California Injury Blog

Published on: May 1, 2008

Police Officer Critically Injured In Orange County Crash

By Brian Chase

A Santa Ana police officer driving on the wrong side of the street with lights flashing and sirens blaring has suffered critical injuries after he lost control of his cruiser and struck a stopped tow truck during a pursuit. According to a news report in Fox News’ Web site, the officer, who has not been identified, was backing up another officer involved in pursuing a fleeing auto theft suspect.

The police officer reportedly lost control of his patrol car, went on the wrong side of the road and slammed into a tow truck that was stopped and waiting for the police car to pass. The officer was trapped in the vehicle and had to be extricated from his vehicle, the news report said. The auto accident was reportedly a broadside crash and not a head-on collision.
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Published on: April 30, 2008

Three Killed In Single-Vehicle Crash In Ventura County

By Brian Chase

Three Moorpark residents were reportedly killed after their car crashed into an Oxnard auto parts store early Sunday morning, the Ventura County Star reports. The driver of the car, Celestino Hernandez-Lara, 37, his wife Irma Apostol Reyes, 30 and Alejandrino de la Cruz-Matas, 42, were killed in the auto accident involving a Ford Taurus, the article said.

According to reports, Hernandez-Lara lost control of the Taurus when he failed to negotiate a bend in the road and struck the building. Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the crash. Tests to determine whether drugs or alcohol caused the crash are pending, the article says. Although Hernandez-Lara and Apostol-Reyes were wearing their seatbelts, de la Cruz-Matas who was a passenger in the back seat, reportedly was not buckled up. All suffered from blunt force injuries.

This is one of those crashes we see on the freeway on our way to work or hear about in the news. There are always many questions hanging over an incident such as this one. The most significant question of course is: What caused this auto accident? In a case such as this where one vehicle was involved and all three occupants of the car died, there is very little information about the circumstances such as speed or what led to the crash.
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Published on: April 29, 2008

California Nursing Home Slapped With $100,000 Fine In Resident’s Death

By Brian Chase

A Marysville, CA nursing home is facing a $100,000 fine from the State Department of Health and Human Services after an 84-year-old resident was found dead in May 2007, her head stuck between her bed and a bed rail. According to an article in the Appeal-Democrat newspaper, Dorothy Rothacher reportedly died after the nursing home failed to lower bed rails or use an alarm that would have alerted nurses that the patient was getting up from her bed.

The nursing home owners, who also own Yuba City Care Center in the same city, has remained quiet about this incident. This apparently wasn’t the first time the state received complaints about this particular nursing home. Last year 17 complaints were received and state inspectors found 36 deficiencies there, the article reported. The most recent citation, an AA citation, is usually given for the most serious violations.

Rothacher had been a two-year resident at the nursing home and was suffering from osteoarthritis, psychosis as well as Alzheimer’s disease. The article also points out that nurses had given conflicting statements during the investigation about whether Rothacher got out of bed or whether a bed alarm was used. According to the coroner’s report, the cause of death was “asphyxiation due to a compressed and fractured larynx.” The nursing home also did not keep up with the patient’s care plan, which called for a bed alarm and rails positioned on the top half of the bed, allowing her to get out of the lower half.
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Published on: April 28, 2008

Racing Motorcycle On 241 Toll Road Causes Fatal Accident

By Brian Chase

Two motorcyclists racing each other on the freeway may have caused an Orange County auto accident that killed a driver on the 241 toll road north of Portola Parkway in the early morning hours of Friday, The Orange County Register reports. The victim, identified as 46-year-old Andrew Parker of Trabuco Canyon, was reportedly rear-ended by one of the motorcyclists. Parker died on the scene, the newspaper says based on official reports from the Orange County Coroner.

Officials say the two motorcyclists were racing on the toll road when one of the riders on a Yamaha motorcycle slammed into Parker’s vehicle. The impact of the crash caused Parker to lose control and go off the road, roll over and crash into a light pole. The motorcyclist who hit Parker is also reportedly in serious condition in a local hospital with major injuries. He is said to have been thrown from his vehicle. California Highway Patrol investigators are looking for the second motorcyclist who fled the scene. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call CHP at 949-487-4000.

We hope anyone who reads this blog and saw this horrific crash is able to provide tips to investigators. This is no doubt another unnecessary death in Orange County caused by street racing. In this case they were on a freeway possibly emboldened by the fact that traffic was light. But it was no doubt a senseless act that caused the death of a man. Our hearts go out to Parker’s family.
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Published on: April 27, 2008

5 Dead, 6 Injured In Pennsylvania Van vs. Big Rig Accident

By Brian Chase

Five people were killed and six suffered injuries in a van crash when a tractor-trailer slammed into their vehicle. A group of 11 people, including staff and residents of a group home for the mentally disabled, were on a trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo, according to an Associated Press news report. The report says that the van had stopped at an intersection and then pulled right in front of the tractor trailer on a rural highway.

The five people who were killed were Sheryl Maiolini, 53, of Charleroi; staff member Mary Watkins, 43, of Ellsworth; and residents John Maise, 61, Richard Paquet, 43, and Julie Hugus, 41, the AP reported. Three were residents at the group home and two were staff members. Six others were taken to area hospitals with injuries that included a broken clavicle, a broken hip, and head, neck and spinal injuries. They are all expected to survive, the news agency reports.

Officials say the impact of the crash knocked the van on to its side and pushed it roof-first into a cinder block storage facility, causing the vehicle’s roof to crush and cave in. Officials don’t believe the big rig was speeding. The tractor trailer reportedly belonged to Stocker Trucking Co. in Gnadenhutten, Ohio and was driven by 44-year-old Steven Rouse, an Ohio resident. Rouse was reportedly treated for minor injuries.
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Published on: April 26, 2008

Dump Truck Driver and Trucking Company Face Vehicular Manslaughter Charges

By Brian Chase

A judge ruled this week that the driver of a runaway dump truck and the company that employed him must both stand vehicular manslaughter charges in connection with a horrible traffic accident in Rancho Cucamonga that killed one person and injured several others, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported.

The judge categorically stated during the hearing, the newspaper reports, that both Adam Ahlberg, the driver, and the company, Clark Grading, knew that the truck had defective brakes before it hit the road on June 16, 2006. The heavy truck careened out of control on Archibald Avenue because the brakes failed and struck pretty much everything in its way. It reportedly came to a stop only after running a red light at Arrow Highway and colliding with an Omnitrans bus and another Rancho Cucamonga public works truck.

Officials described the death and destruction caused by this runaway dump truck as something similar to a bomb explosion. The driver of the city truck, Angel Calzada, a 20-year veteran of the public works department, was killed in the accident. Investigators discovered that not only did Ahlberg know that the brakes on the truck were problematic but the problems were so bad that the California Highway Patrol once ordered the truck off the road after issuing a citation for faulty brakes. Of course, Ahlberg’s employers knew about it because he repeatedly noted the problems on his log as he is supposed to.
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Published on: April 25, 2008

Defective and Dangerous Nail Guns Are Causing Major Injuries and Deaths, Report Shows

By Brian Chase

In spite of decades of warnings from researchers and doctors that nail guns are dangerous and can cause major injuries or even death, the popularity of automatic nail guns surged during the building boom of the 2000s resulting in skyrocketing nail gun injuries, an in-depth investigation by the Sacramento Bee finds.

According to the report, California companies reported 1,890 nail gun injuries leading to missed work days between 2003 and 2006, according to Labor Department numbers. A national report apparently shows that the number of people affected by nail gun injuries is actually much higher – about 42,000 people a year, more than 100 a day are treated for these injuries in our emergency rooms. The cost is about $338 million a year in emergency medical care, rehabilitation and workers compensation, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Injury victims and their families are increasingly accusing manufacturers of sacrificing safety to boost the sale of these nail guns and nails, which are nothing but mini missiles, which cause injuries to not only the people who work with them, but also innocent bystanders. Consider this for a second – the most powerful nail guns available in the market can send 30 nails blasting out per minute and these things travel up to 490 feet per second.
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Published on: April 24, 2008

The Importance of a Medical Exam After An Auto Accident

By Brian Chase

Here is a story that tells us how important it is to get checked out by a doctor after you have been involved in an auto accident. According to an article in the Eureka Times-Standard, a 29-year-old man who was involved in a motorcycle accident and was found dead hours after the crash, died from his accident injuries.

The article states that Lawrence Friedman was in a motorcycle accident the afternoon of April 19. Officials suspect he did not realize the extent of his injuries and decided to go out with his friends to a party Saturday night. Officials, based on witness reports and investigations, believe that Friedman collapsed in front of his home after returning from the party sometime late April 20 or early morning on April 21. He was reportedly found dead on his front lawn by a delivery person.
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Published on: April 23, 2008

Pedestrian Hit and Killed By Charter Bus In Los Angeles

By Brian Chase

A woman in her 30s was reportedly hit and killed by a charter bus when she was crossing the street Tuesday morning in the Westlake area of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reports. The article states that the woman, who has not yet been identified, entered a crosswalk at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and New Hampshire Avenue, when she was hit by the bus.

Witnesses describe the charter bus as a yellow bus that looks very much like a school bus. The driver of the bus was reportedly trying to turn on New Hampshire from Wilshire. No one else was injured as a result of the bus accident and police are still looking into what caused the fatal accident, the Times reports. Officials have not yet released the name of the bus driver or the bus company either. No one has been arrested or cited yet.
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Published on: April 22, 2008

Texas Jury Awards $84 Million To Man Injured By U-Haul Truck

By Brian Chase

A jury in Texas awarded $84 million to a man who was injured when a U-Haul rental truck he rented ran him over because the parking brake failed. According to a Bloomberg News report, Talmadge Waldrip, 74, parked the truck on a slight incline and the parking brake failed. In his lawsuit against U-Haul, Waldrip alleged that U-Haul failed to maintain its vehicles properly and should be held liable for his injuries.

According to the article, Waldrip’s pelvis was crushed in the 2006 accident leaving him unable to walk and with no bowel control. Waldrip also alleged in the lawsuit that the truck with 234,000 miles on it was poorly maintained. U-Haul officials have said they will certainly appeal the verdict and that they find the damages awarded “outrageous.” A company spokesperson told the news service: “The final verdict is another example of abuse of the legal system against corporate citizens in America.”

A Dallas court found U-Haul negligent and awarded Waldrip a total of $84.25 million, a majority (about $63 million) in punitive damages. The verdict is reportedly the 11th largest jury award this year so far.
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