Orange County Drunk Driving Accident On Dangerous Roadway Kills Skateboarder
Nathan Gonzalez, 14, of Mission Viejo, who suffered severe head injuries after being struck by a drunken driver as he was skateboarding with friends on Los Alisos Boulevard Aug. 10, has died. Neighbors and residents of Aliso Villas where this fatal Orange County auto accident occurred are saying that for years, they’ve asked City Council to improve the dangerous conditions on that roadway, The Orange County Register reports .
They say there is poor visibility on the street because it is pack with cars parked by Madero street auto mechanic businesses.
Neighbor Kathy Miramontes tells the Register that in the past she has petitioned the city for speed bumps and even got the city to paint the curbs red and got a trailer to monitor speed of vehicles traveling through the neighborhood. Officials arrested Johnny David Perez, 25, on suspicion of driving under the influence and striking Nathan.
I offer my deepest condolences to Nathan’s parents. Maybe Nathan’s traffic death will lead the city to take Kathy Miramontes’ and other local residents’ complaints and suggests seriously.
There is little doubt that Perez will be held civilly and criminally responsible for Nathan’s fatal auto accident injuries. But neighbors such as Miramontes raise important issues. For years, they have approached the city of Mission Viejo to alert city officials about several dangerous conditions that exist on that roadway. The city apparently did take a few steps to monitor speeding motorists.
Under the provisions of California’s Government Code section 835, a public entity is liable for the damages of person injured because of a condition of public property when the injured person proves that: a. There was a dangerous condition on the property at the time of the accident; b. The injury was caused by that dangerous condition and c. The dangerous condition created a reasonable foreseeable risk of injury of the kind that occurred.
Nathan’s family would be well-served by retaining the services of an experienced Orange County personal injury attorney who is well-versed in dealing with governmental agencies, especially with regard to dangerous roadway cases. We have represented numerous parents of injured and deceased children who were victims of dangerous roadways (see for more detail).
In California, claims against governmental agencies must be filed within six months of the incident.
Comments
Hey you said "There is little no question that Perez will be held civilly and criminally responsible for Nathan’s fatal ..." How stupid! The cops said the driver was "not at fault". So we punish people even if they are not at fault to satisfy some frantic need to react to a tragic death? How about writing intelligent things sometimes and suprise us.
Nathan's family might want to get a criminal defense attorney, as they might be charged with neglect allowing their child to skateboard where is illegal and without the proper safety equipment.
Posted by: Jimmy | August 19, 2008 8:13 PM
How ignorant people are to make such comments on a topic that they no little to nothing about, Lets get this straight people, even if Nathan had a helmet on per the doctors, it still wouldn't have saved his life, as the impact was too fatal...Period! What business did the driver have driving under the influence? Lets tell the real truth here, this wasn't the drunk drivers first offense drinking and driving and isn't it 25 mph in a residential area to drive legally, not over 45 mph of which took Nathan’s life. Its unfortunate the people are fooling themselves to believe that the driver, who was drunk, was driving 25 mph. If so I don't think Nathan would have flew 40 feet into the air, of which knocked his shoes right off of his feet. The point of the matter is that Nathan's parents have had nothing to do with what is going on with the drunk driver as this has been completely in the prosecutors hands, yet people keep make stupid commits like the one above. The only thing that matters is that a 14 year old boy, who was loved by all had his life taken away by mire ignorance and he isn’t going to have the opportunity to live a full life, like so many of us get to experience. At least the driver’s family can still hug and console him; Nathan’s family was cheated of that. Shame on you for being so unkind, selfish and inconsiderate, may god have pity on your soul!
Posted by: Kimberly | August 28, 2008 11:45 PM
As someone somewhat close to the family of the driver I would like to comment on this. People are saying that the driver is responsible. I would like to say that at this point (here it is 3 months later) Mr Perez has not been prosecuted for this accident. When he was required to take the breathalizer test they had to do it SIX times before it even registered anything. SIX TIMES!!!
Take what you can from Mr Perez's car insurance however, the police coded it as not at fault as the kid was not properly listening to protocol that his parents should have taught him regarding street safety.
Posted by: Kate | November 17, 2008 10:46 PM