It’s bad enough when a person manages to injure, or worse, kill others under the influence of drugs at the wheel. But how do you deal with a woman who is responsible for the deaths of not one, but two of her loved-ones, and all because she didn’t think to hand over the wheel to someone else?

According to the Orange County Register, on January 12th, Tomeka Harris was driving with her boyfriend and 2-year-old daughter under the influence of alcohol and drugs, police suspect. The car veered off the roadway “for no apparent reason” and proceeded to slam against a chain link fence and steel utility pole. Both her boyfriend and her baby suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene. Tomeka herself, who didn’t suffer any severe injuries, was first taken to UCI Medical Center, and then taken to Orange County jail. She was released two days later.

The DA’s office has asked the California Highway Patrol, which has launched an investigation, to submit toxicology reports.

If the reports prove conclusive, one hopes that this young woman will be made to pay for her wrongful acts. It might seem like a harsh thing to say about someone who’s lost her child, but there have been too many incidents of people driving recklessly under the influence. Holding Tomeka Harris responsible for her actions could help hit the message that when we get behind the wheel in no position to drive, we endanger not only ourselves and others on the road, but our loved-ones who travel with us.

If you or a loved-one have been injured or killed by a driver under the influence of drugs or alcohol, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

On the face of it, there’s nothing extraordinary about the lawsuit filed by the families of Utah State University students who were killed in a 2005 crash.

The lawsuit was filed against Cooper Tire, the company that made the tires that blew out as the students were returning to campus from a field trip. The van rolled over several times and the crash killed eight students and an instructor. The families, who have already settled with Chrysler, the maker of the 15-passenger van, have since then focused attention on the tire maker, alleging that their tires were faulty, a charge Cooper denies. Their company, they claim, always makes “safe and reliable tires.” This is where the case stops being ordinary.

The families have now won an order from US Magistrate Paul Werner for access to a wide variety of documents held by Cooper Rubber and Tire Company. This means that the families and their attorneys will have access to numerous documents, reported to run into more than 1.5 million pieces of paper.

Obviously the tire maker is not pleased. It has asked the US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out Warner’s order, claiming that it would take forever to actually go though the tons of paperwork. Access should only be allowed to documents relating to tires similar to the ones that blew out, the company insists, otherwise there is a danger of trade secrets being leaked.

Could it be that this possibility of trade secret leaks is being used as an excuse to deny access to attorneys to what could be potentially damaging and incriminating evidence against the tire maker? After all, one of the attorneys representing the families of the students is Bruce Kastler, who has been described as the tire industry’s enemy no. 1. The prospect of letting anything even remotely incriminating falling into the hands of Mr. Kastler must surely give Cooper reason to be wary, which is why all the hue and cry about wide access.

Product liability lawyers all over the country will keep their eyes glued to this case in the coming weeks.

If a loved-one has been killed, or you have been injured due to defective tires, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury law firm. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

When the family with four children was left fatherless in 1965, it didn’t take long for Father Titian Miani to jump to the rescue. He was kind and generous, and the children’s devout Catholic mother welcomed him into her home, thinking he would be a good male influence on her kids in the absence of their father. The mother worked long hours and took night shifts to make ends meet, leaving the kids in the company of the kindly priest.

Except that Father Miani was far from the benevolent neighborhood church priest. In fact he was an established pedophile, and he wasted no time turning his perverted eyes on the kids – three girls and a boy. The boy, 15 at the time, was the first victim, but later the clergyman’s eyes fell on the daughters.

Now decades after the incidents occurred, these sins have come back to haunt him.

The siblings, now adults, have filed a lawsuit against father Miani’s religious order, the Salesian Society. They allege the organization, which is the only Roman Catholic order involved in a sexual abuse case not to have settled, knew of the clergyman’s propensity for molesting little children, and chose to look the other way.

For its part, the Salesian Society has been careful not to defend the priest. There have been too many priests involved in too many sexual acts involving young kids for anybody in their right mind to give Father Miani the benefit of doubt. They don’t defend him, but they plead ignorance of his pedophile nature, saying they were completely unaware of any such acts on his part.

However, one of the records in the case is from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Los Angeles warning the Salesian Society that there were reports of Father Miani having abused a child.

Miani’s personnel file itself shows that he was accused of assaulting a boy in Italy. He was then transferred to Canada in accordance with the practice of transferring “troublemaker” priests abroad. In Canada, he was accused by three boys of sexual molestation, after which he was transferred again, this time to St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California. It was at this high school that he ran into the fatherless family that has now filed a lawsuit against his order.

A spokesman for the Society said a huge judgment would bankrupt it and he “hoped and prayed” that a settlement would be reached before trial.

With the evidence so strong that the Society was negligent enough to allow a known pedophile to continue to be in close proximity to young kids, it would seem the time for “hoping and praying” has long since passed. It’s finally time for justice.

If you or a loved-one has been the victim of sexual assault, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury law firm. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

It didn’t take long for Marilyn and Santo Piazza’s dream cruise to turn into a nightmare.

In July 2007, the couple and their daughter and her family began an 11-day cruise out of Barcelona aboard the cruise ship Disney Magic. While stepping into his cabin’s bathroom, 78-year-old Santo tripped over the raised threshold. He fell to his right and hit the bathtub, fracturing his rib. Unknown to him and his terrified wife, he had also punctured a lung. For the next several hours, the family waited as the crew demonstrated some of the highest levels of ineptitude in emergency responses. First, they administered some Tylenol to the hapless and injured man. Later that afternoon, after Santo had begun experiencing intense pain and breathlessness, they diagnosed him with a punctured lung.

You would think a man with an injured lung on board would be enough reason to pull out all the stops and arrange for emergency evacuation or rescue. But no, the family waited five agonizing hours before the ship finally changed its course to Sardinia, Italy.

When they neared the shore, the crew dumped Santo Piazza, a man already in pain from fractured bones and a punctured lung, in an inflatable raft and took him eight miles across rough seas.

When they finally reached shore, not a single member of the Disney Cruise Line went ashore to help the injured man and his anxious family. Well, you can’t really blame them for being in a hurry to get back on board. After all, they probably had dinnertime entertainment to take care of. In the meantime, the Piazza family struggled to communicate with the local Italian doctors. They didn’t speak Italian, and they were in a foreign country with no means of assistance.

Not too surprisingly, Santo Piazza died from his injuries 17 days later. A family cruise holiday, which should have been one filled with happy memories, turned out to be a death trap.

Now, his widow Marilyn is suing Disney Cruise Line in federal court, alleging that the negligence of the line was responsible for the wrongful death of her husband. The lawsuit claims an amount of $75,000 and alleges that medical attention for her husband was slow, and his condition was misdiagnosed. Further the procedure to evacuate him was disorganized and improperly executed.

This was not how Marilyn Piazza expected to lose her husband – to a horrible excuse of an emergency medical response and even more haphazard evacuation process and finally, the ultimate blow - to be left alone on an island to fend for themselves.

This case reminds us that out at sea, the dangers present in the depths of the ocean aren’t the only ones. What could kill you could quite well be lurking within the ships’ cheerful interior.

Losing a loved-one is a horrible thing, especially if their death is due to negligence. In cases like these you need the help of an experienced personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation immediately.

The Crandall Canyon mining disaster in August killed seven persons and injured two others. Now the first claims in the disaster are being formally drafted. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, on Wednesday, lawyers for the families of seven miners who were killed sent claims notices to Intermountain Power Agency, and the Los Angeles Division of Water and Power.

Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) is a co-owner of the Emery County mine. The LA Division of Water and Power (LADWP) is an agent of the IPA, which is why it has been named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that both the IPA and the LADWP knew of the dangers facing miners, and still went ahead and put them in grave danger. Both agencies, it alleges, knew of the dangers and had the time to prevent a tragedy. Instead they implemented plans and methods that endangered the lives of the miners and ultimately led to the death of seven miners.

On August 6th, six miners were extracting coal from the mine’s West Main section, when a barrier wall collapsed. One other miner was killed after a rescue effort was launched. Two other miners were injured in an implosion of the mine walls.

According to the minutes of meetings between officials at IPA and Murray Energy, it’s obvious that they were fully aware of a sizable ground failure as early as March that drove miners away from the north barrier pillar. A few engineering changes were made and it was decided that the miners should be allowed to move further into the south barrier pillar. The tragedy that occurred in August, however, occurred barely 900 feet from the March incident.

Compensation in this tragedy, the attorneys for the claimants say, does not bring back loved ones, but it serves the purpose of justice. According to one attorney, when it “gets too expensive for mining companies to become dangerous, then safety is improved.”

If you have a loved-one who was killed due to the negligence of others, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

RC2, the makers of the Thomas and Friends Wooden Railway Toys have announced a $30 million settlement in a lawsuit over its lead-tainted toys that were recalled in June of 2007.

The recalls, when they were announced, were the first in a series of recalls by several companies, almost all involving lead-tainted products manufactured in China.

According to the settlement, customers who purchased the tainted toys will receive a cash reimbursement. Optionally, they could opt for a replacement or bonus toy. Customers who lack the toys, and don’t have proof of purchase get a $15 coupon.

In a year marred by a series of toy recalls, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 19 out of the 61 toys that were recalled were coated with lead paint and made in China. According to the plaintiff’s attorney, RC2 had some safety checks in place, but was guilty of relying too heavily on what the Chinese manufacturers informed them. Quarterly checks at random were normal procedures at the company, as with so many other toy companies. Since the lead scandal, RC2 has severed ties with its Chinese manufacturer. Stronger testing is now performed on toys, and the company said it has tougher standards for paint suppliers. Lab-test results are required for every batch of wet paint.

From all accounts, RC2 has been quick to make changes to its production processes, a welcome step and hopefully to be emulated by other toy companies. Mattel, which has been named in 17 lawsuits for its toy recalls has also raised quality control standards in its production plants.

If you have been exposed to lead-tainted toys or other productions, you need the help of an experienced personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

When 30-year-old Sharon Santos’ body was found in the trunk of her car near Chinatown, it didn’t take investigators long to find out that the person responsible for her horrific rape and murder was a man that her apartment building had entrusted its maintenance to. This week, a jury awarded $12 million to her mother in a wrongful death lawsuit against the owners of her apartment house.

Scott Villa Apartments and Francis Property Management were found negligent in the hiring, training and supervising of Eriberto “Eddie” Rodriguez. What seems to have weighed in the favor of the Santos family, who have been seeking justice for their daughter, was that Rodriguez was a registered sex offender and a convicted felon. The management was obviously sorely negligent in any background checks they conducted on his past.

In 2006, Santos was convicted of a burglary in the apartments and sexually assaulting a housekeeper. He was sentenced to 12 years for that offence. He remains the only suspect in the death of Sharon Santos, and we can only hope the family can receive some comfort from this verdict.

According to the attorneys who are representing the apartment complex, the verdict is “excessive.” Really? They haven’t mentioned what would be an acceptable settlement in this case, but it appears they believe $12 million is too high a price to pay when a young woman, a financial analyst with Warner Bros and obviously in the prime of her life, is raped and murdered by a man who they, the owners, welcomed into the building in the first place.

With sex offenses registered against him, how hard could it have been to figure out that the man they had entrusted their building’s upkeep to, and indeed, had handed over access to the apartments in the complex to, could have more than the cleanliness of the building on his agenda? Somebody at Francis Property Management and Scott Villa apartments was obviously guilty of dereliction of duty.

The death of a family member due to someone else’s negligence is a terrible thing, but when it does happen you need the experience of a wrongful death attorney in California. If this is the case, then contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

In a cluttered yard in Los Angeles, California, body shop workers put the finishing touches to a crack on a big rig that’s obviously seen better days. A simple fix-it repair job, it’ll cost the truck driver a mere $700, as opposed to a getting it fixed the proper way at a dealership, where the costs would run up to $3,000. Not only is the cost lower, the trucker will have his rig back in a day at most, unlike the dealership, which involves a two-week waiting period.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, there are numerous such instances of truckers getting their rigs repaired at fly-by-night repair shops in the city. Open lots and yards are being converted to repair shops to make quick fixes to trucks that ply Los Angeles’s ports. The quality of the repairs and the level of workmanship are doubtful at best, but for the truckers, most of who struggle to put food on the table, it’s the best they can do.

The risks for the truckers themselves and for others sharing the roads with them are too high to imagine. At a tire retreading shop for instance, one employee does a quick 20-minute job of getting a tire retreaded, a process that requires careful precision to avoid cutting into the steel belt. A truck with a damaged tire could be a disaster waiting to happen and yet, for many of his profession and others like him in the truck repair business, safety is second.

Keeping tabs on these independent truckers, who are reportedly 16,000 in number, is tough, as they ply from and towards the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex, the busiest in the country. In recent years, the Long Beach Freeway that connects the port with the rail yards has seen truck accidents increase dramatically. At least 2,000 accidents take place annually in the stretch and 600 of those involve trucks.

The California Trucking Association distances itself from the rogue methods employed by truckers to carry loads at the expense of road safety in ill-maintained rigs, but the truckers themselves say they aren’t to blame. Intense competition for jobs means that you either ply the road with your truck even if it badly needs a servicing, or have another equally badly-maintained truck ready to take your rig’s place.

For most of the truckers, life is a constant cat and mouse game of avoiding the California Highway Patrol checks, and they create devious means to avoid the fines imposed. Many days they are lucky relying on well-intentioned messages from their trucker friends to avoid a particular checkpoint. Other days, they are not.

At risk, are the thousands of other users of the highway, who are exposed to constant dangers from these trucks.

If you have been injured due to faulty parts on a semi truck, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury law firm. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

Sometimes it takes what’s happening across the border to make us see the light. Last week, a 15-passenger van crashed in Nova Scotia, Canada killing 8 people, including students of Halifax Grammar School and a teacher returning home from a game in the middle of a snowstorm.

15-passenger vans have been under the spotlight for years now but the magnitude of this tragedy must make us reexamine our own position with respect to this vehicle. Consumer rights and traffic safety experts have long spoken out against the dangers posed by these vehicles. The changing center of gravity in the van makes it difficult to handle in emergency situations. The risk shoots up five times when a van is fully loaded with 15 passengers, as opposed to when it has just one driver, especially when the van is going at 50 miles an hour or navigating turns. Not only that, the vans are structurally ill-built. Seat belts, for instance, on 15-passenger vans fit poorly. In 2004, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that schools using the vans to transport more than 10 children make structural changes to their vans, including adjusting the seat belts.

Since the eighties, more than a thousand people have been killed in these 15-passenger van accidents. In the US, some schools have been prohibited from using these to transport students to outings, field trips and games.

California however has chosen to outline safety precaution for the use of the vans. In 2004 California passed a law requiring all vehicles originally designed as 15-passenger vans to be driven only by drivers with a commercial driver’s license and an endorsement for passenger transportation. This applies even to those vans that have been modified to seat 10 passengers.

As the Nova Scotia accident shows, the ability of a driver could be sorely tested with fatal consequences where 15-passenger vans are concerned. A vehicle that has been confirmed to have severe structural deficiencies, which cause them to roll over, should not be used for transporting children. Safety measures don’t mean much during times of bad weather or other emergency situations. It’s time for California to outright ban these vehicles.

We don’t have to wait for a Halifax Grammar School-type tragedy to strike at home before we take action to protect our kids.

If you or a loved-one has been injured or killed in a 15-passenger van rollover, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

You could forgive Richard Rodriguez if he was angry and vengeful – he has every reason to be.

Last Thursday, a stray bullet that was fired from the gun of an armed robber injured Richard’s 10-year-old son, Christopher, a bright, enthusiastic young boy with a passion for music and sports. Christopher at the time was practicing the piano at Harmony Road Music School on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, California. The gas station across the street was being robbed and the robber fired a .40 caliber bullet at the attendant. The bullet missed and instead traveled across the street and smashed through Christopher’s spinal cord, pierced his abdomen and ended up lodged in his right side.

Christopher will most likely to be paralyzed and will need wheelchair support for the rest of his life. His kidneys, spleen, bowel and bladder were all injured. Doctors have decided to let the bullet remain because of the danger to his life if they attempt to remove it.

The robber, Jared Adam, has been arrested for attempted murder, robbery, evading police and being in possession of a firearm. He fled the scene after the shooting and was arrested when he crashed into two cars.

For the Rodriguezs’, life has now posed new challenges, and they must contemplate things they never imagined a few days ago. Their van will have to be made wheelchair accessible, and they will have to move into a new single-story house from their present two-storied home. Friends are already pitching in and Christopher’s school friends too have raised over $30,000 for his treatment and new expenses.

Most importantly, they will have to help their child, who at present remains unaware of the extent of his injuries, deal with his new challenges, and life as a paraplegic.

If you have been the victim of a spinal-cord injury brought on by an accident or an attack, you need the help of an experienced personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.