was caused by a pre-existing heart condition. The doctor went on to say that the pre-existing heart condition was made worse by the blood thinning aspirin he was on – which contributed to his death.

Now, I have not review the medical records or facts surrounding Michael’s fall, but this is unbelievable. This poor family pays premiums on a life insurance policy for 10 years, an autopsy rules Michael’s death an accident, and the accidental fall is the triggering event that ultimately results in his death. To you and me this seems like an open and shut case. How can CIGNA deny payment?

The answer is they most likely can’t. Washington voters recently approved R-67 (aka Fair Insurance Conduct Act), which is a new law aimed at holding insurance companies accountable for their bad faith practices in handling first party insurance claims. First party insurance claims are those that you make against insurance that you have purchased – like life insurance.

CIGNA is going to have to show that its denial is based upon sound medicine – that Michael’s heart condition caused the fall. I not sure how they can determine this based on a medical records review.  Seems to me witnesses to Michael’s fall – if there were any – would have to say something like he was grabbing his chest or arm prior to falling – thus indicating a possible heart attack. Even then the autopsy would have likely revealed damage to the heart from the heart attack – and if bad enough – the coroner would’ve ruled the death by natural causes – heart attack. I’m not a doctor by any means and this is all pure speculation by me, but CIGNA’s story doesn’t really seem to add up.

Jodi’s story strikes at the heart. Not only did she lose her husband to a tragic accident - but the loss was made much worse by CIGNA denying payment on the life insurance policy. CIGNA by forcing Jodi into litigation will cause Jodi to re-live over and over again the painful memory of her husband’s death. Situations like this is why Seattle injury attorneys like me have jobs. Big insurance companies take advantage of the little person by twisting the facts to fit their need and greed for evermore profits.

Luckily for Jodi Scanlon Washington laws are on her side. Jodi has filed her lawsuit under the Fair Insurance Conduct Act. If CIGNA is found to have acted in bad faith they could have to pay triple damages or 1.5 million to Jodi plus her attorney fees and costs of the lawsuit.

If you’re faced with this type of situation or know someone who is – please contact an experienced Washington injury attorney – and get some good advice on your rights.

Source: Seattle Times article, February 15, 2008 by Sonia Krishnan

I was raised by a single mother who was very involved in my life well into my 20’s. I lived with her during college and law school off and on. When I was 19 years old I bought a Kawasaki GPZ 750, which is a racing style street motorcycle. My mom was convinced I would seriously injure or kill myself with that “thing.” She even went as far as to donate blood in large amounts during my teens and 20’s. Luckily I avoided any motorcycle accidents or serious injuries while I owned my beloved motorcycle. I still miss my red rocket occasionally.

However, if I had been killed in a serious motorcycle accident, which was caused by the carelessness of another car or truck driver, my mom under Washington law would not have been allowed to do anything against the driver who killed me. Washington’s wrongful death laws do not allow parents to hold wrongdoers accountable for the negligent death of their child–once the child turns 18–unless the parent can show they were economically dependant on the child. This is an unfair and discriminatory, especially for single parents.

A new law has been proposed in the Washington State Legislature — HB 1873 – to change this law, so that parents who are very involved in their child’s life can hold a wrongdoer accountable. 47 other states have already passed laws giving similar rights to parents of wrongfully killed children. Washington needs to do the same.

Please contact your legislator and urge them to pass this law because every family should be valued.