LAWRENCE LAW FIRM NEWS 

The following are some news stories from a few cases our firm has handled for clients:

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Information from: Tyler Morning Telegraph, http://www.tylerpaper.com

Published on KTSM News Channel 9 (http://www.ktsm.com) 

UPDATE: Victim in Crash Involving Semi on I-10 Identified

By kporter Created 11/08/2010 - 8:20am

Police have identified the woman killed in a crash involving a semi on I-10 this weekend as 54- year-old Domilita Reyes, from Juarez.

Previous Story:

EL PASO - A car crash involving a semi has left one woman dead and several children hospitalized.

The accident happened on I-10 near Executive Blvd. early Sunday morning, and it practically shut down West El Paso.

Video taken right after the accident happened shows the body of a woman lying on the freeway. The white car she was in with three children and two other adults is in the background.

"The three children were transported to area hospitals for treatment for injuries that they sustained. The two adults were also transported to area hospitals for treatment," El Paso Police Spokesman Darrel Petry said.

Petry told us the people taken to the hospital are expected to be okay, but that was based on early reports. He said the car they were in and a semi were headed west on I-10 when one of them switched lanes causing the crash.

"As soon as we are able to determine who changed lanes we'll get that info out to you," he said.

Petry said the driver, who is believed to be around 30 years old, was wearing a seatbelt. He says so was the front passenger who is believed to be around 25 years old. In the backseat there was a 6, 5 and 2-year old and the woman who was killed, but it's unclear who in the backseat was buckled up.

"In the backseat we have multiple car seats and booster seats, and of course investigators are going to have to sift through the evidence they have here to determine who was wearing what," Petry said.

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Man is killed in two-vehicle crash in Red River Parish

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EMERY, Emery County —

A Denver man was killed when the vehicle he was driving rolled on Interstate-70

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Sun, The (San Bernardino, CA)

September 28, 2009
Section: Breaking

A Fontana man died Sunday when a vehicle he was riding in flipped and struck a tree due to a tire blowout. Enrique Yepez, 62, was riding in the back of a 1992 Honda Civic heading west on the 10 Freeway west of Citrus Avenue at 9:47 a.m., San Bernardino County coroner's officials said. A tire on the vehicle blew out, causing the vehicle to overturn and hit a tree, said California Highway Patrol Officer Jaci Parent. Paramedics took the man and two women to a hospital for treatment of injuries. The man died at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton at 11:10 a.m.

(c) 2009 The Sun. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.

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7 killed in road accident

On Writing / Reportedigital.com.mx (25.09 10:11)

A total of 10 people traveling in a Ford truck, type Explorer, green, PSD1148 plates and the driver apparently lost control of it and came rollover. 

Morelia, Michoacan., September 25 (Digital Report) .- Seven people including four children were killed Monday night in the town of Taretan, after the car they were traveling overturned. 

According to information provided by the State Civil Protection Unit, the mishap occurred at the edge of 22:30 hours on the motorway, at kilometer 120 +500, in the stretch-Santa Casilda Taretan. 

While the injured were identified as Kevin Eduardo Serrato, 3 years old, Juan Torres Serrato, 25, Ana Rosa Chavez Serrato, 16 years of age who were admitted to the hospital of the Angel of Uruapan. 

After the accident, six people died inside the truck and only two of them were identified as Juan Aguilar Torres, 49, Rosa Elena Chavez and four people who know their identity, including four children of about 8, 11, 12 and six months of age and a woman about 30 years. 

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—Source:  Big Bend Sentinel (Marfa, Texas)

Continental Tire North America, Inc. (CTNA) has been held liable in a tire tread separation case despite testimony that showed the suspect tire was removed from a dump and mounted on the vehicle.  A Presidio County (Texas) jury ruled that CTNA must pay $16.25 million to the plaintiffs for injuries suffered in the one-vehicle accident.  Plaintiff's attorney, Larry W. Lawrence, Jr., asserted that the right rear tire of the truck "suffered catastrophic tread separation," causing the truck to veer off the road and roll several times, killing the passenger and injuring the driver.  The jury concluded the tire had a "manufacturing flaw."

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Source © 1995-2011 EDGAR Online, Inc. All rights reserved

On August 6, 2004, a two vehicle accident occurred in Texas involving a pick-up truck towing a flatbed trailer and one of our tractors. The pick-up truck was occupied by two people and the trailer by four people. The Covenant tractor struck the rear of the trailer and the driver of the tractor is alleged to have left the scene of the accident. One occupant of the trailer was killed and others were injured. A demand on behalf of the plaintiffs for $20.0 million has been made against the Company. On October 19, 2004, suit was filed in the District Court of Hudspeth County, Texas, 394 ^th District, against the Company and its driver under the style: Toni Ann Zertuche et. al. vs. Covenant Transport, Inc. and Harold Dennis Mitchell. Mediation between the parties to the litigation occurred in May 2005. During the third quarter, the claim was settled, and the suit has been dismissed.

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Copyright 2001 San Antonio Express-News

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(Times staff writer Laurel Almada can be reached at 728-2564 or e-mailed at lau- rel@lmtonline.com.)

Settlement reached in Goodyear tire case

BY LAUREL ALMADA Times staff writer

Already a few days into trial, attorneys working on a case involving a fatal auto- mobile accident reached a settlement in the 49th District Court last week.

The settlement stemmed from the wrongful death case filed by Hilda Maria Mejia Torres and Consuela Palacios Flores individually and on behalf of the estate of Paula Romero Palacios, Alfredo Torres and Juan Manuel Reyes Martinez.

The plaintiffs filed suit against Olegario Delgado Duarte, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and its subsidiary, Kelly-Springfield Tire Company.

The lawsuit stemmed from a Sept. 1, 2000 vehicle acci- dent in Arizona that resulted in Paula Palacios’ death and Hilda Torres’ partial par- alyzation.

Information provided through the course of the trial, which began Sept. 29, indicated that Duarte was driving the Ford Bronco II from Tucson to pick up seven people along the U.S./Mexican border.

After picking up the individ- uals, and on the return trip to Tucson, one of the vehi- cle’s tires either blew out or suffered a tread separation, depending on the stories offered by either the plain- tiffs’ or the defendants’ attor- neys.

The incident eventually led to a rollover accident when Duarte drove onto I-10’s median before hitting a bush or small tree.

Attorneys representing

their clients offered several explanations for the acci- dent, to include a tire tread separation, an unstable vehicle and driver error.

Although the trial was expected to last several weeks, attorneys represent- ing Goodyear indicated on Monday, Oct. 6 they wanted to enter into settlement negotiations.

Goodyear was represent- ed by a number of attorneys led by J. Michael Myers.

Presiding Judge Manuel Flores recessed the jury Monday morning in antici- pation of a settlement.

Attorney Donato Ramos, who was one of several attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said Tuesday that after several hours of nego- tiations, the parties arrived at a settlement.

He could not relate the details, to include any dam- age amounts, as it is a con- fidential settlement.

All he could say was that the case “came to a closure” and “the plaintiffs will go on with their lives.”

When asked if the docu- mentation provided belated- ly to the plaintiffs the week prior could have impacted Goodyear’s decision, Ramos said he believed it did.

“I have to believe the doc- uments to be produced had some impact on the settle- ment. I just have to believe that,” Ramos said.

The judge had ordered during a hearing held imme- diately before the trial that Goodyear’s representatives produce information he believed was withheld from the plaintiffs.

Flores threatened the defendant’s attorneys they could suffer the worst of all sanctions should the infor- mation not be provided by the third day of trial.

The plaintiffs had request- ed evidence from Goodyear long before the trial regard- ing “steel-belted tire fail- ures,” which the defendant claimed to consist of trade secrets.

The issue was argued all the way to the Texas Supreme Court, which upheld both the rulings of the Fourth Court of Appeals and the trial court (Flores) – that Goodyear was to sup- ply the information.

When the documents were produced to the plaintiffs, they claimed to have evi- dence indicating that some of the documentation was not included.

After hearing the testimony regarding the issue during the pre-trial hearing, Flores said he was convinced there was information miss- ing from that already provid- ed to the plaintiffs.

He ordered Goodyear’s representatives to produce the information promptly, or face both financial penalties and sanctions that could have led to an automatic finding of fault on the part of the defendant.

Although Ramos indicated Tuesday he believed that additional information prompted the settlement negotiations, ranking Goodyear spokesman Chuck Sinclair said he did not know if it played a role in the decision “one way or the other.

“When you look at litiga- tion, the vast majority are settled . . . for a variety of reasons,” he said.

Sinclair said “many things” could have prompted a dis- cussion regarding settle- ment.

As a result of the parties’ agreement, Ramos said Duarte, who was being rep- resented by Gil Perales, was “basically non-suited out of the case.”

This means the plaintiffs no longer have a case pending against him.

Despite the lack of details regarding the settlement, Ramos said this particular case was “one of the most interesting cases I’ve been involved in” throughout his 32 years of practice.

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Four Oaks Man Killed In I-95 Crash

One person was killed and two were injured in one of two accidents on Interstate 95 Wednesday morning. Highway Patrol Trooper J.B. Barbour said Javier Flores Loredo, 58, of Four Oaks was killed while driving hisChevrolet Tahoe southbound on the interstate.

Trooper Barbour said a witness driving behind the accident, as well as the two passengers, said a tire blew out on the truck. He said tire debris at the scene confirmed their statements. Trooper Barbour said the tire blow out forced the driver to go off the right side of the road. He overcorrected and then went off the left side of the road where he hit a guardrail and overturned. His speed at the time of the accident was 65 mph.

Mr. Lopez was wearing a seatbelt and was in the vehicle when it came to rest. He died of major head injuriesTwo passengers in the vehicle, Manuel DeJesus Aualos Machado, 41, of Four Oaks, who was riding in the front passenger seat, and Mr. Laredo’s brother, Ricardo Flores Laredo, 50, of Four Oaks suffered minor cuts and bruises and were taken to Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital in Dunn. A second one-car accident occurred less than a mile north of the first accident. The driver of that car went off the road, hit some signs and a guardrail. Trooper Barbour said the driver failed to slow down for traffic from the first accident and went off the road and overturned. She did not suffer serious injury and was not taken to the hospital. (Photo and story by The Daily Record)