"The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling." (TSowell
Johnny, meet Stella.
Blogpost: Briggs & Counsel, LLC 2012
Distracted driving is a dangerous epidemic on America’s roadways. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that in 2009 alone, nearly 5,500 people were killed and 450,000 more were injured in distracted driving crashes. Any activity that could divert a person’s attention away from the primary task of driving constitutes distracted driving. All distractions endanger driver, passenger, and bystander safety. The most common include:
The deadliest form of distracted driving is texting. Texting requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention from the driver and, as a result is by far the most dangerous form of distracted driving. Sending or reading a text can take your eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds. At 55 mph, this would be like driving the length of an entire football field while blindfolded. http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/facts-and-statistics.html
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently examined distracted driving and the frequency of texting among drivers in the United States. The results of the analysis included findings that:
The CDC survey also reported that the proportion of drivers reportedly distracted at the time of a fatal crash has increased from 7 percent in 2005 to 11 percent in 2009. Every day more than 15 people die and more than 1,200 are injured in crashes that reportedly involve a distracted driver. http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Distracted_Driving/index.html
All distracted driving is dangerous and in Maine it’s illegal too. Title 29-A M.R.S.A. Section 2118 makes it a crime to operate a motor vehicle in Maine while distracted.
Have a safe trip, don’t text and drive, so you can arrive home alive.
Don Briggs, Esq.
Copyright 2012: Briggs & Counsel, LLC
Mainers: Just Hang Up and Drive! That should be a bumper sticker, and here’s why: A cellphone user in traffic has the same reaction time as a drunk. Don’t think so? There’s scientific proof.
Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/brainrulesbook#p/a/f/2/HPB6EH2tMkE
Have a safe trip home for the Holidays.
Alison
Alison Wholey Mynick, RN/Briggs & Counsel, LLC
No parent should lose a child the way the Meisels did. Tess Meisel should be alive.
In Farmington on August 17tha semi-trailer full of sawdust took a turn, and the trailer collided with the rear of a minivan stopped at a light. Twelve year old minivan passenger, Tess Meisel, was killed from the impact. The trailer overturned, spilling its load of sawdust.
As a Connecticut native, a father, and a Maine trucking accident lawyer, the tragic news of Tess Meisel’s death caught my attention. It brought home the fact that Maine commercial truck drivers need to protect motorists from injury and death caused by their trailers transporting dry bulk loads, such as the sawdust load that killed Tess Meisel.
Like most states, Maine’s Commercial Driver License Manual states the obvious:
Dry bulk transport requires special care because dry bulk has a high center of gravity and the load can shift. Truck drivers are told to be “extremely cautious (slow and careful) going around curves and making sharp turns. Maine Commercial Driver License Manual, 3.4-Cargo Needing Special Attention, 3.4.1-Dry Bulk.
DOT officials, police, first responders and Maine attorneys with experience representing trucking accident victims know that accidents like the one that killed Tess Meisel don’t just happen. Choices have consequences, including choices made by trucking companies and drivers. The sooner we face up to that fact, the fewer Tess Meisel stories there will be.
Don Briggs, Maine Certified Civil Trial Attorney
Past President, Maine Trial Lawyers Association
Is there anything worse than saying “Have a good time–be back by midnight!” to your teen, then hearing a knock at the door at midnight. The State Police Trooper says it all without saying a word. If you look up Aleisha Sonksen on the Internet, you will see that she died in an accident early today, around midnight.
But the Internet shows that Aleisha Sonksen is more than just a name in a newspaper report of a teen death. She was a runner– Look at her race times. She was a writer–a Semi Finalist in the 2007 Letters About Literature Contest. She was a Knox County girl that couldn’t be protected from death. Or could we have done something? Did anyone see a little sports car speeding or being driven in a less than safe way? Do we say “Tsk, Tsk, none of my business” because we don’t want to get involved, be nosy or intrusive? Recently, my teenage daughter’s boyfriend was grounded from driving for two weeks. The reason: A mom saw him pull out of the school parking lot going too fast. She called the boy’s mom. A discussion ensued. A grounding followed that. I am so grateful to both moms, and to anybody who looks out for my child–a teenager still is that, a child–in the only way we can. Please don’t be afraid of being labeled intrusive or nosy when you see a driver doing something you wouldn’t want done if your child was on board. Save a life. Speak up.
Alison Wholey Mynick
Briggs & Counsel, LLC
In Farmington, Maine yesterday, the driver of a Volkswagen died in a crash that is reported to have been caused by the sun blinding another driver’s eyes. Car crashes are a leading cause of lawsuits based on Wrongful Death.
We are all responsible for our driving. If it is sunny, we have to beware of being blinded by the sun. There are two simple steps that drivers can take to minimize the blinding effects of sun when driving.
First, avoid creating glare reflected from the dashboard by using a dash board cleaner that won’t give your dashboard a glossy finish. Avoid any dashboard cleaner that promised to give your dash a “high-gloss finish.”
Second, wear sunglasses, and make sure they have polarized lenses. Most ordinary sunglasses lenses are not designed to cut through glare. Polarized lenses are designed to cut through glare.
How could you help if someone you love has lost a family member in a senseless car crash? You need someone who has experience trying car crash cases. You need someone knowledgeable about Maine’s complex legal system. You need Briggs & Counsel.
Do all trial attorneys have the same amount of experience handling wrongful death cases? No.
When you choose Briggs & Counsel, both Don Briggs and Alison Mynick are dedicated and determined to winning your wrongful death case. With over 20 years experience with Wrongful Death cases, we are committed to you.
Don’t let a careless driver injure or kill, and walk away without a backwards glance. Fight back. Contact Briggs & Counsel.
Alison Wholey Mynick/Briggs & Counsel/May 1, 2011
When a part of a building collapses, as it did late last Saturday night at the Rack at Sugarloaf, serious injuries can occur. It’s been reported that folks standing on exterior decking fell when the flooring collapsed. Injuries from a height of 15 feet or so can range from bumps and bruises, to fractures, ligament tears, crush injuries, and even death. No one died in the collapse at the Rack, but when the reporters move on to the next story, what happens to the injured?
The National Institutes of Health explains the process of healing when a bone breaks or a ligament tears: “At the moment of injury: Chemicals are released from damaged cells, triggering a process called inflammation. Blood vessels at the injury site become dilated; blood flow increases to carry nutrients to the site of tissue damage.Within hours of injury: White blood cells (leukocytes) travel down the bloodstream to the injury site where they begin to tear down and remove damaged tissue, allowing other specialized cells to start developing scar tissue. Within days of injury: Scar tissue is formed on the skin or inside the body. The amount of scarring may be proportional to the amount of swelling, inflammation, or bleeding within. In the next few weeks, the damaged area will regain a great deal of strength as scar tissue continues to form.Within a month of injury: Scar tissue may start to shrink, bringing damaged, torn, or separated tissues back together. However, it may be several months or more before the injury is completely healed.”
How could you help if someone you love has been injured at a restaurant or tavern property? First, you need to make sure your friend or family members gets the best possible medical care.
When you help a family member choose a doctor or therapist, you want it to be someone with experience who understands the mechanism of your injury, how traumatic injuries heal, and when to step in with more aggressive treatment or surgery.
When you choose a Maine personal injury lawyer, you want the same thing: an attorney with experience handling serious injury cases, who knows how injury cases are resolved, and who knows when to be more agressive dealing with insurance companies.
By: Alison Wholey Mynick, RN, Esq.
April 19, 2011, Copyright Briggs & Counsel, LLC
Tragic death in a horrific car crash is too common on Maine’s rural roads. Last week a Knox County grand jury indicted Brian Boody of Rockland, Maine for manslaughter in the death of young woman from Appleton. What happens to a Maine driver if a jury finds the driver ”recklessly or with criminal negligence causes death to another human being”?
Since manslaughter is a criminal charge, the District Attorney’s goal in a Maine manslaughter trial is to to have a jury find the defendant “Guilty” and have a Superior Court Judge sentence the convicted killer to jail. Manslaughter is a step below murder in the Maine criminal scheme of things. A reckless driver who kills is charged with “criminal negligence”. The jury begins the trial presuming the defendant innocent, and the prosecutor has to prove, through evidence, that the defendant driver “did recklessly or with criminal negligence cause death to another human being.”
On the other hand, Maine wrongful death suits are also personal injury cases. There’s no prosecutor, and nobody goes to jail. Instead, a Trial Attorney introduces evidence before a jury, the jury finds the defendant “responsible” , and the jury–not a Maine Judge–decides the compensation for the family as a result of their loss. A negligent Maine driver does not have to be found guilty of manslaughter or murder to be held responsible in a wrongful death suit. But, if a reckless Maine driver is found guilty in a criminal manslaughter or murder trial, the driver (usually through his car insurance company) may also have to pay compensation to the surviving family members in a wrongful death suit.
How could you help if someone you love has lost a family member in a senseless car crash? You need someone who has experience trying car crash cases. You need someone knowledgeable about Maine’s complex legal system. You need Briggs & Counsel.
Do all trial attorneys have the same amount of experience handling wrongful death cases? No.
When you choose Briggs & Counsel, you get both Don Briggs and Alison Mynick. We are dedicated and determined to winning your wrongful death case. We each have over 20 years experience with Wrongful Death cases, and we are committed to you.
Don’t let a reckless driver walk away without a backwards glance. Fight back. Contact Briggs & Counsel.
Another fatal car crash along a Maine road. Another family, or a number of families, confronted with a loss too.
News accounts of passengers in a crash that are “young and from the area” mean that an entire group of families are suffering. The losses are so enormous that words haven’t been invented to describe the impact of a lost child. The fact that the lost child was on the verge–the verge of graduation, perhaps- the verge of joyful opportunities that young adulthood holds- makes the pain the families bear all the more difficult. When a car skids out of control and kills a teenager, the entire family’s life skids out of control too.
In the midst of a loss so tremendous, how is a family supposed to marshal the resources to protect against an insurance company that can take advantage of the loss and try to write off the child’s life with a quick and easy insurance release ? In Maine, except in medical malpractice cases, a family has only two years from the date of death to sort things out and bring a Wrongful Death lawsuit.
Many families still feel the death as a fresh injury after two years, yet action must be taken or there will never be a chance to recover compensation. As a Maine Registered Nurse, I have “been there” at the hospital when parents learned of a child’s death. But as an injury attorney in Maine, I have also witnessed the damage to grief stricken parents months and even years later. Parents of a deceased child have legal matters to attend to following a child’s death, but often their grief robs them of the energy to devote to the legal side.
Even such a simple matter as reading the insurance policy to determine whether their child’s funeral can be paid for from the proceeds of an automobile policy–and which policy–might require legal interpretation. A parent whose child has passed away needs help, and more than anything else, they need time. Time to grieve, time to stabilize and time begin to pick up the pieces of a life that will never be the same.
Perhaps it’s time to take a look at the two year Wrongful Death statute of limitations. Perhaps it’s time to put the grieving parents first, instead of insurance companies.
Alison Wholey Mynick, RN, Esq. /Briggs & Counsel, LLC/2011
We love the outdoors. We get through the Maine winter, tell ourselves its spring on Opening Day for the Seadogs–no matter what the temperature is–and stay outside as much as we can until the summer is over and we start to gear up for winter again.
Being healthy is especially important for enjoying the Maine outdoors. If you’ve hurt your knee, shoulder or your back in a car accident in Maine, arthritis that develops after the injury can ruin summer fun for decades. Ifyou’re a car accident victim in your thirties, did your lawyer discuss with you that one very real problem isn’t going to “blossom” until much later?
Osteoarthritis can follow injury to a joint. For example, a young person might hurt his knee badly playing soccer. Or someone might fall or be injured in a car accident. Then, years after the individual’s knee has apparently healed, he might get arthritis in his knee joint.
Is it fair that a negligent driver can change you from the sixty- five year old Mainer who easly lifts a five year old grandchild to get a better view of Slugger the Seadog, into a stay- at -home, stay-inside grandparent missing out on all the fun your grandchild wants you to enjoy together?
Life doesn’t end with a get-this-over-quickly settlement check. Make sure your Maine lawyer knows enough about joint damage from car accidents to counsel and protect your future interests. You deserve the best medical and legal outcome available.
Alison WholeyMynick, RN, Esq.
Briggs & Counsel, LLC. Copyright 2011
Briggs and Counsel
815 Commercial Street
Rockport, ME 04856-4243
Tel: (207) 596-1099
Fax. (207) 596-7401
Toll Free: (888) 596-1099
Copyright © 2012 Briggs & Counsel | Legal Web Design by eJustice.com
