Lafayette LA Personal Injury Law Blog

A fatal wrong way car accident that involved the deaths of five people occurred last Friday outside of New Orleans. Recently, wrong way accidents have started to become a concern among law enforcement departments across the country. Though it is not clear what caused the wrong way driver on Friday to travel in the incorrect direction, some wrong way car accidents are caused by drinking and driving.

Early last Friday morning a driver in a Jeep Grand Cherokee was traveling east in the westbound lanes of Interstate 10 outside LaPlace, Louisiana. Around 3 a.m. the driver traveling the wrong direction crashed with another vehicle head-on. The Jeep Grand Cherokee burst into flames. The vehicle that was hit had four people inside. The driver of the Jeep and the four people in the vehicle the Jeep hit died at the scene of the accident.

After the head-on collision occurred, a semi sideswiped the car accident scene and another vehicle hit the tractor-trailer. The drivers of the semi and the vehicle suffered minor injuries.

The four people who were traveling in the vehicle hit by the Jeep ranged in age from 30 to 19. The two people in the front of the vehicle were wearing seat belts and the passengers in the back were not.

A lot of commercial truck and 18-wheeler traffic runs through Lafayette, Louisiana because it sits at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Interstate 49. Where there is a lot of commercial truck traffic, there is a high risk for semi and truck accidents. Because of the heavy loads commercial trucks carry, truck accidents can result in serious and sometimes fatal injury. Recently, a fatal truck accident occurred close to Kentwood, Louisiana.

This past Friday, two elderly ladies were killed after an 18-wheeler collided with the turning vehicle they were in on LA 38 East according to the Louisiana State Police. The fatal crash occurred just after 6 p.m. Friday. A 66-year-old woman was driving with three of other women. The ages of the other women were 74, 73 and 70. The group was in a 2005 Lincoln sedan and was traveling east on LA 38. The accident occurred after the driver of the Lincoln slowed to make a left turn.

As the driver slowed to stop, an 18-wheeler traveling the same direction behind the car did not notice the car slowing down. To avoid hitting the Lincoln, the semi driver swerved into the left lane. As the semi swerved into the left lane, the driver of the Lincoln began to turn left. The semi crashed into the left side of the car and killed the 74-year-old woman and 73-year-old woman riding in the back seat. The two elderly women were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The two women were not wearing seat belts.

When it comes to teenage driving, parents in Louisiana often worry about the safety of their adolescent children, but when cell phones are thrown in the mix, the level of worry can increase. The combination of teen driving and distracted driving can lead to car accidents and some parents are using new technology to prevent that combo and help keep their teenage children focused on the task of driving.

Parents in Louisiana and elsewhere are well aware that teenagers are dependent on cell phones and communicate heavily through text and social media. More than one third of teens use cellphones to communicate over social media and almost half use cellphones to access the internet. That is why some parents are using applications that limit the ability of teen drivers to use cellphones while behind the wheel. The applications prevent teen drivers from using their phones when the vehicle is in motion.

One parent who purchased preventative applications for his adult daughter and teenage son said it gives him, "peace of mind." The father said, "They live so much on the phone and they do so much of their communication using texting . . . it's really reassuring to know that they're not [texting while driving]."

Could allowing doctors who work long shifts to take naps reduce medical errors caused by fatigue? The answer may seem obvious, but for years it has been a badge of honor for interns and residents to power through shifts that lasted more than 24 hours. Today, doctors in Louisiana and elsewhere still power through long shifts albeit shorter, but the question of whether tired doctors cause medical errors persists.

It seems obvious: tired or fatigued people tend to perform worse than those who are well rested. And, at least one study has confirmed that assumption by showing that the motor skills and judgment of people who had been awake for 24 consecutive hours was similar to those with a blood alcohol level just over the legal limit.

The medical community began to change work hour limits for medical training in the 1980s after the occurrence of an infamous and potential medical malpractice case that involved the death of a patient. The patient had been treated by an intern who was extremely low on sleep. Though the change in new work hour limits began to occur in the late 1980s, the national organization that sets medical education standards only recommended the change in work hour limits for hospitals across the country in 2003.