Washington Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Regan Zambri & Long Law Firm : DC Metro Area Personal Injury Law Blog

Posted by: Salvatore J. Zambri, founding partner

According to Consumer Reports, there is "[g]ood news for safety-conscious car-buyers: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is about to launch an overhauled crash-test program that makes it tougher for any car to earn five stars in crash worthiness....
The new scores can’t be compared against results from previous years, since both the testing and scoring criteria will be different. Once the tests are completed, the new ratings will be posted on safercar.gov."

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About the author:

Mr. Zambri is a board-certified civil trial attorney by the National Board of Trial Advocates and a Past-President of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. He has been rated by Washingtonian magazine as a "Big Gun" and among the "top 1%" of all lawyers in the Washington metropolitan area. The magazine also describes him as "one of Washington's best--most honest and effective lawyers" who specializes in personal injury matters, including automobile accident claims, premises liability, product liability, medical malpractice, and work-accident claims. He has successfully litigated multiple cases against truck and bus companies, the Washington Metropolitan Area transit Authority, and other automobile owners.  His law firm, in fact, has obtained the largest settlement ever in a personal injury case involving WMATA.  Mr. Zambri has also been named a "Super Lawyer" by Super Lawyer magazine (March/April 2010)--a national publication that honors the top lawyers in America.

If you have any questions about your legal rights, please email Mr. Zambri at szambri@reganfirm.com or call him at 202-822-1899.

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Posted by Catherine Bertram                                       

There are 270 million cellphones in use and,  according to the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, cell phones have caused 636,000 crashes, including  2,600 deaths, 342,000 injuries and a financial toll of $43 billion each year.

Despite recent public campaigns to get people to put down their phones while driving, 81 percent of people saying they use cellphones.  That means by one calculation that at any given time almost 1 million drivers in cars are talking while on the nation's highways.  In a study released last week,  research released last week on Beltway drivers in Virginia put the number at one in four.

Yesterday, on Fastlane, DOT's official blog, they announced a second national summit on distracted driving will be held Sept. 21 to highlight the problem and find ways to combat it, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Tuesday. In 2008, more than 20 percent of crashes that year involved distracted drivers.  This is a great step in the right direction. We need the country's top experts to work together to stop this needless loss of lives. 

At this point, this is a public health crisis.  How many people need to be permanently injured or die before we take action?

About the author:

Catherine Bertram is board certified in civil trials and was recently nominated as a 2010 Super Lawyer for personal injury law in Washington, D.C.  Ms. Bertram has 20 years of trial experience and is unique in that she was formerly the Director of Risk Management in Washington, D.C.  Ms. Bertram is a member of the bar for the U.S. Supreme Court.  She is a partner with the firm and lectures regularly to lawyers, nationally and locally, regarding trial strategy,  complex medical issues and other related consumer safety issues. She has also recently published a chapter in a surgical textbook.   She can be reached by email at cbertram@reganfirm.com or by phone 202-822-1875 in her office in Washington, D.C.

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Posted by: Salvatore J. Zambri, founding partner

In an excellent article by Robert McCartney, published in the Washington Post today, Mr. McCartney notes that "the NTSB took pains in its admirable report to emphasize two messages that weren't about money at all. First, the Red Line crash, like some previous Metro accidents, was directly attributable to what the NTSB labeled an 'anemic safety culture'".  He suggests that "Metro must undergo a top-to-bottom overhaul of its institutional habits and mind-set so that everyone places a higher priority on safety."

As National Traffic Safety Board Chairperson Deborah Hersman stated, "When safety is more important than schedules, their organizational culture can be a success."  If profits are put about safety, bad things will happen.  Very bad things.

As Mr. McCartney points out, based on the NTSB report, "Metro comes up short in virtually every category" related to safety.  With respect to the tragic crash that took place in June of 2009, signs of danger were simply ignored, according to the report. Mr. McCartney comments that "it emerged at Tuesday's hearing that workers were ignoring thousands of alarms a week triggered by the faulty signaling devices, known as track circuit modules. The attitude was: The machines don't work, but there haven't been any crashes, so why worry?"The answer should have been simple:  because people will be seriously injured and killed if the problem is not fixed.

"Metro's deep cultural problems suggest that the next general manager needs to be a powerful change agent," says Mr. McCartney.  He's right.

Do you have any questions about this post?

About the author:

Mr. Zambri is a board-certified civil trial attorney by the National Board of Trial Advocates and a Past-President of the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. He has been rated by Washingtonian magazine as a "Big Gun" and among the "top 1%" of all lawyers in the Washington metropolitan area. The magazine also describes him as "one of Washington's best--most honest and effective lawyers" who specializes in personal injury matters, including automobile accident claims, premises liability, product liability, medical malpractice, and work-accident claims. He has successfully litigated multiple cases against truck and bus companies, the Washington Metropolitan Area transit Authority, and other automobile owners.  His law firm, in fact, has obtained the largest settlement ever in a personal injury case involving WMATA.  Mr. Zambri has also been named a "Super Lawyer" by Super Lawyer magazine (March/April 2010)--a national publication that honors the top lawyers in America.

If you have any questions about your legal rights, please email Mr. Zambri at szambri@reganfirm.com or call him at 202-822-1899.

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By Patrick M. Regan

The National Transportation Safety Board met today to announce the findings of its investigation into the June 22, 2009 Metrorail crash that killed nine and injured countless others.

An "anemic safety culture", and "layers of safety deficiencies" made the tragedy all but unavoidable, according to Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman.  "Metro was on a collision course long before this accident," Hersman said. "The only question was when Metro would have another accident."  

Mr. Regan and the law firm of Regan Zambri & Long are one of the lead lawyers representing Metro passengers who were killed or seriously injured in this tragedy.  "WMATA knew for years that there were serious safety problems with the subway system and yet they refused to take simple safety measures to protect the passengers" according to a statement released by Mr. Regan.

Investigators determined that Metro knew about the problems as early as 2005, when the same inadequacies caused a near-miss collision near the Rosslyn station.  The operator averted a collision by hitting the emergency brake after the Automatic Train Control system failed to detect the train in front. 

Track circuits in the Automatic Train Control system malfunctioned thousands of times each week, and eventually, Metro simply turned off the alarms caused by the malfunctions.

The Board also found that Metro failed to inform its technicians about the automatic train control system; failed to oversee automatic train control maintenance; and continues to use 1000-series rail cars even though they pose an "unacceptable risk".

If you have questions about this post or want to discuss a potential claim against Metro, you can contact Mr. Regan by phone, 202-463-3030 or click here to send an email to him directly.

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Posted by: Salvatore J. Zambri, founding partner

The Washington Post reports that Metro's "decision to mix different brands of signaling equipment -- despite a warning from one of the manufacturers -- could have caused the June crash that killed nine people, a senior engineer with the company," Alstom, "said Wednesday at a federal safety hearing." Information released by the NTSB "has pointed to possibly faulty and aging equipment in the failure of the automated crash-avoidance system. But the information on the signaling system attempts to shift blame to Metro's maintenance, testing and installation procedures."

As you may know from reading my prior blogs, my firm represents victims of this tragic and avoidable crash. 

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