California Injury Blog

Published on: June 28, 2007

Motorcycle Accident Claim Settled for $700,000

By Brian Chase

A 22-year-old motorcyclist who is completely disabled after he was struck by a drunk driver will receive a $704,649 settlement from the insurer for an Indiana bar where the drunk driver that caused the accident had been drinking, according to an article published in the Journal and Courier newspaper.

Christopher Harmon is said to be in a “waking coma” after he suffered a severe brain injury in the Sept. 2, 2004 crash. According to the newspaper article, his parents quit their full-time jobs, sold their home and bought a house in Indiana just to take care of their son. The parents accepted the settlement from Jake’s Roadhouse bar’s insurer in return for releasing the bar from further liability.

According to a civil tort claim filed by the Harmons on their son’s behalf, 24-year-old Nicole Fox who had been drinking at Jake’s caused three oncoming motorcyclists to crash with her erratic driving. Fox’s blood alcohol level was 0.23 percent – almost three times the legal limit for driving in Indiana, which is 0.08 percent. Harmon suffered brain injuries while another 47-year-old man, Jerome E. Raiff lost part of his left arm and leg.
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Published on: June 27, 2007

Defective Tires – Made in China

By Brian Chase

It all started with pet food, moving on to toothpaste and toy trains. Now, a lawsuit says cheap tires made in China caused a fatal traffic accident in Pennsylvania, killing two and injuring two. The tires in question were sold under the names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS, according to an article in the consumer watchdog Web site.

And now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered the recall of as many as 450,000 tires purchased from a Chinese manufacturer Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co.

The case sounds a lot like the Firestone tire recall of 2000 when defective tires were said to have caused a series of accidents and rollovers, many involving the Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle. The lawsuit alleges that the Hangzhou “deliberately and secretly removed a safety feature from these tires,” which caused the accident. The tires were manufactured by China’s Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. and imported by Foreign Tire Sales Inc. (FTS), of Union, N.J. FTS says a crucial safety feature was omitted from as many as 450,000 tires it imported from the Chinese company since 2002.

FTS has filed another lawsuit in a New Jersey court seeking to shift all liability in this case to the Chinese company. The key question in this lawsuit is about a six-millimeter layer of rubber placed between the tire’s steel belts meant to strengthen the tire, which FTS says Hangzhou removed without notifying them.

Aside from a larger than usual number of complaints from customers, there was at least one other accident involving these tires when an ambulance crashed in May 2006 where a blown tire caused the emergency vehicle to roll over. FTS officials say they stopped buying tires from the Chinese company in June 2006.
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Published on: June 26, 2007

Nursing Home Lawsuit Receives Class-Action Status from Supreme Court

By Brian Chase

A lawsuit against a Fort Smith-based nursing home company can proceed as a class-action suit, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The lawsuit basically alleges that the Batesville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Little Rock, “failed to live up to contractual and statutory obligations to take care of the basic daily needs of hundreds of residents,” according to a news article in the Dallas Morning News.

When you get down to the specifics of what went wrong in the Arkansas nursing home, it’s what we at Bisnar Chase Personal Injury Attorneys have been alleging in nursing home lawsuits for years, understaffing that leads to victimized clients. For example, this lawsuit states that over four years (2000 to 2004), the nursing home failed to provide proper care of its 489 residents. Why? Because, the suit says, they understaffed their facility.

On May 1, 2006, the courts granted class-action certification to the suit with respect to claims of statutory and contractual violations only, not claims of malpractice or personal injury. The defendants appealed that ruling. Attorneys arguing against granting the class-action certification said it would make it impossible to examine the issues in this case if each patient cannot be considered separately.
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Published on: June 25, 2007

Why Is The Auto Industry Fighting Mandated Fuel Efficiency Standards?

By Brian Chase

The United States Senate has proposed a bill that would require automakers to increase fuel economy over 40% to 35 miles per gallon. The new regulation, if passed by the House, would apply to all sized vehicles-cars, trucks, and SUVs.

One of the major concerns by consumers is that their choice of ‘size’ will be impacted by the bill, but according to David Friedman, director of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, he “…would expect them [cars] to look a lot like they do today, the same size, the same acceleration and the same or even better safety.” Friedman added that he believes the cars will “…have better technology, better engines, more efficient transmissions and stronger aluminum bodies”, but they may cost more.

The proposed legislation seeks to research ways to improve the use of lithium-ion batteries, like the kind used in laptop computers, but if the cars are plugged into electric sockets will the costs in electricity eclipse the savings in gas? Some studies suggest that averaging the cost of fuel and electricity could bring the cost down to the equivalent of $1/gallon.

While automakers are balking and lobbying hard against the fuel economy provision in the Senate bill, as proposed, because they believe they will be unable to change the mix of cars available to the buying public in the showrooms of 2020. Eric Ridenour, Chief Operating Office at Chrysler Group, indicates that right now 3 out of 4 vehicles are built on truck frames and the company will have to decide whether or not to keep selling some of its larger vehicles in light of the proposed regulations. Ridenour clearly believes that the larger family-sized vehicles will be the ones most at risk, and that in the end vehicles will be lighter and smaller.
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Published on: June 24, 2007

Man Injured on Motorcycle was the Victim of a Drunk Driver

By Brian Chase

A former Navy seaman, who has survived two tours in Iraq without an injury, almost died June 14 when a suspected drunk driver struck him on the freeway near Torrance, according to a news report in the Daily Breeze. Brandon Wexler, 23, is still in critical condition and needs to undergo more surgeries to repair his damaged bladder, crushed pelvis and broken femur.

The accident occurred on the 110 Freeway at Alondra Boulevard when Wexler got hit from behind, hurtled through the air into a traffic lane where a sport utility vehicle then rolled over his body at 65 mph, the article said. It’s interesting to note that Wexler was actually on the freeway with members of his motorcycle club trying to help another injured SUV driver.

But as Wexler slowed to 50 mph to stop, the suspected drunk driver hit him from behind at 70 mph. He underwent six hours of surgery and told the newspaper what he said to his grandma: “I survived Iraq, I’m not going to die in Torrance.” After he recovers completely, Wexler hopes to get back on his motorcycle.
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Published on: June 23, 2007

Investigators Say Crossing Arms Were Working During Fatal Car-Train Wreck

By Brian Chase

Officials investigating a fatal car-train collision in Covina, which took the lives of a 53-year-old man and his 10-year-old niece and left his 12-year-old daughter in critical condition, have ruled that the crossing arms at that site were all functioning properly.

Contradicting reports surfaced after this collision, which happened the afternoon of June 17. According to an article posted on KNBC’s Web site, witnesses saw that the arm at the crossing never came down. Those accounts clashed with initial accounts that the man may have been trying to make it across the tracks before the Metrolink train went through. Earl Brown, the driver of the Mitsubishi Galant and his 10-year-old niece, Raven Elizabeth Smith, both of Covina, were killed, officials said.

The Metrolink train had 150 passengers aboard and fortunately no one was hurt. The train, which was traveling from Union Station to Riverside, was reportedly traveling at 40 mph when it entered the crossing where the accident occurred. The collision pushed the car about 75 feet from where it was hit, according to the KNBC report. All three occupants of the car were wearing their seatbelts, officials said.
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Published on: June 22, 2007

Family Sues Cemetery After Remains are Moved a Second Time

By Brian Chase

A Texas widow has sued Service Corporation International, one of the world’s largest funeral companies which owns cemetery properties here in Orange County, CA. Juanita Guerra alleges in her lawsuit that the Mont Meta Memorial Park in San Benito, Texas, moved her husband’s remains not once, but twice, over a period of just five years.

According to an article published in the Brownsville Herald, Juanita Guerra had picked a spot at the cemetery for her husband, Marcos, because it was just a few feet away from where other family members were buried. Marcos was laid to rest on Oct. 8, 2001. But barely a month later, as the pain of losing her husband was still fresh, Juanita was forced to relocate Marcos’ body because the cemetery said they messed up and gave her plots someone else had already bought, the lawsuit states.

Here is the worst part. A year after putting her through the “we messed up” and having to dig up and move her husband’s body, the cemetery moves his body again – this time without even telling the poor woman! Can you imagine going to a cemetery to visit a loved one only to find that their body and grave stone have been replaced with someone else’s remains? Can you imagine a multi-million dollar corporation digging up your husbands remains and moving them a second time, without any notification to you? Deplorable!

Juanita Guerra’s lawsuit accuses SCI of fraud, trespassing, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Here’s what the plaintiff’s attorney tells the newspaper:

“If there is anybody that is doing the work of the devil, this company seems to be doing it.”
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Published on: June 21, 2007

Nursing Home Fined $80,000 for 2005 Death

By Brian Chase

It took a while for state officials to whip out a pen and write out a citation. Two years, to be precise. But this week they did it and fined Emmanuel Health Care Center of Norwalk $80,000 after investigators found that poor care by employees led to the death of a 54-year-old resident in August 2005, according to a news article in the Los Angeles Times.

A California watchdog group is criticizing state officials for taking too long to impose what is considered as the most severe penalty that can be imposed on a nursing home for negligence. If negligence by a nursing home took someone’s life, the state health department should act quickly to ensure that the facility corrects the problems and more importantly, to make sure it never happens again, said Michael Connors of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

The male resident, whose name was not released, reportedly died after suffering an injury to his forehead from a fall. Investigators determined that the resident was at risk for falls and died of “massive bilateral hemorrhage” from the head trauma. The Times reports that the nursing home’s parent company plans to appeal the citation. The death involving the Norwalk facility was the third that state investigators have attributed to negligent care at nursing homes owned by Pleasant Care Corp., California’s second-largest nursing home chain.
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Published on: June 20, 2007

Tire Blow-Out Kills Man in Pomona Freeway Big Rig Accident

By Brian Chase

An accident on the Pomona (60) Freeway took the life of a man as his 1988 Volvo apparently blew a tire and hit a big rig. According to an article posted on the MSNBC Web site, the 49-year old man, James Ong of Moreno Valley, was heading west on the freeway and was near the Fairway Drive exit at about noon Monday when the incident occurred.

CHP Officer Patrick Kimball was quoted in the article saying the car which was doing 60 mph, lost control after blowing its right rear tire and moved suddenly across from the No. 2 lane onto the No. 4 lane. The big rig on the No. 4 lane traveling at about 50 mph hit the passenger side of the car. The impact pushed the car to a concrete drainage ditch and caused the big rig to land on top of the car’s roof, Kimball said.

While, firefighters who had rushed to the scene, cut Ong out of his car using hydraulic tools, he had already received major head trauma and was declared dead, the article reported. The big rig’s driver, Robert Bokkes, 67, of Aguanga was not injured.

The accident with its horrific and tragic end does underscore a very common and hazardous issue that affects all drivers – the proper maintenance of vehicle tires. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), low tire pressure-related crashes are to blame for 660 fatalities and 33,000 injuries every year. NHTSA estimates that about one in four cars and one in three light trucks has at least one significantly under inflated tire.
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Published on: June 19, 2007

DON’T LET A WATER ACCIDENT RUIN YOUR SUMMER FUN!

By Brian Chase

In 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 3308 unintentional, fatal drownings. That is an average of 9 lives lost per day. Boat-related deaths accounted for an additionally 676 drownings.

For every child under 14 who drowns – 5 others are treated at hospitals, some unable to regain their lives because of severe brain damage.

While in self-report studies men consistently reported more swimming ability than women, the hard numbers show that as men age they are more at risk of drowning in natural water settings, especially where alcohol is present. Men lead in so many of life’s statistics, and they can be risk-takers, so perhaps it is not surprising that of the unintentional, fatal drownings 76% were men.

Another group at risk seems more intuitive, as unintentional fatal drownings are the second leading cause of death in children ages 1-14. Surprisingly, most of the young pool drowning victims had only been out of sight for less than 5 minutes.

Additionally, responsible ‘fun in the sun’ activities require you to be good to your skin! Skin cancer can devastate your life. While many people like to get a head start on their summer tan by burning a couple of times medical experts say that after burning only 5 times your risk of skin cancer doubles. Be sure to use a good sun screen; stay out of direct sun if possible during the hours of 10-4, as the sun’s damaging rays are more potent during these hours. See your family doctor or dermatologist at least once a year for a complete body examination. Melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer has been known to kill a person who did not notice a mole between their toes or behind their ear. Your skin is the largest organ in your body-take care of it!
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