Utah Law Talk

A motorcycle rider is in critical condition after a motorcycle accident in West Jordan, Utah, August 27, 2010. According to KSL News, a car had just turned left in front of him at the intersection of 7800 and 4800 West as the motorcyclist passed through a yellow light. Upon impact, the motorcycle rider flew 37 feet. The force knocked the helmet off of his head and he suffered a serious skull fracture. Police say the woman may be cited.

I send my best wishes to the man as he recovers from this serious brain injury. I wish the best as well for his support system, as he will be in serious need of one as he seeks to recover from this accident.

For some reason, motorists continue to fail to yield on making their left-hand turns. I’m not sure if the motorist was in a hurry or was perhaps distracted. Maybe she thought that the motorcycle would stop. At any rate, a motorist has a duty to YIELD on left-hand turns. When they are convinced it’s safe to do so, then they can complete their turn. From the sound of this report, I would say the woman should be cited for failure to yield on a left turn.

I would recommend that the family of this man contact an experienced West Jordan accident and injury attorney to find out the remedies that are available to him in this terrible accident.

In order to avoid the wrath of a Utah text messaging accident lawyer, motorists are warned to give head to a recent study published by the University of Utah. As reported in the Christian Science Monitor, new data released by the National Safety Council shows that the number of car crashes caused by cell phone use and texting is at 1.6 million, a number that is one million more than previously thought. This report makes even more necessary, the need to grow the nationwide anti-distracted driving campaign which many states have adopted.

David Teater, director of transportation strategic initiatives at the National Safety Council said, “One out of every four car crashes in the United States is caused by cell phone distraction.” David knows first hand the horrific consequences of distracted driving: his son was killed in a crash caused by a driver on a cell phone.

Safety action group, “FocusDriven” aims to adopt many of the same tactics as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). “Just as groups like MADD changed attitudes about drunk driving, I believe FocusDriven can help raise awareness and change the way people think about distracted driving,” said U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. The National Safety Council first called for a nationwide ban on cell phone use while driving about a year ago. Today, only six states and Washington D.C., have banned cell phone use while driving. Nineteen of fifty states ban text messaging while behind the wheel.

Researchers at University of Utah found that the likelihood of a crash increases fourfold when someone is talking on the cell phone while driving and if a person is texting while driving the person is eight time morel likely to be in a car accident. The distraction goes far beyond visual impairment, but a driver is also cognitively disconnected when texting or talking on the cell phone. The brain is focused on a conversation, so it doesn’t compute images as quickly as someone who is solely focused on driving.

Ron Kramer is a Utah personal injury lawyer representing clients injured from those who drive while texting and has offices in Bountiful, Draper and in Provo, Utah.

Eight Utah workers were sent to the hospital following a chemical reaction at Pro Pac Lab located at 3804 South Airport Road in Ogden, Utah. Pro Pac Lab makes vitamins and mineral supplements, a process that leaves chemical residue on the machinery used to make the vitamins and minerals. On Friday, December 19, 2009, workers went through a routine clean up around 7:15 a.m. and bleach mixed one of the chemical residues left on the machines to create a dangerous ammonia gas.

According to KSL news, employees evacuated the building to escape the ammonia gas. Once the workers got into the fresh air, the symptoms cleared quickly. Emergency personnel responded and investigated the cause of the chemical reaction. They believe that bleach came into contact with nitrogen dust to create the ammonia gas.

“That ammonia gas is what caused people to get a burning sensation in their mouths, nose, in their eyes, or lungs depending on how much they breathed in during that process,” said Chad Tucker, deputy chief of the Ogden City Fire Department.

Pro Pac Lab is looking into manufacturing processes and cleaning processes that will prevent this problem in the future.

From this report, several questions are raised. Company officials said they will look into the cleaning process to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future; but what are they going to do until they figure out the exact cause? It sounds like workers did a routine cleaning similar to this each day, but this particular time the bleach mixed with the wrong chemical and caused the reaction. Officials should be 100% sure that the this reaction will won’t happen again before they allow workers to continue working in that environment.

With respect to the eight injured. I recommend that they contact a Utah accident and injury attorney who will help them receive compensation for their injuries and explore their options in case the reaction causes long term damages.