Boise City, ID Personal Injury Blog

In late November, two Boise, Idaho residents were injured when their small airplane crashed into a mountain ridge. Determining legal responsibility for a plane crash can be complicated, but someone injured in a small airplane accident may be able to obtain compensation in an aviation accident lawsuit.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the crash, which happened near Hailey, Idaho, on November 29, 2011. Local CNN and ABC news affiliates reported that the pilot took off from the Friedman Memorial Airport around 7:00 p.m. with one passenger.

It's official: winter weather has hit Boise. And with the perennial appearance of snow, drivers are reminded to use caution on snowy, icy roads to avoid hitting other cars and pedestrians.

NWCN news reports that, with just a light dusting of snow during the first weekend of November, several car accidents and one fatal crash were reported in Boise. In one tragic weather-related accident, a five-months pregnant woman lost her baby when her SUV crashed into a guardrail after losing traction on ice on Interstate 84.

Idaho State Police (ISP) and car accident attorneys in Boise are reminding people to drive safely in wintry conditions. The ISP urges drivers to wear their seatbelts, slow down, and be mindful of the road conditions. Particularly late at night or early in the morning, drivers should be aware of the risk of black ice - since it is not visible, ISP Trooper Blake Higley said, "you need to assume it's there."

The Idaho legislature is well known for its small-government philosophy and focus on individual freedoms. Much like the citizens they represent, legislators are often reluctant to allow government intrusion into Idahoans' personal lives.

However, a recent editorial in the Idaho Statesman argues that a too-heavy focus on personal liberty can sometimes result in an increased risk of harm to innocent citizens. The paper blamed what it called an anti-"nanny state" philosophy for the legislatures' repeated failure to pass laws that aimed to curb distracted driving accidents by banning texting while driving.

In 2009, Colgan Air Continental Flight 3407 was travelling the icy skies near Buffalo, New York, when something went wrong. The plane began rolling left to right, before it finally crashed belly-first into the top of a house. The crash killed all 49 people aboard the plane and one person on the ground. When the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated, the authorities learned that the commuter plane had been operating on autopilot just before it crashed.

As a result of the Colgan crash and other high profile airplane crashes, Congress placed a mandate on the Federal Aviation Administration to draft rules that would establish new pilot testing requirements, extend the rest and off-duty periods prior to duty, and set weekly and monthly limits on flight duty time. As part of its charge to reduce pilot error accidents, the FAA also analyzed the significance of automated systems on flight safety.

A small plane that crashed near Burley, Idaho, on August 15, burned so completely that authorities only recovered a wingtip and the engine. The small plane crash killed all four members of a California family.

The plane went down near the runway at the Burley airport in south-central Idaho. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the plane crashed after taking off and clearing the 4,000-foot runway.

Texting while driving is not the only form of distracted driving endangering U.S. drivers. According to a 2011 survey released by AAA and pet travel product company Kurgo, 65 percent of dog owners admit to distracted driving while driving with their dogs.

From petting and feeding their dogs to restricting the dogs in some way while driving, people are taking their eyes off the road and brains off the task of driving safely.

Many teenagers look forward to the summer as a long-awaited break from school and as a time when they can be more independent and enjoy more freedom to do as they please. However, that freedom may come at a price; summertime also means that more teens are behind the wheel, many with minimal driving experience.

Parents should encourage teens' independence, but should also be aware that youth traffic fatalities are more common during the summer months. Between 2005 and 2009, more than 7,300 young drivers died in motor vehicle accidents during the summer.

An alarming 53 percent increase in air traffic controller errors in the past year will not make air travelers any less worried about airplane accidents. In recent months, there has been a spate of air traffic controllers fired for sleeping on the job or watching movies, forcing commercial airline pilots to land aircrafts on their own and increasing the chances of plane crashes.

In April, at JFK Airport in New York, an Air France 380 jumbo jet clipped the wing of a Delta regional commuter jet, which officials refused to attribute to air traffic controller error despite the obvious indication. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said only that "human error" was to blame. His department has been embarrassed lately by the revelations of sleeping controllers. The incident in which First Lady Michelle Obama's plane came too close to another airplane was just another in a string of highly-publicized controller errors.