Today, two electrical workers for Egan Co. were killed by a car that left the road and hit them as they were working alongside northbound Interstate 35W in Burnsville. According to news reports, the men were working on electrical lines buried along the freeway.

The driver of the car was Kirk Daemos, a 21-year-old from Ramore, Missouri, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. He was not injured. The worker who survived, critically injured, was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center.

According to the State Patrol, Daemos lost control and struck the workers partway down the embankment on 35W at McAndrews Road. The State Patrol has not stated whether alcohol played a role in the accident. At this point, the investigation of this fatal accident is only preliminary.

The families of these workers should interview attorneys as soon as possible to determine who to hire to represent them. A good accident attorney will immediately begin an independent investigation of the accident and do the following:

• Visit the scene of the accident
• Inspect the car to determine if there were any defective parts that contributed to the accident
• Determine if the driver had been drinking, and if so, if a bar, restaurant or liquor store had sold him alcohol before the accident
• Determine if safety measures could have been taken to prevent the accident
• Obtain copies of relevant documents, including the accident report, medical records, etc.
• Obtain insurance information.

One of our attorneys can meet you where it is convenient with no obligation. We want you to be comfortable with the attorney you hire, and that often means interviewing a few attorneys to determine who you trust. Contact our attorneys for a free consultation.

Source: http://www.twincities.com/ci_19109622

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There are many types of distractions that cause drivers to put lives at risk including, eating, drinking, reading, watching TV, as well as portable electronic device usage. (Cell phone usage, both talking and texting, has emerged as a serious threat to safety on our roads.) There are also less obvious forms of distractions such as daydreaming or dealing with strong emotions that can present potentially dangerous situ­ations for drivers.

If you were injured or a loved one was injured or killed in a Minnesota auto accident that was not your fault, you deserve fair compensation for your injuries or loss. Call toll free 1-888-377-8900 to discuss a MN car accident personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit.

Wrong Way Driver Negligence

If there is sufficient evidence to prove that a wrong way driver involved in an accident was distracted, that will generally result in a finding of driver negligence. The four elements of driver negligence are:

• Duty
• Breach of Duty
• Direct or Proximate Cause
• Injury

Each of the above elements must be proved by a preponderance of the evidence. Pritzker Olsen auto accident attorneys have years of experience with Minnesota auto accident cases and a record of success. We know how to gather evidence and use it to build a winning case.

Minnesota Car Accident Lawyer

The lawyers at Pritzker Olsen law firm have been interviewed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Lawyers USA and other publications. Attorney Fred Pritzker is listed in The Best Lawyers in America. For information about your rights and remedies following a MN car accident, call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit our free consultation form.

Our attorneys represent families in car accident wrongful death cases throughout Minnesota, including in the following cities: Twin Cities, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Duluth, Moorhead, Mankato, Blaine, Anoka, South St. Paul, White Bear Lake, Roseville, Brainerd, Bloomington, Eagan, Eden Prarie, Apple Valley, Maple Grove, Jackson, Edina, Plymouth, Minnetonka, Stillwater, Thief River Falls, Bemidji, Grand Rapids, Austin, Worthington, Woodbury, Maplewood, Golden Valley, Shoreview, St. Cloud, Arden Hills, Brooklyn Park, Forest Lake.

If you have been injured in a head on collision or a loved one has been killed in an accident on one of Minnesota’s dangerous highways (Highway 8, U.S. 14), you need legal representation to obtain a measure of justice and maximize your compensation. Pritzker Olsen car accident personal injury and wrongful death lawyers have won tens of millions for accident victims and their families. Call today: 1-888-377-8900 (toll free).

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Head On Collision Wrongful Death Compensation

When someone dies in a Minnesota head on collision due to the negligence of another, the family can recover monetary damages for the head-on collision wrongful death under Minnesota no-fault law and Minnesota’s wrongful death statute, Minnesota Statutes, Section 573.02. Under the MN wrongful death statute, damages are limited to financial loss resulting from the death. Damages may include:

• Reasonable funeral expenses
• Medical expenses
• Loss of potential earnings
• Loss of advice, assistance, comfort, counsel, protection and society

In Minnesota, damages for pain and suffering and emotional stress are not available in a car accident wrongful death case. However, with an experienced attorney, this will not prevent just compensation for the spouse and next of kin.

Head-On Collisions on Rural Two-Lane Highways

Many variables may contribute to rural highway dangers and head on collisions. As rural population and traffic increases, there are usually very few safety improvements made to rural highways to accommodate the additional flow of traffic (e.g., traffic lights, left turn lanes, right turn lanes). Other factors that may contribute to rural highway dangers and head on collisions include:

• speeding
• alcohol use
• more teens and seniors on two-lane roads
• complacent drivers (Drivers may feel safer closer to home and drive inattentively or without a seat belt.)
• road rage (Impatient drivers may attempt to pass slow-moving traffic in an unsafe manner and cause a head on collision and death.)
• blind intersections
• growing congestion

Highway 14, between New Ulm and Rochester, may be the deadliest rural highway in Minnesota. Over the last 20 years, more than 125 people have died on Highway 14.¹ In 2008 the University of Minnesota launched a new interactive website where people can find and view the deadliest roads in Minnesota and the United States.

Highway 8, from Forest Lake to Taylors Falls is another death trap, especially in the Lindstrom area which has over-capacity traffic levels.² Although the number of accidents have dropped in recent years on Highway 8, due to the addition of traffic signals and dedicated right and left turn lanes, every year there several serious and/or fatal accidents.

Minnesota Attorney for Head On Collision Wrongful Death

Minnesota car accident attorneys Fred Pritzker, Elliot Olsen and Eric Hageman were named Minnesota Super Lawyers by Minnesota Law & Politics magazine. Our attorneys are actively involved in the legal community, frequently speaking on car accident issues, including traumatic brain injury, use of expert witnesses, pain and suffering compensation, presentation of evidence in court and other matters. Attorney Fred Pritzker has also been named a Top 100 Minnesota Super Lawyer and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America. Put our expertise to work for you. Call our toll free number, 1-888-377-8900, or submit our online contact form.

¹ ushighway14.com/
² www.dot.state.mn.us/

Who Can You Sue in a Rear Ended by Semitrailer Crash

Being rear ended by a semitrailer is a violent crash. Very often these accidents are caused by inattentive drivers. Recently, there was a rear end collision near St. Cloud, Minnesota that involved 5 vehicles and resulted in 2 fatalities, 2 people were hospitalized in critical condition and 3 people sustained non life-threatening injuries.

The question then becomes, “Who can you sue if you are rear ended by a semi truck?” That is where experienced legal representation becomes critical. A skilled attorney will sort out who the liable parties (parties that can be sued) are in order to obtain the deserved compensation for you and your family. The liable parties in a truck accident lawsuit may include:

• the owner of the truck cab
• the owner of the truck trailer
• the owner of the freight
• the driver of the truck
• the driver’s employer
• if there is a parent company, they may be held liable
• the manufacturer of the truck (includes cab, trailer or any part)
• a third part maintenance company, if applicable
• in multi-vehicle accidents, the driver and owner of another vehicle

Semi truck and trucking accident liability is complex. It involves extensive investigation and analysis by the truck accident lawyer.  Our law firm has experience sorting out these liability issues and we have the necessary resources to get the job done.

To contact a PritzkerOlsen attorney for a free consultation, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll-free) or submit our online form for review by one of our attorneys.  We have a proven track record and the resources needed to get you the compensation you deserve.

Keywords: rear ended by semitrailer truck lawyer MN, truck accident lawsuit liability, who can be sued for semi truck injuries or death, lawyer and attorney, rear-ended by a semi, semi car fatality

The woman, Jessica Howe, was charged today with criminal vehicular homicide in Anoka County.

A reconstruction of the accident determined that Howe was driving 55 miles per hour when the speed limit was 40. According to the accident report, Howe’s car left no skid marks, meaning she did not even try to stop, which makes sense since she said she was looking for her cell phone.

According to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety:

Each year in Minnesota, distracted or inattentive driving is a factor in one in four crashes, resulting in at least 70 deaths and 9,000 serious injuries. The Office of Traffic Safety estimates these numbers are vastly underreported due to law enforcement’s challenge in determining distraction as a crash factor.

Talking on a cell phone while driving is an especially dangerous form of driver distraction. A few states have made it illegal to use a cell phone while driving.  In Minnesota, texting while driving is prohibited but talking on a cell phone while driving is still not illegal with a few exceptions.  It is time to ban cell phone use while driving.

For more information, please see “Accident Caused by a Cell Phone.”

Altura, Minnesota car accident: Three teenage girls died on County Rd. 27 on April 23 and a fourth was injured. The girls were found in a ditch where their pickup truck had overturned.  Authorities told local news sources that it did not seem as if the girls were wearing seat belts.

Onamia, Minnesota car accident: A teenage girl was killed at the intersection of Hwy 27 and Hwy 169 Saturday night when her vehicle crossed Highway 169 while she was traveling eastbound on 27. She had stopped at a stopsign and proceeded into the intersection when a Jeep Grand Cherokee struck her Chevrolet Lumina broadside.

Cambridge, Minnesota car accident: In the deadliest car wreck of the three-day period, six people died near County Road 70 on Highway 95 early Sunday morning. The driver, a 16-year-old girl who reportedly had just gotten her license weeks prior, was the only survivor. The four passengers in the Pontiac Grand Am were killed when the car struck an oncoming SUV head-on. The two men in the SUV were killed in the head-on collision. News sources report alcohol was involved.

Bloomington, Minnesota car accident: A 23-year-old Burnsville woman was killed when her Honda hit a bridge pillar at high speed near the intersection of Interstate 494 and Interstate 35W.

Minnesota car accident attorneys at Pritzker Olsen law firm investigate the circumstances surrounding fatal car accidents and car accident injuries on behalf of victims and their families. Our attorneys learn as much as they can about their clients’ cases so they can obtain the maximum car crash settlement possible. A car accident settlement in a fatal accident case could include:

• Funeral expenses
• Medical expenses
• Potential earnings
• Loss of advice, comfort, assistance, protection, counsel and society
• Punitive damages against the defendant if the defendants actions show deliberate disregard of others’ rights or safety.

News sources:

http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/article_31e11456-501a-11df-a00d-001cc4c002e0.html

http://www.brainerddispatch.com/stories/042610/new_20100426023.shtml

http://www.startribune.com/local/north/92041709.html?page=2&c=y

“Families are grieving today and looking for answers,” stated Attorney Fred Pritzker, who has won millions of dollars for families who lost loved ones in commercial truck accidents.  “When a semi truck crashes into another vehicle, the result is usually serious injury and death.  What we need to find out in this case is how fast the beer truck was going, whether the driver was distracted and how much sleep the driver had.  It can take a lot of digging to find the answers.”

Pritzker Olsen attorneys Fred Pritzker and Eric Hageman recently obtained a hard-fought $2,560,000 semi truck accident settlement for a husband and wife whose car was hit from behind by the semi.  To win the case, our Minneapolis, MN law firm hired an expert to make a video reconstruction of the accident.

“The video reconstruction of the accident was the winning element of our case,” stated Pritzker. “Because our law firm is successful, we have the money needed to take on trucking companies and win.  The video in this case cost $25,000, but we won over $2 million dollars.”

Attorney Fred Pritzker is listed in the current edition of The Best Lawyers in America.  To contact him, please call 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE) or submit our online form for a free consultation.

Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, we all learned more about the accident.  Tomorrow the Minnesota State Patrol will probably post more names.  We have a few from news reports.  Names are important because they give a tragedy a face.  Names aren’t just statistics.

One of the passengers on the bus was Bill Kesler, who was related to almost half of the other passengers.  Here is what the Star Tribune wrote about him:

On the way home from an Iowa casino, Bill Kesler found out how lucky he really is.

The Rochester man walked away from a bus crash and rollover Wednesday afternoon on Interstate 90 near Austin. Two people aboard were killed, and the 21 others aboard were hurt, three of them critically.

Most of the passengers on board were older adults. Some were ejected as the bus rolled, a State Patrol spokesman said.

Kesler, 64, and his wife were part of a group of 10 coming back from the Diamond Jo Casino, off Interstate 35 near the Iowa-Minnesota border. With them: her four sisters and their husbands.

“We don’t even know what happened,” said Kesler. “It happened so fast. I was sitting toward the back, and the next thing I knew, the bus went over the median and flipped.”

Mr. Kesler walked away, but he has injuries, and they may be worse than he thinks.  Some brain injuries take days or weeks to manifest.

We have had clients tell us they did not realize how injured they were and would have settled for inadequate amounts if they had not come to us.

We have recently recovered money for families in several wrongful death cases involving elderly people.  Our experience has been that insurance companies place little value on the life of an older person.  Our job as attorneys is to prove that they are wrong and that every life has substantial value.

For those who would like a free consultation with one of our Minnesota bus accident lawyers about a Strain Tours lawsuit, we welcome you to call our law firm at 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit our online consultation form.

If you would like to learn more about our lawyers, visit our “About Us” page on our main website, www.pritzkerlaw.com.  There is information about each attorney and links to even more information.

Both the driver and passenger were ejected from the Honda on impact, and at least one of them died.  The Minnesota State Patrol has listed this accident as fatal and has not yet provided more information.  Our law firm is representing families who lost loved ones in accidents, and in almost every case, the death was caused by an inattentive driver.

The Minnesota State Patrol report indicating that the driver of the Plymouth ran a stop sign and was at fault for the accident can be used as evidence in a lawsuit seeking compensation for injuries or wrongful death.

The primary issue in this case will be the amount of compensation.

If you would like to discuss how our law firm will fight for justice for you and your family by working to obtain the best possible compensation package for you, please call Attorney Fred Pritzker at 612-338-0202 or 1-888-377-8900 (toll free).  You may also submit our free consultation form.  We are not paid unless you win.

Attorneys Fred Pritzker, Elliot Olsen and Eric Hageman have once again been named “Super Lawyers” by Law & Politics magazine, a Minnesota legal journal.