by Jennifer O'Connell | Aug 26, 2019 | Colorado
The Launch of Flying Cars
Sure, Colorado’s hovercraft test center crashed on the financial runway before the first flight. But that doesn’t mean the Jetsons life of our dreams – since Saturday morning cartoons didn’t involve kids of our own – will never happen in our era! And we, however begrudgingly, now have Uber to thank for it. With baby steps using the regular helicopters of old, Uber Copter begins service in New York City on July 9. This exclusive taxi service cuts the hour-plus commute from NYC to JFK down to a mere eight minutes, thirty max, and does so at a rate of $200-250 per person. If you’ve ever rushed from the city to the airport in a taxi, you know that’s not far off the mark. If you’re a high-falutin Uber Black patron, you’re already paying $200 as it is.
Flying in Dallas next, these copter services will be booked through the app just like a trip to the bar. You’ll get an email with the boarding pass, a chauffeured escort to the local launch pad, and you and your four closest jet-set pals are off to the races. Just travel light, because anything larger than a carry-on will cost extra. But wait! There’s more! Before Uber Copter was a mere twinkle in its mother’s eye, the birthers of rideshare had already begun the gestation period for Uber Elevate and Uber Air. Finally, our flying cars have arrived. The idea is a full scale drone-like vehicle with vertical take-off and landing capabilities and a plush, luxurious interior. These pups will hop from “skyport to skyport,” according to the company’s website, and take a two-hour trip from San Fran to San Jose in 15 minutes.
The skyports, Uber boasts, were the brain children of “the top names in architecture, design, and engineering,” and they had better be since they are multi-acre concepts that must somehow fit in the densest sectors of the country. The key is convenience: The launchpad locations can’t require an additional 30-minute ride for boarding alone. With the goal of these ports-of-app having capacity for up to 1,000 landings daily, you’d need the best minds in the biz and a health body of local lobbyists before breaking ground. You may ask may be asking yourself – as the space nerd inside me did – who would trust such a venture if the folks who put men on the moon weren’t also on board. Not to worry, Uber has your back.
They actually recruited a former NASA engineer to develop the technology based on his 32 years catapulting things into space. The literal rocket scientist and his team even took into account things like design simplicity and noise footprint, which is vital for those local government stick-in-the-muds they will assuredly meet in the city-council prize fight ring. And for those tree-hugging hippies who believe the hoax of climate change is a real thing, scientists and engineers from Silicon Valley, MIT, Brazil, and even Slovenia have been a part of developing as much of an electric-based, gas-free program as their techie brains can dream. So when do we get our first non-virtual-reality experience of full on Jetson life? Pretty darn soon! Demo flights are projected for next year! And the full rollout is set to begin in 2023 in L.A. and Dallas-Fort Worth. I don’t know about you, but an 8-minute hop to DIA, or a hover-flight over the I-25 gridlock at any hour, sounds amazing! Sign us all up… after our first lottery win, right?
by Jennifer O'Connell | Jul 3, 2019 | Brain Injury, CO Truck, Colorado, Train Accident
When an Employee is Negligent, the Employer Pays
On January 28, 2019, at Exposition Avenue and Sable Boulevard in Aurora, an RTD train skidded off the tracks. Several were injured and one woman lost a large portion of her leg. While there was snow and ice on the rails, as well as across the entire Metro area, RTD was prepared for that. They have safety protocol in place, as well as top of the line engineering to avoid derailments due to weather. So what happened? According to RTD, speed was the “primary factor” in causing the catastrophic slide. RTD told the Denver Post in February that the appropriate speed for an operator to maintain on sharp curves like this location is 10 mph. This particular train was going three times that fast when it entered the curve. RTD took action and fired the driver of the involved train. Enough said, right?
In Colorado, employers are responsible for the actions of their employees when the employees are acting within the scope of their employment. Employers are responsible for paying for the damages caused by the negligent employee. This is true in nearly every state in the country. The idea behind this law is to prevent businesses from hiring under-qualified employees for important and technical jobs. It’s to keep them from tossing workers out into the world, reaping the benefits, and escaping responsibility when all goes wrong. Businesses are not fans of this law, of course. They have lobbied since the beginning of time to avoid responsibility and have managed to chip away at this law in Colorado. The goal: Escaping personal responsibility for the actions that put an unqualified employee behind the wheel of a truck or in the driver’s seat of a train.
In 2017, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in In re Ferrer to minimize a business’s liability for negligent hiring, training, and supervising. The ruling essentially makes an injured party choose whether to sue the company for the damages they caused or to sue them for what led to the damages. Suing the company for both, as Colorado law has proceeded for eons, allowed victims to dig into the inner workings of the company to see just how serious they were taking the hiring processes, just how much importance was placed on employee training, and how seriously these businesses took their role as supervisor of their employees. It also allowed for much broader avenues for a jury to punish a company who sat back and watched negligence occur.
Under the new regime, firms like Queener Law are fighting back, hoping to fill back in the holes Ferrer left in victim compensation and corporate punishment. With the right set of facts and technical know-how, some of these roadblocks can be overcome. But for now, what is important to know as a member of the Colorado community is that you have rights to protect yourself against corporate negligence. When you or a family member are injured by a negligent driver, truck driver, train operator, property manager, and so on, the company for whom that employee was working is still responsible. But folks, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. These corporations are chock full of attorneys who spend day in and day out protecting their business’s money. If they are able to sway the Supreme Court into protecting their bank accounts, they can easily do the same in your case.
Call or email Queener Law for advice before proceeding on your own against a negligent business. We have gone toe to toe with corporate attorneys in several states across the country and are currently battling many here at home. We are happy to jump on board and do the fighting for you while you and your family heal from the ordeal their negligence caused.
by Jennifer O'Connell | Jun 25, 2019 | Colorado
Deliveries from the Past
Harken back to the days when the milk man used to cycle to and fro, carting an icebox on his bike with glasses of cold milk jingling inside. True, some of us will instead have to harken back to the days that the more… distinguished… members of our family recalled these tales for us with fondness and nostalgia. But there is a very real possibility such a thing may resurrect from when the world was in black and white to become an Ultra HD/4K, real-life experience.
Juggernaut Cargo Bikes is pitching their innovation of yesteryears to cities like Denver, suggestive of a step back into the past as a means of protecting our future. According to the EPA, for every person who drives 11,500 miles annually, 4.6 million tons of carbon dioxide are emitted. Jeff Mauck of Juggernaut, in a recent meeting with the Downtown Denver Partnership, professed that idling cars produce 20% more pollutants than cars traveling at 30 mph.
So what does all this have to do with the milk man? Think delivery vehicles. Larger than your average bear, and a lot meaner to our Earth to boot. Juggernaut’s solution: cargo bikes. Like days of ole, these earth-friendly, zero gas-emitting re-inventions can deliver up to 300 pounds of goods around town. They breeze through in the bike lane instead of jamming up traffic or – an old favorite – parking in the travel lane in the middle of downtown, using their flashers as a half-hearted apology. These aren’t your grandpa’s cargo bikes, though. These babies boast 24” front tires with suspension, have double frames and three wheels for stability, and may soon add eco-friendly electric assist, deployable front kickstands to protect cargo, detachable dollies for delivery, and a tighter turn radius for the eventuality of hanging a sharp right. Essentially, they’ve taken the milk man and geared him up for NASCAR’s Sonoma Raceway with the added twist of package delivery.
Best part: Although similar tech is already in use in six countries outside of the States, these 1930’s inspired technological dreams are built in our backyard – Boulder, Colorado. In fact, for the hometown heroes at Juggernaut, the target areas for their first big run at the cargo game are Aspen, Snowmass, Lowry, Stapleton, and of course, Downtown Denver. There is even a job-creation plan tightly wound into these gems. The idea is that UPS and FedEx buy in, drive a truck to a central location in a neighborhood, shut off the nasty engine that will kill us all, and out pops the cargo-delivery persons, ready and raring to peddle. This will mean a few delivery personnel per truck instead of the usual one or two, thus creating jobs in the delivery sector. Just think of the possibilities if the Amazon Nows and the Door Dashes of the world hop on board. So you see, as we charge forward into the future, the age-old questions surrounding why your features favor less those of your father and more your friendly neighborhood milk man will thrive once again!
by Jennifer O'Connell | Jun 3, 2019 | Colorado
Amtrak: The Solution to All Your Front Range Needs
Colorado Springs, Castle Rock, Fort Collins, and other Front Range commuters: Your lives may be about to change… in a few years… perhaps…Colorado Department of Transportation has been contemplating — and is now studying — adding a passenger railway covering 173 miles of the Front Range corridor, according to the Denver Business Journal. The “study phase” means they are seeking proposals on the feasibility of adding passenger rail versus other multi-modal options to relieve the bottlenecks and clogs of Interstate 25. Included in the existing options are additions to the existing Amtrak line. That line currently has stations in Trinidad, La Junta, and Lama, and this option would expand that passenger service for the full 173 miles. The full layout would then include stations in Colorado Springs and Denver.
Another option being considered, outside of passenger rails, is the expansion of I-25 between Fort Collins and Mead and a widening of the near-bottleneck between Castle Rock and north-El Paso County. The same group, the Passenger Rail Commission, has also identified a passenger rail along the congested mountainous segment of Interstate 70 — the portion leading to the gateways for hiking and skiing — as a solution for the days of disappointment in the winter… hours of sitting in traffic to spend half that actually skiing. However, both the I-25 and I-70 passenger rail congestion remedies have been moving slower than a horse and buggy. CDOT maintains that the reason for the lack of horsepower behind these projects is a lack of funding. Two measures, a sales tax hike and bond sale proposal, were proposed on last year’s ballots and were rejected by voters. Yet both measures were earmarked to fund these projects.
At present, while CDOT estimates that there is a need for infrastructure improvement with a price tag of $9 billion state-wide, only $2.9 is available in the budget. So which should come first? Interstate improvements, passenger rail services to relieve interstate burden, or alternate routes altogether? With less than a third of the budget available, where does CDOT put the funds? CDOT has not reached out to the voters for their thoughts, as they feel the answer comes when voters reject ballot efforts for funding. Perhaps, though, CDOT should ensure the ballot measures connect the two — bonds sales and increased sales tax in exchange for less time on the road staring at another person’s bumper. Or perhaps a state-wide vote on whether commuters appreciate the projects, or where they would prefer CDOT target?
In the meantime, let us know your thoughts. We’ll compile them and forward to the powers that be. What are your primary considerations? Are they missing something you’d like considered? What’s your number one priority with the congestion of I-25 and I70? Or are there a bigger fish to fry?
by Jennifer O'Connell | Apr 19, 2019 | Colorado
The Never-Changing Caps
No one likes to think about the worst. But in our role as officers of the court, we are tasked with doing just that. All too often, we represent the families of people who have passed due to the negligence of another: families of injured children or working parents who will have years of recovery ahead of them due to someone else’s negligent actions. And we continue to push back against the caps put into place by the state legislature on what those families are allowed to collect. Often when the worst happens, the settlement or judgment against the party at fault serves as a life insurance policy from the decedent to their loved ones. This is because many do not have life insurance coverage at all, or if they do, it amounts to $100,000 or less. But when the family is left with numerous medical bills, estate costs, funeral expenses, house payments, and loss of dual income that helped support the household, $100,000 does not go very far, if it covers the necessities at all.
The state legislature in Colorado saw fit to limit the amount these grieving families could be compensated through legal means from the at-fault party. Years ago, the cap on damages was limited to $468,010 in non-economic damages for a wrongful death claim. That means that after the direct medical bills related to the death are paid, families may receive a maximum of $468,010 to help them cover the costs and expenses above. Period. For life. There is no going back and asking for more. There is no fund from which to draw if times get tough and there is nothing left. What if the family of the deceased has no one else to work and support the household? What if the deceased was a single mother or father of several children who have no one else to support them? And after the payment of all death, funeral, medical, and household costs, little is left to support these children through to adulthood, to keep up with house payments or school needs and college funds? Should these children be disallowed to seek their education as planned because someone else negligently caused the death of their parent? Should they become wards of the state? Should they go to another family member who is already living paycheck to paycheck with very little to ease the burden? Further, this amount has not changed in many years, meaning it has not kept up with inflation.
Finally, and thankfully, the state government has paid attention to the cries of the victims of negligent acts. Governor Polis signed into law a new bill that not only raises the various caps by approximately $20,000 each, keeping in line with inflation. In addition, instead of the old ways of checking in over a decade later to ensure the caps are keeping up, the caps will be proverbially babysat every two years. Problem solved? Not really. From our perspective of working with these families day in and day out, the inflation bump helps, but when you are faced with the prospect of having very little to support your family with the loss of your spouse, or being paralyzed and requiring medical treatment and an inability to work and provide for your family, a mere few hundred thousand from the party that put you in that position hardly seems adequate. Even if a jury awards a plaintiff millions of dollars in non-economic damages, all they will see is the exact amount of the cap.
For reference, here is where they stand and where they will be once this law goes into effect:
- Current non-economic damages cap — $468,010 Anticipated new cap adjusted for inflation $584,210
- Current dram shop/social host cap — $280,810 Anticipated new cap adjusted for inflation $350,550
- Current wrongful death cap — $468,010 Anticipated new cap adjusted for inflation $584,210
- Current solatium cap — $87,210 Anticipated new cap adjusted for inflation $108,840
While there are legal means to, as we say in the biz, “bust the cap,” this is not an easy concept and there are extremely limited and narrow exceptions that must be followed so precisely that many fail to qualify. We wholeheartedly understand the community’s desire for some control over liability and to keep a handle on litigation results. However, we must put closer consideration to the lives that are left behind when horror strikes. No amount of money will replace a loved one or give a human being back their dignity and use of their limbs. But adequate compensation to get them through the next years of their life, help keep a roof over their home, food in their kid’s bellies, and heat running through the ducts while they try to get back on their feet… that we can do. If you find yourself sitting on a jury evaluating the damages for a catastrophic injury, please keep in mind these things we have discussed today. And do not limit your verdict to these caps. If you see fit to award the plaintiff more than that legislatures meager attempts at adequate compensation, write it down on that line.
Allow the team fighting for the injured some leeway to petition for a cap bust. And next time you send a letter or make a phone call to your representatives, remember to ask them exactly where these numbers came from and why they feel that politicians know more than the jury, who has sat through perhaps weeks of documentation of this person’s future life and needs, about the value of that. Do not let elected officials usurp the power of a jury, one of the oldest and most important civic duties in our country’s history. Finally, if you or a loved one find yourself in a time of loss or catastrophic injury, please call an attorney right away. Do not try to navigate these complexities on your own. You need to focus on the next steps for your family while we focus on taking on the negligent party and the legislature’s regulations simultaneously so we can get you set as close to right as possible when the dust settled. We are happy to answer any questions free of charge to get you moving in the right direction. Come read about what we have been able to do so far and call or email us to see how we can help you in the future.
by Jennifer O'Connell | Mar 29, 2019 | Colorado
Live, Work, or Walk on Broadway? Speak Now!
City and County of Denver is busy at work trying to increase access to Downtown businesses and residences. This time, they want to know about the Broadway/Lincoln corridor. If you work, live, walk, or bike along the corridor, or have ever sat through one light cycle just to get to the intersection in time for the next red, take this survey to make your recommendations. For other surveys and articles about your area, click here. And to ask us questions, give us more feedback to take back to the city, or for help with your or your friends or family’s unfortunate injuries, click here and let us help.
