Posts by Ryan Y. Cunningham
Air Ambulance Prices Keep Increasing – and Legislators Can’t Help
$547,725. That’s how much is cost a Michigan family to fly their dying father home from Arizona. That number is extreme, yes – but one Florida family was charged $31,253.33 to fly one man from Winter Haven to Orlando – a distance of around 46 miles. Air ambulances, or medevacs, are helicopters used to transport…
Read MoreCan Oklahoma Firefighters Collect Workers’ Compensation?
The wildfires in California have proven to be the deadliest on record. As the firefighters on the coast do whatever they can to keep residents safe, our minds turned to our own First Responders and firefighters, who faced similar conditions this April against the 34 Complex and Rhea megafires. In Oklahoma, we have both paid…
Read MoreRidesharing Services – Are They Actually Increasing Accident Rates?
The use of ridesharing services has swept across the nation in recent years with Uber and Lyft as two of the major players in the industry. All that is required to use these services is an easily downloadable application, your credit card information, and a simple request for a ride at any time. While there…
Read MoreDetermining Liability as the Victim of a Truck Accident in Oklahoma
The sheer size of big rig trucks gives them the potential to inflict devastating and even fatal injuries when they are involved in a collision. In 2016 alone, nearly 4,000 people in the U.S. died in large truck crashes. Some 17 percent of these fatalities were occupants of the truck itself, 16 percent were bicyclists,…
Read MoreWhat Kinds of Compensation Are Available for Catastrophic Injuries?
When an injury is catastrophic in nature, its severity can leave an individual with long-term medical conditions such as permanent disability, or a reduced life expectancy. Additional consequences of these injuries can include long-term stays in the hospital, multiple surgeries, long-term treatment protocols, recurring health problems, and extensive rehabilitation. What causes a catastrophic injury? The…
Read MoreCongratulations, Ryan Cunningham, for Being Named to the 10 Best List!
Cunningham & Mears is proud to announce that firm co-founder Ryan Cunningham has been named, by the American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys, to the “2018 10 Best Personal Injury Attorneys for Client Satisfaction” list for Oklahoma! The AIOPIA publishes its 10 Best list every year, based on a rigorous evaluation process. The AIOPIA was…
Read MoreLawsuit Claims Oil Company’s Effort to Save Money Led to Five Worker Fatalities
According to a recent lawsuit filed in District Court, attorneys for the family of a man killed in a drilling rig explosion in January 2018 claim that the operator of the oil well at the site of the accident utilized a risky drilling method in order to save money. In that accident outside of Quinton,…
Read MoreResearchers Discover a New Path to the Brain When Brain Injuries Occur
A recent story, reported by CBS Chicago, showed that new research may help victims of traumatic brain injuries. A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can change a victim’s life forever. Victims often need to see a range of doctors such as neurologists, psychologists, physical therapists, speech therapists, vocational therapists, and many other health care providers. Many…
Read MoreWhy Extinguishing Well Oil Fires Requires Years and Years of Experience
Station KGOU (an Oklahoma NPR affiliate) recently conducted an interview with Sarah Terry-Cobo, a senior reporter for the Journal Record, about her story on a special group of oil field workers, known as “Hellfighters.” Hellfightersare frequently called in to handle well explosions. Ms. Terry-Cobo explained that a great deal of training is required to respond…
Read MoreSelf-Driving Vehicles to Deliver Groceries in Oklahoma City Soon
Venturebeat reported recently that Udelv, a startup self-driving vehicle company, is teaming with two other companies to provide food to and from local supermarkets. The other investors are Esperanza Real Estate Investments and Narnia Road. The partnerships plan to have operate 10 of these autonomous vans by the end of 2019. The first van will…
Read MoreTwo Train Crashes on One Day? Time to Reevaluate
A train and truck collision on SW 29th St forced shutdowns of roads for days. The accident happened around 8:30 am on the morning of September 9th. The BNSF Railway train struck a truck. Fortunately, the driver of the truck was not severely injured, and the 60 passengers onboard the train were uninjured. No reason…
Read MoreReasons for the Severity of Truck Crashes
In 2016, truck accidents in Oklahoma injured or took the lives of 1957 people, according to the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, Highway Safety Office. Of this number, 118 persons were killed in a crash involving a large truck, an 18 percent increase in fatalities from the previous year. But why? Driver errors is the…
Read MoreThe Dangerous Business of Oil Field Drilling
The practice of onshore and offshore oil extraction is a dangerous business in Oklahoma and other parts of the nation. The risks associated with tasks performed in and around oil drills are considerable. The work involves heavy equipment, combustible materials, and intense pressure. According to information gathered by OSHA, workers in the oil and gas…
Read MoreDeaths Due Red Light Running on the Rise
Every day, pedestrians, vehicles, and bicyclists cross intersections on busy city streets in Oklahoma City and across the nation. As a result, some of the most dangerous locations for crashes to occur are at these very intersections where a traffic light is typically installed to control the flow of traffic. One of the most common…
Read MoreTo Cunningham & Mears, Community Matters
When we opened up Cunningham & Mears in 1996, we did so because we wanted the people of Oklahoma to have a place they could go when they were hurt. We wanted our friends and communities to know that we would be on their side when they needed help. That support extends past our professional…
Read MoreMajor Indicators That a Car Accident Victim’s Life is in Danger
Every car crash is serious. After all, we refer to minor crashes as “fender benders,” yet the impact is enough to bend a fender. While not all car accident victims will sustain injuries, many do – and those injuries can be life-threatening. Getting proper care as quickly as possible can be the difference between healing…
Read MoreTruck Rollovers – Causes and Myths
According to ATBS, a business and accounting firm for the trucking industry, there are three basic myths about truck rollovers that drivers, the industry, and the public should understand. Rollovers are largely caused by bad driving conditions. ATBS claims that: Under four percent of truck rollovers are caused by poor roads 56% of truck rollovers…
Read MoreChainsaws Recalled Because They Might Not Turn Off
Harbor Freight Tools announced the recall of approximately one million of its electric chainsaws due to a malfunctioning power switch. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports the power switch is defective, and can allow the chainsaw to continue running even after the operator has turned the switch to the “Off” position, putting the operator…
Read MoreNew Tariffs Could Threaten Oil Production in Oklahoma
President Trump recently announced he is going forward with his plan to apply tariffs on imported steel and aluminum—25 percent and 10 percent, respectively. When he announced his initial plan in March, U.S. allies Canada, Mexico, and the European Union were to be exempt, but the most recent announcement includes all three. The plan has…
Read MoreWhat Is an Oil Well Blowout?
An oil well blowout is an uncontrolled release of crude oil. Blowouts occur when pressure release systems fail. They can also occur if a spark or flame contacts the oil or for other reasons. Oil well blowouts cause death and catastrophic injuries to workers near the scene of a blowout. Prior to the 1920s, according…
Read MoreSeniors Are Increasingly Suffering from Traumatic Brain Injuries and Concussions
CBS News reported in 2017 that a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the rate of concussions among the elderly is increasing dramatically. These numbers are based on a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CBS News reported “One in every 45 Americans 75 and older…
Read MoreTraumatic Brain Injury – What It Is, Why It Happens
Our brains are incredibly complex. The medical and scientific communities make frequent breakthroughs in understanding how it works, but researchers agree that much of the knowledge about our brains still remains a mystery. Although modern medicine makes great strides every day in diagnosing and treating brain injuries, there’s still a lot to understand about the…
Read MoreCunningham & Mears Is a Proud Supporter of Wings
Our society does a pretty good job of providing educational opportunities to special needs children. But after they graduate high school many of these people are faced with a very difficult reality that there just aren’t many options for them for what they can do. Wings is an incredible organization that was founded with the goal of…
Read MoreOil Rig Explosion Injures Two in Wewoka
An oil rig caught fire and exploded in Wewoka, about an hour outside of Oklahoma City, and injured two workers. The explosion occurred on April 2 while workers were installing an oil and gas pumping unit near Highway 56. Two workers were injured in the accident. One was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in…
Read MoreThe Long-Term Effects of Spinal Cord Injuries
One of the most serious injuries a person can sustain is a spinal cord injury. This type of physical trauma can result in paraplegia, an inability to move the lower part of the body, or quadriplegia, which is the inability to move the body at all. With any spinal cord injury, even if the patient…
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