So whenever you hear anyone say your insurance rates are too high because of lawsuits, ask them where they gets their facts.  My guess is they will be able to give you no facts.  They will simply spout back what they have heard or read from untrustworthy sources.  Then think, well wouldn’t my rates be lower if the companies were not spending so much on TV advertising, sponsoring car races and bowl games?  Resist the urge to follow the crowd.  Demand proof.  Defend your mother, who I know taught you to make up for any harm you do.  If you spill the milk, clean it up.  If you break a window, fix it or pay to have it fixed.  If you do not use care in your life and it causes injury to another- Drunk driving, failing to stop at a stop sign, build a scaffold wrong, make up for the harm by demanding that your insurance company does right by the person who was hurt.  Demand the insurance company does right by the injured person’s family.

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In my line of work as a auto accident attorney, we know that eye witness accounts of a collision often vary greatly about what happened in the car accident. Scientific studies.     Barbara Tversky, in her article “The Problem with Eyewitness Testimony”, Stanford Journal of Legal Studies, April 1999, observed, “The mere fault of being human results in distorted memory and inaccurate testimony.”  We humans are subject to memory bias and the introduction of false memories which interfere with our ability to accurately remember and repeat exactly what we have seen. So, what can be done about this problem?  Retrieve the information from the data recording device for the cars, or trucks involved in the collision.

Modern automobile data recording devices record up to 20 seconds of information before any crash.  The data recorded can include whether the passengers of the car were wearing seatbelts, the car speed at any point in that 20 seconds, the acceleration of the car in that 20 seconds, the percent of the engine throttle and gas pedal, when the brakes were activated, when the antilock braking device was activated and more. This information is very important, but any accident expert worth their salt will collect all the objective evidence at the scene of the car crash and compare it to the data on the recording device.  The objective evidence includes the damage to each car, the final resting place of the cars after the impact, the direction the cars went upon impact, and other information.  When the “black box” data matches up with the objective evidence at the scene of the collision the jury can be very confident that the data recording device is telling the accurate story about what happened in the crash.  This is very important when eyewitnesses give contradicting versions of what happened.

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Young children put almost everything in their mouth, which makes the main goal of choking prevention to keep any small items that your child might choke on out of his mouth. This may mean occasionally getting on all fours and checking under the kitchen table and other furniture and behind coach cushions.

Know what to look for.  Once you know what to look for the task is not so overwhelming. Some of the most common choking hazards include: whole grapes
• peanuts and other nuts
• popcorn
• hard candy and chewing gum
• hard foods, including raw vegetables
• soft foods, such as large cubes of cheese, caramels, etc.
• chewy foods, such as thick spoonfuls of peanut butter
• uncut hot dogs
• coins
• marbles and small balls
• small magnets
• small batteries
• balloons, which can be a choking hazard to kids under age eight when they put broken balloon pieces in their mouths or when they inhale intact balloons when trying to blow them up
• safety pins, pen caps, and tacks
• small toy parts that can fit inside a choke test cylinder or no-choke testing tube, which measures 1 1/4 inches wide by 2 1/4 inches long and simulates the size and shape of a young child’s throat, such as Lego building blocks, dice, beads, etc.
• dry pet food

Of course this does not mean that all of these items should be banned from the home, but it does mean they should not be in an area where your child, especially those crawling around on the floor, will be. Some tips include always be aware of what you are feeding your child.  If it is a hotdog, make sure the dog is cut into small enough pieces that they cannot become stuck in the throat. Supervise your children’s play and avoid age inappropriate toys.  If you have older children playing with smaller items, make sure the younger children are not able to get hold of the small pieces.

Choking Prevention

In addition to regularly checking the floor, your car, and other areas where your child crawls, walks, and plays, other steps to keep kids safe from choking include that you:

Learn CPR and keep emergency numbers by the phone, learn the Heimlich maneuver, keep medications and vitamins out of reach in child resistant containers, childproof cabinets and drawers so that your kids can’t get to small items inside them, supervise kids when they are eating, cut foods, like grapes and hot dogs, into small, one-half inch pieces, avoid foods that are not age appropriate for toddlers and preschoolers, like chewing gum, hard candy, and nuts until they are at least four years old, don’t let your kids play with toys that are not recommended for their age, since they may have small parts and could be a choking hazard, keep your older kids toys out of reach of younger siblings, regularly inspect toys to make sure that parts aren’t going to break off and throw out any broken toys, supervise kids under age eight if they are playing with a balloon, keep uninflated balloons out of reach, and throw away balloons once they deflate or break, see your pediatrician if your child seems to have an episode of choking, recovers, but then develops a chronic cough, since that can be a sign that your child aspirated the item and it is still in his lung, Also be sure to supervise your kids when they are outside, at someone else’s home that may not be as well childproofed as your own, or at a store, as there may be many choking hazards around that your toddler or preschooler could pick up.

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For the sake of all Hoosier families, including your own, if you are going to be drinking, resolve beforehand that you will not drive.  Keep a cab telephone number in your purse or wallet.  Leave your car at home and take a cab both ways.  Allow someone who has not been drinking to take your keys and drive you home. Do anything, but do not get behind the wheel drunk.  Do not destroy your life and the lives of Hoosier families. Don’t drink and drive.

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It may surprise you to know that the Founding Fathers thought so highly of a citizen’s right to ask a jury to determine fair compensation for their injuries, whether to their person, their property, their intellectual rights and so on, that they wrote the seventh amendment into the Bill of Rights.  The Seventh Amendment  states: In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

So why are our legislators infringing that right.  Did you know that in securities cases arbitration is mandatory and the Right to a Trial by Jury is almost impossible.  Did you know that there is a current effort by some special interest groups to abolish the right to trial by jury?

 A serious personal injury to a wage earner is often times the most important event in that person’s life as well as the lives of their family. Broken bones, brain injury, paralysis and even wrongful death can devastate the welfare of that family unit.  Requiring the negligent individual or corporation to fully make up for the harm they have caused is the right of the injured, as well as the taxpayer who will have to care for the person and the family if the responsible party does not meet their obligations. A Trial by Jury, as our Founding Fathers knew, is that check and balance which we all call fairness. Do not let anyone take that right from you, or from us!

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Our legislators (whose approval ratings are in the toilet) are consistently telling us that trial lawyers are greedy no good SOBs who live off the misery of others and interfere with our competitive abilities in the world market place.  Now, these folks don’t come up with this vitriol on their own.  They get it from vested interests whose goal it is to be free from the obligation of being responsible for the harm they cause, so as to maximize profits.  Don’t get me wrong, I am all for maximizing profits, I just don’t think anyone, whether an individual, a corporation or a government should be able to do whatever they wish without being responsible for the harm they cause.  My mother was right.  Mom taught her children that being a good citizen, whether in our neighborhood, our city, our state or our country required us to be responsible for our actions.  This included being responsible for making up for the harm we cause.  She would be shamed if a law was passed giving her children protection from their actions, when those action hurt others.

If you agree with my mom, ask yourself, why should a corporation be protected and not be responsible for its actions?

Now, here comes the part about trial lawyers.  Our Government is too big.  We spend more money than we have.  But the people need protection from those who would flaunt safety rules and regulations for their own gain.  The simple, low cost answer is the trial lawyer.  Trial lawyers do not require subsidies from the government.  Trial lawyers hold wrong doers responsible for their actions.  Trial lawyers take people and corporations to task for the harm they cause others.  We do this at little or no cost to the tax payer.  When people and corporations follow simple safety rules, we have less injury, fewer people out of work, fewer people on Medicare or Medicaid, and more people contributing to the welfare of society.

So I ask you again, do you really think that trial lawyers are the problem?

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We all know that small children do not understand the dangers associated with moving cars.  We know they are impulsive and we know that even if they are carefully instructed about cars and streets, they may not always follow the rules that adults and older children will follow.  Finally, we know that if a car hits a small child, serious personal injury and even wrongful death are likely results. So, I ask you to take the drive smart Kids Dart warnings seriously.  One way to drive smart is to see every little child as a stop sign.  If you are driving down the road, especially in a residential neighborhood, if you see a child, no matter how old, assume there are other, younger children around, even if you cannot see them.   You may not see them because they are behind cars or trees or other objects, or they are just so small they are hard to see.  So, you see the child, you take your foot off the gas, you may coast, but as you approach the child, your foot moves towards the brakes.  Maybe, even likely you will not come to a stop, but you are travelling at a speed which will allow you to stop instantly if a small child appears.  No matter how important that meeting, no matter where you need to be, 2-3 extra minutes will not kill you.  However, will you ever be able to forgive yourself if you seriously injure or cause the wrongful death of a small child?

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A cross walk is specifically defined in Indiana Law.  A crosswalk is either part of the roadway at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the road measured from the curbs , or in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the traversable roadway. Or A part of the roadway distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface.  It is my experience that cars hit pedestrians at cross walk most often in one of two ways.  The first is at the intersection.  A driver wants to make a right turn, and to do so is looking to the left for oncoming traffic.  Once traffic clears, the driver fails to look left, starts the turn and hits the pedestrian in the crosswalk.  Remember to look back to the right in these situations, before entering the intersection.  The second common collision is at the non-intersection crosswalk.  This crosswalk may be in the middle of the block.  Another car stops to let a pedestrian cross, and the second car does not stop and hits the pedestrian.  Be warned, it is against the law for a car to pass another car stopped at an intersection. See  Indiana Code 9-21-17-6. 

Please keep alert for pedestrians.  You will never forgive yourself for the harm you cause and the family who suffers the loss associated with a pedestrian/car collision may never recover.

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Sam, it is apparent that you have a disease.  That disease is alcoholism.  This is your second arrest for drunk driving, and you are only 21 years old.  Alcohol has severely affected not only your life, and the lives of Daryn Barnett and her family, but it has also affected your families lives.  For your family, I hope they seek out the counsel of AL-ANON Family Support.  You can find them at www.al-anon.alateen.org. These folks know what you are going through and talking it out, and hearing the experiences of others can help. 

As for you, Sam, you now have to live with knowing that your disease has taken the life of your friend.  If you do not do something about it, it will take your life too.  Certainly it has irrevocably changed your life, but you are still alive.  You still have a chance to make up for what has happened.  Admit your disease.  Take steps to obtain help.  Work to improve your life.  It would be fitting to dedicate your recovery, and a fruitful life of service, to your friend Daryn, so that her loss was not in vain.   Sam, your mistake does not have to crush your life and spirit. Do not allow that to happen, if for no other reason, then for Daryn’s sake.

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