South Bend Personal Injury Law Blog

School is back in season, which means hundreds of thousands of children throughout Indiana are being driven to and from school. There are a number of tips that students, drivers, and parents should keep in mind to promote safety this year.

For children, it is important to arrive at the bus stop with plenty of time to spare so that they do not have to sprint to catch the bus. Once they arrive, children should stay at least 6 feet from the curb until the bus completely stops. Only then is it safe to begin boarding. Children should also avoid roughhousing near bus stops, as it is easy for them to lose their balance and fall into the street.

Motorists also need to be aware of their… Read Full Post

Not all injuries meet the requirements for pursuing a personal injury case. The most important factor is whether someone else's negligence or wrongdoing caused the injury. The best way to find out whether you have a viable case is to consult a personal injury lawyer to discuss your case. The attorneys at Gardner & Rans P.C., offer a free consultation to discuss and evaluate potential legal action. Learning about your potential to pursue legal recourse is well worth your time if you can recover compensation for your injuries.

While the law can sometimes be complicated, two main areas of law apply to personal injury-negligence law and strict liability law. Negligence law bases your… Read Full Post

Think you'd never drive while impaired? You may have already done it without knowing it. According to a recently released report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, sleep-deprived drivers are at least as much of a safety risk on the road as drunk drivers, if not more so.

According to the study, if you've slept four or five hours in a 24-hour period, you are as impaired as you would be if your blood alcohol content (BAC) was at or slightly above the legal limit for alcohol. Sleeping for less than four hours corresponds to driving with a BAC of .12-.15. If you have slept two hours or fewer, you are not fit to operate a vehicle. Even drivers who sleep only one or two hours fewer than… Read Full Post

Every day, motorcyclists across the country are injured or killed in collisions with passenger vehicles. In the state of Indiana, the government reported over 100 fatalities each year from 2007 till 2013. In addition to the deaths, there were also between 2,486 and 3,279 injuries reported during the same years. Interestingly, the number of motorcycle registrations in the state steadily rose each year, but did not seem to correlate with the number of fatalities or injuries.

While every motorist is responsible for avoiding risks like drunk or distracted driving, riders of two-wheeled vehicles face more dangers than those in passenger cars. It is the responsibility of all drivers to take… Read Full Post

You may think that cell phones are the number one cause of car accidents in Indiana, but they're not. According to an analysis of Indiana State Patrol data conducted by a reporter from The Indy Channel, the top cause of accidents is "following too closely."

The article explained that the danger of following too closely can easily manifest itself into an accident due to various factors, such as:


Decreased reaction time - The driver who is following too closely may not have enough time to react if you have to brake suddenly.
Increased road rage… Read Full Post

In 2015, the number of fatalities from motor vehicle accidents in the U.S. jumped by 7.7 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That’s 35,200 people who died in fatal motor vehicle accidents. Could they have been prevented?

In a 2013 study, NHTSA determined that fully one third of all motor vehicle collisions in the U.S. begin with rear-end collisions. If we could put a stop to just this one type of traffic crash, we could prevent untold thousands of injuries and deaths each year — and we might be able to do that using safety technology.

Automakers have developed… Read Full Post

If you are injured in an accident while working on a construction site, you are entitled by Indiana law to receive workers’ compensation benefits to pay for medical bills and cover a portion of lost wages. The same law prevents you from pursuing damages for pain and suffering by taking legal action against your employer or anyone who works for them.

Often, however, construction accidents are caused by the negligence of a third party. In these cases, you may be able to file a third-party liability claim and receive compensation in addition to any workers’ compensation benefits you receive.

Construction projects frequently require the services of subcontractors, inspectors, specialist… Read Full Post

The law is not static - the law changes. One such change is currently underway in distracted driving cases.

What type of change is underway? It is not a novel concept to hold a driver liable for an accident if the driver was distracted by his or her cellphone at the time of the crash. It is novel to hold the person sending the text at least partly responsible for the accident. This is the area of law that is currently changing.

Are courts really holding senders of text messages liable for accidents? Yes, courts are really starting to hold the sender of a text message liable for accidents.

The most notable courts… Read Full Post