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It’s a postcard-perfect picture: You’re driving down a back road in one of the rural Maryland counties, and you pass a farm with a red barn, corral, and horses lazily grazing in a field. It’s a relaxing sight that harkens back to simpler times.

However the spread of suburbia into rural Maryland counties — and the traffic that goes along with it — means increased risk of cars and trucks encountering large animals in the roadways. That picturesque Maryland scene can turn to horror in a heartbeat if a horse, cow, or other large animal gets loose and finds itself in the road — with an unsuspecting driver coming around the bend. Car accidents with large animals often end badly.

In an article in Stable Management magazine (see link below), an attorney who works with the equine industry goes into detail regarding various scenarios where horse and livestock owners may be held liable if an automobile accident with a large animal occurs. Laws vary from state to state, but in general…

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Maryland sports fans who follow the Baltimore Ravens know what to expect when they witness the spectacle that is professional football. It’s rough, it’s fast, and it’s exciting. But now safety advocates and the NFL are growing increasingly concerned about head injuries that can result when men the size of refrigerators hit each other head first.

A New England Patriots safety was fined $50,000 for a helmet-to-helmet collision on a Baltimore Ravens tight end during this past weekend’s match-up. This was not an isolated case: two other teams also received hefty fines for players who used their heads as battering rams in helmet-to-helmet hits on other players.

The NFL regards such hits as “dangerous and flagrant,” while some defensive players contend that’s just how the game is played. As the NFL promises to impose stricter sanctions to avoid helmet-hit head injuries, some players who say they’ll be hamstrung by such restrictions threaten to quit.

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Maryland drivers encounter a lot of hazards out there on our highways and roads — drunk drivers, distracted drivers texting and chatting on cell phones, road construction and detours, traffic congestion, bad weather — the list goes on.

One Maryland driving obstacle we hear less about that causes serious car accidents is the problem of livestock and other animals in the roadways. This includes farming livestock such as cattle, sheep, and bison; game animals such as elk and deer that are raised on private property for hunting; and even large exotic animals that are kept legally or illegally by private individuals as “pets.”

Let’s consider the problem of Maryland auto accidents involving livestock.

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The family of a truck driver killed in a 2008 Chesapeake Bay Bridge tractor trailer truck accident has been awarded a $100,000 settlement by the responsible driver’s insurance company.

According to news reports, a big rig truck driver, age 57, was hauling refrigerated chickens across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge eastbound in the early morning hours of Aug. 10, 2008. Then, a 19-year-old woman who’d been out clubbing with friends in Baltimore, Maryland after a wedding fell asleep behind the wheel, crossed the center line, and hit the tractor trailer truck. The car crash set off a series of events that caused the truck to go out of control, hit another vehicle and break through the opposite barrier — plunging into the Chesapeake Bay waters below. The truck driver was killed.

As Queen Anne’s County car accident injury lawyers know, many factors are taken into consideration in both criminal and civil courts. This fatal Maryland car and truck accident case was controversial: even though the defendant had been drinking in Baltimore prior to the fatal traffic accident, her blood alcohol level was below the legal limit. The Queen Anne’s County State Attorney at the time told the press: “The act of falling asleep while driving and drifting across the center line is not sufficient to constitute gross negligence.”

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A judge has sentenced a local man to two years in jail for a fatal Cecil County, Maryland pedestrian traffic accident.

This fatal pedestrian and truck accident occurred in the Elkton area of Cecil County, Maryland on the evening of June 14, 2009.

According to local news reports, a 57-year-old Cecil County man was driving his truck when he struck a pedestrian, age 44, who was on the roadside helping another man load a moped onto a parked truck. The victim was crushed between the driver’s truck and the parked vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Though nationally and in Maryland, overall traffic accident deaths have declined — distracted driving death rates remain unchanged. So says a new study released by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood describes the problem of distracted driving as a national “epidemic.” Some alarming numbers:

  • One in 8 roadway deaths is blamed on distracted driving.
  • Last year, distracted driving was blamed for 5,474 motor vehicle accident deaths and nearly half a million people injured on U.S. roads and highways.
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Anyone who drives to or from the city of Baltimore, Maryland at rush hour will tell you — it’s not for the faint of heart. Like most older American cities, Baltimore has problems with traffic congestion. There are simply too many drivers jockeying to get someplace at the same time on roads not built to handle the volume. Throw in Baltimore County road and bridge construction delays, bad weather, and car accidents, and it’s not a pretty sight.

And now, apparently, Baltimore drivers’ bad habits have made the traffic situation in Maryland uglier — and the chance of getting in a Baltimore traffic accident more likely.

According to the Baltimore Business Journal, insurance company Allstate has published a report that finds Baltimore drivers to be some of the most dangerous in the country. The study, which looked at 200 American cities, found that…

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Does your dog ride shotgun in your car, truck or SUV — his head hanging out the window and tongue flapping in the breeze? Or is your beloved pooch planted happily on your lap as you drive on Baltimore County, Maryland streets and highways? We’ve all seen them go by and smiled.

But according to a new AAA report, canines cavorting in moving autos can distract the drivers and cause deadly car crashes.

The report found that only 17 percent of members surveyed restrain their dogs in their motor vehicles. The majority drive with their dogs loose in the car — which could distract the driver and cause a traffic accident. The report also found that…

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With Labor Day weekend fast approaching, the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA) announced that several states will be launching drunk driving prevention and law enforcement initiatives — including Maryland.

Maryland’s efforts to deter deadly drunk driving accidents over Labor Day weekend and beyond include…

o Checkpoint Strikeforce: The Maryland Highway Safety Office’s six-month impaired driving enforcement and education program, which kicks off Aug. 24 in Baltimore.

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The History channel is running its fourth season of Ice Road Truckers — a reality show set in Alaska that follows a handful of steel-nerved truck drivers hauling heavy loads over mountains and frozen bodies of water. Their work is not for the faint of heart (to say the least), nor is watching them do it. They drive all night, for hundreds of miles, through blinding snowstorms, in sub-zero temperatures, up and down ice-covered mountain roads to deliver their cargo (which is often oversized and hazardous).

Driving conditions for the ice road truckers are extreme. However the show depicts some of the same commercial truck driving hazards that truck drivers and other motorists experience here in the Lower 48. Common causes of highway truck accidents in Maryland and elsewhere in the U.S. include:

  • Driver Fatigue (including driving without mandatory rest breaks)
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