Negligence

Law Enforcement Agencies to Step Up DUI Crackdown During July 4 Weekend

July 3, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

Bay Area law enforcement agencies are signaling to Independence Day weekend revelers that they will be out in force to crack down on those whose booze-fueled enjoyment of the long holiday weekend spills over into a motor vehicle excursion while driving under the influence of alcohol. The important safety advisory has San Francisco personal injury attorney Gregory J. Brod reflecting on the human costs of DUI drivers that are exacted every July 4 weekend.

Just as fireworks are on prominent display during the holiday, so too, unfortunately, do the number of traffic fatalities blamed on a drunken driving crash explode on July 4. Indeed, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, while 10,322 people were killed in DUI-linked crashes in 2012, 179 died on Independence Day alone, which is six times the daily average. In addition, over the course of the last four years, an average of 40 percent of all crashes that occurred on the holiday was blamed on a drunken driver. While the risk for being involved in an accident rises on July 4, it increases even more during the evening hours as DUI-linked traffic fatalities are two and a half times higher at night than during the day. And, because there are motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians out on the streets as well as motorists who may be imbibing too much, the risk for injury for those groups of people is also higher during the holiday weekend.

The California Highway Patrol has made it clear that it will marshal a stepped-up presence during the holiday weekend in an effort to reduce roadway deaths and prevent injuries. The CHP’s so-called Independence Day Maximum Enforcement Period starts at 6 p.m. Thursday and continues through Sunday, July 6 at 11:59 p.m. All available CHP officers will be on patrol in the state to enforce occupant restraints, speeding violations and DUI for alcohol or drug violations.

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According to the CHP, the numbers in California paint a grim picture when it comes to traffic fatalities during the Independence Day weekend, as 56 people were killed in collisions throughout the state during the July 4 weekend in 2013 alone. Of those who died within the CHP’s jurisdiction, nearly 70 percent were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. The CHP made more than DUI 1,500 arrests during the holiday weekend last year.

In San Francisco, the Police Department also will unleash a heightened DUI enforcement campaign during the July 4 weekend. According to the San Francisco Examiner, the SFPD’s Avoid DUI Task Force will step up patrols during the period from 8 p.m. Friday to 4 a.m. Saturday. Motorists can also expect random checkpoints from 8 p.m. Saturday to 4 a.m. Sunday.
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Understanding Injury Law: Preparing Your Case Begins with the Facts

June 2, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

As a law firm for people injured in car accidents in San Jose and throughout Northern California, we know that every car accident is complex. We take a comprehensive view of every case, closely examining the facts to identify every person/entity whose acts contributed to the incident and anticipating the defenses they might raise. This fact-first approach to civil injury law allows us to prepare the best possible case, using the facts and the law to explain why our client it entitled to recover money damages from the identified defendants.

A single-car accident might include product-related claims for a faulty tire and complex municipal liability issues related to a long-unrepaired pothole and anticipated defenses involving immunity and the driver’s failure to wear a seatbelt. Complexity may be more overt in multi-car accidents such as the accident near Sunol that occurred early Saturday evening and, per the San Francisco Chronicle, left one dead and several injured. As of the time of the article, investigators would not even hazard a guess (at least publicly) as to what caused the accident that closed the westbound lanes of Highway 84 in a portion of rural Alameda County for several hours.

Our Hypothetical

Wake Up, California: Sounding the Alarm on Drowsy Drivers

May 30, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

While working with the wrongfully injured is something we do on a daily basis, the team at our Santa Clara car accident law firm is not immune to the basic human response to certain avoidable tragedies: anger. It angers us when we see injured people and grieving families hurt by someone else’s bad choices, such as the decision to drink and drive or text behind the wheel. Another unnecessary risk with potentially tragic — and utterly avoidable — consequences is drowsy driving. The dangerous act of sleep-deprived driving angers our team, and this is part of why we serve the injured, but our emotions are nothing compared with the loss, pain, confusion and anger felt by the victims.

Crash Leaves On-Patrol Officer with Broken Legs, Investigators Eye Fatigue as a Factor

According to The Press Democrat, CHP Officer Steven Rutledge was patrolling Highway 101 Northbound in Santa Clara on Sunday when he pulled over a driver at around 8 A.M. As he was leaning into his own vehicle, a Mitsubishi veered off the road and hit the police cruiser. Officer Rutledge, knocked unconscious by the impact, tumbled into his car. Fearing a fire, the driver who had been pulled over (who was thankfully uninjured) dragged Officer Rutledge out of the crumpled vehicle. The crash left Officer Rutledge, a new father who recently transferred to Sonoma County from Los Angeles, with two broken legs.

Summer Safety Primer: Avoiding Accidental Pool Drownings

May 26, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

With the informal kickoff to summer, the young and young-at-heart are looking forward to sunny days on the beach and by the pool. We hope that Summer 2014 will be filled with laughter and a time for people throughout our Northern California community to build wonderful memories with friends and family. Safety is crucial to ensuring happy summer memories are happy, not tragic. As the summer begins, our San Francisco child injury law firm looks at one major element of summer safety – preventing accidental drownings.

Summer Drowning Statistics

Drowning can occur in any season, but vigilance is especially important in the summer months. A news release authored by the Consumer Products Safety Commission (“CPSC”) reports that at least 202 children aged 1-14 years drowned between Memorial Day and Labor Day 2013. Consistent with the fact that drowning is the number one cause of accidental death for children between 1 and 4 years old, 143 of these were children under age 5. California saw the third highest number of summer drownings for children under age 15, with media reporting 23 occurrences, a number the CPSC suggests may be under-inclusive.

“The Car Was Out of Control” – A Lesson in Excuses from your Oakland Injury Lawyer

May 21, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

Talk to a driver who crashed into another car, an object, or even a person and you’ll often hear the same claim: “I lost control of the car.” Even when the statement is true, it is often said in an attempt to disclaim responsibility. It is, quite simply, an excuse. As an experienced Oakland car accident injury lawyer, Attorney Gregory Brod understands that losing control of a car is typically the result of a prior action (or inaction) by the driver; meaning that the driver is indeed at-fault and can be held liable for the resulting collision. In some cases, the loss of control excuse may also point to other liable parties and other possible sources of compensation for someone injured in such an event.

The “Why” – What Caused a Loss of Control

A section of the How Stuff Works website addresses the question “How do you stop an out-of-control car?” In the process of answering that question, the site also points to the reasons behind a loss of control, dividing the triggers into two main categories: Equipment/Mechanical issues and Weather/Road Condition problems.

Gas Leak Prompting S.F. Neighborhood Evacuation Comes on Heels of PG&E Indictment for 2010 San Bruno Explosion

April 3, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

In the wake of the September 2010 gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people, it would be understandable to expect that residents in the Bay Area who smell natural gas in the air of their neighborhood would be concerned that another such disaster could be in the offing. Out of an abundance of caution that San Francisco personal injury attorney Gregory J. Brod would agree was the prudent course to take, dozens of residents were evacuated briefly Thursday morning in San Francisco’s Western Addition neighborhood after a gas line unexpectedly broke.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the evacuation was prompted by a rupture in a gas line caused by a construction crew that was working on Divisadero Street near Pine Street. Officials from the San Francisco Fire Department then went door to door in a four-square-block area asking residents to leave their homes. At 11 a.m., one hour after the construction crew’s digging caused the line to rupture, the leak was capped.

“When we arrived on the scene, there was a loud hissing sound and a very strong smell of gas,” SFFD Battalion Chief Khai Ali said.

One could say that there was a hissing of a very different sort connected with the 2010 San Bruno gas explosion in San Francisco on Wednesday from safety advocates and critics of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, their disappointment arose from a criminal indictment that a federal grand jury handed down Tuesday that accused PG&E of 12 violations of the federal Pipeline Safety Act but did not charge any PG&E executives or managers who made crucial decisions leading up to the Sept. 9, 2010, pipeline explosion.

Included among the questionable decisions made by PG&E executives and managers that were cited in the indictment was the use of a pipeline inspection method that failed to detect the problem with the San Bruno line – a badly made seam weld – as well as the operation of a 6,000 mile natural gas transmission system despite the fact that PG&E officials knew records were missing for large sections of the system.

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“It’s frustrating that it’s just corporate charges and not the individual, because the individuals are hiding behind the corporate veil,” said Carl Weimer, who runs the Pipeline Safety Trust advocacy group in Washington state. “The more you could hold people accountable the better. It really drills down to who really the wrongdoers were. The way it’s left now, it’s just the general corporation, with no individuals accountable.”

The charges listed in the Tuesday indictment carry a maximum penalty of $6 million and the possibility that a judge will appoint a monitor for PG&E’s natural-gas operations.
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Wet Weather and Driving Safety

March 31, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

Quickly changing weather and heavy rainfalls both catch the attention of our San Francisco inclement weather collision law firm. After all, an inattentive driver is dangerous at any time, but the likelihood of that driver causing injury or death rises dramatically during bad weather. This leads to an increased risk of inclement weather crashes.

Rainy Weather Strikes Bay Area

A Saturday night headline on the San Francisco Chronicle website reported that major downpours hit parts of our region on Saturday, with up to two inches of rain falling in some North Bay locations. Although Sunday was predicted to be dry, forecasters expected wet weather to resume and continue through midweek with gusty winds and even thunderstorms (a rare sight in the Bay Area) adding to the mix.

California Lawyer on the Dangers of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

March 19, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

It’s a frightening opponent, a colorless and odorless gas that can kill people in their sleep – carbon monoxide. Our San Francisco carbon monoxide poisoning lawyer knows that exposure to this potent gas can be the result of shoddy construction or repair work, a faulty appliance, or other forms of negligence. When careless corner-cutting causes illness or death, including when improperly performed work leads to carbon monoxide poisoning, we believe in holding people accountable and in obtaining monetary damages for the victims.

Involuntary Manslaughter Claims Filed in Connection with Deadly Carbon Monoxide Exposure

Prosecutors in Nevada County, California are pursuing charges against a contractor whose negligence is believed to have led to the deaths of two men, a development detailed in an article in The San Francisco Chronicle. Last fall, Albert Senzatimore, age 69 of San Jose, and Gary Trovinger, age 57 of Los Gatos, both died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. The two men were exposed to the gas in a home in the Tahoe Donner ski community.

In New York City Blast, Echoes of 2010 San Bruno Explosion Are Palpable

March 14, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

As firefighters and other emergency personnel continue to search for survivors in the wreckage of two brownstones in New York City that were brought down by a powerful explosion on Wednesday, they will also be searching for clues as to what caused the disaster. And with preliminary findings pointing toward a gas leak of some kind as the culprit, San Francisco personal injury attorney Gregory J. Brod finds some unsettling similarities with another explosion that rocked a community in the Bay Area in 2010.

According to The New York Times, the Wednesday morning blast that destroyed two adjacent mixed residential and commercial buildings on Park Avenue near 116th Street in East Harlem resulted, as of Thursday’s count, in eight deaths. That figure matches the number of fatalities from the Sept. 9, 2010, explosion in San Bruno, which also seriously injured dozens more. Unfortunately, emergency responders have continued to find bodies at the East Harlem explosion site.

Whereas in the San Bruno blast, which was also linked to a gas line explosion, 38 homes were completely destroyed and almost another 70 were badly damaged, the New York explosion claimed just the two adjacent brownstones, which had businesses on the ground floor and apartments in the upper floors. However, in both cases many residents were displaced from their homes by the respective explosions. When the two buildings at Park Avenue and 116th Street collapsed, scores of people from neighboring buildings were evacuated – as of Thursday, 70 people from seven neighboring buildings have not been allowed to return home due to the fact that their power remains shut off.

While it is still too early to draw any conclusions as to the cause of the explosion in New York, city officials, investigators and community advocates have focused on the city’s aging infrastructure as a possible factor. At the site of the blast, a majority of the underground pipes were laid down more than a century ago. It will be interesting to see if there was a rupture in the Consolidated Edison gas main, what caused it and if it could have been prevented. Residents of the area have stated that Con Ed workers, firefighters and police were in the neighborhood to investigate possible gas leaks one week before the blast happened. Residents also reported smelling gas the night before the explosion – residents close to the San Bruno blast also reported smelling gas days prior to the explosion there.

In the San Bruno explosion, a government probe found that a break in a Pacific Gas and Electric gas line caused the conflagration. Federal investigators also found numerous defective welds in the PG&E pipeline.

As in the San Bruno explosion, several people suffered serious burn injuries and will be scarred for some time. Of the dozens of survivors who were injured, a few remain in critical condition. And the families of those whose fate remains undetermined have agonized over the status their loved ones, with many congregating at relief centers such as the Red Cross shelter or undergoing the painful experience of visiting the medical examiner’s office to obtain information that might help with identification.
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S.F.’s Newly Announced Safety Measures Are Encouraging, but Pedestrians Still at Risk on City Streets

March 7, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

The mayor and police chief of San Francisco unveiled on Thursday a program to improve pedestrian safety on the streets of the city by the bay, and the campaign could not come soon enough for those, including San Francisco pedestrian accident attorney Gregory J. Brod, who have been alarmed by the significant number of pedestrian fatalities and injuries there.

According to local CBS station KPIX 5, Mayor Ed Lee has pledged that the city would spend $17 million into redesigning intersections and streets, with the anticipation that the modification would lead to greater pedestrian safety. There have been four pedestrian deaths this year, 21 in all of 2013, and 120 over the last seven years in San Francisco. During that same seven-year period, there have been more than 5,600 collisions involving a pedestrian, most of them with a motor vehicle.

The gravity of the situation was not lost on Police Chief Greg Suhr, who said that the San Francisco Police Department would be cracking down on traffic violators, both drivers and pedestrians, by issuing citations at the five most dangerous intersections in each police district. And the police chief made an observation that drove home the seriousness of the problem.

“Year to date, we’ve had more people killed on the streets of San Francisco in vehicle collisions than we have by homicide,” Suhr said. “It’s a problem.”

A measure of how dangerous some intersections can be has been on grim display this year at Sunset Boulevard and Yorba Street, where on Feb. 3 a man crossing the street was killed after being struck by a car and where, just two weeks later, a teenager was seriously injured while crossing at the same intersection after being hit by an automobile. Most recently, a pedestrian was hit and seriously injured Thursday when a taxi struck him while he was attempting to cross Van Ness Avenue, another notoriously dangerous stretch of road in San Francisco.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the city’s WalkFirst program has compiled statistics and analyzed more than 2,000 crashes over a five-year period in the city. The program found that during that timeframe, there have been more than 100 fatal or severe injury accidents each year, with another 800 injury-producing collisions, each year in San Francisco. The study determined that just 6 percent of the city’s streets accounted for 60 percent of the severe and fatal injuries.

In an ominous prediction, an official with the Municipal Transportation Agency’s Livable Streets program said that the week after daylight-saving time should be more perilous for pedestrians because drivers tend to be a bit sleepy and due to the darker conditions.
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