Connecticut Child Injury Lawyer Blog

The Seymour, Connecticut Teen driver who crashed into a school bus has lost her driving privileges. Because she was in violation of the Connecticut teen driver laws restricting the number of passengers in her car while in the early stages of her driving career, the teen driver who crashed into a busload of children has had her license suspended.

As the parent of a near teenager, I make sure to monitor my son's whereabouts at all times. As he approaches the age when he may be in someone else's car, potentially a newly licensed teen driver, I anticipate many discussions about what is permitted, and what must be avoided at all costs. As he, and later, his younger siblings, reach driving age, I hope that these early warnings will stay with him, and them, in their driving habits.

Parents: Be sure to have proper and adequate automobile insurance in place on your vehicles. A review of your policy with your agent or insurance representative is essential when you have a new driver of your cars. If you are unclear about what these coverages mean, or have a claim that you need to discuss, speak to an experienced personal injury attorney for answers to liability questions, and what you should expect from your insurance agent or representative. Specifically, ensure that your liability coverage is high enough to protect your own assets if your car is involved in an accident that is deemed your child's fault (or anyone else driving your car). Imagine facing a claim or being sued for such an accident and learning, too late, that your coverage is not enough because your child struck a school bus full of children, and each was injured, and looking to you and your policy for coverage. If that coverage is insufficient, they can also look to your personal assets for compensation. It may be a bit more expensive, but having piece of mind where automobile liability is involved is worth the price. This is especially so because of the high number of accidents involving teen drivers.

The fact that West Haven, Connecticut-based Winkle Bus Company's "mini-bus" was equipped with seat-belts was likely a key factor in reducing both the number and seriousness of injuries to its pre-school passengers. The Seymour, Connecticut head-on collision on Botsford Road, between the bus and a car driven by a teenager, may have occurred while the teen was driving with passengers, in violation of Connecticut's teen driver laws. Whether the accident was caused by this violation is certainly cause for concern, but has yet to be determined.

The driver, age 16, was not supposed to be carrying any passengers at all, because she was so new to the road, and was thus in violation of Connecticut's newly enacted teen driver laws (see C.G.S. section 14-36, multiple sub-sections) which, among other changes after 8-1-08, prohibits new drivers from having passengers for the first 6 months of having a license, other than a driving instructor, licensed parent or guardian). This teen driver had three passengers in her car.

You may recall from an earlier post I wrote, under Injury Prevention that a key recommendation of the World Health Organization in reducing child accidental death was to restrict teen drivers from having passengers until they gain sufficient experience behind the wheel. Connecticut passed this teen driver law just this past August, 2008, in response to numerous serious teen car accidents, and even fatalities, and in an effort to reduce the chances that more would occur.

Continue reading " Seymor, Connecticut Driver Hits School Bus, Ignores Teen Driving Laws " »

Saugatuck Elementary School, in Westport, Connecticut has a terrific looking 2 year old artificial turf playing field. It's composition includes recycled rubber tire particles, formed into small pellets which lie between the plastic grass strands. My kids love it! It doesn't get muddy, so they can play football in the rain at recess, and it is always soft, never dried out from the late summer sun. Further, those excrement making machines, our band of merry Canada geese, stay off it. Those pellets do come home in sneakers and clothing, but are easily shaken off or washed out.

However, while it needs no pesticides or other chemicals to stay green all year long, the make-up of this synthetic turf field may, some claim, be harmful in other ways. The risk that children playing on these types of fields might be injured, or exposed to harmful chemicals from the pellets, is the subject of many local, and national, opinions, both for and against the continued use of artificial turf instead of natural grass.

Connecticut is using money from a prior environmental contamination settlement to determine if the ground-up tires is the equivalent of a defective product when it is used for fields or in gardens as mulch. While I am not aware of any fields having been closed during this investigation, apparently, no new fields will be approved until the safety issue is resolved.

Continue reading " Westport, Connecticut Synthetic Turf Fields: Safe or Sorry? " »