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Tragedy struck the student body of a Dallas school Thursday afternoon when two cars driven by teenagers raced along city streets, leading to a fatal collision. All those involved were students at an early-college academy. The accident occurred less than a mile from the school.

Around 4:15 p.m. a 15-year-old student driving a Honda with two passengers inside participated in a drag race with a second car. The vehicles sped down South Lancaster Road for some distance until the driver of the Honda lost control and hit a utility pole. He suffered critical injuries and was taken to Baylor Medical Center. The passenger in the front seat suffered less-severe injuries and was in stable condition by the evening. However, the second passenger, who sat in the back, died at the scene.

The driver of the second vehicle fled the scene before police arrived. All the students reportedly attend Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy, and are accelerated students. All three in the first car were related – two female twins, who were the passengers, and their male cousin.

Fatalities from such illegal drag races are often horrific, and unfortunately they are on the rise. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, between 2001 and 2006 804 people died in race-related accidents. One-fifth of these were in Texas. After a downturn in such crashes since then, the numbers are up again as of 2010.

Worse, car crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers. A full 6,000 youths are killed in crashes each year.

Issues of liability in this accident will likely arise once the families of the victims and students at the academy begin to cope with this tragedy.

Personal injury accidents, whether resulting from a car crash or other source, often leave victims and their loved ones with loss that is difficult to recover from. If you are the victim in a personal injury accident due to the fault of another, call the Law Offices of Dean Malone, P.C. at (214) 670-9989 for a consultation.

- Guest Contributor

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It is natural to feel anxious about the prospect of enduring an examination by a defense doctor in your Dallas personal injury claim. You may feel a bit annoyed, as well. The best thing you can do to help your claim, however, is to remain calm and polite, and, in particular, remain alert.

Make a point of remembering the name of the doctor you have been scheduled to see. If, upon arriving at the appointment, staff tries to substitute the doctor with another, explain that you can only see the one. The staff probably is not trying to trick you; the doctor you are appointed to see may have had to leave for an emergency. However, the insurer will not accept a substitute, so if you agree to see him you will have to return to undergo the examination all over again later.

Keep in mind that defense medical doctor has been hired to help the insurer find a reason to deny your claim. However, it is highly unlikely he will lie – he would have too much to lose professionally. Try to be calm during your examination. The doctor may become suspicious that you are hiding something if you appear too anxious. If you do feel tense, keep in mind that the truth is on your side.

Simply answer the questions you are asked honestly. Being polite and cooperative will suggest that you are being honest. Of course, you should not cooperate to the extent that you offer more information than was asked.

The questions should pertain to your injuries and treatment. If the defense doctor begins to ask you about the details of your personal injury accident, you should politely decline to answer, explaining that your lawyer has directed you to talk only about your injuries.

Prior to your defense medical exam, you should consult with your personal injury lawyer in order to be fully prepared. If you have not yet secured legal representation, in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area call Dean Malone at (214) 670-9989.

- Guest Contributor

A young couple’s date to a hockey game Tuesday night ended in a car accident that left three people dead. Details of the accident remain somewhat sketchy, since there were no survivors, and no witnesses have come forward.

Whether a second vehicle was involved is not known, but the couple apparently went to a bar after the game for drinks. They met a local lawyer there who apparently paid for their drinks. Much of the information about the couple’s activities prior to the accident come from a Facebook posting placed by the girl victim’s mother.

Evidently the three left together in the lawyer’s Porsche. They were last seen driving about 2:30 a.m. Nothing was seen of the car or victims until twelve hours later when a maintenance worker operating a boat in the Las Colinas canal saw the car submerged. A bus driver had earlier reported to police that she saw debris in the roadway near a bridge.

Inside the submerged car police found the bodies of the young couple. Because items in the recovered car suggested a third person was involved, divers were brought in to search the turbid waters of the canal. They eventually found the body of the lawyer in the water. He had apparently been thrown from the vehicle during the accident.

This sad accident illustrates how even an apparent single-car incident can devastate victims. Many times single-car accidents occur because of the negligence of the driver. When passengers are injured, they may have a personal injury case.

In the event that you are a victim in an accident due to the fault of another, don’t try to fight the insurance company alone. Call Dallas personal injury lawyer Dean Malone at (214) 670-9989 for a consultation.

- Guest Contributor

Be prepared for many hours of questioning at your personal injury deposition. Among subjects that will be covered are those that relate to the scene of the accident. The following are issues about which defense lawyers may question you.

You will be asked whether you and/or others you know of visited the scene, when, and for what reason. Your Dallas personal injury lawyer, for instance, will have visited the scene, taken measurements and photographs, and generally tried to visualize precisely the events of the accident as they occurred.

Other people may also have visited the scene, such as a private investigator. If you are aware that an investigator was brought in to inspect the scene, you will be asked to share the date this occurred, and whether any significant details of the accident were brought to light as a result.

If maps or charts of the scene were made, you will be asked who prepared them. If other documentation of the scene was made, you will be asked to share who was involved in producing it, and what information was gleaned about your personal injury accident.

Finally, you will be asked how you think the scene, itself, may have contributed to your accident. If, for instance, you fell on a set of stairs at a restaurant, you will need to share whether an obstruction or, say, a loose board contributed to your fall.

Your Dallas personal injury lawyer will give you a more comprehensive list of things to remember as you prepare for your deposition. For a lawyer in the Dallas area, call Dean Malone at (214) 670-9989.

- Guest Contributor

We all hear of drivers who talk on their cell phones, or worse, text while driving. These are distractions that can lead to serious personal injury accidents. But a driver can be distracted by almost anything – a drink spilled or cigarette dropped, to name but two.

Just before Christmas a traffic wreck on Interstate 35W in Fort Worth resulted in the death of one individual and the injury of two others. The driver was heading in his pickup with two passengers down the highway in morning traffic when apparently he was distracted for just a moment. It was reported that one of the passengers had become ill.

The distracted driver lost control of his pickup and went off the highway, smashing into a wall. Emergency personnel attempted to revive the ill passenger, and initially succeeded. However, he died some hours later at John Peter Smith hospital. Also taken to this hospital were the driver and another passenger for injuries.

The mid-morning accident made it necessary for police to close the southbound lanes of I-35W for about an hour as the clean-up and investigation were conducted.

If one is fortunate enough to survive an accident resulting from a distracted driver, he/she still may suffer severe personal injuries which can take months, or even years to heal. A moment of distraction can even leave a victim with the dismal prospect of unrecoverable injuries.

If you have suffered a personal injury in the Dallas-Fort Worth area due to another person’s negligence or fault, call personal injury attorney Dean Malone at (214) 670-9989.

- Guest Contributor

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Often one of the biggest challenges in a personal injury case is the preservation of evidence. Many factors affect the ability to do this, ranging from circumstances to intentional destruction.

Your case can be won or lost on the basis of whether key evidence is preserved. You may not even realize at the time of the accident what is important to keep. For instance, if you are a victim in a slip and fall accident, the shoes you wore can be vital evidence. You will do yourself a considerable disservice by discarding them. Defense lawyers may argue, for instance, that the shoes you wore were damaged, and that this led to your fall. They may bring a witness who testifies to this “fact.” Without the shoes, your lawyer will have little with which to counter this claim.

An item that to your case is evidence may be deemed useless to an unknowing individual If you trip on a mat in a supermarket, for instance, the mat may be so worn that a worker determines it must be discarded. By doing so, however, he would prevent the defense and injury lawyers from being able to examine this key evidence for themselves.

Often evidence is perishable. You may have fallen as a result of a spilled glass of juice that hadn’t been cleaned up. Or perhaps you tripped on a branch that fell across the sidewalk from the neighbor’s yard. Each of these key pieces of evidence might be cleaned up without regard to their value. Or they may be cleaned because the defendant is very much aware of their value to you.

Your personal injury lawyer will assist you in understanding what is essential evidence in your case. If you do not have legal representation, contact the Law Offices of Dean Malone, P.C. (a personal injury law firm in Dallas) at (214) 670-9989.

– Guest Contributor

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There are over 3,000 traffic-related deaths in Texas each year (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). The number has been somewhat lower the past couple of years, but Wednesday brought one more unfortunate addition to the totals for 2011.

An 18-year-old Fort Worth resident was killed on Wednesday while driving his truck in evening traffic on Pecan Street. As he approached the intersection of East 2^nd Street a woman driving a Dodge pickup truck ran a stop sign, thereby colliding with the victim’s vehicle. The force of the impact caused the young male victim to be thrown from his truck. He was shortly thereafter pronounced dead at the scene from blunt trauma to his chest.

It appears that the cause of the accident was intoxication. The 28-year-old woman who allegedly hit the young man was arrested the following day and charged with intoxication manslaughter. She was also charged with possession of marijuana.

While news reports have indicated nothing about the family of the victim, this surely must be a terrible loss. Personal injury and death cases can leave families with emotional scars, as well as strap them with financial difficulties. This is why a Dallas personal injury lawyer can be very helpful in such circumstances. Even though the alleged perpetrator has been arrested, there are still civil remedies the family can pursue.

If you or a loved one is the victim of a personal injury due to the negligence of another, you need a good lawyer in your corner. In the Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas area, call Dean Malone at (214) 670-9989.

- Guest Contributor

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Whether you slipped and fell in a market or were struck by an object while walking along the street, a personal injury can leave you debilitated and in pain. As a part of your injury claim, it is imperative that you and your Dallas personal injury lawyer preserve the scene of the accident as best you can, and as soon as possible.

Nothing remains the same long. If you were injured on the street, repairs may be made on that cracked sidewalk. One way to preserve evidence of the way the scene looked at the time of your accident is by taking photographs. You may have a gift for describing scenes, but your testimony alone will not paint as vivid a picture for a jury as actual photos.

Take the pictures as soon as you can after the accident. This is essential because, to be admissible in court, photographs must depict the location as it looked at the time you were injured. Make sure your photos are from different angles, including one that shows exactly your orientation when the accident occurred. Include in your photos relevant background features.

Another important way to record/preserve the accident scene is by taking measurements. These are especially important where repairs may shortly take place. If an object from a store shelf fell on you, for instance, you should record the clearance of the aisle itself, as well as the height of the stack of items in question. Your Dallas personal injury lawyer can hire an investigator to take the necessary measurements, who then can testify about them in court later.

Measurements and photographs are very useful and important ways of recording your personal injury scene for a jury later on. If you have not yet retained a lawyer, call Dallas personal injury lawyer Dean Malone at (214) 670-9989.

- Guest Contributor

In what numbers as the 35thtraffic death in the Arlington area in the past eleven months, a local man died in a two-vehicle collision on Thursday. Preliminary reports do not give a reason for the accident, but there was no apparent involvement of alcohol or drugs.

The deceased, a 23-year-old Ft. Worth man, was driving south on Cooper Street in his Jetta mid-evening on Tuesday. As he approached an intersection in the 1500 block he began a left turn in front of a car traveling in the opposite direction. The second vehicle struck his car, causing him to suffer multiple blunt force injuries. He was taken to John Peter Smith Hospital, where he died two days later.

It has not been reported if passengers were in the Volkswagen, but two other individuals were injured. Reports suggest that their injuries were not as serious.

Some accidents just seem to defy explanation. While the facts of this case do not necessarily point to any of these possibilities, often a driver is distracted for just a moment by something as mundane as replacing a soda in a cup holder. Drivers who smoke may also become distracted if a live ash falls from their cigarette while they are in traffic. Ultimately it is up to the individual to stay focused and avoid anything that may take one’s attention off the road for even a moment. Given that over 3000 Texas residents die in automobile accidents every year (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics), the situation is serious indeed.

If you have been injured in an automobile accident due to the negligence/fault of someone else, call Dallas personal injury lawyer Dean Malone today at (214) 670-9989.

- Guest Contributor

It is understandable for a person who has experienced a personal injury to have some difficulty maintaining equanimity. If you are feeling a great deal of pain, for instance, you may appear impatient or overly needy when dealing with your Dallas injury lawyer. However, taken too far, you become a problem client.

Lawyers know that a client may depend on them more than they should, or sometimes question their methods. However, there is no reason they should tolerate abuse, and they often don’t. The following are some of the ways in which a client’s behavior may lead to problems, even the lawyer resigning from the case:

Entitlement – The client who has issues of entitlement will not accept even the possibility that he shares some blame in his personal injury. This client looks only at the money to be made at settlement, and feels he is entitled to an exorbitant figure. Life comes to be seen as merely about money, and not relief from his injuries.

Distrust – This client questions everything the Dallas injury lawyer does. He is utterly lacking in confidence of the professionalism and even honesty of the lawyer, doctor, etc.

Overly Needy – A client should feel like he can call the lawyer when questions arise. This client, however, calls the lawyer all the time, and becomes a nuisance.

Anger – The client becomes belligerent, perhaps even to the point of yelling and offering threats. Many lawyers have a policy of giving such a client one warning, then withdrawing services in the case.

For your own benefit it is essential that you have a good relationship with your personal injury lawyer. For a free evaluation of your case by a Dallas injury lawyer, call Dean Malone at (214) 670-9989.

- Guest Contributor