Alabama Car Accident Lawyer Blog

Three separate Cullman Co. Car Accidents during the October 22nd weekend resulted in three fatalities. According to a news report, the first wreck happened early Saturday morning on Alabama Highway 69 near Arab, AL. The driver, Joel Kent Cater, lost control of his vehicle and struck a utility pole. At this time, police are still investigating the cause of this single car accident crash.

The second fatal crash happened just after 9 am on Saturday morning when, Timothy Paul Callahan lost control of his pickup truck on Alabama Highway 278 and struck a tree. There is no indication as to what caused this second single car accident.

Often single car accidents are caused by a driver's inattention, distraction or by them falling asleep. However, there are occasions where single car accidents can be caused by a defective tire, brakes, steering mechanism or some other mechanical issue with the vehicle. Further, there are occasions when a person is involved in a single car accident and their injury is enhanced by a defect in the vehicle. For example, the air bag fails to deploy or the seat belt buckle is defective causing it to unlatch during an accident. All of these are various types of product liability claims.

The third and final auto accident was a two car accident that occurred on highway 54 and claimed the life of Mickey Hurley.

A car wreck on I-20/59 in Birmingham has sent four people to the hospital. According to a Birmingham News website, the accident happened when a tire on the Ford Explorer blew out causing the SUV roll several times. Two children were ejected from the vehicle. Tragically, one of the children Ameriyah Boyd suffered fatal injuries. According to Birmingham police, there were child safety seats in the vehicle; however, it didn't appear the children were secured in them.

This Birmingham car accident, is a sad reminder of the importance of using proper child safety restraints. We have previously discussed this critical child safety issue in a prior blog article entitled "Alabama Car Wreck Claims Unrestrained Child's Life." In that article we discuss a CDC report on child safety seats and Alabama Code section 32-5-222, which sets forth Alabama's law on child safety seats.

The vehicle this family was riding in is known for its propensity to roll over. There have been numerous product liability lawsuits against Ford for this problem. See our recent post "Jury Awards $131M to Family of N.Y. Mets Prospect." In that case, a jury returned a verdict against Ford concerning a Ford Explorer roll over.

A single car accident north of Huntsville, Alabama has tragically claimed the life of 19 year old Amy Sharpe. The initial investigation revealed the driver lost control of her car and struck a pole. While no other car appears to be involved in this accident, many areas should be investigated to determine what factors played a role in this awful accident. Often, single car accidents can be caused by some defect in the car itself. For example, a defective tire or steering mechanism on the vehicle could have caused the driver to loose control. Or, the vehicle could have hydroplaned as a result of a defective paving job on the highway. While many car accidents are not caused by a defective condition on a vehicle, the injuries that result from a car accident are often enhanced by some defective condition on the vehicle. For example, a vehicle's air bag or seat belt system could fail during an accident causing the occupants to suffer more severe injuries than they would have suffered if the safety equipment had functioned as designed. When these components fail a product liability lawsuit can be brought against the manufacturer of these products. As Alabama car accident attorneys, we thoroughly investigate each motor vehicle accident case to determine what caused the subject accident and whether any defective component on the vehicle contributed to cause the accident or injuries suffered by our client.