TSR Injury Law

Toyota's reputation is at stake . . . and it is getting worse. United States authorities have ordered an investigation into Toyota safety issues. Lawsuits have been filed against Toyota, in the state of Colorado, for allegedly covering up safety problems.

Toyota has now had more than 100 complaints on their most popular vehicle, the Prius. The Toyota Prius is the biggest selling hybrid worldwide. The complaints cite brake failure on uneven road surfaces. There is a possibility that Toyota will be forced to issue a recall on more than 250,000 2010 Prius car that were sold in the United States and Canada.

Additionally, there is further concern over Toyota models. The luxury Lexus hybrids have the same braking system as the 2010 Prius cars under consideration for recall.

Currently, recalled Toyota vehicles include:

    2009-2010 RAV4
    2009-2010 Corolla
    2009-2010 Matrix
    2005-2010 Avalon
    2007-2010 Camry
    2010 Highlander
    2007-2010 Tundra
    2008-2010 Sequoia

If you are driving your Toyota vehicle and the accelerator pedal sticks, shift into neutral and apply the brakes. Do not turn the car off. This may lead to loss of steering capabilities.

If you have been in an accident due to a sticking accelerator on your Toyota car or vehicle, you need expert representation. Toyota will not necessarily give you the settlement you need and deserve. Toyota is in business to make a profit. They will offer bottom dollar, hoping the general public will take the offer rather than go through litigation.

In order to maximize your settlement, contact our Toyota Car Accident Lawyers today at 612-362-0000. Our lawyers are Minnesota Super Lawyers and Chuck Slane has been voted one of Minnesota's Top 40 Plaintiff's Attorney. Also, Rich Ruohonen received the 2009 Excellence Award from Minnesota Association for Justice. We will strive to achieve a fair settlement. If you are not happy with the settlement offered, we will go to court to fight for your deserved compensation.

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                                               Trial Tested | No Fee Until We Win | Recovered Millions

Deadly Weekend in Minnesota with 2 Fatal Semi Truck Accidents

Last weekend was a deadly weekend in Minnesota. Two horrific semi truck crashes, one in Hugo and one in Carver County, left 4 dead and 5 hospitalized in critical condition. The ripple effect of these accidents are being felt by many families from Minnesota to Texas - all because of what appears to be inattentive driving. When an accident happens as a result of negligence on the part of another, there may be basis for a wrongful death claim.

Establishing Wrongful Death Claims

Three things have to be met to establish wrongful death in Minnesota. They are: a death has to have occurred, that death has to have been caused by an act of negligence or omission, and the death has to have resulted in financial loss to the beneficiaries.

Witness-supported evidence is necessary. The evidence presented must be sufficient and compelling, in order to convince the judge or jury. In a semi truck accident, physical evidence will be gathered and presented, including:

• medical reports
• drivers license information
• driving record
• references
• drug tests
• log books
• gas receipts
• drug tests
• vehicle maintenance records
• witness testimonies
• police reports
• cellphone usage reports

Oh, My Aching Back!

Have you suffered a back injury from a car accident, truck accident, motorcycle accident, pedestrian accident, or workplace accident? Have we got news for you! You do not have to suffer the injury and the subsequent medical bills alone. If you contact a personal injury law firm, an expert attorney will help you file an insurance claim to receive the best compensation for:

• medical expenses
• pain and suffering
• lost wages
• other damages

A personal injury lawsuit is a way to recover some of the money you have lost to medical bills and missed work / loss of job. It is a way to win compensation for your suffering, making it easier for you to focus on the task of recovery. It is a way to see that justice is done, and that people are held responsible for their behavior.

If you have been injured and feel you deserve compensation, you will need an experienced, dedicated personal injury lawyer to review your case, offer advice, and argue for your rights in court. The laws surrounding legal responsibility and personal injury can be very complex. It takes a skilled, aggressive Minnesota personal injury attorney to navigate the legal language and argue persuasively in court.

• Herniated Disc requiring Laminectomy
• Facet Joint Injury requiring Radiofrequency Neurotomy
• Burst Fracture requiring Spinal Fusion
• Soft Tissue Injury
• Paralysis

Neuropsychology is a science that studies the structure and the function of the brain, seeking to understand how the brain influences behavior  and mental processes. The study gleans information from all areas of life, including:

• emotions
• personality
• thinking
• learning
• memory
• problem-solving
• self-awareness

Types of Thermal Burns

One of the most common burns is the thermal burn. There are approximately 500,000 thermal burns per year in the United States. There are many types of thermal burns, including:

• Sunburn
• Flame
• Scald - from steam or hot liquid
• Direct contact with hot object, like a frying pan

• first, second, or third degree
• superficial, partial, full
• epidermis, dermis, subcutaneous

1. The first degree burn is the least serious type of thermal burn, The skin turns red, may be tender to the touch for a few days, may be moist. There are no blisters and they leave no scars.
2. The second degree burn damages the epidermis and part of the dermis. There are varying degrees of the partial burn. There is the superficial partial burn which presents with redness, blisters, moist, and hair is still growing in the area.The other partial burn is the deep partial burn. It presents with white around the edges, may be moist or dry depending on whether the sweat glands are destroyed, no hair follicles left, and may or may not be painful depending on whether the nerve endings were destroyed.
3. The third degree burn is the worst burn category. The epidermis and dermis are totally destroyed and with them the hair follicles, sweat glands, blood vessels, and nerve endings. There is also damage to the fatty tissue and possibly tendons, ligaments, muscles, or bones. 

Ambulance Crashes: How Can We Avoid Them?

There is a problem. There are too many ambulance and emergency vehicle accidents. Many times the accident occurs between 2 other vehicles that are trying to get out of the way of the emergency vehicle. There are still many times the accidents are caused by ambulance drivers going too fast through an intersection or using poor judgment on how fast to travel.

In Ordinance Number 9, Emergency Medical Services Ordinance for Hennepin County, the ambulance driving codes stated are:

• Routine Driving (Code II): Any call other than an emergency run should be considered a Code II or routine response. All Code II runs should be made using headlights only-no sirens, beacons, or flashers. During Code II response, an ambulance should be safely driven and not subject to any emergency vehicle privileges under the state's vehicle and traffic laws.

• Emergency Driving (Code III): Should be limited to "true emergency" runs that are defined as situations in which there is a high probability of death or serious injury. Implementation of emergency medical dispatcher protocols can help reduce the number of Code III responses bases on predetermined medical interrogating and response procedures.

• Most ambulance accidents happen on clear days with good visibility. Only a small percentage occur in inclement weather conditions. This is probably due to the slower speeds driven and extra care drivers take when the roads are bad.

• Most ambulance accidents happen during the day. This further supports that the accidents happen due to poor judgment at intersections and in choosing to go too fast. This also shows that other drivers are not observant enough and they are not driving defensively.

• Most ambulance accidents happen as they are making a turn or a t-bone crash at an intersection, not when over-taking / passing a vehicle and not when backing-up, either. The staggering number of accidents that occur at intersections suggests that other drivers do not hear or see an ambulance until it is too late to stop their vehicles. All drivers need to be more observant.

• Most ambulance accidents happen on dry roads. Drivers are lulled into a false sense of security when traveling on dry roads. The statistics show that dry roads do not equate safety and that ambulance drivers must always be alert and cautious. One useful technique that defensive drivers practice is keeping a four-second following distance on dry pavements when all other conditions are good. Ambulances are considered lightweight trucks. As vehicle weight increases, the vehicle braking distance increases. So, an ambulance will travel much farther than a car when braking.

Garbage Truck Struck and Killed Pedestrian in St. Paul, Minnesota

Jean Matzke, a 70 year-old artist and animal enthusiast, was walking her dog east on the sidewalk along 5th Street. As she went to cross Sibley Street, toward Mears Park, she was struck by a garbage truck turning left from 5th Street north onto Sibley. She was struck in the crosswalk at 5:53 a.m. Friday morning. A full investigation is under way and could take 4-6 weeks. The driver of the garbage truck was given drug and alcohol tests and did not show signs of any impairment. Blinded by the sun is a possible cause for the tragic accident.

Garbage Truck Accidents

There are many Minnesota laws that govern the operation of large, commercial trucks. Those laws include garbage trucks. Garbage truck operators must:

• comply with hour per day restriction
• have random drug and alcohol tests
• have a background check
• have a Class A driver's license.

• poor visibility from bulk of the vehicle and in the no-zones
• driving into the sun and being blinded momentarily
• trying to keep a schedule
• falling debris and garbage
• poor truck maintenance
• tired, inattentive driver
• drug or alcohol use
• brake malfunction
• inability to stop quickly due to weight of the garbage truck

• lost wages
• current medical bills
• future medical bills
• pain and suffering

• review inspection logs
• review compliance audits
• review truck driver logs
• review driver's accident history
• reconstruct the accident to determine and prove blame

Lakeville, MN Man Killed in Auger

A 48 year-old man died in a work accident Saturday. He has been identified as Samuel R. Young, of Lonsdale. He was contracted through a temp agency. Mr. Young was feeding mulch into a hopper of an auger assembly. When the auger became clogged, he attempted to clear the clog.  He got snagged and fell into the auger and was pronounced dead at the scene.
 
Investigation of the accident will continue by the Dakota County Sheriff's Office, the Medical Examiner, and work safety and health officials.
 
This accident reminds us of the need for more stringent safety measures in the workplace and this is a good time to review and define third party actions and to stress how vital they are to families that have suffered a major loss. They will help to cover future losses that are not covered by workers compensation claims.



Third Party Liability Claims and Workers Compensation Claims

When you are hurt on the job, you cannot sue your employer. The exclusive remedy against the employer is worker's compensation. However, you can sue a "third party" that caused the injury. These cases are complicated and they happen with great frequency.
 
In these cases, our firm will investigate if any third party did anything to cause the injury. That could be negligence or defective design by the product manufacturer or a prior owner of the equipment that removed the safety guards, or something similar. It is critical to get legal representation involved immediately so that a thorough investigation is done before any evidence is lost or compromised.

Your Workers Compensation and Third Party Lawsuit Options

• As an employee you may file a worker's compensation claim against your employer. You may not sue your employer to cover other expenses.

• If the injury was caused by another employee, you can file only a worker's compensation claim only.

• If the injury was the fault of someone other than your employer, as in defective product or altered safety devices, you may be able to bring a suit against that third party. Some other scenarios that might create the right to a third party action are as follows:
  
       A work injury caused by a defective product
       A work injury at a construction site where several employers have workers on the site
       A work injury where the employees are working on someone else's property.

• First, you can settle your claim and the worker's compensation carrier's subrogation claim. If you do that there is a formula that is used to split the money up between your employer and you.

• The other option is to settle only your share of the case. This is what is called a Naig claim. By settling on a Naig, you settle only your claims and let the employer pursue their own claim.

Pedestrian Killed by Hit and Run, Drunk Driver

A 44 year-old Champlin woman was killed in a crosswalk by a hit and run, drunk driver Sunday morning.  Christopher Mark Beussman, 34, now faces 3 counts of felony vehicular homicide charges, in Hennepin County District Court, for his role in the hit and run accident. He even admits to knowing that he was drunk when it got behind the wheel of his vehicle.

The victim, Heather Lyn Solberg, mother of two, had been to the Father Hennepin Festival fireworks display with friends and was crossing Hwy. 169 at Hayden Lake Road, in Champlin, around 12:25 a.m. Sunday. She sustained a head injury and broken bones in her arms and legs. She died on the way to the hospital.

An eyewitness, who called 911, told police that Solberg was hit by a speeding white vehicle that may have run a red light. The car then fled the scene, turning into a residential neighborhood trying to elude authorities.
Osseo and Maple Grove police succeeded in tracking down the vehicle about 12:45 a.m., the driver's seat held Ashley Marie Whitney, 23, from Princeton. Christopher Beussman, who had switched to the passenger seat, told police he was the driver when Solberg was struck. There were traces of blood on the car and damage to the windshield and right, front tire.

Beussman and Whitney had been drinking at an Anoka bar and failed field sobriety tests. The preliminary breath tests showed blood-alcohol contents of more than twice the legal limit. (Beussman, 0.175 percent and Whitney 0.195 percent.) Beussman remains in custody.

Minnesota Personal Injury Attorney and Lawyer

If you have been injured in a drunk driving accident or a hit and run accident, call a Minnesota Personal Injury Lawyer from TSR Injury Law. Our partners are skilled, aggressive litigators with years of experience in personal injury and wrongful death cases. They are consistently named Super Lawyers and Top Lawyers by their peers. Chuck Slane has been recognized as a Minnesota Top 40 Personal Injury Plaintiff Lawyer. Call 612-362-0000 or submit our contact form.

Understanding Wrongful Death

Wrongful death is when a person dies as a result of a wrongful act of another person. The wrongful acts include:

• negligence (car accident, work accident, defective product accident, medical malpractice)
• assault / battery
• death during another crime
• murder
• manslaughter
• vehicular manslaughter