San Francisco Injury Lawyer Blog

San Francisco Product Liability Attorney Comments on Danger of Tread Separation as Michelin Recalls Over 840,000 Tires

July 30, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

The Brod Law Firm believes that Californians should be able to trust the safety of products sold to and used by residents of The Golden State. As a San Francisco product liability law firm, we help consumers injured by defective products recover compensation through both individual and class action lawsuits. Since we also represent many people injured in car accidents, we know that it is particularly dangerous when the defective product is a car or automotive part.

On Thursday, Michelin announced a voluntary recall of approximately 841,000 tires sold under the BFGoodrich and Uniroyal brands. According to the AP report carried by The San Francisco Chronicle, the treads can separate resulting in rapid air loss. While no injuries or deaths have been linked to the tires, quality-control workers noticed an uptick in problems associated with the tires this year. According to Michelin, separation has occurred in fewer than 150 tires but the company felt a recall was necessary in order to protect driver safety.

The recall involves replacement tires manufactured from April 2010 until early 2012 and used on heavy duty, full-sized vans and commercial light trucks. The specific tires involved in the recall are BFGoodrich commercial tires LT 235/85 and LT245/75 and Uniroyal Laredo tires LT 235/85 and LT245/75. Michelin has set-up a toll-free number and web sites for consumers and will replace the tires at no charge.

Beware of Insurance Check Scam

July 27, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

California insurance customers should be aware of another scam that is affecting the state. As San Francisco insurance lawyers, we know that insurance can be confusing and complicated and unscrupulous people take advantage of this to try to trick people with scams.

This recent scam, according to the California Department of Insurance and news reports, involves fake checks being sent to California insurance customers pretending to be from the Department. Some even have a forged signature of Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. The checks have been for various amounts from $2,000 to $5,000 and are sent with an explanation that the Department is issuing a “refund” or sending a “payment” to the individual or family. But a statement from the Department said, “”The department does not issue checks such as these and is warning consumers and businesses to be alert if they are presented with a check of this type.” It also warned businesses and individuals to be on the lookout for these fake checks and not to trust any checks purporting to come from the Department of Insurance.

California is one of six states affected by this type of scam. Here, most of the checks have been received in the southern half of the state. California insurance spokesperson from the department, Dave Althausen, said that the Department has yet to discover why the checks are being circulated, who is behind it, or what they are hoping to gain through this fraudulent exercise. Mr. Althausen said that the California Highway Patrol is currently investigating the case and are hoping to halt the distribution of the false checks and discover the story behind them.

Nitrous Oxide Use Leads to Tragic Folsom Crash

July 27, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

As a Sacramento injury law firm, we often speak about the dangers of driving under the influence. When people hear the phrase “driving under the influence,” their minds quickly jump to drunk drivers. If pushed, people will recall that the phrase can also include drivers impaired by illegal drugs or even the abuse of prescription medicines such as oxycontin. A report in The Sacramento Bee this week is a harsh reminder that a DUI involving legally obtained drugs can also have tragic consequences.

According to District Attorney Caroline Park, Michael Dean Sharp purchased fifty canisters of nitrous oxide from a Folsom smoke shop on the night of January 7. The product was sold under the brand name “Whip-It”. Sharp opened a canister, filled a balloon with the gas, and inhaled the substance. After using the drug, Sharp got into his Ford Explorer and drove off, heading southbound on Folsom Boulevard. Travelling at sixty miles per hour, he swerved across a double yellow line and narrowly missed hitting two cars. Sharp then collided with a Saturn driven by Christopher Stephen Ohlander Martell (age thirty-seven). Both Martell and his brother, front-seat passenger Robert Todd Ohlander (age thirty-two), died in the crash. A backseat passenger, Bronson Chapman, suffered serious injury.

On Thursday, Sharp appeared before Judge Geoffrey Goodman of Sacramento Superior Court. He admitted to two counts of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, for the deaths of the brothers, as well as a third count for driving under the influence and causing great bodily injury, representing the third passenger. Judge Goodman set sentencing for August 31. Officials suggest that Judge Goodman will likely sentence Sharp to serve a term of nine years and eight months in state prison. According to D.A. Park, that would also have been the likely sentence had the case proceeded to trial.

Woman Accused of Intentionally Hitting and Killing Oakland Resident

July 25, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Injuries and even deaths stemming from car accidents are all too common. As an experienced Oakland car accident law firm, our team knows that most accidents are the result of a negligent driver making poor decisions behind the wheel. We strongly believe in helping those injured due to another person’s negligence recover needed compensation. We also believe in the message such lawsuits send, reminding drivers that safety should always be a top priority. However, we also know that most drivers who are responsible for accidents causing injury or death never intended to cause harm.

A case currently pending in Alameda County Superior Court and covered by Oakland Tribune may be an exception to this rule. The events occurred on the night of Saturday June 16, during a street party in East Oakland near the intersection of 61st Avenue and Eastlawn Street. Sifting through a complex story, police have concluded that nineteen year old Deja Lewis was angry, possibly distraught, over events that took place earlier in the night, when she got in her car and proceeded to deliberately hit and kill an Oakland resident. Thirty-three year old Luis Velasco was declared dead at the scene.

In a statement to a police officer, Lewis reported that an unknown man physically assaulted her earlier in the evening. Lewis said that, following the assault, she drove about two blocks to her home where she reported the event to her sister and some friends. The group returned to the scene, where they got out of the vehicle and confronted a group of men gathered near a street party. According to Officer Leonel Sanchez, Velasco was among the group of men but he was not acting in a confrontational or threatening manner. It is unclear if he had been at the party during the claimed assault or if he had arrived in the interval between Lewis leaving the area and returning with her sister and friends.

Ford Recalls Escape SUVs: Car Recalls and Product Liability Concerns

July 23, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

At The Brod Law Firm, we help clients with a range of issues including car accidents and injuries stemming from defective products. Sometimes, these two areas of law can intersect when a faulty car part is a factor in a collision. Our experience in both arenas allows our team to be an effective law firm for defective car injuries in Northern California.

This weekend, The San Francisco Chronicle carried an Associated Press report about a recent car recall. The recall impacted a newly released model of Ford’s Escape SUV. Ford announced the recall, stating that there was a risk of engine fire in the affected vehicles. According to the report, the problem stemmed from a manufacturing issue at a separate company that makes fuel lines for some Ford vehicles. In Ford’s report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the company identified the fuel lines as a batch manufactured by TI Group Automotive Systems in Indiana. The lines were allegedly mechanically scored or otherwise damaged on the outside, creating the potential that the lines would split when pressed over a connector fitting. This split could cause fuel to leak and potentially ignite.

Ford’s newly announced recall involves 11,500 Escape vehicles. The issue is confined to 2013 Escapes that are equipped with 1.6-liter, four-cylinder engines. Luckily, only 4,800 of the SUVs have been purchased so the recall should be more effective than a broader recall impacting a larger number of vehicles, especially those old enough to have changed hands since initial purchase. Ford has urged that owners, including purchasers in both the U.S. and Canada, should not drive the automobiles and should contact their dealer for assistance to get the SUV picked up and also get access to a loaner vehicle. In an e-mail, the spokesperson for TI Automotive said they are working with the car company to clearly identify the root cause and find a solution.

Repeat DUI Offender Injures Two People and Kills Four Pets

July 20, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

It seems like a week rarely goes by when we don’t read about a drunk driver injuring or even killing an innocent Californian. We are proud to serve as a law firm for victims of drunk drivers in Sacramento and throughout Northern California. Every accident has a story and we work with our clients to understand the unique circumstances of each tragedy so we can help victims recover the compensation that can help them move forward.

Along with other members of our community, we have been following the developing story of a hit and run that occurred in Carmichael. According to The Sacramento Bee, the California Highway Patrol has arrested a suspect in the accident that injured a young couple and killed the four dogs they were walking at the time of Monday night’s crash. In the early morning hours of Thursday July 19, a CHP officer pulled over thirty-one year old Paul William Walden on suspicion of drunk driving near the intersection of Bainbridge Drive and Salazar Drive. During the stop, the officer noticed damage to the 1987 Nissan Maxima that Walden was driving. Walden later admitted to investigators that he was responsible for the Carmichael accident.

At approximately 10 P.M. on Monday, twenty-three year old Gemily West and twenty-one year old Harison Long-Randall were hit by a car in crosswalk at the corner of Garfield Avenue and Engle Road. The couple was walking four dogs when they were hit by a car that authorities estimated was travelling at 80 miles per hour on the two-lane residential street. Long-Randall, who attempted to push West out of the car’s path, lost part of his leg. As of Thursday morning, he was listed in critical but stable condition at San Juan Mercy Hospital. West was listed in good condition but suffered a broken leg. The dogs were all killed in the collision. Investigators determined that the car didn’t even slow down after the crash. Debris at the scene allowed them to conclude that the suspect was driving an older model Nissan Maxima

Muni Receives Funding to Upgrade On Board Cameras

July 18, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Red%20Lens.jpg According to the SF Examiner, Muni is working on installing new digital cameras on about 350 of its buses. The Department of Homeland Security is providing $6 million in funds to purchase and have Muni install the cameras over four years. If the cameras are deemed successful at catching or deterring criminal behavior they could be installed on all buses and light rail vehicles.

The installation of the digital cameras follow Muni’s $1.2 million spree to repair and replace malfunctioning on board cameras in 2009. In July 2009, the stabbing of an 11 year old boy that normally would have been captured on tape was never recorded because the cameras were non-operational. The failure of the Muni cameras was also questioned in a crash that same month in which two Muni trains hit each other and 48 passengers were injured. Neither of the trains had functioning cameras and therefore no data was available from them to analyze the crash.

As a result, an audit was conducted which found that 52% of Muni on board cameras did not function properly, SF Gate reported. Problems ranged from complete disrepair, to blurry images, vandalism, bad cables and more. By September 2009, Muni claimed it had decreased that number to 20% of cameras. It had trouble replacing many old parts which were not available anymore. It was also revealed that Muni did not conduct routine inspections of its camera equipment and needed to develop a plan to do so, since none was in the works.

Muni also decided to install “DriveCam” on all of its vehicles. The camera is activated by jarring movements, like unexpected acceleration or braking, which affects the force detected by its sensors. The cameras record both the exterior and the interior of the Muni vehicle during an incident. In April 2010, on board cameras were non-operational on a 10 Townsend coach which hit a row of parked cars. However, DriveCam captured the image of the driver leaning over with his eyes off the road.

The SF Examiner published an account of DriveCam’s effectiveness after one year of use. It reported that the total number of bus accidents decreased from 964 in 2009, when Muni started installing DriveCam on buses, to 483 in 2010, when all buses were equipped with the camera. DriveCam focuses on the driver’s actions and allows Muni to identify and retrain or discipline drivers with multiple safety violations. With DriveCam, footage is constantly recorded on a short loop and newer footage overwrites the oldest footage when no event triggers storage of a certain loop. Events are stored for a total of one year and therefore, in the case of an accident, should be requested within that time frame.

The new digital cameras will focus on passenger safety on the bus. Hand in hand, the two surveillance systems should provide more data on both traffic accidents and criminal behavior affecting the system. These reporting systems are important to the integrity of the public transportation. SFMTA saw a 3% increase in ridership from 2009 to 2010, which can only be sustained with an improving track record on safety.
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A Call for Responsibility Following Arrest of NFL Player on DUI Charges

July 18, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Professional athletes have sometimes complained that they are held to a higher standard than those in less public professions. In some cases, however, the standards are no different but violating them draws more media attention than when others are responsible for similar transgressions. This may be part of the price that accompanies a high salary and a career that many dream of but few achieve. The lengthier coverage may also help send the message that we are all responsible for our behavior, especially when that behavior endangers the individual and other community members.

According to The Oakland Tribune , Marshawn Lynch was arrested last weekend on suspicion of drunken driving. Lynch played college football at Oakland Tech before being selected as a first-round pick by the Buffalo Bills in the 2007 NFL Draft. He was traded to his current team, the Seattle Seahawks, in 2010. Along with college teammate and 49ers quarterback Joshua Johnson, Lynch founded the Fam 1st Family Foundation in 2006. The group aims to improve children’s lives through mentoring focused on education, literacy and self-esteem. Lynch was in Oakland last week so that he could award foundation scholarship to recent high school graduates.

In the early hours of Saturday June 14, a California Highway Patrol officer observed Lynch’s 2012 Ford van weaving across traffic lanes on Interstate 880 northbound. The officer turned on his lights and Lynch pulled over at the next available exit, stopping in Emeryville near 67th and Shellmound. A CHP spokesperson said Lynch cooperated as the officer administered a preliminary blood alcohol test at the scene and then took him to Oakland’s North County Jail for an additional test. Officials cannot release the specific test results during an ongoing investigation, but did say that Lynch was over the state’s .08 percent limit. Lynch was cited and released, with a hearing scheduled for August 14.

Blue Cross Ordered to Stop Trying to Collect Old Overpayments

July 18, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Anthem Blue Cross has gotten in trouble this week with California state regulators over trying to collect millions of dollars from medical providers for medical claims the company thinks were overpaid. As San Francisco insurance attorneys we understand that insurance companies are for-profit entities, but often the drive for profit leads the companies to push everyone else out of the way–including the interests of medical providers and policyholders.

California insurance law allows health insurance plans to seek reimbursement for overpaid medical claims within one year of the payment of the claim. If the insurance company wants to seek to collect on claims over a year old, it needs to demonstrate fraud or misrepresentation by the medical provider.

But according to news reports, earlier this year the California Department of Managed Health Care began investigating collection attempts by Anthem Blue Cross in the state. The Department is a government entity tasked with regulating managed health care plans in California and protecting the state’s 20 million health plan enrollees, as well as educating consumers about their health care rights. The investigation discovered that between 2008 and 2011, Anthem Blue Cross tried to collect overpayments from 535 providers for claims that were more than one year old and the company did not provide any evidence of fraud or misrepresentation, despite the California law requiring it. Anthem accuses the various medical providers of improperly coding the claims using upcoding, unbundling, or miscoding procedures. Anthem also tried to collect from another 13 providers who it claims billed for services never rendered.

San Francisco Oil Lawyer Keeping Our Community Informed About Stories That Matter

July 16, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

In order to be prepared to serve our community in the wake of a San Francisco oil spill, The Brod Law Firm follows oil-related disasters across the nation. Just last week, federal investigators revealed the results of their inquiry into a 2010 incident in Michigan. For the Northern California region, this report is especially notable because it bears several similarities to the explosion that rocked San Bruno during that same year.

MSNBC is one of several news outlets carrying the Associated Press story about the most expensive onshore oil spill in our country’s history. On July 25, 2010, at approximately 6 P.M., oil began leaking from a 30-inch pipeline in southwestern Michigan. Alarms sounded repeatedly at the control center of Enbridge, Inc., the line’s Canadian operator, but staffers misinterpreted the warning. Overall, the ruptured pipeline dumped approximately 843,000 gallons of heavy crude into the waters of the Kalamazoo River and a tributary creek. About 320 people reported health symptoms that officials tied to oil exposure and the spilled crude fouled over 35 miles of waterways and wetlands. Cleanup costs have surpassed the $800 million marks, more than five times more than the second-costliest onshore spill in U.S. history.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”), Enbridge failed to respond appropriately to the Michigan catastrophe and also neglected to adequately address structural problems that had been detected years prior. By 2005, five years before the spill, the company knew that the pipeline, located about 95 miles west of Detroit, was cracked and corroded. According to the report, Enbridge did not grasp the significance of the developing cracks and did not appropriately investigate other findings about pipe wall thickness. Enbridge did not perform excavations and visual inspections, actions that NTSB investigators believe could have prevented the rupture. Investigators believe that trapped moisture caused corrosion on the pipeline, leading to cracks that eventually linked together to cause the rupture.