Getting in an auto accident while on the job in Maryland can be the worst of both worlds.

As if a car or truck accident isn’t stressful enough, when a traffic crash occurs while you’re on the road for a Maryland employer — it’s easy to feel pulled in multiple directions at once. There’s the hassle of dealing with insurance companies, auto body shops, doctors, and lawyers. Throw in a company car or even your own car used for business, and then bring your employer (and all that potential drama) into the mix, and it’s no wonder accident victims get quickly overwhelmed.

Let’s say you’re driving to a sales call at a company in Baltimore City. All of a sudden, BAM! You are sideswiped at a downtown Baltimore intersection. The knee-jerk reaction if you’re involved in a work traffic accident is to call the boss immediately. Makes sense, right? Wrong!

Entertainment legend Mickey Rooney, age 90, testified before the U.S. Senate earlier this month that he had suffered abuse for years by family members and other caregivers. Rooney told the Senate that he had been abused in many ways, including emotional and financial abuse.

Rooney was among witnesses who testified before a Senate panel looking at what elder rights advocates describe as a “chronic problem” of senior citizens abused by caregivers at home and in nursing homes. Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) introduced legislation that would create an Office of Elder Justice within the Department of Justice to help coordinate law enforcement’s response to cases of elder abuse. Rooney believes that a law should be passed by Congress making elder abuse a specific crime.

A Baltimore County, Maryland nursing home abuse lawyer is familiar with laws and regulations that are supposed to protect senior citizens from abuse and neglect. Maryland nursing homes are entrusted with caring for our senior Americans who deserve to live their golden years in comfort and peace. Sadly, some seniors fall victim to abuse and neglect by family members, caregivers, and nursing home staff — suffering physical abuse and injuries that can lead to wrongful death in Maryland.

In Maryland, work-related injuries make the news from time to time, particularly when a serious construction accident or accident on the loading docks of the Baltimore waterfront occurs. Slip and fall accidents from roofs and scaffolding, and crane, forklift, truck and other construction vehicle accidents are all hazards that come with the job in the construction and longshoreman trades.

As Baltimore work accident injury attorneys, we’ve assisted many hard-working individuals in Maryland who’ve been injured on the job. But one type of workplace injury we hear less about — which can have serious, lifelong consequences — is eye injury. The National Safety Council reports that eye injuries in the workplace are on the rise. According to advocacy group Prevent Blindness America, some 2,000 people sustain eye injuries at work every day.

The organization is offering free tools to employers to help raise awareness of eye safety and eye health among employees (see link below). Prevent Blindness America cites the most common causes of workplace eye injuries are flying objects (e.g., pieces of metal or glass), tools, particles, chemicals, and harmful radiation. Of the 2,000 people who sustain eye injury at work yearly, some 10 to 20 percent will suffer temporary or permanent vision loss. Computer related eye strain is another common form of eye injury in the workplace.

If it were up to those in Maryland who have lost loved ones in fatal automobile accidents, the laws punishing offending drivers would be a lot tougher. There is, in fact, a Md. bill in the House that would stiffen penalties against some drivers involved in deadly motor vehicle accidents — but that bill has yet to pass into law.

The Baltimore Sun reports that last week, grieving family members and friends made their case before the Maryland House Judiciary Committee about passing “House Bill 363: Manslaughter by Vehicle or Vessel — Criminal Negligence.” Area bicycle, pedestrian, and other safety advocates believe “a law is needed to bridge the gap between a simple speeding ticket and felony vehicular manslaughter.” Some think Maryland’s laws are too lenient on drivers who cause fatal car accidents on our roads, city streets, and highways, with some getting off with fines.

An experienced Baltimore County car accident attorney is familiar with these Maryland driving laws and penalties. Families may turn to Md. injury lawyers to file a civil suit against the driver responsible for their loved one’s injury, disability, or death — if they’re unsatisfied with the verdict in Maryland criminal court, or if the case didn’t involve criminal charges.

Earlier this month, we reported on how NHTSA officials working with NASA engineers concluded that the problem with “runaway Toyotas” (i.e., cars accelerating out of control) was mechanical, not electrical. The problem that resulted in numerous traffic accident fatalities was, the report stated, caused by mechanical issues with the gas pedals due to faulty design or ill-fitting carpets and floor mats. The problem was not, the report’s authors concluded, electrical in nature, as some Toyota owners and auto critics theorized.

The sticky gas pedals are back in the news, however.

Toyota is now recalling an additional 2.17 million vehicles to repair problems linked to their Nov. 2009 safety recall for gas pedal problems due to “floor mat entrapment.” Over the last few years, several cases of Toyota drivers unable to slow down their cars resulted in a number of fatal car crashes. The New York Times reports that Toyota is adding Lexus luxury vehicles and popular SUVs to the gas pedal recall list, including the Toyota Highlander and Toyota 4Runner (see link to Toyota recall portal below for full listing of recall vehicle models and years).

Distracted driving is a serious hazard on Baltimore County roads and highways — particularly when cell phones are involved. A few years ago, talking on cell phones while driving was the primary culprit. Now the widespread availability of text and data enabled smartphones means drivers not only talk on their phones behind the wheel, but send, receive, and read text messages. You know the tell-tale signs when you see them: driver’s head is down, cell phone is in their hands, thumbs are typing away — and their attention is not on the road. Cell phone use while driving causes deadly motor vehicle accidents in Maryland and everywhere else in the country.

The National Safety Council reports 1.6 million auto crashes a year in the US caused by talking and texting on cell phones. And the Maryland State Highway Administration estimates that more than 380 people have died in Maryland due to distracted driving auto crashes in the last 5 years. Now a Baltimore County lawmaker wants to add teeth to the Maryland law that restricts cell phone usage while driving.

Delegate James Malone, a democrat from Baltimore County, Md., is sponsoring legislation that would give Maryland police more clout in enforcing Maryland’s cell phone use while driving ban, which is currently a secondary offense. Malone would like to see the ban become a primary offense, which would give Maryland police the right to pull drivers over if they’re observed using their handheld cell phones while driving. Currently in Maryland, the police can only issue a cell phone use citation if the driver is pulled over for a separate violation.

Last year, Toyota drivers in Baltimore County, Maryland and around the country had reason to be concerned. The auto manufacturer that built its reputation on safety and reliability was involved in one of the most massive worldwide consumer safety recalls in history of some 8 million vehicles.

The safety recalls occurred after reports of fatal auto accidents involving “runaway Toyotas” — that is, cars that couldn’t be stopped from accelerating out of control. Drivers reported sticking gas pedals that were slow to rise when foot pressure was removed, and cars that failed to decelerate despite the drivers releasing the gas and leaning hard on the brakes.

The car accidents that prompted the recalls and a subsequent government investigation occurred over a number of years, involving different models of Toyotas. Now U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has released a report on the investigation regarding Toyota’s problems.

Remember when the only people who drove pickup trucks in Maryland were farmers, construction workers, and other working people with loads to haul? That was back when a family-sized vehicle was called a station wagon — and modern innovations such as all-wheel drive, GPS navigation, and onboard entertainment systems weren’t even on the drawing board.

Fast forward a couple decades down the road, where more and more Americans started feeling like they too should be driving a truck, or something of that stature. Something that would be a presence on the road. Enter the sport utility vehicle or SUV. Now seems like practically every other car on the road is an SUV. SUVs of every shape, size, and color. Some the size of tanks (the Hummer, for example). The size is what’s causing headaches for the insurance industry — and for consumers who find even minor fender benders can be costly, in dollars and injuries.

As an experienced Baltimore SUV accident injury lawyer knows from work with injured clients — when an SUV is involved in a traffic accident with a car in Maryland, the smaller vehicle tends to be on the losing end. One of the problems, says the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), is the mismatched bumper heights.

As experienced Baltimore car accident injury lawyers will attest — winter driving in Maryland can be mighty challenging. This is true for any Baltimore County resident who commutes to work on Maryland highways and roads, maybe over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge or into Baltimore City on a daily basis. Snow and ice make the experience that much more interesting.

Winter weather is often cited as a contributing factor in serious Baltimore County car accidents. Sometimes, it’s a challenge just to get out of the driveway.

Which explains why, after Mother Nature dumps a snowy load on Maryland, we see the inevitable “moving igloos” chugging down our streets and cruising down our highways. By that we mean cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs driven by people who didn’t clean the snow and ice off their vehicles. You know the ones…where the driver is peering out a tiny hole in an icy windshield that hasn’t been fully defrosted. If you’ve been behind one of these mobile snow cones when the 10-inch cap of snow or 3-inch sheet of ice on the car roof lets go–you know what a driving hazard this problem can be.

A commercial truck driver was killed on a heavily traveled portion of the Baltimore Beltway earlier this week, The Baltimore Sun reports.

The newspaper stated that the fatal Baltimore County truck accident occurred around 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 4 on the Interstate 695 Inner Loop heading northbound, near Providence Road — near one of the more heavily populated areas of the Baltimore Beltway. The truck driver reportedly struck a motor vehicle left unattended on the beltway shoulder and then hit a concrete abutment, before his truck flipped over. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Baltimore County, Maryland authorities were working to identify the truck driver killed.

Maryland State Police continue to investigate this fatal Baltimore traffic accident. It is unclear what if any role the unattended vehicle played in the factors leading up to this deadly commercial truck crash on I-695.

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