Other Types of Cases

• Burns/Explosions
• Catastrophic Injury by Co-Worker
• Guardrail Accidents

Burns/Explosions

Explosions involving inflammable material or heavy impact often lead to serious personal injuries to victims including Second Degree or Third Degree Burns. Not only is the pain intolerable, but could also lead to internal organ damage due to severe pain under which brain stops responding to these organs.

Even If one is able to survive the pain, treatment for the burns as well as skin grafting and special garments compound the victim's sufferings. Then, scarring and disfigurement awaits the victim at the end of the process .

At our firm, we recognize the devastating impact of burn injuries from a variety of causes. Our firm is successfully handling cases that involve following cases of burns and explosions:

• Propane gas explosions
• Vehicle explosions / fires
• Chemical explosions and burns
• Ignition of clothing, including child's sleepwear
• Construction explosions involving methane gas

Propane Gas Explosions: Though, propane gas is used at lesser homes than Natural gas, yet it accounts for almost same number of accidents every year in USA. Most of these accidents occur due to leakage of tank or distribution system, which shows the negligence of Propane gas providers and Tank Manufacturers.

Dougherty and Holloway Firm has supported many propane gas explosion victims who suffered from severe burns, disfigurement and permanent disabilities that require millions of dollars in terms of medical and recovery costs. We provide FREE CONSULTATION to the victims and their families and assist them in getting compensation for their physical and financial loss.

Vehicle Explosions/ Fires: In USA, approximately 1 out of 8 fire deaths results from motor vehicle explosions or fires. It is often due to faulty manufacturer design, road defects or accident due to negligence of the other driver.

Dougherty and Holloway Form provide FREE CONSULTATION to the victims and their families. We thoroughly analyze their case, find the cause and assist them in getting right compensation from the defendant.

Chemical Explosions and burns: Chemical Accidentsoccur when the human skin comes in contact with dangerous acids and alkalis. Majority of these cases occur due to product failure, insufficient consumer information and / or negligence.

The law allows the compensation to the burn victims for medical expenses, loss of wages, disfigurement and covers emotional and physical loss as well. But to prove your stand, you need the assistance of an expert attorney who can take up your case with the court and provide you the justice.

Contact Dougherty and Holloway Firm who have the decade long experience in providing relief to Chemical Explosions and Burns victims. Our attorneys strongly present your case and provide you financial relief that you require so badly in these difficult times.

Catastrophic Injury by Co-Worker
Negligence Covered by Uninsured Motorist Coverage

In most states, a co-worker cannot be held responsible for injuring a fellow worker even if the co-worker is negligent or reckless. However, there may still be a legal means of collecting monetary damages if caused by a car wreck. Depending on the policy language, it could be that there is coverage under the victim's personal uninsured motorist coverage and/or the employer's car insurance policy. Here is the case I just settled.

Employee is a passenger in a company car driven by a co-worker in the Des Moines area. The co-worker loses control of the car on icy roads and slides across the median where his car is hit by a semi-tractor trailer vehicle going the other way. The employee passenger is severely injured through no fault of his own, sustaining a skull fracture with brain injury and a cervical fracture rendering him paraplegic. He was 32 years old but is now institutionalized for the rest of his life, unable to care for himself and his wife and two young daughters.

Before I became involved, the car insurance company for the co-worker driver denied liability, claiming that the co-worker was not only immune from responsibility, but that the liability insurance policy excluded coverage for the co-worker driver. Therefore, there was no insurance to cover the co-worker driver for the catastrophic injuries to the employee passenger.

However, once I became involved, I reviewed the private automobile insurance of the employee passenger as well as the company car policy, and discovered that there was uninsured motorist coverage for the employee passenger's damages. This was because under the definitions of both policies, the co-worker driver was operating an "uninsured motor vehicle". This meant the employee passenger could make a claim for uninsured motorist benefits under the policies.

Therefore, when an auto accident is caused by the negligence of a co-worker driver, and an employee is injured, a denial of coverage by a car insurance company based upon the liability of the co-worker driver does not mean that there is no insurance available. Uninsured motorist insurance coverage may provide another way to compensate the victim.

Guardrail Accidents

Guardrails are placed along highways and roadways to protect motorists, but sometimes they cause more harm than good.

For instance, the guardrails with turn down end treatments, otherwise known as Texas Twisters, have contributed to numerous serious accidents since the time of their installation many years ago. The most common accidents are those in which a small or medium-sized automobile would leave the roadway and "ride" the guardrail. Instead of collapsing the guardrail posts as heavier vehicles might, the guardrail can launch the automobile, either causing the vehicle to roll over or propelling it into oncoming traffic (if the turn down guardrail is in the highway median) almost like a missile. The result is often tragic, with severe injury or death.

In 1995, after the statistics and highway design studies overwhelmingly condemned the turn down guardrails, the Federal Highway Administration banned the "Texas Twister" from further installation, and required the States to submit plans for removal of these guardrail end treatments. Some States aggressively pursued the removal, but others have been slow in their removal. There may be responsibility with State and local agencies for the failure to remove these dangerous guardrail end treatments if the configuration contributed to a roll over or other serious accident.

In addition to guardrails with turn down end treatments, there are still "blunt end" guardrails which present a different but also quite serious danger to motorists. Because these end treatments do not collapse or give way upon impact, severe injury or death may occur from such impact. The Federal Highway Administration has also banned "blunt end" guardrail end treatments. Although most States have removed such guardrail end treatments, some still exist and pose a substantial hazard to motorists.

It should also be mentioned that at times, guardrails are placed along highways and roadways where none are necessary because the slope of the terrain adjacent to the roadway is not severe enough to require the guardrail. Under these circumstances, if the guardrail did not exist, a car leaving the roadway could come to a stop without overturning or striking another object. Our law firm has been successful in pursuing the Missouri Department of Transportation in a death case involving a guardrail that should never have been placed in its location in the first place.