San Francisco Injury Lawyer Blog

U.S. Department of Transportation Seeks Technological Fix to Distracted Driving

June 19, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration of the Department of Transportation strives to save lives through research, education, and technology. With regards to technology, the NHTSA has been making leaps and bounds with vehicle to vehicle connectivity, or V2V, since it started researching the technology over a decade, SF Gate reports. It allows cars equipped with V2V capability to communicate to each other information such as speed, direction, and location over a wireless network. The cars communicate with other vehicles within a 1000 foot radius around ten times every second. The car digests the information and warns the driver if it senses a possible collision.

Recently, the NHTSA conducted a focus group with 688 individuals to gauge their reaction to vehicle to vehicle connectivity. The individuals were asked to fill out a pre-questionnaire, and then they were exposed to the V2V technology, and asked to fill out a second questionnaire. Finally, 96 of those surveyed participated in the focus groups. The focus groups were exposed to various functions of V2V communication, including forward collision warning, blind spot warning/Lane change warning, and left turn assist. Most participants responded that they would want the technology in their own car.

This summer, the NHTSA plans to conduct a real life test of V2V in cars, trucks, and buses driven by volunteers in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In a speech in January of this year, David Strickland of the NHTSA expressed his excitement about the promise of V2V communication between cars. He stated that V2V could dramatically reduce the accident rates due to distracted driving. Strickland cites that 80% of non-impaired accidents could be addressed with the technology.

NHTSA is working with various car manufacturers to produce after market V2V products and factory installed ones as well. GM is working on a version that is compatible with mobile phones and can be used by bicyclists and pedestrians in addition to motorists. The NHTSA would like to expand the idea of vehicles that communicate not only with other vehicles, but with infrastructure as well. The Research and Innovative Technology Administration puts forth that vehicle to infrastructure communication (V2I) could reduce road congestion by alerting drivers of the best route for present traffic conditions. It could also be used to more effectively time traffic signals, monitor public transit vehicles, and prevent road run-offs.
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Accusations of Financial Elder Abuse Against Alameda County Judge

June 18, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Abuse stories are always disturbing, as they should be to someone who believes in treating others, especially those who are most vulnerable, with kindness, love, and care. As an Oakland elder abuse law firm, our team has heard about some upsetting occurrences. It is particularly shocking when the abuse comes at the hands of people who should have been a source of comfort to the victim or whose position is one we usually associate with trust.

Late Friday, according to an article in The Oakland Tribune , an Alameda County judge was arrested on charges of financial elder abuse and perjury, charges based on allegations that he secretly stole from a ninety-seven year old woman. Judge Paul Daniel Seeman, age fifty-seven, had been a respected presence on the bench and had been admired for his work helping people in need. He graduated from UC Berkley’s Boalt School of law and began work as a private sector attorney in 1980 with a focus on juvenile justice before moving to a position as a referee pro-tem for Alameda County juvenile court. Seeman became a court commissioner in 2004 and ascended to the judicial bench upon nomination by Governor Schwarzenegger three years later. As a judge, he served in the county’s drug court before moving to a role presiding over misdemeanor arraignments. Attorneys who appeared before Seeman spoke well of him, noting he seemed to really want to help people and was willing to give every defendant a chance to be heard. Seeman’s neighbors also praised him and expressed doubt that he could be involved in taking advantage of another individual.

Now standing on the other side of the courtroom, in the same courthouse where he one presided, Seeman declined to comment during Friday’s felony arraignment. In stark contrast to the picture painted by his neighbors and colleagues, police and prosecutors presented court records to support allegations that Seeman systematically executed a plan to take money from Anne Nutting over a twelve year span. Per the allegations, Seeman gained Nutting’s financial power of attorney and proceeded to sell off her possessions, including two properties in Santa Cruz, a Lionel model train set, and her collection of stamps and coins. Filings also suggest Seeman stopped making promised payments on a $250,000 loan from Nutting, although he did repay the loan after Berkley Police intervened. Eleven counts of perjury are based on court records that suggest Seeman failed to disclose

Educating Drivers and Bicyclists in Urban Areas like the Bay Area

June 15, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Recently, the news media has been drawn to disproportionately covering accidents involving bicyclists. On two different occasions, bicyclists struck and killed a pedestrian at a crosswalk. Then, a reckless young driver allegedly mowed down a father and child who were bicycling in Concord, reportedly because he was speeding and texting. Sensational events such as these are rare, but traffic accidents are a common occurrence in urban areas like San Francisco and the Bay Area as a whole. According the California Department of Motor Vehicles, about 100 cyclists are killed each year in California and hundreds of thousands more are injured.

Educating motorists and bicyclists is not always easy. Most drivers groan when they receive a traffic ticket, partly because of the fine and inconvenience, but partly because many anticipate the driver’s education required to strike the ticket from their record. Yet drivers and bicyclists alike should not take their means of transportation for granted or begrudge others for using the roadways. The first step to coexisting safely on the roadways is educating oneself about sharing the roads with more than one type of transport. Getting your hands on such information is often just a click away.

The San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency initiated the Coexist Campaign in 2007 to educate motorists, bus operators, and bicyclists in order to curb the nerve wracking feeling that often wells up when encountering each other on city streets. As more residents look to bicycling as an alternative to crowded public transport, bus transfers, or the lack of parking in urban areas, drivers and cyclists alike must be aware of how they can share the road safely and peacefully. The purpose of the campaign is to try and create a non-confrontational dialogue between bicyclists and drivers.

For instance, in June 2008 a survey by the City of Oakland’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilitation Program highlighted educational material for cyclists and bus drivers that not only had tips for safe driving, but that commented on each other’s point of view. For instance, the materials pointed out that the vast majority of bicyclists strive to ride predictably, but often ride out from the curb to maneuver around storm drains and potholes. In turn, the materials explained to bicyclists that if they cannot see the bus driver’s mirror, then the bus driver cannot see them. It also stated that hesitant or wobbly bikers make bus drivers very nervous, because they take it as a sign of unpredictability.

Lately various organizations, like the San Francisco and East Bay Bicycle Coalitions have stepped up the number and variety of educational classes. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition now offers classes for urban riders, beginning classes for adults and children, family oriented classes, and even educational classes for bus drivers. The website bicycling.511.org also provides information on where bicyclists can take classes.

The availability of classes or educational materials for every day motorists is somewhat lacking. The California driver handbook, issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles, has a small section reserved for rules of the road for bicyclists, but not one for how motorists should interact with bicyclists. The non-profit organization One Street provides helpful links on its website for both bicyclists and drivers to watch.

The better bicyclists and operators of vehicles understand the challenges each other face when sharing the high traffic urban roads, the safer the streets will be.
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Stories of Abuse at Oakland Private School

June 15, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

The Oakland Tribune is reporting on the stories shared by parents and grandparents at a meeting of an Oakland school board. The stories involved mistreatment of students at a small private school run by the St. Andrew’s Missionary Baptist Church in West Oakland. One mother said she removed her daughter from the school after the girl reported being verbally abused by Robert Lacy Jr., the church leader who served as the school’s director. Several other parents said that they were told their children were staying after school for evening Bible study when the students were actually taken to San Francisco where they were instructed to ask passers-by for money. There were no adults supervising the children, with at least one child being robbed during a trip. The same child’s mother reported that, during the 2008-2009 school year when the boy was nine years old, her son was locked in a room at one of the church buildings as a form of punishment. He suffered broken bones when he fell two stories as he attempted to escape in order to get to the restroom. Other reports included allegations of physical abuse at the school.

While the St. Andrew Missionary Baptist Church Private School is private, it is supported in part by federal funding for low-income students. The funds pass through the Oakland school district, with the school board approving the contracts. According to California watch, a non-profit initiative created by the Center for Investigative Reporting, the school received $50,000 based on its claim that 61 of its 195 students were low-income. In fact, government investigations and interviews with former students revealed that the actual enrollment was less than fifty students.

Families at Wednesday night’s meeting of the Oakland school board demanded that the school be closed or that it no longer approve the school’s federal funding. The board’s authority is limited since it only approves some of the funding and does not authorize the school’s operation. Jacqueline Minor, general counsel for the school board, said that they would examine the allegations further in a closed meeting. Lacy said he was unable to respond to every claim made by the families but that he would cooperate in the investigation.

“Death Spiral:” Blue Shield Pushes Customers into Overpriced, Bad Coverage

June 15, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Our San Francisco insurance attorneys have probably seen it all in terms of shady behavior by insurance companies trying to squeeze more and more profits from their customers. The whole foundation and reason for insurance is to pay while you are healthy and everything is fine, so that when you get sick or things go wrong the benefits are there for you to use. But even we are constantly amazed by the shady dealings these unscrupulous companies sometimes have with their customers.

spiral%20%28gadl%29.jpg One classic example in the industry has its own nickname: the so-called “death spiral.” This is when a health insurer closes a type of policy to all new customers and then raises rates to those remaining in that type of policy until those enrolled cannot afford it anymore. Since customers with pre-existing conditions cannot switch to a comparable or better policy, they are forced to accept either inferior coverage or much bigger premium increases.

Recently, Consumer Watchdog filed a lawsuit against Blue Shield for using “death spirals” in the San Francisco Superior Court. They claim that Blue Shield has used enormous rate hikes and threats of rate hikes to force patients into these lower benefit, higher cost plans in violation of California law.

California law requires that when insurers close a policy, they offer a new comparable policy to the consumer or minimize rate increases for the closed policy. The suit alleges that Blue Shield is purposefully trying to push older, sicker customers who are more expensive for them into these worse policies that require them to pay much more out of their pocket, saving Blue Shield money. They are accused of closing 31 policies regulated by California agencies, without offering comparable policies or limiting rate increases as they are required to do.

One of the plaintiffs in this case, Robert Martin of Gilroy, California, said, “Blue Shield closed my family’s policy and then threatened us with a 23% premium increase. We had no choice but to switch to the only bare bones policy Blue Shield offered us. When Blue Shield cancelled the original rate increase, the company refused to let us transfer back into our old, higher benefit policy. Then, Blue Shield raised the rate of our bare bones policy by 14.8%!” A Watchdog spokesperson said that death spirals represent insurance companies at their worst, trying to cheat paying customers and game the system.

He said, “Instead of providing coverage to loyal customers who have paid their premiums, Blue Shield pushes consumers into skimpier coverage or prices them out of care altogether when they are sick and need insurance the most.”

The lawsuit alleges a broader scheme to manipulate the health insurance market, and Consumer Watchdog has a chart that maps this allegation. The consumer group was already successful at settling a similar “death spiral” case against Blue Cross in California last year. In that case, Blue Cross agreed to follow the law-to offer comparable plans and limit rate increases if policyholders choose to stay in the older, closed plans.

If your insurance company is trying to get away with a horrible scheme like this, contact a San Francisco insurance claim attorney as soon as possible.

See Our Related Blog Posts:

JP Morgan Chase’s Shady Flood Insurance Scheme for Borrowers

California Doctors Charged with Medicare Fraud in Nationwide Anti-Fraud Effort
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Safety Reminders Following the Deaths of Three Toddlers in Sacramento Area Swimming Pools

June 13, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Few things are as enjoyable on a hot summer day as refreshing dip in a swimming pool. Unfortunately, pools can be a danger zone, especially for young children. Less than two weeks into the month, June has seen three toddlers perish in swimming pool deaths in Sacramento and surrounding areas. Fourteen month old Emily Elizabeth Washington died from an apparent drowning in the backyard pool of a home in Carmichael on June 2. Three days later, on June 5, two year old Jazman Coulter drowned in the pool on the 7400 block of Winnett Way in south Sacramento. This Sunday, three-and-a-half year old Emille Hahn lost her life in the pool at her Folsom home. Several other incidents of near-drowning in the Sacramento region have also been reported this month, with a fourth death occurring in a bathtub in Elk Grove.

According to a report in The Sacramento Bee, 129 children died as a result of drowning in Sacramento between 1990 and 2009. Fifty-six percent of the fatalities occurred in residential swimming pools with other locations including rivers, bathtubs, spas, and even a bucket. Christy Adams, a trauma prevention coordinator with the UC Davis Heath System, noted that toddlers are especially susceptible to tumbling into a pool due because the weight of their heads makes them unstable. The children then lack the strength to pull their heads above the water. These factors combine to make drowning the top cause of fatal injury for children between the ages of one and five nationwide. One dangerous misconception is that the sound of a struggling child will alert a caregiver that to a drowning youngster. Drowning, especially when it involves a toddler, can frequently be silent because the child’s arms and legs may not be strong enough to allow the child to break the water’s surface.

In addition to reporting on the recent fatalities, The Sacramento Bee also carried important summer safety tips. Of course, vigilant supervision is the number one key to preventing drowning. Toddlers should be watched constantly when near a pool, with an adult within remaining in reach of the child. Swimming lessons are not only fun, they are also an important safety measure that is especially important for children whose homes have backyard pools. While “floaties” and water wings can be a fun addition to water play, they should never be relied upon as flotation devices. Life jackets are required by law in boats but they can also be a smart idea in pool areas. Toys should always be removed from the pool after use as they can draw a child into the water. Alarms can also be installed to sound an alert whenever someone enters the pool water. Gates are another important element of pool safety and latches should be above the reach of a young child.

The Danger & The Law of Toxic Mold in Northern California

June 11, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

When we think about mold, most of us recall having to toss out bread, cheese, or other food items that have lingered in our kitchen for too long. However, sufferers who have fallen sick due to toxic mold in San Francisco, Oakland, or other Northern California communities have a very different response. For them, mold inhaled at home or on the workplace is the source of long-term illness and a great deal of struggle.

The vast majority of mold we encounter on a regular basis, such as the mold that might appear on a shower curtain, is harmless. However, some types of mold can cause serious illness. One particularly dangerous type of mold is stachybotrys chartarum, a greenish-black mold that can be found in chronically moist or wet environments, particularly where materials have a high cellulose content including drywall, paper, wood, and certain ceiling materials. Toxic mold gives off spores or mycotoxins that can be inhaled by an unsuspecting individual.

Initial or short-term exposure to toxic mold can cause symptoms that resemble a cold or allergy attack such as sneezing, headache, watery/itchy eyes, and skin irritation including itchy feeling. If exposure to a dangerous strain of mold continues, a person may experience constant headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss, hair loss, persistent fatigue, short-term memory loss, rashes or sores on the skin, and respiratory ailments such as repeated bouts of bronchitis, sinus infections, and even coughing that brings up blood. Individuals who continue to inhale mold for a longer period can get even sicker and can suffer permanent health ailments such as long-term memory loss, brain damage, blindness, bleeding in the lungs, cancer, and even death.

Teens Report Texting Behind the Wheel Despite Safety Risks

June 8, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

After countless public awareness campaigns, it is difficult to imagine that anyone has escaped hearing the message that driving and texting do not mix. Surely this warning is a part of every driver’s education class across the country. It seems, however, that teens are not listening. This is a trend that endangers every driver and passenger, even every pedestrian, who travels on our roadways.

The San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press are reporting the results of a survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”). The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System study is conducted by the CDC every other year and monitors “priority health-risk behaviors” among adolescents. For the first time, surveys distributed to high school students nationwide in 2011 asked about texting behind the wheel. Fifty-eight percent of high school seniors and forty-three percent of high school juniors who participated in the anonymous survey admitted to either texting or emailing while driving during the previous month. The survey did not ask respondents to distinguish between messaging when the vehicle is moving or stopped.

Researchers at the Pew Research Center, a think tank based in Washington D.C., have also looked at how teens use technology. They found that teens send and receive approximately one hundred text messages per day. For many young people, texting is the primary way that they communicate with their peers. Teens frequently continue reading and to responding to text messages during local car trips. According to focus groups, teens feel that it is okay to text when stopped for a light or stuck in traffic. While many acknowledge that texting while driving is unsafe, they often think they can safely message if they hold their phone aloft so that they can see both the mobile device and the road at the same time.

Lawsuit Following Salmonella Death Reminds the Food Industry that Public Health Must Be a Top Concern

June 6, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Obtaining compensation for victims is an important goal of our Oakland injury law firm, but it is not the only one. Representing plaintiffs in civil court cases, such as a contaminated food lawsuit in California, helps us send an important message to both companies and individuals. Holding people and organizations accountable for illness and injury caused by their actions tells them that our Northern California community will not tolerate decisions that ignore public safety.

The Oakland Tribune is reporting on a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court against a Castro Valley restaurant and an Iowa egg farm. The suit claims that both the farm and the steakhouse are liable for selling and distributing contaminated food and for negligence in failing to ensure the eggs were contaminant-free.

According to the complaint, Mate Marlais fell ill due to the salmonella bacteria after eating eggs “over-easy” served to him on June 7, 2010 at El Rancho Steakhouse. The 89 year-old was found in a pool of diarrhea a few days after eating the eggs. He was taken to the hospital in a state of shock and died when the family removed him from life support. Officials linked the eggs served at the restaurant to the Wright County Egg Farm in Iowa. The farm’s products were cited as the source in more than 1,300 illnesses nationwide, including 266 cases in California. Marlais is the only person whose death was confirmed to have stemmed from the products. In the wake of the salmonella outbreak, more than a half-billion eggs that originated from the Iowa farm were recalled.

California Insurance & Workers Compensation Reform

June 6, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Our San Francisco insurance attorneys were interested to see news that another round of legal reforms of California’s workers’ compensation system is ongoing. The California Assembly and Senate had a joint hearing on this issue earlier this year, entitled, “Informational Hearing, Injured Workers Since SB 899: A Discussion on the Impacts of SB 899 on Permanent Disability Benefits.”

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a previous reform bill in 2004 that changed or affected almost every facet of California workers’ comp law. But the reformed system has turned into a boondoggle that has almost everyone united in favor of new reforms to fix the growing problems, many stemming from the last reform effort. One speaker noted that workers’ comp medical treatment costs have gone up 10 percent every year since the last reform. Others noted that injured workers are receiving 60 percent less benefits today than in the pre-reform era. The system is benefiting none and making no one happy. Current Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law a few workers’ comp related bills, but he also advocates for a more comprehensive reform, saying it should be on a “broad and balanced scale.”

This comprehensive reform will have two main tricky issues to contend with: (1) better managing permanent disability benefits (which have been drastically cut in recent years), and (2) an attempt to stop premium rates increasing.