When a motor vehicle comes into contact with a pedestrian, it’s almost certain that catastrophic personal injury will result, according to the Digital Journal.

In pedestrian accidents, pedestrians are unprotected from initial impact with the vehicle and secondary impact with the unforgiving ground.

These accidents often cause serious injuries, including brain and spinal cord injuries, life-long disabilities, and even death.

Pedestrians must obey traffic signals, use sidewalks and walkways, avoid placing themselves in danger, and be constantly alert to vehicle traffic. While motorists must obey traffic signals, cede the right of way in cross-walks, and be constantly alert to potential pedestrian traffic.

Pedestrian/vehicle accidents most often affect younger children. It’s important to instruct children in appropriate ways to safely walk on city streets.

Whether or not the pedestrian is responsible for the accident, the pedestrian may be able to seek compensation for property damage, injuries, and pain and suffering.

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Have you or someone you know been injured in a Texas pedestrian accident? If so, you need an experienced auto injury lawyer on your side.

The Texas auto injury lawyers at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law may be able to help.

A Livingston man was life-flighted to a Tyler hospital with critical injuries after an accident involving one car and four 18-wheelers, two of which ran into the side of a home. The accident took place in Corrigan on Monday afternoon, according to the Lufkin Daily News.

The driver of the car was the sole occupant of the vehicle. One of the truck drivers, a 26-year-old man from El Paso, was transported to a hospital with minor injuries. None of the other truck drivers were injured.

There was only minimal damage done to the house that was struck, and none of the occupants of the home were injured. One of the drivers of the 18-wheelers, a 31-year-old man from Texas City, was cited for failure to control speed.

Authorities believe that one of the 18-wheelers struck another 18-wheeler, creating a domino effect.

U.S. Highway 59 north and south were temporarily shut down while the Corrigan Police Department, the Texas Highway Patrol, the Polk County Sheriff’s office, and TxDot assisted on scene.

Late Monday, the Livingston man injured in the accident was listed in critical condition at East Texas Medical Center Tyler.

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Have you or someone you know been injured in a Texas truck accident?

The Texas truck accident lawyers at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law may be able to help.

Intoxication manslaughter charges are pending for the driver that police say was involved in a pickup versus bicycle crash that killed three people early Sunday near the Texas Tech campus in Lubbock, reports the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

A 26-year-old man was arrested but immediately released to University Medical Center in critical condition from injuries he sustained in the crash, killing two of his passengers and a bicyclist at about 1 a.m. on University Avenue north of Glenna Goodacre Boulevard.

The man’s passengers, a 23-year-old male and a 27-year-old male, as well as a 68-year-old male bicyclist were pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators believe that the man was driving a 2001 Toyota Tacoma south in the 500 block of University Avenue when the truck drove over the west curb, rolled over and struck the man on his bicycle. The cyclist was attempting to cross University from east to west, according to the police.

The pickup truck continued southbound on University Avenue, snapping off a fire hydrant before stopping just north of Glenna Goodacre Boulevard.

The police report indicates four other vehicles and one other victim were involved in the crash.

The Police Accident Investigation Unit continued investigating the crash on Sunday. Police were investigating alcohol and speed as possible factors in the crash.

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Have you or someone you know been injured in a Texas auto accident?

The Texas auto accident lawyers at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law may be able to help.

Tuesday, a San Antonio judge handed four concurrent 55-year murder sentences to a 40-year-old drunken driver who killed four members of the same family, reports the Houston Chronicle.

Killed in the wreck were a 55-year-old mother, a 21-year-old daughter and her four-month-old son, and a 15-year-old daughter.

The husband/father/grandfather, who has since moved from Texas, was not in attendance in court. In a letter to the court, he said that his surviving children have struggled to deal with the losses–especially his 15-year-old, youngest son, who lost his twin sister.

“Three generations [are] lost,” he said in the statement. “There is no punishment in the world that can change what has happened or bring back my loved ones.”

The 40-year-old woman was driving with a blood alcohol level of .11 when police saw her run a red light.

Then while fleeing police, she ran a stop sign. Her vehicle collided with the family’s Dodge Caravan, which hit a utility pole, killing all four occupants.

Intoxication manslaughter is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, but the charges were enhanced to murder because the deaths occurred during another felony: evading arrest.

The guilty driver will have to serve at least half of the sentence.

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Have you or someone you know been injured in a Texas auto accident?

The Texas auto accident lawyers at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law may be able to help.

Two residents of Rosharon crashed on January 8 in a two-vehicle accident on the infamous stretch of highway known as FM 1462, reports the Alvin Sun.

One of the drivers was headed eastbound in his Volkswagon Jetta near County Road 528 when his vehicle drifted across the yellow line and hit a Toyota Corolla being driven by a 40-year-old woman.

“We believe [he] was intoxicated. After treatment at the Angleton/Danbury Hospital and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, he was taken to the Brazoria County Jail,” said the Texas Department of Public Safety.

He suffered compound fractures of his legs, a head injury, and internal injuries.

The woman, whose car he hit, was trapped inside her vehicle and had to be cut out of the automobile. She was also taken to the Angleton/Danbury Hospital and later transferred to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.

Upon impact, the vehicle being driven by the woman rolled, landed on the passenger side, and burst into flames.

She suffered broken bones, open wounds to her left foot, a broken pelvis, a broken left arm, shattered glass in her eyes, and burns on her right foot.

“She is lucky to be alive,” officials added.

The accident is still under investigation.

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Have you or someone you know been injured in a Texas auto accident?

The Texas auto accident lawyers at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law may be able to help.

Just east of Abilene on Tuesday afternoon, a Texas Tech student was injured in a one-vehicle rollover, according to KTXS News.

A Department of Public Safety officer told KTXS News that the driver of the vehicle, a 19-year-old Texas Tech student, was the only one injured.

Three other students were in the vehicle but escaped injury.

The students were driving westbound on I-20 from the Dallas area to Lubbock when the accident occurred at mile marker 297, near the FM 603 exit, just east of Abilene.

The driver passed another car and started to pull into the right-hand lane, but there was a car there. The driver then over-corrected and lost control of the vehicle, officers at the scene said.

This over-correction caused her SUV to rollover onto the center medium. All of the students were wearing their seat belts. The vehicle was totaled.

The injured driver was taken to Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene with non-life-threatening injuries.

For about 30 minutes, westbound traffic on I-20 had to be diverted around the accident, officers at the scene told KTXS.

No other vehicles were involved in the crash.

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Have you or someone you know been injured in a Texas auto accident?

The Texas auto accident lawyers at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law may be able to help.

A Katy, Texas, police officer involved in a crash that killed a mother and her son on the Katy Freeway Thursday morning has been fired from his job, according to KHOU.com.

After partying at a local bar, the young officer handed over the keys of his truck to his 23-year-old friend who had also been drinking and had a suspended license.

The two men headed westbound on I-10 near Peach Ridge around 2:45 a.m. The 23-year-old driver drove the truck into a disabled vehicle on the side of the freeway.

The 48-year old female driver of the disabled vehicle was changing a flat tire when the impact occurred, and her 13-year-old son was in the car.

The woman was killed instantly. The force of the crash pushed the car across all lanes of traffic. It burst into flames with the boy still inside. He was killed by either the fire or the crash.

The 23-year-old driver had minor injuries and has been charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter.

The young policeman was uninjured in the crash. Katy Police Chief said that he knew that the officer was drunk at the time of the accident.

The woman’s family said that they believe that the officer should face charges, too, “Two innocent lives gone because of  drinking. The police officer should have been charged just as well.”

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Have you or someone you know been injured in a Texas auto accident?

The Texas auto accident lawyers at Terry Bryant Accident & Injury Law may be able to help.

Bicycle fatalities are fairly uncommon in the Texas Panhandle, but on Thursday afternoon one Amarillo bicyclist was killed and one critically injured, according to the Amarillo Globe News. See our blog from Monday for more infomation.

In 2011, there were six pedestrian deaths, three motorcyclist deaths, and zero bicyclist fatalities from traffic accidents, the Amarillo Police Department reports. In 2010, five pedestrians, two motorcyclists, and one bicyclist were killed in traffic accidents.

In 2010, 429 motorcyclists were killed in Texas, the Texas Department of Transportation reported. More than half of motorcyclists killed were not wearing helmets.

Department of Public Safety Trooper Gabriel Medrano said that bicyclists and motorcyclists have the same rights and responsibilities as motor vehicle drivers in the eyes of the law, and they need to be just as cautious on the roads as motor vehicle drivers.

“They have to be really aware that they’re a really small object on the roadway and … people aren’t used to seeing bicyclists and motorcycle riders,” he said.

“Drivers need to be aware that there are bicycles out there and there are motorcyclists out there.”

Medrano advised that bicyclists should choose roadways with light traffic, wear helmets and reflective, brightly-colored clothing, avoid riding at night or early in the morning, and “ride as close to the right-hand curb as possible to stay away from traffic.”

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A Thursday afternoon wreck killed one Amarillo bicyclist and left another critically injured, according to Amarillo Globe News.

At about 4:10 p.m., a 46-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman, both from Amarillo, were riding their bikes on the westbound Interstate 40 service road. A westbound 2008 Toyota Tundra driven by a 78-year-old man of Amarillo struck them from behind.

The male bicyclist was pronounced dead at the scene, and the woman was transported to Northwest Texas Hospital in critical condition.

The driver of the Toyota was “impaired by the sun” and did not see the bicyclists, Department of Public Safety officials said. Both riders were wearing helmets.

Ken Graham, president of Share the Road!, said, “[They] were enjoying a bicycle ride on one of Amarillo’s most popular bicycling roads, a road used almost every day of the year in all kinds of weather by local bicyclists. It’s unimaginable to me that any local motorists would not be aware that bicycles were out there on that frontage road going both directions.”

Local governments can do more to prevent accidents from happening in the future, Graham said.

In our next blog on Wednesday, we will give you some statistics about bicyclist, motorcyclist, and pedestrian accidents in Texas and suggest some safe practices for all of us.

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Fog and smoky conditions in Southeast Texas, near Port Arthur, caused dozens of vehicles to pile up in a major wreck early Thursday morning, reports Fox News.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Rod Carroll said that at least 10 ambulances were dispatched to the scene on Highway 73, just west of Port Arthur.

He stated that “multiple” people were injured in the string of accidents, involving as many as 40 vehicles.

“The accidents were caused by poor visibility due to a mixture of fog and smoke from march wildfires,” said Carroll.

In parts of Jefferson County, fires have recently swept through some dry marshlands.

Fox News also reported that life-flight helicopters were dispatched to the scene.

The highway was closed down completely shortly after 6 a.m. between Winnie and the Taylors Bayou Bridge, the Houston Chronicle reports. Traffic was left at a standstill for several hours.

No one was killed, but at least 54 people were injured–four of them critically–according to investigators.

What was reported as a wreck at 5:36 a.m. actually involved more than 50 vehicles in a series of accidents along the eastbound lanes of the highway in the area of the Veolia Processing Plant.

Drivers should use Interstate 10, FM 365, or Texas 124 as alternate routes, advises the Department of Transportation.

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