Mankato Personal Injury Law Blog

A 94-year-old Minnesota man is facing vehicular homicide charges after an accident that left a woman dead. The accident occurred when the man rear-ended a Chevy Trailblazer, which then struck a tree. The driver of the Trailblazer was transported to a local hospital, where she later died from her injuries. According to the Minnesota State Patrol Report, witnesses say the elderly driver was swerving across the center lane just before the crash and that he failed to slow to the speed limit when he entered the town of Truman, Minnesota.

Neighbors of the man suspected that he may have experienced some kind of medical trauma at the time of the accident, like a stroke or seizure. The charges state that he caused a wrongful death by operating a vehicle in a grossly negligent manner. A Faribault County attorney did not comment on the charges and no comments were available from the accused.

According to an analysis conducted by the National Safety Council, crashes in which drivers are on the phone are substantially underreported. The lack of accurate reporting gives the impression that the issue of distracted driving is less common than it actually is. This impression leads to difficulty in passing tougher laws against distracted driving. Tougher laws may lead to fewer instances of personal injury on the road.

The National Safety Council reviewed 180 crash cases in a study that was partially funded by the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. The accident cases took place between 2009 and 2011. There was strong evidence in each case that the driver had been using a cell phone. Half of the 2011 accidents were coded in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's accident base as involving the use of a cell phone while eight percent of 2009 accidents and 35 percent of the accidents in 2010 were coded as incidents involving cell phones. The council stated that even in cases in which there were fatalities involved and the driver admitted to using a cell phone, cell phone use was not noted in the database.

A Minnesota wrongful death lawsuit involving a workplace shooting rampage hinges on whether one of the victims was targeted by the shooter or whether he was simply caught in the crossfire while doing his job. A Minneapolis man shot and killed six people at his former workplace on September 27, 2012 after he was fired. The family of one of the victims is now suing the company for wrongful death because they say the company should have been more aware of the shooter's inclination toward violence.

The company's attorney said that the death falls under the Minnesota Workers' Compensation Act and that the lawsuit should be dismissed. The family's attorney said that the death falls under an exception to the Workers' Compensation Act, which covers injury or death caused by personal reasons. The victim's family says that the shooter's violent response to his firing should have been expected based on his past comments and actions. If so, the company could be liable for wrongful death damages.

A truck driver's statement that he had used drugs shortly before a fatal accident has been ruled admissible in court by a judge. The ruling comes in the preliminary stages of a criminal case involving charges of felony homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle. The July 31, 2012 crash claimed the life of a 43-year-old Minnesota truck driver. A civil case of wrongful death or personal injury may follow due to the implications of liability suggested by the man's statement.

Prosecutors allege that the defendant, a 23-year-old truck driver from California, stopped his truck in the right lane of U.S. Interstate 94 near a Menomonie, Wisconsin, rest area. The truck driven by the Minnesota man collided with the stopped semi and caught on fire. The driver of that truck survived the crash but died in the blaze, according to autopsy results.