Posted on October 28, 2020 in Car Accidents

The dangerous myth circulating throughout the country assures you that you can safely use your cellphone to talk or text while driving as long as you use hands-free technology to do so. Unfortunately, if you believe this myth, you put yourself, your passengers and all other motorists around you at high risk for an accident and resulting injuries.

The National Safety Council explains that distracted driving represents the number one cause of accidents, and cellphone usage while behind the wheel represents the number one type of distracted driving today.

Cellphones and distracted driving

You can become distracted while driving in the following three ways:

• Physically
• Visually
• Cognitively

While hands-free cellphone usage theoretically allows you to keep your hands on the wheel and therefore not become physically distracted, such is seldom the case. Why? Because, whether you realize it or not, you talk with your hands as much as with your voice when you engage in a cellphone conversation or verbal text exchange.

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 Posted on October 13, 2020 in Firm News

A crash between an 18-wheeler and a passenger vehicle often results in catastrophic injuries for the victim.

If you find yourself in this position, you may face prolonged treatment and great medical expense. Multiple parties may share liability for your injuries.

The overloading issue

Large commercial trucks must observe various federal and state laws, but this does not prevent trucking companies from pursuing more profit, regardless. Although the majority of truckers and their employers follow the rules, some engage in the overloading of cargo, a primary cause of truck-related crashes.

Safety concerns

Overloaded cargo can shift causing performance problems for the truck driver. A big rig carrying cargo that exceeds capacity limits and is unevenly distributed will be off-balance and difficult to control. The truck might tend to drift out of its lane, for example, and the driver may not make allowances for the longer stopping distances the extra weight requires. Overloading also creates more wear and tear on tires, brakes and other components, which can fail while the truck is in transit endangering nearby vehicles.

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 Posted on September 29, 2020 in Dog Bites

You may be delivering mail or a package as part of your job. Or you could be heading to visit a neighbor to catch up. Or even you and your child could be outside playing and suddenly the unthinkable happens: a dog viciously attacks you – or your kid.

In the attack, you suffer a serious dog bite, requiring 12 stitches and breaking one of the bones in your hand. Is anyone liable for helping to pay your injury costs?

Connecticut dog bite laws

Connecticut law holds a dog’s owner liable for injuries their dog causes. In fact, the victim doesn’t need to prove that the owner knew the dog was vicious or the owner was negligent in preventing the dog bite attack to receive compensation for their injuries.

The only way a dog’s owner isn’t responsible for covering bite injuries or damaged property from a dog attack is if:

• The victim was tormenting, teasing or abusing the dog.

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 Posted on September 10, 2020 in Personal Injury

A serious injury can turn your life upside-down, especially if you become disabled and lose your income. When another driver caused the accident, you may have legal recourse to cover medical bills, lost wages and other associated costs of your injury.

These are some of the reasons you may want to consider consulting an attorney if you or a family suffered a debilitating injury in a car accident.

Negotiate with the insurance provider

Often, the first step to recoup your costs after a car accident injury is a claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company. However, the insurance adjuster’s priority is to settle your case quickly at the lowest possible cost to the company. For this reason, he or she may offer a settlement that does not cover the full costs associated with the accident. In this case, your attorney will negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf, giving you the benefit of his or her industry knowledge and experience.

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 Posted on September 03, 2020 in Car Accidents

With more people deciding to forgo public transportation and use their cars instead, traffic on Connecticut roads is picking up. The presence of more cars means that more traffic accidents are likely, which makes this a good time to make sure your car insurance policy provides you with all the coverage you need in case of an auto accident.

Not every insurer offers the same types of coverage, and you might not have a type of coverage if you did not request it up front. These are just two reasons why your policy might lack some coverage.

Liability and injury coverage

The State of Connecticut Insurance Department explains that state laws require certain types of insurance coverage. Liability insurance is one of these, and it covers damages if you are at fault for them.

Personal injury protection or medical payments coverage pays for your medical bills no matter if you are at fault or not. However, given that state law does not require them, you might not have received them as part of your policy.

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 Posted on August 26, 2020 in Premises Liability

Many falls are preventable and occur because a property owner failed to do something to make it safer for you during your visit to the premises. A fall can result in serious injuries that may require long-term treatment and care.

There are different types of falls that can occur under different circumstances. The following information comes primarily from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, but it is also applicable to falls unrelated to work. 

Trips

A trip occurs when your foot comes in contact with an obstacle while you are walking. You can lose your balance when your foot strikes the obstacle if you are moving with enough momentum. Examples of obstacles that could cause a trip include:

• A piece of merchandise that store workers failed to pick up

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 Posted on August 26, 2020 in Workers' Compensation

Gov. Ned Lamont signed Executive Order 7JJJ to create a limited rebuttable presumption that workers who contracted COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic contracted it on the job, and that they are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits.

The order states that any employee who initiates a claim for payment of workers’ compensation benefits—after missing a day or more of work between March 10, 2020, and May 20, 2020, because he or she showed symptoms of, or was diagnosed with COVID-19—contracted it as an occupational disease during his or her employment provided that the following statements are true:

1. The employee worked, at the direction of the employer, outside the home during at least one of the 14 days immediately preceding the date of injury, and had not received an offer or directive from said employer to work from home instead of from his or her place of employment;

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 Posted on August 07, 2020 in Car Accidents

Your immediate thoughts after experiencing a car accident in Bridgeport (after assessing your own condition, as well as that of your passengers and your vehicle) likely center on how the person that hit you seemed so inattentive to your presence on the road.

Distracted driving is a real problem. Yet many of those that seek our assistance here at Tremont Sheldon P.C. often only believe it to occur when one is using their cell phone while driving. In reality, there are a number of different distractions that could have pulled the attention of the driver that hit you away from the road. One may be much more common (and dangerous) than you realize.

Eating and drinking while behind the wheel

This particular type of distraction is eating and drinking while driving, and is likely overlooked by you (and most others) as a distraction because it seems to be such a natural act. Yet according to information shared through a joint awareness campaign featuring the Auto Alliance and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, eating behind the wheel causes drivers to simultaneously engage in the following three major types of distractions:

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 Posted on August 04, 2020 in Car Accidents

Recent incidents have led to a dramatic drop in traffic. With most people staying at home in recent months, roads and highways were freer than normal of most motorists.

People who were out driving, however, took advantage by speeding at unprecedented rates. With states now seeing individuals leaving the house more, speeders pose a danger to the public if they continue the dangerous habit.

Numbers detail a problem

States report many more vehicles caught speeding in recent weeks when there were fewer drivers on the road. Instead of driving 10 or 15 mph over the limit, drivers felt free to exceed 100 mph. The Governors Highway Safety Association said the problem was nationwide, including the northeast. New York City issued twice as many daily speeding tickets via automatic cameras as usual.

The consequences are in the statistics. For example, in New England, Massachusetts, car crash fatalities rose. In Rhode Island, pedestrian deaths were up. The increases in deaths occurred despite far fewer vehicles on the road.

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 Posted on July 30, 2020 in Sexual Abuse

Police officers and police departments are supposed to enforce the law and serve the communities they work in. Unfortunately, some lose sight of this. Here in Connecticut, former police officer William Ruscoe sexually abused and assaulted a teenage girl he was mentoring when she was a cadet in the Trumbull Police Explorer Scout Program.

Ruscoe, a 20-year veteran and supervisor, was arrested and ultimately pleaded guilty to second degree assault in 2014. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the sentence was suspended after 30 months in 2017. He remains on probation and is a registered sex offender.

The victim filed a lawsuit against the responsible parties.

"For years, it has been known that police explorer programs, such as the one in Trumbull, put underage explorers at risk for sexual molestation. Yet, Trumbull had inadequate supervision and allowed rules to be broken, enabling Ruscoe, a police officer and program advisor, to have un-monitored contact with our client, who was a minor cadet in the program," said senior partner attorney who represents the victim. "Our client was drawn to the police cadet program because she always looked up to and trusted law enforcement. Instead she was horribly deceived and continues to suffer emotional trauma from the abuse."

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