Articles Posted in Uncategorized

“Sean’s Bill,” a measure aimed at reducing the risk of Massachusetts ATV accidents involving young children, passed the House 141-12, the Daily News Tribune reported.

The bill changes the state’s minimum age for operating an ATV from 10 to 14 and is named for Sean Kearney, an 8-year-old Waltham boy who was killed in an accident four years ago. State Rep. Peter Koutoujian, D-Waltham, said the child was driving a large ATV at a friend’s house unsupervised when it flipped over and pinned him face down in the sand. The child was pinned beneath the 500-pound vehicle for more than half an hour.

In 2004 and 2005, a total of 935 ATV accidents involving children occurred in Massachusetts. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that 2,500 children under the age of 16 have died in ATV accidents in the last two decades.

Just before Memorial Day, a 12-year-old Plymouth girl flipped an ATV into a cranberry bog but was saved. Memorial Day begins the long summer riding season and the most dangerous time of the year for ATV accidents.

“If springtime deaths and injuries are an indication of what’s to come, we urge all ATV riders, young and old, to take all necessary safety precautions,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “Far too many people are losing their lives and sustaining life-threatening injuries, which in many cases are preventable. CPSC is working diligently to ensure that the ATVs on the market meet mandatory standards and to promote safe riding practices.”

Anyone injured in a Massachusetts ATV accident should contact a Boston accident attorney to discuss their rights. ATV accidents can involve premise liability, defective product or wrongful death litigation. Additionally, ATV manufacturers and distributors are now required by federal law to provide safety instruction to new riders and their family members. When a business fails to protect consumers in violation of law, it can and should be held responsible if a rider is seriously injured or killed.
Continue reading

The city of Boston is known for its aggressive drivers. There are a lot of people in a small area, with many of them in a hurry to get where they’re going. One of the unfortunate consequences of aggressive driving is motor vehicle collisions with pedestrians.

A recent look at Boston-area newspapers shows a spate of these accidents:

• Danvers police cited a young driver for a pedestrian accident that sent a 64-year-old man to a Boston hospital with serious injuries. The driver, a high school student, was ticketed for failure to yield to a pedestrian.
• In Revere, a man trying to cross a highway died after he was struck by a car. No identification was found on the body of the man, who appeared to be in his 30s.
• In Belmont, a minivan struck a woman walking across the street in the late afternoon. A driver who witnessed the event said he was driving behind the van and honked his horn to warn the van’s driver of the pedestrian. Another witness said the pedestrian walked across the street without looking for traffic. The driver was cited for speeding and failing to yield to a pedestrian.
• A 45-year-old man was in critical condition at Boston Medical Center after being struck by a car in Dorchester. Passersby told police the man had been asking for spare change prior to the accident. A police spokesperson said he walked out between two cars into the street.
• In late August, a 15-year-old girl was hit and killed as she tried to cross a street in Marblehead. The cause of the accident was being investigated as the town mourned its loss.