Father’s Day turned into a terrifying ordeal for the daughters of a man pinned by a car outside the St. Mark Catholic Church in Venice. The man was one among a group of parishioners who were standing outside the church after the service and talking, when a silver Nissan SUV plowed into the standing group, injuring up to seven people and killing one.

According to witnesses at the scene of the car accident, the service had ended and most of the parishioners had left the church premises. At least 30 parishioners had stayed behind to talk, and were standing on the sidewalk. It was past 1 in the afternoon. Suddenly, the SUV, which was moving out of the church premises, accelerated and rammed into the group of people. The girls’ father was pinned under the SUV, and dragged a few feet before the SUV came to a stop over him. He had to be extricated by pulling the SUV off of him. As his daughters watched, he was laid out on the ground until help could arrive. He is said to be in critical condition at the hospital.

Early reports said that three people had been injured, but updated reports of the car accident confirm that at least seven people have been admitted to hospitals in the area with moderate to severe injuries. One 28-year-old woman had been confirmed dead. One 2-year-old girl was taken to a hospital for treatment of moderate injuries, while her mother, as well as another 45-year-old woman, were said to have serious injuries.

The driver of the car has reportedly told police that her daughter who was sitting in the back seat, suffered a seizure, and that in attending to her, she stepped on the accelerator instead of braking, leading to the car accident. The woman had just attended service herself with her adult daughter and her 90-year-old mother. There are reports that all three women in the car were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Police are conducting investigations into the cause of the car accident, and no more details are available yet about the accident. No decision has been made to charge the woman.

Although it’s still too early to place responsibility for the car accident, this still remains a situation that could have been avoided. There is at least one young woman who is dead, and at least three adults, including the father of the two girls and a mother of a 2-year-old, who are battling for their lives.

There has been no confirmation about the medical condition of the driver’s daughter who supposedly suffered a seizure in the back of the car. If the daughter had a medical condition that involved sudden seizures, or if she had a history of seizures, then it would have been advisable for the mother to be prepared in the event of seizures while on the road. It couldn’t have been hard to take the three seconds it takes to stop the car, and then attend to her daughter.

Driving is a privilege, as we never tire of saying, and should be exercised with proper regard for whoever else is sharing your space. There’s little room for error, and none for excuses.

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.

The only thing more gripping than the lack of help offered to 78-year-old Angel Arce Torres as he lay motionless on a Hartford, Connecticut street after being hit by a speeding car in a pedestrian accident, is the manner in which he was hit. The man had just brought milk at a convenience store across the street, and as a surveillance video released by police shows, began walking back, crossing the street. Two cars, which seem to have been involved in some kind of race judging from their speed and the fact that they were both on the wrong side of the road, encountered the elderly Torres. The first car, the video shows, barely misses Torres, and as he struggled to regain his balance after his narrow escape, the second car hit him, threw him up in the air like a rag doll, and then, without looking back, sped away behind the first car. Both cars turned at an intersection, while Torres who had by now been paralyzed by the impact of his pedestrian accident, lay helplessly in the middle of the street,

What follows in the video has sent shockwaves running through the city of Hartford in particular, and the country in general. Passersby – and there are several of them – who are present at the scene continue to stroll past as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The cars on the street that pass by the scene of the pedestrian accident are no different. One of them slows down, and you can almost sense the driver’s dilemma as he ponders whether to stop and help an old man, or mind his own business and move on. Cold practicality wins, and the car speeds on followed by at least 9 more vehicles. This lack of concern has sent the community into a mood of self-introspection and outrage. The only help that Torres received was when a police cruiser, who was attending to another call, turns up at the scene. Torres was then taken to a hospital where he remains in a critical state.

Police have since then released the surveillance video to point the callousness of bystanders at the scene of the pedestrian accident. The video has rightfully drawn strong condemnation from all quarters of society and a discussion is on about the decaying morals of Hartford’s citizens.

Amidst all this hoopla, let’s not forget that the culprit in this case is the driver who hit Torres, and then sped away without bothering to stop and offer help to his victim. The people walking by and the drivers who sped past the pedestrian accident scene were callous and selfish, no doubt, but they were not responsible for what has happened to Torres. His distraught son says he’s in deep pain, and has been paralyzed. That didn’t happen because of the passersby. It happened because two irresponsible drivers, it seems, got into some sort of race or at the very least were driving recklessly, and one of them managed to mow down a man in the middle of the street.

We hope that the police identify the driver of the car that hit Torres and arrest him. He needs to be held responsible for what he did, and the Torres family needs to be able to give a face to the person responsible for putting their father in this state.

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.

All Gary and Barbara Kitchen were doing was shopping for Christmas for the family. The West Allis, Wisconsin couple was standing on the west side of a street in Franklin with their Christmas shopping bags still in their hands, when they were struck by a vehicle. The couple died instantly. The driver fled the scene of the accident.

The driver of the vehicle, Eddie Lynn Keck, has been charged with two felony counts of hit and run driving and two felony counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle. He admitted that he had been drinking before the accident happened. A pre-trial hearing was scheduled to take place on June 4, and the trial will begin on June 24.

Now the couple’s family - Gary’s father Clarence Kitchen, Barbara’s father John Makoutz, Gary’s sister Vicki and Barbara’s sister Joanne C. Reich - has brought a wrongful death lawsuit against Eddie Lynn Keck and his boss Dale Chapp, who owned Structural Steel Erectors, the company that employed Keck and the owner of the vehicle at the time of accident. Chapp’s insurance company has also being named in the lawsuit, which claims that Keck had been convicted on at least three previous occasions – one time in Oklahoma, and twice in Wisconsin. After the accident, Keck admitted to investigators that he thought he hit a mailbox.

How intoxicated does a person have to be to mistake a couple standing with bags in their hand for a mailbox? Also, what kind of speed was he driving at to be able to mow down a couple standing on the side of the street?

It is also not clear how Keck came to be employed in a job that required heavy duty driving in spite of having three drunk driving convictions on his record. It is clear that Structural Steel Erectors was not stringent with its recruitment standards for employees. That a man with known drunk driving convictions to his name was allowed to drive a company vehicle makes Dave Chapps accountable in this tragedy. It is clear that no attention was paid to his tainted background, and no attempt was made to screen him before hiring him. As the owner of the vehicle that Keck was driving, Chapps is liable for compensation for fatalities that occur while duty. The Kitchens’ families deserve to be compensated for their suffering.

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.

Authorities in Hesperia are looking for a 2002-2003 gold or tan colored Ford Taurus with tinted windows. The vehicle is suspected in the hit and run accident that has put a 19-year-old boy in the hospital.

According to reports, Sam Gordon was walking home with 2 of his friends eastbound on Walnut Street, when they were hit from behind by a Taurus. Sam’s friends suffered minor injuries and received local treatment. Sam suffered a spinal injury, and has been in intensive care for the past two months. The 19-year-old, his family says, had hopes of becoming a neurosurgeon and loved to race cars. For now, all those ambitions and dreams have been put on hold. The most important thing for him is to regain control of his body and his life, one day at a time.

Sam’s recovery has been painstaking, and there are still miles to go. He was only recently taken off the ventilator. The road to recovery has been hard, and he has had to battle a bout of pneumonia and nasty infections. But his family says his hopes are high, and they are focusing on the smaller things – trying to get control of one simple activity at a time. He has some movement in his left hand, and his right hand is getting stronger. He still has his dreams intact, his family says. Becoming a neurosurgeon is still on the horizon.

While Sam is battling to get his life back together again, the hit and run driver is out on the streets, free to cause more such disasters to unsuspecting pedestrians. According to Sam’s friends, who were also involved in the accident, the driver didn’t stop at the scene of the accident and just took off.

Sam’s parents are firm when they say that they are too focused on their son’s health to think of revenge in any way, but they definitely want the driver to be bought to justice. Something like this shouldn’t have to happen to someone else they say, and they are right. We hope that the driver of the Ford will be found as fast as possible. This person needs to be held accountable for his actions. Sam’s hospital bills are no doubt extensive, and it’s just a matter of time before his family begins to feel the pinch of the price of rigorous physical therapy and other specialized therapy.

If you have been injured in a pedestrian accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

Two students who were involved in an accident at Ralston Middle School last year have filed lawsuits. The accident, which occurred on May 2 last year, occurred when Mauro Yan, a 70-year-old man driving a sport utility vehicle, rammed into a group of school children who were standing at the curb waiting for the bus. At least 13 students were injured. The SUV ended up slammed against a tree after hitting the students, and several of the victims found themselves trapped below the SUV. Luckily, there was a gap, and nobody was crushed; injuries could otherwise have been more severe.

The students suffered a range of injuries, including pelvis injuries, head lacerations, liver injuries and head injuries.

At the time, no one knew what caused the 70-year-old driver to lose control of the car. His granddaughter reportedly studied at the same school, and he had come to pick her up. She was in the car at the time of the accident.

It later came to light that the school has always had a problem with overcrowding of cars. There are no clear demarcations between the bus stops, and the school has been mentioned in Ian Wickle’s lawsuit. He mentions Yan, the school board, the city of Belmont, San Mateo County Transit District, vice principal of the school at the time of the accident and an employee of the SamTrans bus that the boys were waiting for. Ian was one of those very seriously injured by the crash. His scalp had been ripped from his head and had peeled open. Alexander Cano’s lawsuit mentioned only Mauro Yan.

The school board has been named for neglecting to put in place proper measures to safeguard students as they boarded the buses. The employee of SamTrans and the vice principal were named because they failed to make sure that students were allowed to board the bus safely. Alexander Cano’s parents say that they only named Yan because he was the one in control of the car.

It seems like many different factors came together to cause this accident. The school was obviously negligent in not making proper arrangements for students to board their buses, and for not providing an adequate sized bus boarding area for the students. Although no reckless driving charges were filed against Yan, it does seem that there were some poor reflexes here. There were no skid marks at the scene of the crash, which means that he did not attempt to slam the brakes. He seems to have slammed on the gas, instead of the brakes. You can’t just walk away from an accident you caused unscathed because it might have been a mistake.

All in all, an accident like this taking place inside a public school is a shame. That more children were not injured in this crash was more a matter of luck than safety measures or Yan’s carefulness. Yan may find himself targeted in a joint lawsuit including all 13 students in the future.

If you have been injured in a pedestrian accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

After striking and fatally injuring a young 20-year-old man, Daniel Antonio Guillen apparently went right on ahead and back home. The 19-year-old teenager was arrested on Wednesday in the hit and run accident case that killed John Mary.

According to police, John Mary was on his way on foot to the Blockbuster video store at the Alameda Town Center to return a tape, when Guillen’s Buick struck him. How exactly that accident occurred was a mystery, and there were no witnesses at the scene. After Guillen sped away, another driver spotted the body lying on the ground on a driveway.

Autopsies have suggested that Mary was killed by a blunt force to the head. The police believe that he was already lying on the ground when Guillen’s car struck him at 1800 Shore Lane Drive.

Apparently Mary had a fall of some sort. It is possible he tripped. He hit the ground, and as he was struggling with his injuries or possibly, as he was unconscious, Guillen’s car arrived at the scene. When Mary was taken to hospital a while later, he succumbed to his injuries.

Guillen, on the other hand, drove right on ahead. There is no information at this point about how the police traced the hit and run back to him. But when he was arrested, Guillen reportedly admitted his crime. He was the sole occupant of his Buick at the time of the accident, and the vehicle was registered in his name. There is nothing to suggest that there was alcohol or drugs involved in this case.

All we have to blame is the man himself and his condemnable act. Guillen could have made his case a little more favorable by stopping the car and calling 911 after he struck Mary. Instead, he drove straight on, leaving an injured and bloodied man in his wake. If he had stopped and taken Mary to the hospital, perhaps Mary could have survived.

As it happened, by the time a couple of good Samaritans came upon the scene and espied the body on the ground, there wasn’t much doctors could do to save him.

There needs to be stricter punishment to deal with people who show such callousness on the street. Pedestrians who use the streets have rights which need to be respected.

Regardless of whether Mary was injured and on the ground before he was hit by the car, Guillen needs to be held accountable for fleeing the scene of the accident, and leaving a young man to die.

If you have been injured or have lost a loved one in a pedestrian accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

Every year dozens of pedestrians are killed in accidents on Southern California’s freeways. At least one in very 10 people killed is a pedestrian. California, more than any other state takes its car culture seriously, resulting in a widespread fear of being stranded out on the open freeway, among the mechanical beasts.

A new report in the Los Angeles Times documents the very real dangers of being out in the open on a California freeway. Most of California’s biggest and most populated freeways – the 405, the Pasadena Freeway, the 5 – are thickly packed with cars and big rigs and for a hapless driver who finds his car disabled, getting out to inspect the damage can be the stuff that nightmares are made of. Vehicles zip past with ferocious speed, blowing gusts of wind that are strong enough to sway a parked car. The statistics for someone brave enough to venture out on the freeway for whatever reason aren’t very good. Even on days of light traffic, for anyone attempting to cross even three to five lanes, the odds that he’ll make it safely to the other side are slim.

About 40 percent of all interstate highway accidents involved people who were suffering from mental disabilities, irrational thinking or suicidal tendencies. But at least a third were unintentional pedestrians – motorists of a broken down car who got out of the vehicle to check up on the damage or to change a flat tire.

Like John Tun who stepped out of his car with his friend to check on a flat tire. He didn’t even notice the Toyota pickup until it was right on top of him and dragging him at least 150 feet along the freeway, while his wife and his two kids watched from the car. The driver who was charged with vehicular manslaughter later told police she thought she hit a pole.

Or like 29-year-old Steve Murray a former con and drug addict who reformed his ways. He got himself a good job, and had finally begun to get his act together. When the cops came knocking at his mother’s door, she feared the worst – that he’d gotten back to his old boozing and fighting ways. As it turns out, he had gotten out of his car on the freeway trying to help the passengers of a Jeep Cherokee and a pickup that had been involved in an accident. As he walked up to the pickup, a car hit the pick up, crushing Steven between the two vehicles.

If you have been injured or a loved-one has been killed in a pedestrian accident, contact the California pedestrian accident attorneys at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.