Altoona Personal Injury Blog

A recent construction accident in a nearby Pennsylvania community southwest of the Altoona area claimed the life of one victim and injured two others. All three of the victims involved in the electrocution accident were taken to the hospital following the accident and one of them died in the emergency department. The coroner reported that construction crews were working on the sewer system when the incident took place.

The coroner further reported that the construction accident occurred when a machine the workers were using in their work came into contact with high-tension lines carrying 23,000 volts of electricity. The electricity went down the machine the workers were using and electrocuted one worker and shocked two others. Power in the area was lost as a result of the accident.

It was just like any other day. You left your house, went to work, clocked in and started about your business. Then it happened, you suffered an injury -- one that needed immediate medical attention. You sought medical treatment and then, when you could, filed a report with your employer and a claim for workers' compensation benefits. You expected receive those benefits to cover your losses, but either your employer or the insurance company decided to deny your claim. Now what happens?

The sad reality of workers' compensation claims is that employers and insurance companies deny many of them or only provide partial benefits. This leaves many hard-working Pennsylvania residents like you left to try to figure out how they are going to get by. Luckily, a denied workers' comp claim is not the end of your story. You may still have a way to get the relief you need. 

In 2003, state legislature passed a controversial law making helmets optional for motorcycle riders in Pennsylvania. Fifteen years later, the data shows an increase in motorcycle fatalities as predicted by state lawmakers who opposed this law. The law allows both motorcyclists and their passengers, age 21 and older an exemption from wearing a helmet.

The same law that made it optional to wear a helmet now has an increase of 60 percent annual motorcyclist fatalities. The controversy of this law places personal freedom in question as opposed to putting safety first as some politicians have argued. Those in favor of the 2003 helmet law may attribute the increase of fatalities as a result of distracted drivers on smartphones.

In our last post, we talked about reckless driving. This dangerous behavior can take many different forms, from speeding out on the road to failing to obey street and traffic signs. When reckless drivers are out on the road, the chance of a motor vehicle accident greatly increases.

We're discussing all of this again because the data on fatal motor vehicles accidents in the United States paints a scary picture for the coming years. For most of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s, the number of people that died every year in the U.S. due to a motor vehicle accident routinely hovered in the 40,000s. There were even numerous years with more than 50,000 fatalities related to motor vehicle accidents.