We tend to see more focus placed on drunk drivers and speeders when it comes to accident-prevention efforts. However, a new study shows that more people die every year in automobile accidents caused by dangerous highways, than from alcohol use, speeding or failure to wear seatbelts.

Across the country, automobile accidents claim approximately 42,000 lives each year. According to the Washington Post, road conditions are a factor in approximately 22,000 accident-related fatalities annually. Dangerous roads also cost the economy $217.5 billion annually. Those numbers are much higher than the numbers of deaths related to alcohol, speeding and deaths from failure to wear seatbelts. According to the report, failure to wear seatbelts cost the American economy $59.6 billion in 2006. Speeding related accidents cost $97.1 billion and drunk driving accidents cost $129.7 billion. The report compiled information from medical bills, insurance payouts and other data to arrive at those numbers.

The report, which was commissioned by the Transportation Construction Coalition, has several recommendations that would make our roads safer for Americans, and prevent the large number of accidents that take place every year because of highway design defects. The report recommends widening and adding shoulders, fixing crooked roads, widening or replacing bridges, using bright colored pavement markers, installing clearly visibly signs and rumble strips. These measures, according to the report, will make our highways more compliant with current standards.

The report also has much to say about the sorry state of affairs in our rural and back road system. While plenty of thought and innovative design techniques have gone into the construction of the super highways in our cites, the back roads and rural roads, which comprise a large section of our roadway system, continue to suffer from lack of good design and maintenance. The interstate highways account for around 45,000 miles of the country’s 3.9 million mile long roadway system. The rest is made up of a network of smaller roads, including back roads and rural roads, several of which were constructed many years ago. These roads are poorly designed, and incorporate too many obstructions for a motorist to handle. Besides, these roads see fewer repairs and maintenance projects.

The report comes just as states around the country have begun to use their portion of federal stimulus funds in infrastructure development projects. The Obama administration’s $787 billion federal stimulus package is pumping billions of dollars into highway construction repair projects around the country. Bridges will be built, roads will be repaired, and utility poles will be repositioned so they are not a risk to motorists, bicyclists, and motorcyclists.

Besides California accident lawyers can also look forward to the passing of a $500 billion transportation bill which will invest heavily in highway improvements. The bill has currently been set aside while the administration deals with other issues, but there is strong and bipartisan support in the House for the bill which means that there is a strong likelihood it will be passed.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of dangerous roads. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

A car accident in Soledad has left four people dead and at least one injured. The accident involved a Honda Accord and a Chevrolet Silverado. 

According to the California Highway Patrol, the Honda Accord driver was making a left turn from the Highway 101 off ramp, and trying to cross the southbound lane when the pickup crashed into the car. The four occupants of the Honda Accord were declared dead at the scene of the crash. Two of the rear passengers in the car were not wearing seatbelts, and were ejected from the vehicle. The pickup truck continued traveling south and then rolled over to land on its wheels. The pickup truck driver Chualar Resident, Juan Francisco D’ Anda, suffered minor injuries. According to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office Coroners Division, they are waiting to identify the occupants of the Accord before releasing their names. The CHP says that the car occupants were between 18 and 35 years old, and on their way to work at the time of the accident.  
   
The crash occurred six miles south of the site where a tour bus crashed into a wall last month, killing five people and leaving dozens of bus passengers with injuries. Investigations into that accident are continuing, but preliminary investigations seem to point to driver error. California Highway Patrol says that the highway is not a dangerous road, and that there are not an “unusual” number of accidents there.” According to the CHP, alcohol doesn’t seem to be a factor in the crash. Earlier in 2006, another accident on Highway 111 at Major Farms where Tuesday’s accident took place, left a 42-year-old man with injuries.  

We will have to wait for the safety investigation to be completed before we can come to any conclusions about the accident.  

It’s worth looking into whether highway 101 has design defects that could possibly increase the risk of fatal accidents. A total of nine people have lost their lives in two separate fatal accidents on the highway in the last couple of months alone. A highway doesn’t necessarily need to have obstructions, lack barriers or signs, or have malfunctioning lighting to be dangerous. A wide, straight and perfectly smooth highway can actually place motorists at a risk of accidents by lulling them into a false sense of security. Motorists on roads like these could actually find themselves losing concentration, which is always dangerous. Besides, a road can also be dangerous if it has a poor design that includes steep curves and sharp turns. Absence of barriers and signage can mislead motorists, and increase the risk of accidents. Inadequate or malfunctioning lighting can pose visibility problems, increasing the risk of a car crash. Authorities who are responsible for making enhancements to road safety often have to consider a number of factors, including the traffic and pedestrian volumes in the area, the site’s accident record etc. This means that a dangerous road could actually see several serious accidents before enhancements are finally made.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of car accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

A particular spot on Route 67 has been the site of dozens of car accidents over the past ten years. According to records over the past decade, there have been more than 900 car accidents along the entire highway from El Cajon to Ramona. 58 of these car accidents have occurred on the stretch between Archie Moore Road and Rocklin Oaks Way. About 36 of these accidents have occurred just after the point where the eastbound lanes merge into one.

It’s not clear how many of the 36 car accidents that have occurred at the dangerous point have ended in fatalities. It is also not clear if these accidents were caused because of the two lanes merging into one. However, travelers who use route 67 frequently claim that the spot is dangerous. Motorists, who may be unfamiliar with the road, fail to prepare for the merge, and the consequences may be disastrous. According to locals who use the road frequently, the particular stretch is dangerous because the design encourages people to race with other motorists to get ahead. By the time they get into the point where the two lanes merge into one, it’s too late to avoid a collision.

Route 67, especially the stretch that links Poway Road and Highland Valley Road in Ramona, is a long and winding highway that has rock walls on one side. The road has been the site of many serious car accidents that have ended with fatalities. However, officials insist that Route 67 is completely safe, and motorists need to maintain posted speed limits to avoid accidents. Locals insist that speeding is rampant on the highway.

Route 67 is also traffic-heavy because back country residents use it often to travel to and from San Diego. Locals have been asking for barriers to be installed, so there are fewer head-on car accidents. Transportation officials haven’t been too keen on having barriers installed, because these would force local travelers who use off-highway private roads to travel miles in the other direction, and make sudden U turns to head back in the direction they want to travel in. Besides, barriers could lead to out of control vehicles crashing into rock walls on the side, or into vehicles in the same lane.

One of the most recent serious accidents on Route 67 involved a Jaguar, which went out of a control and crashed into oncoming traffic. One of the vehicles, which the Jaguar crashed into, contained 25-year-old Chula Vista Resident Alexandria Drake. Her car veered off the road, and crashed into a tree, killing her. The driver of the Jaguar Ranchita resident Malvern Pearles has told the California Highway Patrol that a white BMW was responsible for him losing control at the spot on Route 67 where the two lanes merged into one.

Sometimes locals and frequent travelers who are the first to understand that a defective or dangerous road design could potentially cause serious car accidents. Transportation authorities have their own established standards for prioritizing changes to dangerous roads. They may decide to make alterations to the road only when a particular highway makes to their list of dangerous roads. However, this can involve bureaucratic hurdles and tons of paper work. By the time all formalities are completed, the dangerous road could have caused serious accidents.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of dangerous roads. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

A Concord resident has filed a claim against the city saying that the city maintained an unsafe intersection that contributed to his accident and left him with serious injuries.

Shaun Waterhouse was driving in his Honda CRX and as he reached an intersection, another driver in a Ford Ranger failed to yield the right of way for him. The Ford ended up on top of the CRX, and the resulting injuries have been extremely serious and life altering. Waterhouse suffered mild brain injuries and permanent loss of hearing. Life after the crash has been a struggle, consisting of extensive therapy and rehabilitation to learn to live with his new challenges.

The claim alleges that the intersection where the crash occurred has been a hotspot for accidents. In 2008 alone there were nearly 60 accidents that occurred at the intersection. The intersection was designed and built years ago when the volume of traffic passing through was quite limited. Now, however, there has been a surge in the number of vehicles that use the intersection and consequently the number of accidents have increased. Most importantly, most of the crashes that have occurred near the intersection have been the kind that Waterhouse was involved in.

The claim asks for an amount for $5 million and the city has not yet responded. Waterhouse plans to file a lawsuit against the city if they do not respond. Waterhouse says he had run up medical bills of $200,000 and that he needs long-term treatment and other expenses because of his injuries.

Federal, state, and local agencies are required by law to maintain safe driving conditions for motorists. This can include making sure that roads are even in surface, and free from slippery conditions. Maintaining a safe road also involves erecting of proper barriers wherever necessary. Signage must be adequately provided and must be easily visible to an approaching motorist. There must be an absence of obstructions that could lead to a driver’s field of vision being obstructed leading to an accident. Obstructions could be in the form of concrete walls, dividers, and even shrubbery that divides a road. There must be adequate lighting that facilitates easy visibility even at night. There must not be any sharp and dangerous curves that may be difficult to navigate. All these are the responsibility of the agency responsible for designing, constructing and maintaining these roads. If the city was responsible for construction of the road, but left maintenance activities to another company, then both the city as well as the maintenance company may be mentioned in a lawsuit. Utility companies that are responsible for maintaining the lighting may also be responsible if an accident is traced to poor visibility and lack of lighting.

Damages mentioned in claims for an accident rising out of a defective roadway include medical bills as well as lost wages. There may also be other non-economic losses that you may be able to claim, like pain and suffering as well as loss of consortium in a serious or debilitating injury. A car accident lawyer may be able to help evaluate your options and decide on the amount of your claim.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of dangerous roads. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

An increasing population, leading to more traffic on the narrow dangerous roads, is being pointed out as one of the major reasons why Fallbrook, California is seeing a steady increase in the number of auto accidents on its streets.

According to a report by the Fallbrook Village News, the picturesque beauty of these rural roads conceals a deadly ability to cause serious and even fatal accidents if you’re not paying absolute attention to the road. In 2007, the California Highway Patrol recorded a total of 507 accidents in Fallbrook, with at least seven fatalities resulting from these. At least 175 of these accidents resulted in injuries. These are unusually high statistics for a small area that is known for its scenic beauty, than for the number of people who die on its streets.

Locals point to the growing population and the lack of preparedness of the roads to deal with this sudden influx of motorists. The most number of car accidents for instance, occur on State Route 76, which accounted for nearly 23 percent of all the car accidents that occurred in 2007. At least 3 percent of these accidents ended in fatalities. This route, which has just two lanes, is used as the main route to work by people in the north part of the county, locals complain.

Most of the high accident routes are also the ones that are heavily used by motorists. But this is not to say that these routes are the only dangerous roads in Fallbrook. De Luz road for instance, is a quieter, picturesque road that has had its share of accidents, many of them resulting in injuries. Other routes in Fallbrook that have reported high rates of auto accidents are Alturas Road, Gird Road, Fallbrook Street, and Old Stage Road.

CHP officers say that the main roads are especially dangerous during peak hours when there are more motorists on the roads, as well as pedestrians on the sidewalk. They caution drivers against assuming that sticking to a safe speed limit is enough to prevent accidents on such dangerous roads that are heavily prone to car accidents. It’s necessary to assume at all times that the other vehicle cannot see you, especially blind spots at intersections, to avoid a collision. For instance, it’s always best to expect that you will have a pedestrian dart in front of your car, so that you’re prepared for that eventuality should it arise, and can react accordingly.

It seems like the Fallbrook roads are being used far more excessively than the traffic usage that they were initially designed for. When you have a larger number of vehicles and pedestrians competing for the same amount of road space that you had 10 years ago, accidents are almost to be expected. The authorities should look into ways that these roads can be made safer so that car accident rates can be reduced.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of car accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The family of Anthony Narigi, who was killed in a Salinas, California car accident that we reported on our Orange County car accident lawyers blog earlier this year, is alleging that a poorly outfitted SUV, and a dangerous road, and not alcohol, were responsible for the fatal accident.

21-year-old Narigi was killed in July last year, in a car accident that occurred while his younger brother Dominick was driving. The two brothers were returning from Laguna Seca and the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix motorcycle races held there. The younger Narigi apparently lost control of the vehicle, leading to the accident.

Dominick suffered severe injuries, and Anthony was killed. Initial investigations that seem to have been botched by the California Highway Patrol, concluded that Dominick had been driving under the influence. However, as it turned out later, that premise was false, and alcohol was not found to be a factor in the car accident. Another driver who was driving behind the brothers said that their car was not moving erratically. When after the accident, he administered artificial respiration to Dominick, he couldn’t smell any alcohol on him, the motorist testified. Dominick’s defense lawyer claimed that his client had been driving at a speed of 25 mph when the accident occurred, and had not been under the influence of alcohol.

In April of this year, Dominick pleaded no-contest to charges of vehicular manslaughter for his failure to get his brother to wear a seat belt. His sentence included community service and probation.

Now, Dominick and his parents are suing Monterrey County for the dangerous road conditions that they claim contributed to the car accident. The lawsuit claims that the road that had been recently paved contributed to Dominick losing control of his car, causing the car accident. The signs on the road weren’t sufficient, the lawsuit argues.

Besides the dangerous road, the lawsuit also names unidentified defendants for the poor design of the Yukon Denali that the two brothers were riding in. The claim is that the SUV had been lifted, and that a pair of leather straps held the suspension in place. When the leather straps snapped, the car rolled over. The amount of damages being claimed here is not known. Earlier this year, the county had rejected a claim related to the car accident for a sum of $6 million.

There seem to have been many flaws in the investigation into this tragedy. The fact that the CHP went all out to prove that Dominick had been in the wrong after the accident, and now the evidence that he was probably not under the influence at the time of the car accident at all, reveals a shoddy series of mistakes by the CHP that have caused a young man several months of anxiety.

Dominick has been though a grueling time in which he has carried the burden of guilt for being responsible for causing the accident that killed his brother. He will be looking forward to having his name cleared, so that he and his family can move on after this tragic car accident.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of car accidents and dangerous roads. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

A car accident lawsuit that’s headed to a San Luis Obispo, California court alleges that it was a dangerous road that caused the accident as much as drugs and alcohol. Six years after the accident that left him with severe head and body injuries, Aaron Gurican, then just 17-years-old, is charging that the county maintained an unsafe road without streetlights that was at least partly responsible for causing the drunk driving accident.

On April 9th, 2002, Gurican was leaving his girlfriend’s house, on his motorcycle at night. He had no way of knowing that headed straight at him was a car driven by Mathew Wenz, also 17 years old. Wenz was in the wrong lane, and when his car slammed into the motorcycle, it knocked Gurican off. Wenz, it was found after the motorcycle accident, had been drinking, although his alcohol limit was .07, which is just below the legal limit for an adult of legal drinking age. However, Wenz was a minor, and any amount of alcohol in his system was too much. He had also been smoking pot earlier that day, it was found.

Wenz claimed he never saw Gurican, and thought he’d run over an animal in the dark. Gurican suffered extensive head injures, and today is confined to a wheelchair with very limited movement in his head and shoulders. He was wearing a helmet at the time of the car accident, but his motorcycle had an improperly functioning headlight. Gurican however, says he had a flashlight strapped onto the front of the motorcycle.

The lawsuit names not only Wenz, but also the San Luis Obispo County for his injuries. In earlier attempts to take the case to trial, Gurican’s attorneys had claimed that the stretch of road where the car accident occurred was dangerous, and had no streetlights. In addition, there were experts who came forward to testify on Gurican’s behalf, that the road was constructed in such a manner that motorists were encouraged to take a wrong turn. There was also a bush that blocked visibility, and this fact was confirmed by Wenz’s testimony, according to which, he never saw Gurican.

The court however, ruled that there was not enough evidence for Gurican to take the case to trial. Two years later, Gurican appealed, and that court found that the evidence indeed proved that the case could, in fact, go to trial.

Gurican’s jury trial will begin in December. The lawsuit cites a sum of $7 million in damages, as well as for expenses for taking care of Gurican who is expected to need care for the rest of his life. The county has refused to settle, and is looking forward to a trial, their attorneys say.

The county’s argument is that the responsibility for the car accident rests solely on the shoulders of Wenz and Gurican. The former was drunk, and even had drugs in his system, while the latter was driving without a proper headlight. Even so, there has been evidence that there was a design flaw in the dangerous road that enabled wrong turns, as well as helped lessen the degree of the turn. It seems like there was more than drugs, alcohol and a missing headlight that was at play in this California car accident.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of car accidents and dangerous roads. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

A pedestrian accident in Oxnard has killed a 53-year-old man, and brought into focus a dangerous road, that locals say, makes them extremely nervous.

The man identified as Eulogio Garcia Sanchez was walking across C Street at Elm Street when a pickup truck hit him. Sanchez was thrown at least 90 feet, and his body landed in the middle of the street. It was about 5:45 am.

The driver of the pickup truck, also an Oxnard resident, called John Philip Gonzales immediately out of the car, and tried to flag traffic away from Sanchez’s body. Locals who rushed to the scene of the pedestrian accident reported that Gonzales looked extremely upset and worried.

Sanchez died at the scene of the pedestrian accident. Gonzales told cops that he only saw Sanchez at the very last minute, and could not stop fast enough to avoid hitting him. Gonzalez has not been cited or arrested, but the pedestrian accident remains under investigation. Police do not believe that Gonzalez was speeding.

Locals in the neighborhood have a different reason to point to for the pedestrian accident. C Street, they say, is a dangerous road. The accident has been the first one here in a while, but has been a long time coming given the dangerous circumstances. The street is always busy, and many residents prefer not to have their children playing on C Street. Residents say the road is so busy it needs a stop sign, a traffic light, or at least a marked crosswalk. The road right now has none of these. A stop sign or traffic light would help to make a dangerous road safer.

Authorities in Oxnard should definitely look to having more safety measures on C Street. The best people to trust when it comes to road safety are the people who live and drive around in the neighborhood.

Ventura County has seen a string of pedestrian accidents in recent days. As recently as Monday evening, 52-year-old Newhall resident Michael Yant, was killed when he was stuck by a truck as he was crossing Highway 126 near Fillmore. The driver of the truck in the pedestrian accident fled the scene of the accident. The other pedestrian accident was a story we covered in this blog. A 46-year-old Agoura Hills jogger, Karey Marsh was killed by a drunk driver as she was out jogging in the morning near Oak Park.

In Sanchez’s case however, the culprit seems to be a treacherous stretch of dangerous road that needs more intervention by the authorities before it claims more victims.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of pedestrian accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

It was a combination of speed and a dangerous road, that killed a Clayton resident on Wednesday in Brentwood. William Tindall was killed when he stopped his car to help another motorist in trouble. He was himself struck by another car, and died at the scene.

The accident occurred on Wednesday on Marsh Creek Road. 56-year-old Tindall, a plumber by trade, was on his way to Stockton to look at a new hospital renovation job. On the way, he chanced upon another motorist Daniel Lew whose car went off the road, and ended up in an embankment. Tindall stopped his car, and got down to offer the stranded motorist his help. When he had been able to send Lew on his way, a speeding car struck him.

Tindall’s death is just the second fatal accident in five days, on the road that is being currently used by motorists who wish to avoid the congested Highway 4. The highest number of fatalities on this road occurred in 2005 with a total of three fatalities. After those fatalities, the state Office of Traffic Safety gave the county a one-year grant for road upgrades. The construction work that’s progressing on Marsh Creek road has led to a great deal of gravel being positioned on the road, decreasing the amount of traction that motorists driving that way receive.

Motorists who use the road frequently are aware that this is a dangerous road. Tindall himself, his wife says, was very aware of the dangers of driving on a dangerous road filled with construction debris that was a potential death trap for unsuspecting motorists driving at a high speed. There have been complaints that motorists have made about the dangerous road and the fact that it’s a magnet for accidents.

Tindall’s death has now jolted the California Highway Patrol and the county police officers into action. They have decided to put new traffic rules into effect on the road, beginning today. As of today, between 8 am and 10 pm, all traffic passing along Marsh Creek Road will be escorted by pilot cars to ensure that all vehicles stick to a safe 25 mile per hour speed limit. Between the hours of 10 pm and 4 am, the road will close to all traffic, except residents who will be allowed to use the road. Between the hours of 4 am and 8 am, California Highway Patrol officers will drive traffic though the road. Traffic authorities expect some delays because of the new traffic rules, especially at the exit points. Regardless, this is going to be potentially life saving measure for motorists on that stretch of dangerous road, and nobody is likely to complain about any delays.

For Tindall, however, these rules have come too late. It’s unfortunate that there have to be fatal accidents taking place before any concrete action is taken to prevent any more accidents. Motorists have been complaining for a while now about that dangerous road. We fail to understand how the authorities responsible could have turned a blind eye to the dangers of the road. We are sure William Tindall’s family doesn’t understand either.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of dangerous roads. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

Last Tuesday’s school bus crash in southwestern Minnesota was the most disastrous in the state in the past two decades. Four children were killed and many were injured as the bus belonging to the Lakeview School toppled over on to its side.

Now, new clues are emerging as the investigation into the crash progresses, and the tiny community of Cottonwood, where the crash occurred, begins to seek answers as to why its young had to go in this manner.

The first clue seems to point to a van which, as a witness stated, ran a stop sign and rammed into the side of the bus causing the driver to lose control and eventually leading the bus to roll over.

Matters are still under investigation, but there have been media reports that the driver of the van, a 23-year-old woman, possibly didn’t have a valid driving license and that she had been cited in an earlier incident in 2006, where she pled guilty to driving without a license. These reports haven’t been confirmed, but if there is any truth to these reports, we hope parents won’t hesitate to pursue legal action against the woman.

Another issue that’s come up after the crash, and one that has a potentially greater impact for Cottonwood residents is the stretch of highway where the crash occurred. Reports are emerging that Highway 23 has been dangerous for a while now and authorities have been lax in their response to fears about its safety.

Highway 23 is the artery that connects southwestern Minnesota with other parts of the state and it’s just two lanes wide. Authorities have long denied that the road is dangerous. According to Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) engineers, it’s a fairly flat road with a shoulder that is 10 feet wide. There have been also no major traffic accidents at the intersection, they claim. Do we have to wait for accidents like the Lakeview school bus tragedy to wake them up to the fact that something about the road’s design might cause accidents?

The authorities themselves admit that traffic has increased dramatically on highway 23 with at least 4000 vehicles making their way through the stretch on any given day. With such a high volume of traffic on what is still a relatively narrow road for the kind of traffic it handles, chances of accidents are greatly increased. The more vehicles sharing the road, the lesser margin you have to correct your vehicle before an accident.

According to David Sturrock, a professor at Southwestern Minnesota State University in Marshall, the state could do its part to make the intersection less dangerous. In fact he has asked the MnDOT engineers to take a closer look at some of the intersections on Highway 23, where some fairly serious accidents have been reported over the last couple of years.

Do we really have to wait until more people die before we take action? Whatever happened to preventive measures? How many accidents have to occur and how many lives have to be lost before the transportation authorities acknowledge there is a problem?

Knee jerk reactions when a major accident takes place are not the solution. This is not true only for Minnesota, but around the country where badly designed highways regularly maim and take lives with authorities being too slow to respond.

If you have a loved-one who has been killed due to dangerous highway conditions, you need the help of a California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.