As a new hand-held cell phone-driving ban looms, lawmakers and auto safety experts aren’t counting on the $20 fine for a violation to cause any dramatic decrease in car accidents, but another more potent provision in the law may have that effect. A person who violates the car-cell phone ban could actually find himself embroiled in a civil lawsuit, or even face a jail term as a result if it leads to a car accident.

While most lawyers agree that a felony charge is probably not a possibility, there could definitely be manslaughter charges brought in. Other lawmakers are predicting that extraordinary circumstances where fatalities are caused in a car accident, and it can be proven conclusively that the cell phone use of the driver was the cause of the car accident, then felony charges are not exactly improbable at all. With these provisions, California, already a state with an aggressive track record when it comes to prosecuting even sober drivers in accidents, prepares to explore unfamiliar ground in liability.

There is enough to hope that the new law will do its part to promote safe driving, and reduce the number of injuries and fatalities that are caused by cell phone wielding motorists. Juries have been increasingly aggressive in awarding large settlements in car accidents where the driver was using a hand-held cell-phone. In 2003, a jury in Palmdale returned a $7.3 million verdict to a person who was injured in a car accident where the other driver was talking on his cell phone. There is an increasing sense that public perception in California at present is firmly against combining cell phones with driving. In fact, the combination of the two seems to evoking almost as much disgust in people as the mix of alcohol and cars.

The new law will also make it easier for people who have been injured in car accidents from a cell-phone use violation to claim compensation for the negligence of the other person. Whereas in the past, plaintiff’s attorneys had to prove that there was negligence in the use of cell phone, now, with this new law, judges will have no choice but to inform the jury that the cell phone use of the driver constitutes negligence, thereby qualifying for compensation. The impact on the fair treatment of car accident victims and justice for them is huge. For too long, victims have struggled to prove negligence, and drivers have gotten away with appalling behavior on the road, with little regard to other motorists’ safety.

When the law finally comes into force, motorists who prefer to have a cell phone glued to their ear will find themselves slapped with a $20 fee, a fine that can be expected to be higher in some counties. While some have argued that cell phone use–regardless of whether it is hand-held or hands-free – is a major safety issue, and that all cell phone use during driving should be banned, this law is still a first solid step towards enhanced road safety.

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.

You can understand the anguish that Joe De La Garza’s family feels – the decorated Vietnam veteran survived three days in the Vietnamese jungle without a scratch, but in 2006, the retired Marine was killed from a parrot fever infection just days after he purchased a parrot from a pet store.

63-year-old De la Garza was exposed to the infection when his daughter Amanda, purchased a small Australian parrot called a cockatiel from Corpus Christi’s PetSmart Store on September 30, 2006.

Unknown to the family, the bird had come to their house infected with a strain of parrot fever that is believed to be caused by a bacterium called Chlamydia psittaci. The parrot fever is also known as Psittacosis, and it is highly transmissible diseases that can, on occasion, be fatal.

According to Amanda, they had no reason to suspect the bird when both she and her father became ill, approximately 16 days after bringing the bird home. While Amanda had to be hospitalized and treated for her injuries, only barely managing to make a recovery, her father died soon after. The family insists that they had no reason to suspect anything until they received Joe’s autopsy report, which showed the presence of the Psittacosis bacterium.

The bird, which had also died, had to be taken for a necropsy, and it was found to be infected with Psittacosis. Now Joe’s family, including Amanda, Joe Jr., and Joe Sr.’s brother Michael are suing PetSmart to raise awareness about the disease and the possibility of bird-to-human transmission. Not too many people know of this disease and the possibility of cross-species infection, and it is this that is driving the family’s wrongful death lawsuit, they say. They have not considered monetary compensation at this point in time.

The wrongful death lawsuit urges PetSmart to stop selling cockatiels and other similar exotic birds because of the risk of infection and transmission. An animal supplier, Rainbow Exotics Inc., has also been named in the lawsuit. A recent PETA undercover exposé of Rainbow Exotics showed despicably filthy and inhumane conditions in which the animals and birds were kept. PETA officials also found another parrot, which had wasted away to death a week before.

PetSmart continues to deny any wrongdoing on their part, and insist that they will fight the wrongful death lawsuit. So far, they have not acted to remove cockatiels and other similar parrots from their shelves. One wonders why the pet store chain is so reluctant to admit that there may be hygiene problems and infection control issues in its supply and delivery chain. As recently as March, the company had to suspend bird sales after a psittacosis outbreak. In 2006, there had been an epidemic of psittacosis, and a number of birds had to pulled off the company’s stores in Texas. Could it be that the company knows it could very well be held liable for compensation to the De La Garza family if proved that they have had infection problems with their bird species? And although PetSmart continues to insist that they have never heard of bird-to-human infections, it’s hard to believe that people involved in selling birds and animals for a living had no idea of such cross-infection possibilities.

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

Trust the San Francisco Municipal railway authorities to get to the cause of the train accident with lightning speed. Nearly three days after a Muni train rear-ended another train stopped at a red light, injuring at least a dozen passengers, there is still no word on why the train accident occurred. The Muni authorities have been safely sticking to their standard “all investigations are underway” and “we are committed to the safety of our passenger” lines. This is all very reassuring, but when one of your trains has managed to slam into another one, causing some very severe injuries to passengers, you should be able to come right out and admit what happened, instead of hiding behind inanities.

The train accident occurred at about 2 pm on Saturday; a three-car T-third train that was going westbound on King’s Street rear-ended a two car-N-Judah train. The impact was strong enough to damage both cars, especially the N-Judah train, which had its rear smashed completely. People in the two trains were thrown to the floor, and many of them were rushed to the hospital. Injuries ranged from moderate to very severe.

So far, no one is quite sure how two trains managed to crash in the middle of the day, in perfect weather. Witnesses who were at the scene of the train accident say that there was no warning that anything was about to happen. A loud crash was the only sign that something had gone wrong.

Both train drivers were injured, and were rushed to a hospital. The driver of the T-Third train that rear ended the other train is reported to have at least four years of experience at the controls.

This much is clear. The maximum speed limit for trains in that area is 3 mph, and so far, there has been no confirmation that the T-Third train was speeding at the time of the train accident. There was one reliable witness to the crash – a street supervisor who was assigned the duty of keeping all trains on his watch moving ahead smoothly and on schedule. Not surprisingly, considering the veil of secrecy that seems to be surrounding this train accident, Muni officials have refused to confirm whether the supervisor tried to warn the train operators in the moments before the crash.

It’s alarming that 3 days after a disastrous train accident, we are still nowhere close to having even an outline of the causes of the accident. In the meantime, the thousands of passengers who depend on these trains for transportation are still going about their jobs, taking Muni trains to and from their homes, offices and the rest of their lives. They deserve to know what the cause of the train accident was. If the operator was speeding, if the supervisor was not observant enough, if there were other factors involved – they deserve to be told, and quickly.

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

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.

A woman who was severely injured in a four vehicle car accident in San Jose is still on life support, police say. The accident that occurred on Camden Avenue also killed a mother and her son.

50-year-old Carrie Anderson lies on life support at Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California where plans are to harvest her organs. The woman, who was one of the occupants of the cars involved in the accident, has been declared brain dead.

The car accident took place on Monday at 1 pm. San Jose resident Craig Amato and his mother were in a 2004 Kia northbound on Camden Avenue. At Curter Avenue, Amato ran a red light and sideswiped a BMW. After this, the Kia went right on ahead, running another red light and slamming into a Mazda. It then proceeded to broadside an Audi station wagon belonging to Anderson, before finally ending its destructive rampage at the median of the San Jose expressway.

81-year-old Ruth died at the scene of the crash, while 61-year-old Craig apparently muttered to emergency workers that he suffered from a medical condition. He later died in a hospital from injuries sustained in the car accident. Authorities have not confirmed if he had a medical condition at the time of the crash.

The destruction that the crash has left behind is intense. Although there have been no severe injuries reported from occupants of the other vehicles, there has been plenty of property damage. Anderson, who worked as a private assistant to San José philanthropist Stave Kirsch, is lying in a brain dead and comatose state. It’s tragic that this woman, who clearly had many productive years ahead of her, had her life cut short, and so suddenly, when all she was doing was following the rules. Craig Amato, whatever his condition, ran through two red lights and then proceeded to hit a number of cars on his route. That there were no more casualties or severe injuries in the car accident is a matter of luck for all concerned, and not due to any lack of trying on this gentleman’s part.

Such reckless behavior is inexcusable. Amato has not only managed to cause the death of his aged mother, but has also effectively shut the door for Anderson. As a law-abiding citizen who was following all the rules of the road, she didn’t deserve to be in the position.

If Amato did have a medical condition which lead to this tragedy, then he likely should not have been driving in the first place. Such an individual endangers not only his own life, but also the lives of other drivers and passengers when he plays lord and master of the road, taking unnecessary chances in his claimed condition. There is no excuse for a 61-year-old man to be running red lights. When we witness such behavior from our senior citizens, how are we supposed to send a message of safe driving to young drivers?

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.

A car accident, possibly caused by street racing, has killed one person and injured three others in Santee. The crash occurred at the intersection of Mast Boulevard and Halberns Boulevard.

The two cars, witnesses say, were involved in a street race at the intersection, which has long been known as a magnet for street racing. One was a Dodge Neon and the other is suspected to be a silver Mitsubishi Eclipse. Cars frequently race here at all times of the days, sometimes even ending up in people’s houses from the speed. In this case, the two drivers were allegedly racing at 11 am on westbound Mast Boulevard, when one of the cars hit a median and crashed into a pickup truck going in the opposite direction. The driver of the car was killed, while his two passengers were injured. The driver of the pickup has been reported to be in stable condition, and has been treated for his injuries at a local hospital.

Neighbors who live near the scene of the car accident complain that nothing is being done about the increasing amount of street racing in the area. Kids aren’t safe outside anymore, they complain, and it’s normal to have cars jumping off curbs and onto sidewalks.

In this case, the person dead and his passengers who were injured were teenagers. The diver died at the scene and his passengers were flown to Sharp Memorial Hospital for treatment.

Police are currently on the lookout for the other vehicle that was involved in the street racing car accident – the Mitsubishi Eclipse. That driver sped off after the car accident.

Meanwhile, families of the teenager who died and those who have been injured have a difficult time ahead of them. The impact of the crash, police say, was severe and the driver died before emergency crew could arrive at the scene.

Street racing is dangerous, not just for the persons involved, but also for the safety of others on the road. In this car accident, the driver of the pickup truck, who was an unfortunate victim of the follies of a teenager high on adrenaline, was left with no severe injuries to report. But it could have easily been a fatal situation. For people to be driving at such speeds and so recklessly on a busy road can have terrible consequences, and it’s worrying that the police have not shown any interest in tackling this problem.

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.

There might not be hope in sight for 20-year-old Angel Felix. Severely injured in a drunk driving accident three months ago, the Riverside resident faces the loss of his earning potential and ever rising medical costs as a result of the car accident. Attorneys unfortunately say he might never see much by way of compensation.

Felix was in a car driven by his fiancée, Anna Maria Manzo, on February 22. The two were on their way to San Bernardino, and were on Highway 21. Unknown to them, 19-year-old Robert E. Perkioniemi Jr entered the same highway driving on the wrong side of the road at about 9:23 pm, and began barreling down towards them at 90 miles per hour. He had, investigations later showed, been drinking with his friends before the car accident. As he raced down in his alcohol induced haze, Perkioniemi managed to cause several crashes along the way, hitting cars as he sped along.

When the collision between Felix’s car and Perkioniemi’s 1994 Lincoln Town Car occurred, Anna Maria was killed instantly. Also killed in that instant was her unborn child, a boy they had decided to name Angel Felix Junior. Felix spent the next four days in the Intensive Care Unit of the Riverside Community Hospital. His pelvis was shattered, and his femur was broken. He had a smashed knee as well. He underwent three operations as part of his treatment, but is still struggling to recover most of his pre-accident strength and abilities.

He still spends most of his time confined to a wheel chair, and the road to recovery promises to be extremely hard. Added to his woes, are his medical bills, currently exceeding $100,000, and his treatment is far from complete.

Felix and his fiancée were the most severely injured out of all the crashes that Perkioniemi’s reckless behavior caused. Perkioniemi himself died in the drunk driving accident, but attorneys say that those who were injured in the crashes he caused have very little hope of getting as much compensation as they deserve. This is especially true for Felix, who has had to spend the largest amount on his care.

Perkioniemi’s mother, Linda, owned the car, and it was registered in her name. The insurance is also under her name, and it offers $100,000 payments to a one time claimant and a maximum of $200,000 for all claimants in one accident. Because there were a number of accidents that occurred, multiple personal injury claims are expected in the car accidents that Perkioniemi so recklessly caused. So any payouts would be for a very small amount. This puts people who have had their lives shattered because of this man’s foolishness in a very unfortunate situation.

To sue Linda Perkioniemi, attorneys admit, is a very long shot. It would have to be proved that she knew of her son’s propensity for drunk driving making her responsible for the injuries caused by the accident. Police have still not decided whether they want to charge Perkioniemi’s friend Daniel Christopher Ebert, who was the one who purchased the beer. Ebert, Perkioniemi and another friend had spent that fateful evening imbibing the alcohol. The store that he bought the beer from has also not been charged because they did nothing wrong.

All in all, these circumstances have proven very unfortunate for Felix, who has had so much snatched way from him at such a young age, and can expect little compensation if any for a drunk driving accident that was not only not his fault, but took his fiancée and unborn child as well.

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.

A high school football player and football coach was killed in a drunk driving accident in Del Mar part of San Diego County. 24-year-old Bradley James Dilahunty was a coach at the Santa Margarita Catholic High School, where he had also studied and played football for the team years earlier.

The drunk driving accident occurred in the early hours of Friday morning. Bradley, a Laguna Niguel resident, was riding in a car driven by Milton Willis, a well-known surfer in town, in the latter’s Toyota Avalon. The car was driving at 65 mph in a 25 mph zone. As it sped northward on Coast Boulevard, Willis, who was driving, ran the stop sign on 20th street. The car then bottomed out and slid against a tree. It hit another parked car and tree before coming to a stop. Dilahunty was killed instantly.

Willis was found to be not wearing a seatbelt, and was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla for treatment of his injuries after the drunk driving accident. He is reported to be in a critical condition.

Early investigations have revealed that Willis, who is a well-known surfer in the San Diego area, was under the influence of alcohol.

Its unfortunate that a young and athletic man with a promising future ahead of him had his life cut so short and in the prime of his life. Dilahunty, whose friends and family remember him as a star athlete and enthusiastic football player and coach, had a lot going for him. All it takes in a drunk driving accident is just one second of a wrong judgment or a late reflex to cause devastating injuries.

For Willis, a 51-year-old, it’s completely reckless that he was out in his car with a young passenger, drunk and without a seatbelt. Such irresponsible behavior is the root cause of drunk driving accidents in this country. The buzz from the alcohol gives a feeling of invincibility, which is why experts warn so gravely abut the dangers of imbibing alcohol before hitting the road. Even the most experienced and trained driver could have his reflexes compromised. These facts are so clear and so prominently displayed in the media, and yet, there seems to be no end to the number of accidents that occurs across the state every day.

Willis had a responsibility when he got in the car that night – he could have just as easily called a cab to drive him and Dilahunty back home, or he could have asked someone at the venue to arrange transportation. Instead, he chose to put his own life and that of his passenger in grave danger. For that, he must be held responsible.

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 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.

A 47-year-old man from San Ramon, California has being charged with drunk driving after an accident that injured a 13-year-old bicyclist.

The accident occurred on March 25 at a crosswalk on the Morgan Drive and San Ramon Valley Boulevard. The 13-year-old girl was riding her bike, when she was hit by George Freeman in his van. When police arrived at the scene, they could see that he was visibly drunk. Toxicology tests that were taken after the accident revealed that his blood alcohol level was over the legal limit of .08.

Not only was he behind the wheel in an intoxicated state, but he was also driving with children in the van. For this reason, Freeman has also been charged with child endangerment. Neither Freeman nor his two children were injured. He has been charged with felony driving under the influence while causing bodily injury, and felony child endangerment. The girl who was injured in the bicycle accident was hospitalized with serious leg and foot injuries, as well as a concussion. At the time of the bike accident, she was wearing a helmet.

The accident shocked the community at the time because it came within a week after another 8-year-old was killed while riding home on his bicycle. That accident occurred on Montevideo Drive. The driver in that accident, however, was not found criminally liable. It turned out that the boy rode his bicycle in front of the bus while it was making a right turn. Freeman, on the other hand, could face time in jail. He has been arraigned in Walnut Creek Superior Court.

For a man to be driving a van under the influence of alcohol is bad enough, but to have his children in the van with him is unforgivable. It appears that George Freeman is either not aware of the dangers of drunken driving, or doesn’t care. We find it hard to believe that a man who understands the implications and consequences of drunk driving would expose his children to the risk. If he shows this level of carelessness and disregard for the safety of his own children, how much attention does he pay to the well being of a stranger on the street? George Freeman’s actions could have had tragic consequences, and he should be held responsible for his negligent behavior. Freeman has only his luck to thank that there were no deaths, and that injuries were not life threatening. If he is allowed to get away without paying a heavy price, it won’t be surprising if he displays this same behavior again.

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