The woman, Dina Gryn, was 90-years-old at time of the train accident in January of 2007. She was crossing the intersection between 9th Avenue and Irving Street at about 5:40 pm at a green light, when the N-Judah train struck her. Gryn was seriously injured, and was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital. Doctors there were able to save her life, but had to amputate her right leg below the knee. She also suffered a number of other injuries, including broken bones.

Gryn filed a lawsuit against the city, which she accused of creating “dangerous conditions” at the intersection where the train accident took place. The suit claimed that the intersection lacks proper signage to guide pedestrians, and pedestrians have barely enough time to cross the street.

In a closed door session, the Municipal Transportation Agency has approved the settlement for Dina.

Considering what Gina has lost – she is a 90-year-old woman whose leg has been amputated – the settlement seems quite musicale. There will be little left for her after taxes, and she will definitely be in need of life-long care. We wonder if Muni considered all the special ramifications of the case, including her disability after the accident, and her age before they awarded her settlement.

In any case, it seems as if the payouts that Muni is being forced to hand out regularly could actually be better used to update their systems and train drivers. The stranglehold that the union has got over Muni is an embarrassment. Drivers are hardly ever fired, and it’s not uncommon to find drivers who have been found guilty of negligence to find their place back in the driver’s seat after a couple of weeks. This mismanagement has turned Muni into a local street terror – the list of train accidents is simply too long to see it otherwise.

There’s also the question of the defective road. Yet again, we see that pedestrian rights are taken not so seriously. What did the city expect 90-year-old Dina to do when the Muni train came bearing down her, and she was still far from the other side? Sprint across? She was 90-years-old!

The settlement amount is hardly enough, considering the Dina Gryn has lost a limb, and the people who share the blame for her plight are unaffected by her tragedy. Hopefully, she will be able to make long-term arrangements for her care.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of amputation 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.

Sandra Griffin, a single mother of two, was parked in her car on Imperial Highway in south LA in 2006. A police car that had no sirens or lights turned on swerved to avoid another vehicle, and broadsided Griffin’s car. The car accident left Griffin with severe injures to her brain, besides damaging her hip, skull, lungs and spleen. She spent months in hospital undergoing painful surgeries, and more weeks of rehabilitation therapy, before she was finally allowed to go home.

The Sandra Griffin who arrived at home was a markedly different one from the active woman who looked after her two daughters single handedly, besides caring for her elderly parents. Her brain injuries had resulted in amnesia, and she couldn’t remember a number of things about her family. She was prone to frequent hallucinations, and panic stricken outbursts in which she claimed she was talking to God. The car accident left this woman a shell of her former self, with two kids and her parents still dependant on her.

Since the car accident, Sandra has turned from caregiver to victim herself. She used to drive her kids to school, attend church services regularly and drive her parents to the doctor when they got sick. These days, she spends most of her time in bed, and has to have someone constantly looking over her. The unfairness of it all is heartbreaking, and the jury probably agreed.

The city on its part tried hard to prove that there was no liability for the accident caused by a police car. The trial jurors were shown a video tape captured by an undercover investigator to prove that Sandra’s injuries weren’t all that bad. In the footage, she is seen walking across the street and talking to a neighbor. Obviously, the jury didn’t agree that there was anything sneaky or suspicious about Sandra Griffin’s injuries. To believe that Sandra faked the extent of her injuries, you would have to believe that she pretended for two years, as her sister says, and no sane person in his or her right mind pretends to be have brain injuries, hallucinations and remains bed ridden, just to win compensation. As of now, the city is mulling over whether to appeal, or ask for a new trial.

While the extent of Sandra’s brain injuries may never be fully corrected by medical care, at least her family now has the means to provide more permanent care for her and her kids and parents.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of brain injuries. 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.

Her family has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the facility. The lawsuit claims, quite rightfully, that the facility failed to provide safety and security for her, and failed to supervise her to the extent she needed to be. This was a woman who had problems earlier with leaving the premises. In fact, on the day of the tragedy, she had tried to escape the facility, and had been prevented by the staff from doing so. We wonder at the kind of nursing home neglect that could allow a 94-year-old woman, who was prone to dementia, to walk out of the nursing home and right onto traffic, without the slightest awareness from the staff. Then, we begin to look at the history of Palomar Heights, and it all begins to make perfect sense.

Palomar Heights has had a colorful history as Sunbridge Care and Rehabilitation Center. In 2004 it was cited twice for nursing home abuse, and in January 2004, a sting operation conducted by the state attorney general discovered extreme nursing home neglect and abuse of elders. The exposé led to at least 12 of the employees being accused of elder abuse. The charges were later dropped, and the facility changed hands and became the Palomar Heights Care Center.

Like old wine in a new bottle, Palomar Heights seems to have continued with the legacy begun by the facility under its former name. Last year, the nursing home received the very worst citation that the California Department of Health Services can give – the AA citation. That citation came after a 66-year-old resident at the nursing home was left alone on a patio smoking a cigarette, while he was connected to an oxygen machine. The fire that resulted burned the man for close to six minutes, singeing his face, arms, legs and torso. The man died, and the state ruled that nursing home neglect contributed to his death.

Now, this new elder neglect scandal threatens to be the final nail in the coffin. These nursing homes act as second homes for elders in our society, a place where they can live out their final years in dignity. What do they do with all the funding they receive if they can’t even make sure that their residents don’t leave the facility unsupervised? It is hard to imagine.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of nursing home abuse. 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 bill bans the use of hand held cell phones to talk or text message while driving. There’s no way of telling yet how this will affect the way injuries in car accidents are treated. The bill clearly calls for a ban on hand-held devices, and there is a fine of $20 on motorists who violate the ban. No one believes that the threat of the fine in itself will stop car accidents. However, the threat of being liable for damages and fatalities in a car accident caused by the use of a hand held cell phone by the driver who causes the accident could be enough motivation for drivers to switch to hands- free.

As we reported a while back, the potential for manslaughter charges being filed in cases where a driver’s use of hand-held device was seen as a contributing factor in the accident is very real. The real difference between then and now, when it comes to cell phone usage and car accidents, is this: in the past, attorneys had to prove that the cell phone usage was a very real factor that contributed to negligence. Now, the judge will have to inform the jury that using a hand-held cell phone in itself constitutes negligence. The repercussions for personal injury cases are still unclear, but all signs indicate that this is going to be a turning point of sorts both for road safety in the state as well as the issue of compensation for victims of car accidents.

The bill has more than its share of detractors who say that hand-held or hands- free makes no difference at all. Cell phone usage while driving inhibits concentration, slows down reflexes, and is overall just bad news for everybody on the streets, they claim. Banning only hand-held devices is a halfhearted measure, they say, that won’t have any long-term benefits.

Be that as it may, there’s no doubt that there’s something to be said for having both your hands free to make quick decisions while driving. That’s simply not possible when you have a hand holding a cell phone glued to your ear and the other on the wheel. On this very blog, we’ve covered car accidents that have occurred because the driver was too busy doing drug deals, conducting business or just plain gossiping on the phone when disaster struck.

At the very least, it’s a daring first step, and we should be proud of being in a state that has become one of the first to show the way.

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.

According to news reports, the truck accident was actually set off by a passenger car, which suffered a tire failure, and veered off course. One truck, which belonged to Waste Management in Alameda, veered to avoid the car, and in doing so, went over the divider. It landed on a truck that was delivering caskets, and flattened it. That driver was killed instantly. The garbage truck then struck a tow truck. That truck also suffered extensive damage.

According to news reports, the area was a fiery scene with flames from the big rig explosion clouding the sky for hours after the truck accident. All northbound and southbound lanes were closed to traffic, until the wreckage could be hauled away.

As of now, the driver of the casket truck is reported to be dead. He worked for the Batesville Casket Company, and has not been identified. The garbage truck driver also was killed, and he has been identified as Victor Mercado of Oakland. Early reports were vague as to the reason for his flight over the divider, but later news reports confirmed that a car in his path had veered off course, sending him off tangent too.

Like in most other truck accidents, when there’s a big rig involved, damage is extensive, and the loss of life is severe. Truck accidents almost always have devastating results, and this has been no exception. For now, it’s still too early to ascertain if there were other factors that contributed to the garbage truck’s jackknifing through the divider. Was there speed involved for instance? A garbage truck is a monstrously heavy vehicle, and for it to go over so easily suggests a lack of control by the driver. Investigations are still underway, however, and in the coming days we might have more details about the truck accident.

Whenever there is a truck accident, there is always an element of destruction. The force of all those tens of thousands of pounds of weight is enough to flatten lesser vehicles. Occupants of these other vehicles have a very slim chance of escaping alive or with modest injuries. Most often, death is instant, and injuries are life threatening and debilitating. Public opinion is constantly against the presence of these monster vehicles on the same road as other smaller sized vehicles. The odds of surviving a collision with a big rig are stacked too heavily against smaller car owners. We have to find a way for big rigs to not be such a destructive presence on our highways.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of truck 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 toddler was with her mother outside their home in Sanger, California, picking up her older sister from the school bus stop. As her sister alighted on the other side of the street from the house, little Audryana darted in front of the bus. She was killed instantly in the bus accident.

The family filed a lawsuit against the Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission for compensation for Audryana’s death. The crux of the lawsuit was that the bus accident would not have occurred if the older sister had been dropped off on the same side of the street as their house. Instead, she was dropped on the other side of the street, necessitating her mother and sister to cross the street to pick the girl up.

In fact, as part of he settlement, the Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission agreed to make sure a student enrolled in headstart would be dropped on the same side of the street as her home. In the absence of this, a driver would take the child across to the other side, and drop her at her doorstep. This new rule would be applicable to children below the eighth grade.

Attorneys for the family say this was the main reason the lawsuit was filed – so that parents of headstart students could be aware that they could insist that their children be dropped on the same side of the street. As the attorney for the Gonzalez says, it is the right of the parents to demand that their child be dropped on the same side of the street.

The Fresco County Economic Opportunities Commission was unprepared to admit any responsibility or share any blame for Audryana’s death. In fact, the settlement only came a few days before the case was due to go to trial. The family was first offered $250,000, and when they refused, the amount was raised by another three quarters of a million dollars.

Audryana’s death has brought an important issue to light. The headstart program provides for children from economically disadvantaged sections of society to receive special coaching to prepare them for learning by the time they get to age 6. Students who use these programs are entirely dependant on the system to get them to and from their schools safe and sound. It’s a tragedy when the system fails to take their safety concerns seriously. Audryana’s family deserves every cent of their settlement.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bus 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 car accident involved a Chevrolet pickup and a Scion. The driver of the Scion, 18-year-old Paul Saravia, was eastbound on Phelan Road, while the Chevrolet was coming in the other direction. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the Scion crossed the yellow line and drifted over into westbound traffic causing the car accident. The driver of the Chevrolet, 50-year-old Pascual Salazar, was killed, and so was Paul. The impact was so strong, it almost wiped out the front of the Scion. The passenger in the Chevy, an unidentified 17-year-old, has been airlifted to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, and has been listed as being under critical condition. Salazar’s passenger suffered severe head injuries and a broken femur, and has been admitted to Loma Linda University Medical Center.

Paul had just graduated, and was all set to go to college. There was no indication of alcohol or drugs playing a part in this car accident, and all four of the people affected were wearing seat bells. Paul was on his way back from Six Flags Magic Mountain with his friend when the accident occurred. If anything, this car accident brings home the dangers of inattention on the road for even a second.

We don’t know yet what caused Paul’s car to go off course and right into the Chevy. Any number of reasons could have caused the crash. A conversation on the cell phone, drowsiness, any kind of distraction on the road can be lethal when you’re on the freeway.

Now, there’s a young man who has been killed in the prime of his life. It’s easy to feel omnipotent when you’re 18 and on the road in a fast car. Accidents like this remind us of how much at risk we are on the street. We feel for the Salazar family too. They have lost a member of the family, with another in serious condition. There’s no indication that Salazar broke any traffic rules, or was negligent in any way, and yet, he paid with his life. With more and more people taking to the roads this summer, being acutely attentive on the road is more important than ever.

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 drunk driving accident, which made headlines when it happened, involved Vellanoweth, a prominent figure in Sacramento Republican circles, in his Jeep Cherokee and a Chrysler Lebanon. In the Chrysler were 21-year-old Brizchelle Rice-Nash, who was driving the car, her 19-month-old son Kamal, her sister, 17-year-old Brittanya Rice-Nash, family friend 18-year-old Shanice Patrice Carter, and 18-year-old Tanish Jackson. When the two vehicles collided at 35th Avenue near South Land Park Drive, the impact almost completely destroyed the Chrysler. Of the passengers, only Tanish survived, with great bodily injury.

The hearings have just begun, and from the looks of it, any straw that floats by is being clutched at. Vellanoweth’s attorney has thrown out this absurd theory, if you can call it that, that his client wasn’t really drunk at the time of the accident. We don’t know whether it’s desperation that’s causing this joke of a defense. After all, a jury is not going to be inclined to feel very warm towards a well-connected man who managed to kill off four very young persons, including an infant, and entirely because of his arrogance in getting behind the wheel drunk.

Attorney Christopher Wing admits that his client had a blood alcohol level after the drunk driving accident of 0.16, and admitted that his client had had three martinis to drink during lunch. But for some odd reason, of which only he is aware at the moment, he actually told a stunned and packed courtroom that Vellanoweth was not at fault, he was not drunk and the fault of the accident was with the other driver, Brizchelle Rice-Nash. There are so many illogical elements to Wing’s opening statements we’re not sure whether to be amused or angry. For one, he admits that Vellanoweth was speeding at the time of the crash – in fact he uses the words “excessive speeding” – and then, turns right around and tells the courtroom that he (Vellanoweth) was, however, “not negligent.” We would be fascinated in knowing what would be truly “negligent” in the defense attorney’s eyes.

There is even more gibberish coming from the Vellanoweth defense table. One delightful tidbit was that Vellanoweth was actually drinking a non-alcoholic beverage they called a “Virgin Kamikaze”. Unless this beverage works to reduce the effects of alcohol that has just been consumed, we don’t see how this constitutes a defense.

On the other hand, this is a high profile drunk driving accident case, and one where the defendant has absolutely no sympathy from any quarters. There is a great amount of pressure to win, and maybe that’s the reason these wild theories are coming out. As the trial progresses, it will be interesting to see how the defense plans to flesh out these claims.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of drunk driving 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 Fung Wah bus had its cargo doors open, and was stopping to pick up passengers, when the dump truck rammed into its rear. The impact was strong enough to send the bus careening off its path. It first struck a lamppost, and then a fire hydrant. The front of the bus smashed into the storefront of a building, which houses the United Commercial Bank.

A 57-year-old woman, who was standing waiting for the bus, was killed when the impact of the accident sent the bus off course. She was declared dead at the scene. She hasn’t been identified yet, but news reports say she’s Asian.

At least 4 people in the bus suffered serious injuries. The driver and two passengers were taken to Bellevue Hospital Center. A fourth person in the bus was also taken to the hospital with moderate injuries, and has been reported to be in stable condition. The driver of the dump truck, meanwhile, has also suffered injuries, and has been admitted to a hospital. A Breathalyzer test at the scene of the truck accident revealed that the driver was not intoxicated at the time of the pedestrian accident.

However, he does seem to have been very reckless here. According to eyewitness reports, the dump truck clipped at least three vans along the way as it began its journey from the Manhattan Bridge. Other eyewitness reports have confirmed that the dump truck was speeding as it came along. That there was just one casualty, and just a few injuries in this accident was the result of the good fortune of the people who were waiting to board the bus. According to reports, there were at least 20 of these people, and they all ran for safety when they saw the bus had been pushed in their direction by the impact.

From the impact of the truck accident, which sent a massive bus out of the road and onto the sidewalk, it’s obvious that the force of the impact must have been huge. This generally points to excessive speed. The police will no doubt want to question the dump truck driver, who has not yet been identified, when he recovers from his injuries.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bus 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.

Texan resident Ryan Rogers is suing the company for injuries sustained when his ATV rolled over on the passenger side. Rogers is the latest in a line of injured drivers and passengers, and victims’ families filing lawsuits, suing Yamaha for the defective design of its ATV that has shown a marked propensity for rolling over even at low speeds on flats surface.

The faults lie with the design of the ATV itself, with its top-heavy frame and narrow tires that make the risk of a rollover while making a turn highly possible. There is also no protection for the passengers legs in the event of a rollover accident, and in many cases, victims have had their legs crushed with the massive weight of the ATV bearing down on them. These design defects ensure that when a rollover accident does occur, which is more and more often these days, the chances is of injuries are massive. There’s little chance you would escape with negligible injuries if a person was driving and an ATV suddenly decides to flip over on top of them.

Yamaha seems to have taken a note out of Ford’s book when it comes to defending the safety of its ATVs. In September 2006, the company sent a letter to Rhino ATV owners that seemed to imply that blame for any rollover accidents involving their ATVs should be laid at the door of the drivers themselves. The company warned drivers to keep their hands and legs inside the vehicle at all times while driving, and announced the affixing of warning labels. Obviously, this failed to help. Yamaha failed to realize that a person in an ATV has a split second to react before the vehicle rolls over, and it’s next to impossible to keep your legs inside your ATV when it’s tipping over.

In August 2007, after new reports of fatal rollover accidents involving the Rhino, Yamaha announced that new vehicles would be fitted with doors to prevent passengers from falling out of the vehicle during a tip over.

Yamaha’s biggest defense is that its vehicles are safe when all road safety rules are followed. Wear a seatbelt, drive slowly and all should be fine, the company insists. However, ATV accidents have been reported even when drivers have worn seatbelts and driven at low speeds. There have even been reports of accidents when the ATV was being driven on a flat surface. As expected, the company has no explanation for these 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 ATV and motorcycle 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.