Arkansas Injury Lawyer Blog

Crosswalks can be dangerous places to walk. They’re “danger areas” where foot traffic intersects with car and truck traffic and, all too often, these alleged “safe zones” are the scenes of terrible pedestrian accidents in Arkansas. A pedestrian, rightfully so, feels a sense of safety while walking within a crosswalk. My family and I walk in our neighborhood often, and I would say about 40% of the time people will stop when someone is standing on the street, waiting to cross at a crosswalk. The other 60% of the time the cars will zoom right past and expect you to wait. Not exactly how a crosswalk is intended to be used. Some pedestrians understand and follow the rules of the road when it comes to crosswalks, therefore the pedestrian doesn’t think twice that someone else wouldn’t, so the walker will walk within a crosswalk and expect the car to stop. After all, it’s the law. Right? Unfortunately sometimes a person behind the wheel of a two-ton vehicle has the mentality that they are bigger and the person will just have to wait for them to pass. This is when terrible accidents happen. In big cities, such as New York or San Francisco, pedestrians walk as soon as the “Walk” light changes, and the vehicles know they are to stop, period.

When a two-ton vehicle hits an unprotected pedestrian—even at slow speeds—the physical damage can be tremendous. Nowhere in Arkansas is that danger more concentrated than in Arkansas’ biggest college town: Fayetteville. There is no protection for the pedestrian, so any contact with a moving vehicle can result in life-changing injuries or death. Continue reading

Fatigued Driving Accidents in Arkansas are Crimes
Most of us have been there: our hands on the wheel, our eyelids getting heavier. But fatigued driving kills hundreds of people nationwide every year. So why do we still do it? And, more importantly, how can we prevent potential fatigued driving accidents in Arkansas before they injure innocent victims?

Is Fatigued Driving Really a Problem in Arkansas?
Is it really that dangerous to drive when you haven’t had that much sleep? After all, multiple nationwide studies have found that at least 1/3 of drivers have driven at some point in their lives when they’ve been too tired to safely operate a motor vehicle.

Turns out fatigued driving is very similar to drunk driving.

The NHTSA conducted an in-depth study that found fatigued driving is every bit as deadly and destructive as driving while under the influence of alcohol. Fatigued drivers suffer many of the same impairments as drunk drivers including:

• Delayed reaction time
• Inability to accurately judge distances
• Blurry vision
• Impaired judgement Continue reading

Nursing home neglect in Arkansas is, unfortunately, not a new phenomenon. Cases date back decades and have resulted in avoidable deaths. Nursing home abuse is 100% avoidable, and our loved ones should not be subjected to mistreatment at the hands of their caretakers. Victims and their family members have the right to stand up and demand responsible parties be held accountable—regardless of whether or not criminal charges are filed. The experienced Arkansas nursing home abuse lawyers at the Pfeifer Law Firm can help.

Elder Neglect in Little Rock Nursing Home Results in Tragedy

The latest nursing home neglect case in Little Rock involves a facility operated by Arkansas Elder Outreach named Pleasant Valley Nursing & Rehabilitation. According to reports, the patient began living at the nursing home in 2012. Almost immediately she began suffering falls at the facility—a problem that would plague her for years and, eventually, result in her untimely death.

When it comes to car crashes, the face is one of the most exposed areas of the body. A person’s head is where the airbag will expand to, where glass shards will fall, and where other objects from outside the car will land. While many people think of whiplash or traumatic brain injuries in reference to car crashes, the facial injuries alone can be devastating. If you or a loved one have sustained facial injuries in a crash that was caused by someone else’s negligence, you deserve to be compensated for the pain, the recovery, and the long-lasting effects. Contact an experienced Little Rock personal injury attorney for more information on the legal process of submitting an insurance claim and recovering monetarily for your injuries.

Common Facial Injuries Due to Car Accidents

Our face is an integral part of how we interact with the world. Our eyes help us see, nose helps us smell, and facial muscles express emotion. Facial injuries can permanently change how we view the world and how the world views us. Common facial injuries seen as a result of car crashes include:

Far too many families struggle from the emotional and financial burden that a hit-and-run accident may cause a family. I’ve talked with loved ones who have no idea how to recover emotionally or financially from the long-lasting effects that a tragedy such as this may cause. Crash data from a three-year period shows the number of fatal hit and run accidents in Arkansas is rising at roughly 4.5% every year. Just last month a 27-year-old woman and an elderly man were killed on Interstate 40 just south of Little Rock, Arkansas after a hit and run driver left the woman’s car disabled on the roadway.

At-fault individuals caught by police face serious jail time, but as anyone who has lived through a hit and run accident in Arkansas will tell you, seeing that the other driver is punished often takes a back seat to simply surviving the immediate aftermath of a crash. The pain and suffering (both physical and emotional) can be tremendous, but victims also have to cope with the financial strain a careless person’s actions have forced on their family. That burden may not be as heavy as the fear and anxiety experienced in the first few days after a collision, but it can be significant and have devastating and lasting effects of its own.

The True Cost of Auto Accidents in Arkansas

Many victims are under the false impression that if a driver is charged with a crime because of their involvement in a truck accident in Arkansas, that the injured individuals cannot seek financial compensation via a personal injury claim. That’s simply not true. Personal injury claims pursuing financial damages from at-fault parties and their insurance companies can be filed regardless of any active or pending criminal prosecution. The two processes are completely separate in the eyes of the law and (when/if necessary) will be handled by different branches of the court system.

Many personal injury claims resulting from truck accidents in Arkansas never result in lawsuits. Most insurance companies are eager to settle with victims who are represented by an attorney before the lawsuit makes it to the courthouse. This means that the majority of victims can get any monetary damages they are entitled to without an extended legal battle or having to wait for criminal cases to crawl through the justice system.

The Danger of Big Truck Accidents in Arkansas is Real

A pedestrian accident in Fayetteville claimed the life of a young woman earlier this month. To make the situation even worse, the driver fled the scene.

It is becoming more difficult with each passing day to pick up the paper in the mornings to find yet another article written about an innocent person’s life being taken at the hands of an irresponsible driver who chose to drink and drive. These stories are especially hard to read because these types of accidents are 100% preventable.

The driver, who ran from the scene of the crash, was later found to be intoxicated. The CDC estimates that nearly one-third (29%) of all fatal traffic accidents in the United States involve alcohol. Another 16% of crashes are caused by drivers under the influence of other legal and illegal drugs, including marijuana.

Deteriorating roadways in the United States are a major concern. We all hear politicians from different political ideology talk about investment in infrastructure to help us economically. However, fewer discuss the need for major updates to our roads for the safety of drivers and passengers of cars and trucks. A new report found that infrastructure investments have the potential to save 63,700 lives and prevent 353,560 serious injuries over a 20-year period if changes and updates were made to interstates and roads.

“Safety Benefits of Highway Infrastructure Investments” released earlier this month by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a nonprofit research and education association, details key strategies to accomplish that goal. The report noted that the U.S. is ranked nearly last among developed countries in annual traffic fatalities. This fact should not be ignored. The report listed six items that the group recommends to greatly reduce car accident deaths and injures. They recommended that key intersections be turned into roundabouts, install roadside barriers and clear roadside objects, add sidewalks and signalized pedestrian crossings on majority of roads, install median barriers on divided highways, install shoulder and center line rumble strips, and pave and widen highway shoulders.

Inattentive driving is a big cause of car and truck accidents. The changes outlined in the report would help alleviate careless driving and make our roads safer. Several cities in Arkansas are putting roundabouts in new developments to help alleviate traffic congestion. I hear complaints about these intersections; however, I believe that as they become more common, people will not have issues with their use. Several people have told me that they hated roundabouts at first but they really enjoy them now. We should all do our part to tell our politicians to start making these changes for the good of our economy and our safety.