Safe Prom 2012 T-Shirt Design Winner Kaitlyn Grey, along with Attorneys Greg Fellerman and Ed Ciarimboli

The law firm of Fellerman & Ciarimboli is pleased to announce that Kaitlyn Grey, a junior from Nanticoke High School, has won its SAFE PROM PLEDGE t-shirt design contest. Ms. Grey received a $500 check and her winning design will appear on the 2012 Safe Prom Pledge T-shirts.

“We’re thrilled with Kaitlyn’s design,” says Attorney Fellerman. “She found a nice balance between the fun of prom night and the serious message of committing to not drinking and driving.”

Fellerman & Ciarimboli instituted The Safe Prom Pledge last spring in order to promote a safe prom night for area high school students. Students were asked to commit to a night free of drinking and driving by signing the pledge. The Pledge also educated students about the dangers of drinking and driving and the Pennsylvania laws with regards to driving while intoxicated. One lucky signer won an all- expense paid limousine for six on the night of her prom. The attorneys also spoke at a number of area high schools about the dangers of bad decision-making.

The SAFE PROM PLEDGE reached thousands of local prom-goers in 2011 and Fellerman and Ciarimboli are hoping to reach even more students this year. Students will be able to sign the pledge on-line in February.

Just a few hours earlier, state police pulled over another truck driver, who ignored six signs telling him to keep his big rig off of northbound Route 115.

The driver received a $700 ticket. Apparently, some truck drivers are not paying attention to these signs that spell out which vehicles are banned from coming down the steep hill.

In the last three weeks, three of them crashed at the bottom.

And four years ago, Henry Gfroehrer says he was nearly killed. While driving his furniture truck, an out of control tractor trailer slammed into him. Earlier this week, he won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against that trucking company.

“If anybody can do anything just if you have to hire or pay a police officer make sure no trucks go down the road or maybe put a turnaround there. They don`t have to go down the road. Something has to be changed. Someone is going to wind up getting killed over there,” said Gfroehrer.

“You got 80,000 pounds that`s coming down the mountain. When it hits something, it`s going to explode. And that`s what we had happen in our case, and that`s what we saw with the four incidents over the last 40 days,” said Ed Ciarimboli, Gfroehrer’s attorney.

Some people who work just down the road from where the crashes happened say they`re worried someone`s going to get killed.

“They could kill somebody and not even think twice about it. Can you live with yourself if you killed somebody? Knowing that you came down the hill and weren`t supposed to and your brakes give out? Can you live with yourself if you actually kill somebody,” said Helen Totten, an employee at the Exxon Subway.

The trooper who pulled over the truck this morning told Newswatch 16 they routinely patrol the mountain in unmarked cars, looking for illegal tractor trailers.

PennDOT says the truck drivers need to pay attention to the signs, and the area needs to be patroled.

A federal jury awarded Henry Gfroehrer the damages Tuesday, more than four years after an overloaded tractor-trailer, its brakes rendered useless, barrelled into the man’s furniture delivery truck as he tried to turn onto Route 115 from East Mountain Boulevard in Plains Township.

The tractor-trailer, driven by Steven Calice of Binghamton, N.Y., weighed 36 tons, well above the 10.5-ton limit for the road, according to court documents. Calice also did not heed warning signs placed on Route 115, and it was later revealed – in a “pretty shocking” admission – he did not know the definition of a ton, said Edward Ciarimboli, one of Gfroehrer’s attorneys.

“The message that the verdict sent to this trucking company and all trucking companies was: Stay off that road. You’re not supposed to be on it. It’s a dangerous road,” Ciarimboli said.

The crash represents just one of several violent and sometimes fatal wrecks that have plagued Route 115 in recent years.

Since 2001, at least a dozen people have been killed in crashes in the area. Two people were killed on the mountain stretch within an eight-day span in January 2010. In September 2008, a 20-year-old man died when he struck a truck tractor that was turning around at the entrance to the turnpike on Route 115.

The company that owned the tractor-trailer that struck Gfroehrer’s truck, Werner Enterprises of Omaha, Neb., also did not properly train Calice, Gfroehrer’s attorneys said. During training, Calice was involved in a minor collision while backing up and once ran a car off the road, they said.

Though he met physical requirements to drive, Calice stood at just 4-foot-9 and weighed 95 pounds and sometimes struggled to see clearly from the vehicles and had to reach for the pedals, Gfroehrer’s attorneys said.

Coupled with the overloaded trailer, the training deficiencies created a “formula for disaster” that left Gfroehrer with permanent injuries and unable to work since the accident, said Gregory Fellerman, another one of the man’s attorneys.

Calice and Werner Enterprises were found to be negligent in causing the crash, according to court documents. A woman who answered the phone at Calice’s attorney’s office on Wednesday offered only a terse message that the firm would not comment on the case.

While the two fatalities in 2010 prompted a speed limit reduction from 50 to 45 mph and increased signing, Fellerman and Ciarimboli said crashes will keep occurring until “strong and decisive action is taken.”

Read more: http://citizensvoice.com/news/accident-victim-awarded-4-million-1.1233619#ixzz1eODzIKN1

As if to punctuate that message, another rig turned over Wednesday morning in the same spot where Ciarimboli’s client, Henry Gfroehrer, had been hit in June 2007.

Gfroehrer filed the suit in 2009, contending that a rig driven by Steven Calice of Binghamton, N.Y., was 36 tons heavier than the 21,000-pound weight limit of State Route 115, and that Calice had a long record of poor training and performance as a driver.

During depositions, Ciarimboli noted, Calice admitted he did not know the definition of a ton.
According to the complaint filed in federal court, Gfroehrer was delivering furniture for Eynon Furniture Outlet, heading off East Mountain Boulevard south on route 115 when Calice was coming down the highway in a tractor trailer that “was out of control” with the brakes “smoking and on fire.”

Calice ran the red light, hitting the driver’s side of Gfroehrer’s Isuzu
Ciarimboli and his law partner attorney Greg Fellerman argued that, not only was the truck grossly overweight, but that Calice had been poorly trained by the company that employed him, Werner Enterprises Inc. of Omaha, Neb.

“It came out that he had failed in a number of areas of training,” Ciarimboli said. “Two of his trainers threw him off of their truck because they were essentially worried about safety.
The initial suit was filed by Gfroehrer and Andrew Skeleton of Avoca, a passenger in the Isuzu. Ciarimboli said Skeleton – whom his firm did not represent – settled out of court.
Gfroehrer’s case went to trial Nov. 11, and the jury reached a verdict Tuesday following about three hours deliberation, Ciarimboli said.

The jury awarded $145,000 for past medical expenses, $750,000 for future medical expenses, $135,000 for loss of past earnings, $700,000 for loss of future earnings, and $2.27 million for “past and future pain and suffering, including embarrassment and humiliation, loss of ability to enjoy the pleasures of life, and disfigurement.”

“I said in my closing arguments that they were speaking for their community and the safety of their community,” Ciarimboli said. “They were telling these trucks and trucking companies ‘stay off that road, it’s a bad road. It can be a dangerous road.’ ”

Township police said Wednesday that the driver of a tractor-trailer lost control while traveling down 115. The rig rolled over and clipped a vehicle near East Mountain Boulevard.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, whose name was not released, was transported to a hospital for minor injuries, police said.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/_4_million_awarded_for_Route_115_accident_11-18-2011.html#ixzz1eODcD4De

Recent Press

$4 million awarded for Route 115 accident
Accident victim awarded $4 million
Third Truck Crash on Route 115 in Three Weeks
Big Rigs Still Traveling on Route 115 North

“I like the whole thinking on your feet and using your personality and just representing people, whether it’s civil and somebody who is injured, or on the criminal side, with the DA, what I’m doing now, for the commonwealth, protecting the people,” he said.

A third-year law student at Duquesne University, that personality and passion has carried the Kingston native to national honor as he and three teammates recently won the National Student Trial Advocacy Competition national championship.

Boylan, 28, and his teammates Sarah Bronder of Plum Borough, Katie Chengery of Pittsburgh and Brendan McKenna of Clarks Green, went undefeated on the regional and national levels, winning the school its first national championship in Las Vegas in April.

Selected because of their performance in the classroom, Boylan and two of his teammates were first-time competitors, and the team spent 40 or more hours every week preparing for the competition.

“We ate, slept and breathed that case,” he said, which was about a truck driver running into an elderly woman.

Practicing judges oversaw the trials, and local judges in Pittsburgh and Las Vegas watched and gave the students feedback. They weren’t the only ones in the audience, however, as Boylan’s parents and other family members attended and at one point filled the jury box, giving him the extra confidence to succeed.

The trial competition has given Boylan an opportunity to practice skills that he’s already putting to use.

“I am just a regular person when I’m in the courtroom. I would hope that when I’m appealing to the people that they don’t see me as a lawyer, that they see me as one of them and just my down-to-earth personality will come through,” he said.

As an intern for a second summer at Kingston law firm Fellerman & Ciarimboli, he is working with 70 clients. He is also a certified intern for the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office, where he handles protection-from-abuse and summary appeal cases.

“It’s neat to see both sides, civil and criminal, they’re two completely different things but at the heart of the matter is helping people,” he said.

After law school, Boylan said he eventually wants to come back to the Wyoming Valley, where he was born and raised and his parents own a local business, Kevin’s Bar and Restaurant in Kingston.

“The valley’s a great place to work and it would be nice to come back here,” Boylan said. “A lot of people look at this area and only see what it is and don’t think about what it could be. I just think that this area has so much potential. It just has to be realized and it’s not going to be realized if people keep moving out.”
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SAFEPROM PLEDGE WINNER

Ariel from Wyoming Valley West High School.

Pictured (left to right) Ed Ciarimboli, Melanie Picarretta, Assistant Principal, Wyoming Valley West, Ariel, SAFE PROM PLEDGE WINNER, David Robbins, Vice Principal, Wyoming Valley West, Greg Fellerman.

Attorneys Greg Fellerman and Ed Ciarimboli with the other presenters at Lake Lehman High School

Full story here.

Attorneys Greg Fellerman and Ed Ciarimboli encouraged Wyoming Valley West high-schoolers to make wise choices and avoid alcohol and drugs at prom and graduation parties.

They referenced the unfortunate death of classmate Kayla McGrady, who died as a passenger in a tragic car crash back in January.

Students were asked to sign a “Safe Prom Pledge,” in which they would also agree not to get into a car with anyone who is under the influence.

In exchange, one lucky student won a free limousine trip to the prom.

Fellerman remarked, “We’re not telling you not to have a good time. It’s a great time in your life right now. You should be celebrating, enjoying it. All we want you to do is do it safely.”

The attorneys are also speaking at Valley View High School Friday

Full story here