California Injury Blog

Published on: August 18, 2007

Personal Injury Law Firm Wants Access To Minnesota Bridge Collapse Site

By Brian Chase

A Minneapolis personal injury law firm has filed a petition in federal court seeking access to the Interstate 35 W bridge, which collapsed Aug. 1, killing nine people and injuring at least 100 others. According to an article in the Winona Daily News , the law firm wants access to the collapse site right away so their own investigators can begin looking into what could very well lead to wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits. The firm, Schwebel, Goetz and Sieben, has reportedly been retained by three people severely injured in the bridge collapse and the families of two others who died in the disaster. Authorities are still pulling out debris, wreckage and bodies from the Mississippi.

It is perfectly understandable that the firm wants to get there before most of the evidence is gone. But of course officials have objections to it. The U.S. Attorney’s office is calling the petition “premature.” Officials say efforts to recover bodies of other victims will be hampered by accommodating the law firm’s request. According to the article, the firm’s attorneys said in their petition that they had hired two experts specifically to help pursue wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits on behalf of the clients and that they had the special training and experience that would help jurors determine negligence and causation issues.

The petition also implores the judge to grant immediate access because once the wreckage is taken apart it would be impossible for the law firm and its independent investigators to conduct a legitimate investigation. Victims must file claims and lawsuits within with very specific time limits to preserve their rights. Failure to timely and appropriately file results in a termination of rights. The state’s liability is reportedly only $1 million. But victims could absolutely target private contractors and their insurers as well.

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Published on: August 17, 2007

Woman Killed in Ontario Car Accident With Hilton Hotel Van

By Brian Chase

A Fontana woman died and two children sustained critical injuries Tuesday night when her van was hit by a Hilton Hotel van, whose driver, police say, ran a red light. According to a news article in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the 53-year-old woman, Sally Alvarado, was driving a 2002 Toyota Sienna with two boys ages 4 and 5, who are now reportedly in the hospital in critical condition.

Officials told the newspaper based on preliminary investigations that the driver of the Hilton Hotel van was at fault and that he failed to stop for the red light. The article said Alvarado was making a right turn from the off-ramp of the 10 Freeway in Ontario when the Hilton Ford van struck the driver’s side. The vehicle reportedly belongs to the Hilton Ontario Airport hotel. The van driver was taken to a hospital and was treated for minor injuries, the Bulletin reported. No charges had been filed yet.

Investigators are still looking at the evidence. They don’t know if the van driver ran the light because he was distracted or talking on the cell phone. Whatever the reason, a tragedy has occurred. One woman is dead and two little boys are fighting for their lives.

Red light running is one of the most common and yet one of the most dangerous traffic violations. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/rlr.html), a nationwide study of fatal crashes at traffic signals in 1999 and 2000 estimated that 20 percent of the drivers failed to obey the signals. In 2005, more than 800 people were killed and about 165,000 were injured in crashes that involved red light running. The victims who die in these crashes mostly turn out to be pedestrians and occupants in other vehicles who are hit by the red light runners.

Depending on the degree of carelessness or negligence, the driver of the Hilton van may face a vehicular manslaughter charge. But that is usually charged only after an elaborate investigation as it should be. Early this week I reported how the California Highway Patrol was seeking manslaughter charges against a truck driver that caused a traffic fatality and it seemed he was a lost less negligent than the driver of this Hilton van.
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Published on: August 16, 2007

TEENAGE DRINKING AND DRUGGING – PARENT’S ‘TIME-OUT’

By Brian Chase

For many, this week is registration for the Fall 2007 classes, and many high school students will be out celebrating the last of those summer nights with a drink or two or three or more, and maybe some drugs to enhance the effects of the alcohol. Some young and promising students may die on our roads this week! We know that cars, teenagers and alcohol and drugs don’t mix, so why do teenagers face such high death rates? According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2004 study, 16-21 year olds had the highest fatality rate, and 39% of those deaths were alcohol-related. Why?

Could it start at home? At Deerfield High School in Deerfield, Il Lake County Circuit Judge Raymond Koski told a room full of parents, “Sometimes parents just have to say no.” You can’t tell a child it is ok to drink in the basement at home and then not expect them to drink anywhere else. It just doesn’t make sense! According to the story in the Chicago Tribune, one mother of eight says she is fed up with the drinking and drugs. “This is what the ’70s brings to this, the mindset that [parents] lived through it, so their kids will too. … [But] you give a kid enough rope, they’re going to hang themselves.” Ellen Waltz told the group that included parents grieving for the loss of four high school students who had recently died in a car accident homecoming night, teens drinking and using drugs with their parents’ permission is an open secret, and one in eight high school students surveyed admitted driving after drinking alcohol.

While parents widely believe that a teenager’s peers are more likely to influence them, a Highland Park Hospital psychologist John Jochem indicated that surveys of young people showed otherwise. When parents talk – teenagers listen, even if you think they don’t.

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Published on: August 15, 2007

Faulty Fire Truck Design Responsible for Firefighter’s Death

By Brian Chase

Looks like three tragedies flowed from an August 6, 2005 fire truck accident. A 1987 Spartan fire truck driven by Riverside firefighter Michael Arizaga hydroplaned off Interstate 10 near Highway 60 resulting in the death of Riverside firefighter Chris Kanton. Other firefighters in the fire truck were injured as well, according to the Press Enterprise.

The first tragedy was the loss of the life of firefighter Chris Kanton. Chris was only 23-years old. He lived in Temecula, California.

The second tragedy was that of Michael Arizaga who was charged by the Riverside District Attorney’s office with manslaughter. The DA’s office claimed that it was Arizaga’s negligence that caused Kanton’s death in the fire truck accident. The California Highway Patrol report states that the truck was speeding in suddenly rainy conditions, going 45 mph and that neither Arizaga nor Kanton were wearing seatbelts when the accident occurred, according to the Press Enterprise. Arizaga was responsible for his crew wearing seat belts according to the CHP.
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Published on: August 14, 2007

Woman Severely Injured By Great Dane She Tried to Pet

By Brian Chase

A Petaluma woman was brutally attacked by a Great Dane as she stopped to pet a leashed dog when she was on a walk, according to an article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. According to the news report, the woman, Lisa Sheean, her husband, Mike Sheean and their 9-year-old son were walking along a coastal bluff last Saturday night when a man walking a Great Dane crossed their path.

Sheean told the newspaper his wife actually asked the dog owner if the animal was friendly and that the owner replied that it was. When the woman bent over to pet the Great Dane, the dog, without warning, grabbed her by the head, Sheean said. The dog didn’t even growl before it pounced on her, he said. Lisa Sheean had stitches over one eye and her head and also had puncture wounds in her head, the article stated.

An investigation is ongoing and the dog has been quarantined for 10 days. Investigators are also trying to determine what caused the dog to bite, how severe the injuries are and the history of the dog. The dog could face restrictions even if the wounds are not severe, officials said. According to the article, the Sheeans themselves own two Rottweilers and so considered themselves to be very comfortable with dogs.

Now, it’s very easy to say in hindsight that Lisa Sheean should not have pet that dog, even with the consent of its owner. Of course, we don’t know if the dog had a prior history of attacking people or small dogs or children. Officials are saying never pet a strange dog. You never know what dogs are going to do. Sometimes, owners are in denial but other times, they really don’t know what their dogs are going to do either.
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Published on: August 12, 2007

TOYS THAT HURT! MATTEL WHAT’S UP?

By Brian Chase

According to CNN, Mattel just widened its recall of its popular Polly Pocket toys that almost killed an Indiana girl almost two years ago. So what took you so long Mattel?

Two years ago Paige Kostrzewski was only 7 years old in July of 2005. Paige was innocently playing with her new Polly Pocket toy, whose plastic clothes attached to the Polly Pocket doll with magnets. While Paige was busy attaching clothes to the doll a couple of the magnets came loose and so she held the two loose magnets between her lips. Two days later, Paige began to complain of tummy pain that was at first written off as a stomach flu. It was only later, after Paige was vomiting green stuff, that Paige’s parents learned from a scan done at the hospital that Paige had accidentally swallowed the two magnets which had become lodged in her small bowel causing holes to form in her tissue that allowed bacteria from her bile to circulate throughout her little body causing a massive infection.

While Mattel voluntarily recalled many of the Polly Pocket products last November Paige’s parents wonder why it took so long. They will not soon forget the $40,000 medical bill or the fact that doctors told them Paige would have died within days if the magnets had not been discovered.
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Published on: August 11, 2007

Ford Expedition Rollover Kills One, Injures Seven in New Mexico

By Brian Chase

A 9-year-old Orange County girl was killed and seven others were critically injured after their Ford Expedition rolled over on a New Mexico highway, The Orange County Register reported. Cynthia Munoz of Santa Ana was pronounced dead on the scene and the other injured members were transported to local hospitals, the article said.

According to the news report, the driver of the 2003 Ford Expedition told officials that the vehicle began to “shake violently” and he lost control. The girl and her 15-year-old sister, neither wearing a seat belt (according to the report), were both ejected from the vehicle as it rolled over several times. Officials say neither speed nor alcohol seems to have played a role in this accident, the Register reported.

The Munoz family is going to need an expert analysis of what caused this accident to determine if it is the fault of the vehicle or one of its components. The “shaking violently” could be a tire separation, a wheel coming off, a suspension issue or a number of other less likely causes. Only through examination of the accident sequence and the vehicle its self can a determination of the likely causes for this accident be known.
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Published on: August 10, 2007

Senator Was Distracted By Her Cell Phone When She Caused Freeway Accident

By Brian Chase

Everyone is equal in the eyes of the law – at least, most of the time. A Los Angeles Times news article reported that California Senator Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving. A woman and her child were injured during that May 18 incident when Migden was reportedly driving erratically on the I-80 between Berkley and Sacramento. The Senator was sentenced to two years of probation and was ordered to pay $710 in fines and court fees, the Times reported.

According to the article, California Highway Patrol officials released tapes of 911 calls from several concerned motorists who reported that Migden was weaving in and out of traffic lanes and using her cell phone. Nine callers reported an SUV which matched the description of the vehicle driven by Migden striking a guardrail several times. Callers described her this way: “She is all over the place.” The Senator finally got off the freeway and slammed into a stopped car in Fairfield causing minor injuries to a woman driver and her 3-year-old daughter, the Times article stated.

Migden’s defense? She could only guess that the chemotherapy pills she was taking for leukemia may have caused her erratic driving. Officials did not find Migden to be drunk or intoxicated, but said she was driving at an unsafe speed (80 to 85 mph), made an unsafe turn and was distracted because she was talking on the cell phone. Migden says she is not going to drive again until her doctors give her clearance to do so.
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Published on: August 9, 2007

Ford Explorer Rollover Kills Mother of Two in Northern California

By Brian Chase

A 39-year-old woman died in a Ford Explorer rollover accident Friday on the Interstate 5 in the Willows area of Northern California, according to a news article in the Oroville Mercury Register. The woman, identified as Rhonda Johnson, was driving back home with her two sons – ages 4 and 10 – when she lost control of her Ford Explorer. The sport utility vehicle rolled over and landed upside down in the center divider, the article stated. Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene and her two boys were taken to a local hospital. One of the children was air-lifted while the other was taken by ambulance, the newspaper reported.

Another Ford Explorer tragedy – this time, it snatches a mother away from her two young sons. And what’s even sadder and more depressing is this is not going to be the last time someone dies from such a rollover crash, especially by driving a poorly-designed vehicle. Every year, 10,000 people in the United States die in these rollover collisions. At least 16,000 people suffer catastrophic injuries as a result of such crashes. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates there are at least 40,000 rollovers in United States highways each year.
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Published on: August 8, 2007

Many Orange County Bridges Are Structurally Deficient

By Brian Chase

Even as officials are pulling out crushed vehicles and scouring the waters of the Mississippi for dead bodies, the Orange County Register reports that our Orange County bridges are in no better condition. The article points out that 16 bridges in the county are in worse condition than the 35 W Bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis Aug. 1st killing four people and injuring many others. Eight people are still missing.

Apparently transportation officials in Minneapolis have known for 17 years that the bridge was in poor condition, according to an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and all they’ve done in these years is to squabble among themselves about how to fix it. As a result, nothing was done to secure it. Nothing was done to make sure it would remain safe in the interim.

In Orange County 24 bridges are said to be “structurally deficient.” The Minneapolis bridge had a sufficiency rating of 50. An 80 rating or lower qualifies a bridge for the federal Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program. According to the Register article, every 10th bridge in Orange County scored 80 or lower. Here’s the scary part. Sixteen of our bridges, right here in Orange County, have ratings equal to or worse than the collapsed bridge, which got a rating of 50.
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