Northern New Jersey and New York City Personal Injury Blog

In the wake of a spate of sudden-acceleration car accidents, federal regulators have proposed a new rule designed to mitigate the problem. The rule would require all new cars and trucks to come with a standard "brake-throttle override" system.

The system would ensure that a car's brakes engage whenever a driver steps on the brake pedal, even if the throttle gets stuck or malfunctions. Regulators hope the system can prevent some car accidents from occurring.

Seven members of a New York family were killed yesterday after their SUV left a Bronx River Parkway overpass and fell 60 feet into a non-public area of the Bronx Zoo.

Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the New York City car accident to occur. Apparently the vehicle struck a Jersey barrier in the center of the highway before veering right and hitting the curb. The vehicle then became airborne and left the overpass without ever making contact with the guardrail.

The parents of an 11-year-old triplet killed in a school bus crash have filed a lawsuit against the bus company and the owners of a dump truck that crashed into the bus. The drivers of the bus and the dump truck are also named in the lawsuit.

Isabelle Tezsla was killed in the accident, and her sisters Sophie and Natalie were critically injured. The surviving sisters have since been released from the hospital.

The suit alleges that the driver of the dump truck was driving an overloaded vehicle at an excessive rate of speed and was therefore unable to avoid crashing into a school bus full of children. It also alleges that the driver of the school bus also failed to properly stop at a stop sign and check for oncoming traffic before attempting to cross an intersection.

Last year, both New York and New Jersey were the sites of two horrible commercial bus accidents. The accidents occurred within two days of each other, and both involved loss of life. 15 people died in the Bronx accident and two were killed in the New Jersey Turnpike incident.

These are just two in a long string of mass transit accidents that have sparked concerns about the safety records of low-cost bus lines. In the case of the Bronx incident, it was determined that the driver was driving more than 20 miles an hour over the speed limit. The cause of the New Jersey Turnpike accident is still unknown, but the company had been operating under a grace period to come into compliance with federal transportation laws.

Authorities are still piecing together evidence after a 19-year-old woman was killed in Little Silver over the weekend. The woman, a college freshman who had come home for Easter weekend, was the victim of a New Jersey pedestrian accident.

Police know who hit the young woman - the driver reported the accident to police almost immediately after it happened. What police still don't understand, though, is how and why the victim ended up in the middle of the road.

The drunk driver accused of killing a New Jersey man in a traffic accident two weeks ago has been charged with vehicular homicide.

According to police reports, the drunk driver was driving on Interstate 80 just across the state line in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania when he struck a pickup truck. The force of the collision caused the pickup truck to roll over and slide down an exit ramp.

The driver of the pickup died in the accident. His dog, a German shepherd, was also killed. A coroner's report showed that both the victim and his dog could easily have been saved if the drunk driver had rendered aid after the crash.

Every year, approximately 1.7 million Americans suffer some form of traumatic brain injury.

A significant portion of TBI patients experience neurological symptoms including memory loss, mood changes and cognitive difficulties. Some patients who develop these symptoms experienced severe head trauma. Others though, only suffered mild concussions.

Traditionally, doctors have gauged the severity of a brain injury based on the amount of swelling that followed the initial injury. While this may help doctors get a handle on the immediate risks the patient faces, it does little to assess the patient's long-term risk of neurological difficulties.

A New Jersey man pleaded guilty last week to fleeing the scene of a Tom's River car accident that the left a 17-year-old boy severely injured.

The driver, a criminal defense attorney from Brick, said that he was reading text messages or emails at the time of the New Jersey hit-and-run accident. After the crash, he convinced his assistant to take the blame. The police's investigation ultimately revealed the assistant's admissions to be untrue.

The driver faces a sentence of up to six years in prison. His punishment, though, could have been a lot worse had he not pleaded guilty. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to drop charges of aggravated assault, obstruction of justice and drunk driving.