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Nov

Trial Begins for Doctor Charged in Ballerina’s Death

Elena Bright Shapiro

This is a story everyone remembers. On September 11, 2009, Dr. Raymond Cook went drinking…then drank some more…then got behind the wheel and caused the wreck that killed Elena Bright Shapiro, a promising ballerina with the Carolina Ballet.

According to an article on WRAL.com, Cook’s trial begins today.

Raleigh police said Cook, of 10516 Beckridge Lane, was traveling 90 mph when he crashed into the back of Shapiro’s vehicle at Lead Mine and Strickland roads.

Cook had been drinking at a local country club and at a local tavern prior to the crash, witnesses said.

Cook, a former plastic surgeon, surrendered his medical license and went to rehab. He is charged with second-degree murder, driving while impaired, and felony death by vehicle. He was offered a plea deal in May, but Cook didn’t accept it.

His trial begins on the day when the medical journal The Lancet published the results of a study that found that alcohol is the most dangerous of all drugs, including heroin and crystal meth, in terms of the amount of harm it does to individuals and to society. This case could be exhibit 1: A young woman’s promising life is snuffed out… her family must live with the traumatic aftermath of this tragedy… a a physician’s career is destroyed… his family suffers… and a community is left with the remnants of memories of two lives that should have soared. Except that alcohol, hubris, and bad judgment destroyed them.

“You can’t imagine a bigger tragedy,” said Robert Weiss, the artistic director of the Carolina Ballet. “A beautiful, young girl, who’s talented and at the prime of her career, getting cut down like that and not having a chance to live her dream.”

This is a haunting tragedy with so many levels of pain. As the holiday season nears, with all the requisite parties, the attorneys of HensonFuerst would like to take this opportunity to remind you that even two drinks can impair your ability to navigate a 2,000-pound vehicle. Please don’t drink and drive; we don’t need anymore alcohol-related tragedies.

Follow the story of the trial here: WRAL.com

Read about the study that found alcohol to be the deadliest drug here: HensonFuerst blog

Popularity: 11% [?]

Nov

Alcohol Most Dangerous of All Drugs

A study published in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet compared the harms caused by the misuse of a variety of drugs, including heroin, methamphetamine (crystal meth), marijuana, crack cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, and alcohol (yes, it is a legal liquid drug). The researchers looked the addictive properties of the drug, how it affects the health of the individual using it, and the social and community costs. Social costs included factors such as the drug’s role in breaking up families, incarceration costs, and deaths due to the actions of the person using the drug.

On an individual level, heroin, crack, and meth were the most deadly. On a societal level, alcohol was by far the deadliest, followed by heroin and crack. When all harms were tallied, alcohol came up the clear winner in the “World’s Most Dangerous Drug” contest. It has the most devastating consequences for everyone–the drinker and those around him or her.

Scientists and addiction experts agree that the problem lies not with the vast majority of people who enjoy a glass or two of alcoholic beverage, but problem drinkers…and a culture that is tacitly tolerant of inappropriate drinking. Think about tailgating parties at football games, underage rite-of-passage high school keggers, and all the funny and sexy commercials for alcoholic beverages. The message is that alcohol is fun, until it turns deadly.

According to the report on WRAL.com,

When drunk in excess, alcohol damages nearly all organ systems. It is also connected to higher death rates and is involved in a greater percentage of crime than most other drugs, including heroin.

Experts said the study should prompt countries to reconsider how they classify drugs.”Drugs that are legal cause at least as much damage, if not more, than drugs that are illicit,” said Wim van den Brink, a professor of psychiatry and addiction at the University of Amsterdam.

At HensonFuerst, we see the aftermath of this lethal drug in the mangled lives of people we represent who were hit by a drunk driver. While this study cannot be be called good news, it certainly validates what personal injury lawyers have known for years: Alcohol really is the most harmful drug in the world.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Oct

Impaired Monroe Man Kills After Six “Second Chances”

This is the kind of story that makes you want to stay off the roads, build more prisons, and require mandatory severe sentencing for DWI offenders.

According to the online edition of the News & Observer, Monroe resident Kevin Ohagan fled a traffic stop just after midnight on Sunday (October 24, 2010) and minutes later slammed head-on into another car, killing 41-year-old Daniel Herring. A father of three, Mr. Herring was on his way home from a church event at Emmanuel Theological Seminary (where he had played Jesus in a pageant) when his vehicle was struck.

In stark behavioral contrast, the 29-year-old suspect has had a long history with the police. Ohagan has been arrested nearly 20 times as an adult, and he had been previously convicted of DWI six times. That means six missed opportunities to have taken this threat off the road. But he has more than just driving problems. In the state of North Carolina, Ohagan has been convicted of many types of offenses, including larceny, breaking and entering, assault on a female, false imprisonment, and stalking. Currently, he awaiting trial for felony child abuse causing serious bodily injury.

According to the article:

Police said Ohagan faces charges of second-degree murder, driving while intoxicated, felony death by motor vehicle, driving left of the center line, speeding to elude arrest and driving with a revoked license.

So this guy was convicted of DWI six times before he again gets behind the wheel after drinking, and this time he killed a man. A good man. A man who will be mourned and missed by more than just his family…he will be mourned and missed by a whole community.

Please, this time, take Kevin Ohagan off the road for good.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/10/25/758565/police-suspect-causes-deadly-accident.html#ixzz13P9TGxw5

And for more information about motor vehicle wreck injuries, visit our website at http://www.lawmed.com. If you have questions, HensonFuerst has answers.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Sep

Why Do People Drive Drunk? Science Reveals One Answer

We’ve met thousands of people who have been injured by drunk drivers. Which means that we’ve had a lot of time to ask the same question those victims and their families always ask: Why would anyone drive drunk?

A recent study published in a psychology journal (Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology), researchers found that when people have been drinking, the brain feels “not drunk” before the brain and the body stop acting drunk. That means that people might get behind the wheel and drive drunk because they think they have sobered up enough to drive. In reality, they are impaired, both cognitively and physically. That leads to bad decisions–the bad decision to drive after drinking, and bad decisions while on the road, such as making judgements while traveling through intersections or changing lanes.

According to Peter J. Snyder, Ph.D., professor of neurology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, the bottom line of the study is that “subjective perception of intoxication is a poor indicator of sobriety and the ability to operate a motor vehicle.” (As quoted in an article posted on ScienceDaily.)

Our bottom line: If you have been drinking alcoholic beverages at all, don’t drive. Once your blood alcohol concentration reaches 0.08 to 0.10–that is, over the legal limit in all states–the risk of a motor vehicle crash is about 50 times higher than when you are sober. If you don’t stay off the road for your own sake, think of the potential devastation to the lives of other people on the road, and to the lives of your family if you are injured or sent to prison for DUI manslaughter.

At HensonFuerst, we are committed to seeing drunk drivers pay for their dangerous behavior. We support law enforcement efforts to keep drunk drivers off the road, and we fight tirelessly to get compensation for victims of drunk drivers.

Popularity: 53% [?]

Aug

National Impaired Driving Crackdown

The problem of impaired-driving is a serious one. While America witnessed a decline in the number of impaired-driving fatalities from 2007-2008, the numbers are still too high. That’s why law enforcement agencies throughout the country are participating in an intensive crackdown on impaired driving.

This national impaired driving crackdown—known by its tagline, Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest—-runs from Friday, August 20 through September 6 (Labor Day).

In 2008 alone, nearly 12,000 people died in crashes in which a driver or motorcycle rider was at or above the legal limit, according to the latest statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). More than 400 of those fatalities were in North Carolina.

According to the latest data, 32 percent of fatalities in motor vehicle traffic crashes involved a driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 g/dL or above — an average of one fatality every 45 minutes.

According to representatives of the NHTSA:

“Our message is simple and unwavering. If we find you driving impaired, we will arrest you. No exceptions. Even if you beat the odds and walk away from an impaired-driving crash alive, the consequences of driving while impaired can still virtually destroy your life.”

Violators often face jail time, lose their driver license, or are sentenced to using ignition interlocks. Their insurance rates go up. Other financial hits include attorney fees, court costs, lost time at work, and the potential loss of job or job prospects. And even if you aren’t injured, you may injure someone else, and have to live with that guilt for the rest of your life.

Driving impaired is simply not worth the consequences. Don’t take the chance. This crackdown will last through Labor Day, but it is a message that everyone should bear in mind everyday: If you’re over the limit, you’ll be under arrest.

Stay safe… drive sober.

Resources:

Click here for more information about what you can do to join the fight against impaired driving: Stop Impaired Driving.

HensonFuerst auto wreck webpage

Popularity: 33% [?]

Aug

NC Says NO to DWI Ankle Bracelets

Not sure we understand this…no, we take it back. We’re positive we don’t understand this. North Carolina prevents state DWI courts from using those ankle bracelets as part of their arsenal of tools to prevent people from continuing to drink and drive.

According to an article in today’s News & Observer, we’re not the only ones confused by this decision:

That decision has puzzled and frustrated some officials, who ask whether opposition to the technology was sparked in part by turf battles and personality conflicts. David Wallace, director of the National Center for DWI Courts, said he’s not aware of any other state that has imposed such restrictions.

“I’m very surprised,” said Wallace, whose organization helps train officials in setting up DWI courts. “…It takes away one more tool that could be used to monitor people … so they’re not out there risking the community’s safety.” [italics added by blogger]

Drunk driving is a pervasive and continuing problem. It may not be in the newspaper everyday, but the automobile wreck attorneys of HensonFuerst deal with the painful aftermath of drunk-driving crashes every day. Every…single…day.

As far as we’re concerned, anything that has the potential to help keep people from driving drunk should be celebrated, not prohibited. Foes say that the technology of bracelets is not foolproof, to which we say: So what? Bicycle locks aren’t foolproof, either, but does that mean that we give up on locking our bikes when we stop in a public place? Of course not. Any little thing we can do to make it more difficult for a thief to ride away on our property is good.

Personally, I don’t care if the alcohol-detecting ankle bracelets aren’t perfect. If they stop one person from driving drunk and hurting one innocent person, then the technology is fantastic. Every other state has figured this out…why not North Carolina? Coming on the heels of the story of Johnston County illegally dismissing 33 DWI cases (N&O story), it’s beginning to seem as though drunk drivers get better protections than the rest of the residents.

(Want to take this one step further? A conspiracy theory I heard posited one additional link: the state-run ABC alcohol stores.)

What exactly is going on? At HensonFuerst, we will continue our efforts to educate young drivers about safety and responsibility… and we fight for compensation for those innocent drivers injured–sometimes fatally–in wrecks caused by people who drive drunk. We urge North Carolina to allow DWI courts to use alcohol-detection ankle bracelets as another tool to help curb dangerous drivers.

Read the full N&O article here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/08/13/626823/dwi-tool-is-curbed-in-nc.html#ixzz0wV3KpXpr

Read our auto wreck information page here: http://www.lawmed.com/north-carolina-auto-accident-lawyer.php

Popularity: 29% [?]

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