Posts Tagged ‘weather’
Monday, May 24th, 2010
While commercial aviation has become one of the safest modes of transportation, aviation accidents do still happen. Sadly, when they happen they often have catastrophic and tragic results as evidenced by the Air India crash last week. The crash was the worst aviation accident in the last decade for India.
According to news reports, the Air India Boeing 737 passenger jet departed from Dubai, United Arab Emirates without incident on its way to Mangalore, India. Neither the pilot nor the co-pilot reported any problems while en route to Mangalore and weather conditions were reported as good at the time. When attempting to land, however, in Mangalore, the plane overshot the runway at Mangalore International Airport causing the plane to hit a barrier wall and ultimately land in a valley. The crash killed 158 of the 166 people on board. Experts are currently searching for the “black box” that is found on all commercial jets to attempt to determine what went wrong that caused the plane to miss its landing and ultimately cause the crash that took 158 lives. Experts from the United States National Transportation Safety Board are expected to conduct an investigation of the crash.
Despite advances over the last few decades in aviation and safety, aviation accidents are still possible. Statistics tell us that almost half of all aviation accidents are the result of human error or mechanical failure. Human error can include pilot error or air traffic control error. While large jets such as the Boeing 737 do include many automated systems for flying the plane and monitoring the flight systems, responsibility for the safe departure and arrival of a plane is still highly dependent on the pilots and the air traffic control operators. While it may be weeks or months before we know what caused the crash of the Air India flight, we do know that 158 passengers lost their lives and another eight may suffer physical injuries and psychological trauma for the rest of their lives.
The Indian government has already announced that it will be paying the families of the deceased passengers what amounts to about $25,000 per victim pursuant to their regulations for accident victims. What would the families be entitled to here in the United States? If the accident had happened here, family members would be entitled to file a wrongful death lawsuit for the passengers that were killed or the survivors could file a personal injury lawsuit. Unlike other countries, the amount that the families or the victims are entitled to is no predetermined. Under either a wrongful death lawsuit or a personal injury lawsuit, you will be able to provide evidence of the damages that were suffered by you personally in the case of a personal injury lawsuit or evidence of the future support that you will not have to live without in the case of a wrongful death lawsuit. The ultimate value of your lawsuit will be determined through negotiations with the responsible party – in this case the airline – or through a jury trial wherein the jury will determine the amount of damages that you are entitled to.
If you have been the victim of an aviation accident or have lost a family member as a result of an aviation accident, please call California aviation attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates for more information on your legal options. He may be reached at 1-800-300-0001.
Tags: accident, accident victims, accidents, airplane, airplane crash, attorney, attorney emery ledger, auto, aviation accident, aviation accidents, aviation attorney, black box, cat, crash, damages, death lawsuit, deceased, dents, ego, emery, emery ledger, family members, human error, injury, juries, killed, law, lawsuit, lawyer, Ledger, ledgerlaw.com, national transportation safety, national transportation safety board, negotiation, negotiations, noun, Personal Injury, personal injury law, personal injury lawsuit, physical injuries, pilot error, plane crash, responsible party, safety, states, statistics, survivors, traffic, transportation safety, united states, weather, wrongful death, wrongful death law, wrongful death laws, wrongful death lawsuit
Posted in Aviation Accident Lawyer | No Comments »
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
Air travel has become much safer in the century since that first historic flight back in 1903. Despite all the advancements in safety and technology, airplane accidents do still happen. Luckily, they are not always catastrophic and fatal accidents. It is rare to hear of an airplane accident wherein all the passengers perish. More common are the accidents on the runway, on take off or landing or the smaller private aircraft accidents where there are survivors. If you have been involved in an airplane accident and suffered injuries as a result you may be asking the important, but complicated, question of “who is responsible for my injuries?”
According to California airplane accident lawyer Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates, the question of negligence (a legal term for fault) in airplane accident cases can be even harder to answer than other types of accidents. In the State of California, airplane accidents are governed by the laws of negligence. California, along with most other states, uses a form of comparative negligence to determine fault in accident cases. What this means is that more than one person – or entity – can share the fault for a single accident. An easy example of how comparative negligence is applied is in an automobile accident. Imagine that driver number one was speeding and collided with driver number two who ran through a red light. The first driver may have made the accident worse because they were speeding and therefore shares some percentage of the fault. The important question under comparative negligence is whether you have of the fault than the other parties. In an airplane accident case, if you were a passenger, then it is likely that you were not responsible for any of the fault. So who was responsible?
An airplane accident may takes weeks or months to investigate before any conclusions regarding fault can be made. Statistics tell us the more than half of all airplane accidents are caused in part or in whole by pilot error or mechanical failure. It is possible that the pilot may share some of the responsibility. If your pilot was flying for a company, they may also share the fault for not providing required training or a variety of other reasons. If the plane suffered a mechanical failure, the manufacturer could share some of the blame or that could also be the result of the company not performing proper maintenance. If there was bad weather at the time of the accident, whose decision was it to continue the flight? Again, the pilot or the company may have been negligent in allowing the flight to continue. Did the airplane crash into another plane on the runway? If so, was the pilot of the other plane to blame or the air traffic controller that was directing the planes?
As you can see, there are a variety of parties in an airplane accident case that could be responsible. It may be that one of them alone was responsible or they may all share the responsibility. An experienced airplane accident lawyer can help you sift through all the evidence and determine who was responsible and to what extent. Whether it was one party or several, the bottom line is that you may be entitled to compensation for any injuries that you suffered as a result of the accident. Contact California airplane accident lawyer Emery Ledger to start the process of determining who was negligent and who must compensate you for your injuries. Lawyer Ledger can be reached at 1-800-300-0001 or online at www.ledgerlaw.com.
Tags: accident, accident case, accident cases, accident lawyer, accidents, aircraft accident, airline safety, airplane, airplane accident, airplane accidents, airplane crash, comparative negligence, compensation, crash, dents, emery, emery ledger, extent, fatal accidents, fault, juries, law, lawyer, Ledger, ledgerlaw.com, luck, Negligence, pilot error, plane accident, plane crash, states, statistics, survivors, traffic, weather
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Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
Regardless of what statistic you choose to follow with regard to your chance of being involved in a plane crash, the bottom line is that planes do crash on a regularly basis. Whether they are small commuter planes, even smaller personal aircraft or large commercial jets, airplane crashes do continue to happen despite recent advancements in safety. So have these recent advancements in safety made a difference in aviation safety and what causes the majority of plane crashes?
The simple answer to the first question is that the recent advancements in safety and technology have certainly made a difference in the potential to make air travel safer. The fact remains, however, that the single biggest cause of aviation accidents in the United States remains pilot error. Statistics tell us that some type of pilot error is responsible for almost 50% of all aviation accidents. Of that 50%, pilot error that is related to mechanical problems accounts for less than 5% of the accidents while pilot error that is weather related accounts for about 20% of the accidents. That leaves a full 25% of all accidents that were caused by pilot error without contributing circumstances.
Mechanical failure accounts for the next highest percentage of aviation accidents with about 30% of the total. The weather is responsible for about 10% of the total with sabotage and other human error accounting for the remaining 10% or so of all aviation accidents. One thing that truly stands out when studying these statistics is that a full 80% of all aviation accidents are potentially due to either manufacturer or pilot error. Obviously, no one can control the weather and sabotage is always a risk on an airline, but mechanical failures and pilot errors are potentially preventable.
So what do these statistics mean for you if you have been injured in an aviation accident or lost a loved one in a plane crash? While each case is different, they mean that the chances are high that someone was negligent in your plane crash. If it does turn out that either the pilot, airliner or manufacturer were negligent and contributed to or causes the crash, then you may be entitled to compensation for any injuries you suffered or you may be entitled to file as a claimant in a wrongful death case if you have lost a loved one as a result of an aviation accident. The laws of negligence are very clear in that the negligent party must compensate the injured party. Proving negligence, on the other hand, may not be so simple. Unlike car accidents where there are typically a number of witnesses and extensive evidence, in a plane crash there may not be any surviving witnesses and evidence may be scarce. If you find yourself in such a situation, the best thing you can do is contact an experienced California aviation accident attorney. Your aviation accident attorney can evaluate your case and explain to you what legal options you may have and what the prospect is of winning your case.
If you would like a free detailed evaluation of your California aviation accident case, please contact California aviation accident attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates. His firm can be reached at 1-800-300-0001 or online at www.ledgerlaw.com.
Tags: accident, accident attorney, accident case, accident witness, accidents, airplane accident, airplane accidents, airplane attorney, airplane crash, airplane mechanical problem, airplane wrongful death, aviation accident attorney, crash statistics, crash witnesses, crashes, flying risk, human error, juries, law, Ledger, ledgerlaw.com, Negligence, pilot error, plane crash, plane safety, weather, wrongful death case
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Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Airline travel has certainly come a long way since the Wright Brothers took that first flight back in 1903. While the first commercial flight took place a just a decade after that, travel by the predecessors of today’s jet airlines didn’t start until the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Airline safety has made advancements in leaps and bounds since the first jet airliners took to the skies – but have those advancements truly made travel by airplane that much safer?
With over 87,000 flights in the skies over the United States in any given day – 5,000 at any given moment – there is no arguing that recent advancements in radar technology have made the air traffic controller’s jobs a little easier. The air traffic controllers are who are in charge of keeping track of all those flights and directing them when to land and take off. Of the planes in the sky each day, about one third are commercial flights, another third are private airplanes, with the remaining third being planes for hire, military and cargo planes. Air traffic controllers must keep track of all these planes and must know at any given moment how many airplanes are in their assigned air space. The development of modern day radar has helped air traffic controllers locate airplanes in the skies as well as help airplanes land in bad weather. For instance, airplanes that years ago could not land in foggy conditions can do so now with the help of radar assisted ground approach systems.
Additional advancements in safety technology have benefits the aviation industry and allowed more flight to take off and land smoothly. For instance, ice that once crippled an airplane can now be handled with the help of de-icing technology. Fire safety systems have also come a long way since the first commercial flights took to the skies. Large commercial jets are so highly advanced that they are literally capable of flying themselves under the right conditions.
That, however, brings up the down side of all these advances in technology. Much like advancements in vehicles, trains and boats, airplane technology has moved ahead at lightening speed in the last two decades. While technology can be a wonderful thing, the question “At what cost” should be considered. Are the pilots and crew members relying too heavily on computers to fly the plane? Are the air traffic controllers to reliant on computers to tell them what to do – to the point where in an emergency that aren’t equipped to act without the guidance of a computer. Using technological advancements to aid in flying a plane can be an invaluable tool, but relying too heavily of that technology can cause a pilot to make critical mistakes.
If you have suffered injuries as a result of an aviation accident or lost a loved one in an aviation accident, the best thing you can do is to consult with experienced California aviation attorney Emery Ledger with the law firm of Ledger & Associates. Call 1-800-300-0001 toady for a free detailed evaluation or visit them online at www.ledgerlaw.com
Tags: attorney, aviation attorney, emery, emery ledger, foggy conditions, Hire, juries, law, Ledger, ledgerlaw.com, safety, states, traffic, united states, vehicle, weather
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Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
With spring just around the corner, motorcycle enthusiasts are gearing up to get back out on the road. For anyone that loves to ride, there is nothing like getting back on your bike after a long winter spent waiting for the weather to break. Of course, if you are lucky enough to live somewhere where the weather cooperates year around, then maybe you haven’t had to wait, but the majority of us aren’t that lucky. Even in California, the torrential winter rains this year have prevented year around riding for many motorcycle enthusiasts so many have had to wait it out until spring decided to pop her head out of the clouds. For some, riding is a way of life, for others just a week-end hobby. Regardless of whether your bike is your primary form of transportation or a week-end luxury, remember that it can be dangerous.
Recent statistics report that in any given year, about 5,000 people are killed in motorcycle accidents and thousands more are injured, according to motorcycle accident attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates in California. The cause of the majority (almost three-fourths) of motorcycle accident is a collision with another vehicle. Of the remaining 25% of the accidents, rider error was the most common reason for the accident. Roadway defects and weather conditions account for less than 5% of all motorcycle accidents. Of the accidents that involved a motorcycle colliding with another vehicle, the other vehicle was at fault more than two-thirds of the time. What these statistics tell us is what most riders already know – that cars don’t watch for motorcycles on the roadways. Despite efforts by motorcycle groups to educate the general car driving public of the importance of being aware of motorcycles, the statistics tell us that car drivers still don’t watch for motorcycles. Part of the reason for this is that we are trained from the moment we begin driving to be alert to visual cues from other drivers – drivers of automobiles. We are trained to look for traditional vehicles. We are also accustomed to watching for a pair of headlights to tell us that a vehicle is approaching or is in our path. The human brain can only take in so much information at a time and it tends to dismiss excess information if it feels it is not critical at that point and time. When we are driving, we are taking in a lot of information at one time – information that is critical to our ability to drive. If a single headlight enters our field of vision, we sometimes dismiss it as not critical because we are not trained to recognize it as a vehicle. Additionally, something smaller than a traditional car – like a motorcycle – sometimes gets filtered out when we are driving. For this reason, it is even more important that car drivers conscientiously make an effort to look for and beware of motorcycle riders.
For more information motorcycle safety, please feel free to contact motorcycle accident attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates on his website at www.ledgerlaw.com or at his toll-free number – 1-800-300-0001.
Tags: bikers, cars, fault, field of vision, killed, law, Ledger, luck, motorcycle accident, motorcycle accident attorney, motorcycle accidents, motorcycle enthusiasts, motorcycle groups, Motorcycle safety, motorcycles, roadways, safety, statistics, vehicle, weather
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Friday, February 5th, 2010
If you were a victim of an
auto accident that happened in the fog read on:
Most of us have had to drive in the fog at some point in our life. It is a creepy experience to say the least. Most people, however, underestimate the dangers of driving in foggy conditions. Fog is formed when the difference between the temperature and the dew point is less than 4 degrees Fahrenheit. In simple terms, fog is created when clouds touch the ground. The dangers of driving in fog were tragically illustrated on January 9, 2008 when a 70 vehicle pile-up occurred on Florida’s Interstate 4. Three people were killed and dozens injured under what appeared to be a blanket of fog stretching for miles down the interstate. Bystanders said it looked like a war zone inside the fog. So why is fog so dangerous and what can we do to lower the chances of an accident in foggy conditions?
One obvious danger of driving in the fog is lowered visibility. We simply can’t see as far ahead as we normally can. Fog also contributes to accidents because it affects perceptual judgments of speed and distance. Fog lowers the contrast between an object’s brightness and the background. This, in turn, makes objects appear less distinct and fainter. We don’t just loose the ability to see farther in the distance, but we also loose the ability to clearly identify what is in our field of vision. We also judge speed poorly in fog. Part of the reason for that is that we typically use objects in our peripheral vision to determine how fast we are going (ie: telephone poles, other cars, road signs), but in the fog, we have no reference points.
The best thing we can do to limit the chance of being involved in an accident while driving in foggy conditions is to pull off the road to a safe place if possible. Statistically, driving in the fog can be more dangerous than any other weather related road condition so pull over if you can into a rest stop or parking lot. If that is impossible, or creates a safety hazard itself, then slow down. Imagine that you were driving in the snow and adjust your speed accordingly. The next thing you can do is make sure you keep plenty of distance between you and the car in front of you – assuming you can see the car! Remember that reaction time may be slower in the fog so allow yourself extra time to stop if it becomes necessary. Turn on your low beams only. High beams direct light up into the fog making in more difficult for you to see. Low beams direct the light down, onto the road, making it easier for you to see and be seen. Stay to the right of the road when possible to avoid potential head-on collision from oncoming traffic.
If you have been involved in a fog related accident, seek the advice of a California accident attorney immediately. Fog related accidents can produce some of the most serious injuries of all vehicle accidents and you may be able to recover damages for any injuries you suffered as a result of the accident. If you would like an experienced California attorney to evaluate your case, contact the law offices of Ledger & Associates at 1-800-300-0001 or visit us at www.ledgerlaw.com.
Tags: accident, accident attorney, accidents, attorney, auto accident, bystanders, cars road, dew point, driving in fog, driving in the fog, fahrenheit, field of vision, foggy conditions, killed, parking lot, perceptual judgments, peripheral vision, rest stop, road condition, road signs, safe place, safety, speed and distance, vehicle accident, vehicle accidents, visibility, war zone, weather
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