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Aug 31, 2011 - Car Accidents by Cross & Smith

Our Tuscaloosa personal injury attorneys wish you and your family a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend. Please celebrate responsibly and don’t drink and drive. Car accidents in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Bessemer and elsewhere in Alabama are a real threat during this final summer holiday weekend of the year. AAA is reporting 27.3 million travelers are expected to make a trip of at least 50 miles by car over the three-day holiday weekend, CNN Money reports. Authorities in Alabama will be joining law enforcement in Florida and several other states as part of the “Hands Across the Border” drunk driving enforcement program. The National Safety Council expects 400 motorists will be killed in traffic accidents nationwide. Nearly 40,000 will be seriously injured.

Aug 26, 2011 - Workers' Compensation/Work Injury by Cross & Smith

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration is conducting an all-out blitz on the dangers of heat-related work injuries in Alabama and elsewhere. Heading into fall harvest season, the government’s top work-safety watchdog is also sounding the alarm about the risks of silo entrapment, and other farming accidents. Our Birmingham workers’ compensation lawyers encourage employees to be mindful of the risks — and employers to do their part in preventing work injuries in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and elsewhere in Alabama. OSHA is pushing a web-based app aimed at helping employers keep workers safe in the sun. “Summer heat presents a serious issue that affects some of the most vulnerable workers in our country, and education is crucial to keeping them safe,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “Heat-related illnesses are preventable. This new app is just one way the Labor Department is getting that message out.” The app uses the heat index as published by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to determine necessary protective measures. Download here.

Aug 22, 2011 - Bus Accidents by Cross & Smith

School is in session! Tuscaloosa County Schools started Aug. 10. Other areas schools are also getting under way for the 2011-2012 school year. Please take some time to talk to your kids about staying safe. In this blog, our Tuscaloosa injury lawyers will talk school bus safety. In upcoming blogs, we will discuss teen driving safety and the importance of keeping your young bicyclists and pedestrians safe while traveling to and from school. Alabama school bus accidents can be devastating — both for bus passengers and for other motorists on the road. But what is too often overlooked is the risk of Tuscaloosa pedestrian accidents around buses; nationwide a significant number of all bus fatalities involve pedestrians — often students who are boarding or deboarding. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports about 1,400 people have been killed in school bus accidents in the last decade. Thousands more have been injured.

Aug 16, 2011 - ATV/SUV Rollover Accidents by Cross & Smith

The Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra are the only large pickups to earn the top rating of good in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s roof strength evaluation that measures occupant protection in rollover crashes. The Nissan Titan is rated acceptable for rollover protection. The Chevrolet Silverado (and twin GMC Sierra), and Dodge Ram are rated marginal. The ratings apply only to crew cab versions of these pickups. To measure roof strength, a metal plate is pushed against one corner of a vehicle’s roof at a constant speed. The maximum force sustained by the roof before 5 inches of crush is compared to the vehicle’s weight to find the strength-to-weight ratio. This is a good assessment of vehicle structural protection in rollover crashes.

Aug 15, 2011 - Car Accidents by Cross & Smith

The Alabama Highway Patrol reported a busy weekend — responding to at least three injury accidents on Sunday afternoon. Our Tuscaloosa personal injury lawyers remind motorists that August is traditionally the deadliest month of the year. Accidents in Etowah and DeKalb counties were reported on Sunday, including an Alabama trucking accident on I-59 near mile marker 176. That accident occurred about 1:30 a.m. The 57-year-old driver was injured. Two teens from Boaz were injured on Alabama Highway 179. That accident involved a 16- and 17-year-old in a Mitsubishi. A third accident involved a 1995 Ford on County Road 163. MSN reports that August is the deadliest month on the road. Nearly 3,000 motorists died on the nation’s roads in August of 2009, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Statistics for last year are due out later this summer.

Aug 3, 2011 - Personal Injury by Cross & Smith

Pedestrian accidents in Alabama involving children happen all too often and there’s a new group of children on this high-risk list that are especially prone to these types of accidents — children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD-C ). Recent research, provided by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, concludes that these individuals chose to cross roads and intersections in riskier situations than other children. “Future efforts may focus on remediating executive deficits, which may, in turn, prevent pedestrian injuries in this at-risk population,” the researchers reported online ahead of the August issue of Pediatrics.