San Francisco Injury Lawyer Blog

Study: Long-Term Use of Antacids Could Cause B-12 Deficiency-Linked Problems

December 10, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

It’s reasonable to expect that the medications we use to treat conditions should be safe to consume, but all too often San Francisco personal injury attorney Gregory J. Brod has been made aware of people who are sickened or worse by the drugs they take. And now, even one of the most common class of medications that millions of Americans rely on for relief, antacid drugs, may be hazardous to one’s health.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente researchers that was released Tuesday has found that the long-term use of popular antacid drugs for indigestion relief can cause a deficiency of vitamin B-12. In its untreated form, that condition, in turn, has been blamed for an increased risk of dementia, nerve damage, anemia and other potentially serious medical issues.

The study, which was published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found participants who consumed a class of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors – commonly known to the public through brand names such as Prilosec, Prevacid and Nexium – for a period longer than two years ran a 68 percent greater chance of developing a vitamin B-12 deficiency.

The use of antacid drugs for the treatment of heartburn, stomach acid reflux disease and gastric ulcers has been fairly common in the United States since the 1990s, and many Americans typically take them for no more than the maximum recommended duration of eight weeks. However, some consumers have been taking antacids for much longer periods.

The vitamin B-12-linked conditions associated with long-term use of proton pump inhibitors seem to be triggered because this class of antacids does such a good job of shutting down the stomach cells responsible for producing acid – but those same cells are needed to absorb vitamin B-12.

While the revelations from the Kaiser study are new, the connection between the use of proton pump inhibitors and medical problems is an established one, including these findings from the federal Food and Drug Administration:

An FDA report issued in May 2010 found a link between the high dose, long-term use of proton pump inhibitors and the risk of possible fractures of the hip, wrist and spine
An FDA safety communication issued in March 2011 warned of the risk of low magnesium levels associated with the long-term use of proton pump inhibitors
An FDA safety communication issued in February 2012 warned of associated diarrhea linked to the use of proton pump inhibitors

Government Immunity & Injury Law

December 8, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Often the law is an effort to resolve two competing interests. For example, traffic laws balance personal freedoms with safety concerns and tax laws balance a need for government services with the reluctance to pay for shared services. We have previously mentioned the law of sovereign immunity, a balancing decision that often protects a government institution while taking away an injured person’s right to recover damages. Last week, a federal court sitting in California looked at a question of government immunity and ruled in favor of a seriously injured individual, a decision our Berkeley injury attorney applauds for treating a government like any other business when it engages in commerce like a private entity.

Berkeley Woman Loses Legs Following Fall at Austrian Rail Platform

The dispute, covered in a San Francisco Chronicle article, arose when Carol Sachs was visiting Austria in April 2007. Sachs claims she slipped, falling through a gap to the tracks as the doors to the train she was attempting to board closed and the cars began to move. She alleges these events caused severe injury that resulted in doctors amputating both legs above the knee. Sachs filed suit in San Francisco accusing OBB, the Austrian national railroad, of negligently operating the train, not providing a safe boarding area, and failing to warn of the dangers. OBB denied any negligence, suggesting the train was already moving when Sachs attempted to board. As a preliminary matter, however, OBB asked the court to dismiss the suit based on government immunity laws.

S.F. Hit-and-Run Pedestrian Fatality Latest in Disturbing National Trend

December 6, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

When a motor vehicle strikes a pedestrian it’s not hard to figure out which side is more likely to come out on the losing end with respect to injuries. But what makes an encounter between a motorist and a pedestrian even more problematic for the latter is when the motor vehicle collides with a person and then leaves the scene. Sadly, the deadly problem of hit-and-run collisions claimed another life on the streets of San Francisco on Thursday, a deadly turn of events that Bay Area pedestrian accident attorney Gregory J. Brod has seen all too often and which, unfortunately, is a growing menace across the country as well as in San Francisco.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Kurt Dalen, a 30-year-old artist and graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, was crossing Valencia Street near Clinton Park at 2:45 a.m. Thursday when he was hit by a dark, four-door sedan that then fled the scene. Dalen, whose figurative paintings were greatly inspired by the surrounding Mission district, was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

A San Francisco Police Department probe has been launched, and department investigators are searching for leads into the death of Dalen. But at this point the SFPD can neither detail exactly how Dalen was hit nor identify the driver who hit him or his whereabouts.

The tragic death of yet another pedestrian struck by a hit-and-run motor vehicle in San Francisco and the Bay Area is unsettling news on its own. However, the latest hit-and-run fatality in this region has added another statistic to the troubling upward trend nationwide of hit-and-run collisions.

The most recent data available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety make the disturbing growth in hit-and-run collisions all too clear, including these statistics:

The number of fatal hit-and-run collisions have steadily gone up from 1,274 in 2009, to 1,393 in 2010, to 1,449 in 2011
Hit-and-run fatalities increased by 13.7 percent over the three-year period from 2009 to 2011 even as traffic deaths fell overall by 4.5 percent during the same period
One in five of all pedestrian fatalities are due to hit-and-run collisions
Sixty percent of all hit-and-run collisions claim pedestrians as victims

In response to this growing deadly trend, many states have enacted tougher laws to punish drivers involved in hit-and-run crashes, but the punitive measures are often cold comfort for the victims left trying to recover from such encounters or, worse yet, don’t live to tell the tale of what happened to them.
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The NHTSA’s “Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving”

December 6, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Earlier the week, we wrote about how evolving technology may lead to even more driver distraction. In this post, we take a more general look at the problem of distracted driving and the efforts to cut down on the number of distracted drivers on America’s roads. This is an issue of grave concern to our San Jose car accident attorney. As a California Office of Traffic Safety FAQ on the issue notes, “Driver distractions have joined alcohol and speeding as leading factors in fatal and serious injury crashes.”

The Distracted Driving Problem and Prevention Efforts from 2009 to 2012

In July 2012, the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (“NHTSA”) released a report entitled “Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving” that sought to expand the national understanding of a safety threat first identified as an NHTSA focal area in 2009 by former Secretary Ray LaHood. According to NHTSA estimates, 3,000 people die each year as a result of distracted driving crashes, accidents involving a driver who loses focus on the task of driving as a result of a manual, visual, and/or cognitive distraction. Notably, texting involves all three forms of distraction. Observational surveys supplement general statistics, reporting that more than 100,000 drivers are texting and 600,000 are holding phones up to their ears at any given moment during daylight hours. Texting, a major form of driver distraction, is particularly widespread among younger drivers, who are also less likely to object if they are a passenger and a driver is texting. On average, a text takes the driver’s eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds, long enough to travel to span of a football field when travelling 55mph.

BART’s Latest Woe, on Heels of N.Y. Tragedy, Add to Tribulations on the Rails

December 4, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

While the deadly commuter train derailment in New York City on Sunday grabbed the attention of much of the nation, another story regarding trouble on train tracks occurred Wednesday morning here in the Bay Area when the emergency brakes on a BART train locked up and choked its cars with fumes. In both cases, our train accident attorney Gregory J. Brod is among those asking why these disturbing events can happen.

Inattentive Operator at the Controls of Train in the Bronx
With respect to the derailment of a Metro-North Railroad commuter train in the Bronx, the New York Times is reporting that the Manhattan-bound train’s operator fell into an early-morning daze on Sunday as the train was speeding on a curve and derailed, killing four passengers and injuring 70 more. It also seems that a warning system in place that may have prevented the accident was located on the locomotive pushing the train, at the other end of the train from the locomotive pulling it where the engineer was situated. The warning system, a so-called “alerter,” is designed to automatically apply brakes to a train in cases where the operator is unresponsive.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the government agency that runs the Metro-North Railroad, has said that new trains would include alerter systems in all cabs, but the authority hasn’t said whether all cabs of older trains would be fitted with them.

Whereas the tragedy in New York may ultimately be attributed to human error and may have been averted with appropriate technology placement, the troubling issue BART faced Wednesday morning may have more to do with an increasingly old stock of rail cars more vulnerable to breakdowns and other age-related problems.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a westbound Pittsburg/Bay Point-line train loaded with 700 passengers departed from the Orinda station and was heading through a 3.2-mile tunnel in the Berkeley hills at 8:30 a.m. when the brakes of the train locked up, causing fumes to fill the cars. The fume-filled train remained stalled in the tunnel for one hour and prompted several captive passengers to seek medical attention.

Some BART Trains as Old as Transit System Itself
The incident was the latest in a series of recent embarrassments to befall the transit agency that has been serving the Bay Area for over 40 years. As it turns out, there are BART trains still in use that are older than 40 years, with the average age of the system’s trains standing at 33 years. Indeed, the train involved in Wednesday’s incident that BART officials attributed to a short circuit had a emergency breaking system with technology from the 1980s. And that is a recipe for not only delays but also breakdowns such as the one that occurred on the ill-fated Pittsburg/Bay Point-line train.

In Wednesday’s incident, the malfunctioning brakes released light smoke or dust along with a strong oder. As a result, after the train finally began moving again and arrived at the Rockridge station at 9:30 a.m., 11 people were taken to local hospitals and treated for dizziness, shortness of breath and nausea, but authorities said all were expected to recover.
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New Technology May Lead to More Distracted Drivers

December 4, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Technology enhances our lives in many ways. In the automotive sector, new products are emerging constantly that make our travels safer and more enjoyable. However, technology and driving isn’t always a good mix and, while science leads us forward, it often feels like the law is struggling to catch up. Legislatures are still ironing out policies on voice calls and texting behind the wheel, even as a Pew report shows a majority of Americans now own smartphones, a whopping 91% of American adults have some form of cell phone, and 81% of cell phone owners send and receive text messages. This week, an interesting story caught the attention of our Northern California distracted driving injury attorney, reminding us that technology continues to evolve and connectedness is not always a positive safety feature.

New Technology Puts Computer Screen in an Eyeglass

A California court may have seen a first-in-the-nation moment this week when a woman pleaded not guilty to a traffic citation involving the use of Google Glass, a device that an Associated Press report carried by the San Francisco Chronicle referred to as a “computer-in-an-eyeglass.” Although the technology will not be available to the general public until some point in 2014, Ceclia Abadie is one of approximately 10,000 people who have had the opportunity to serve as “explorers” and tryout the eyeglass-style device. Google Glass includes both a camera and a thumbnail-sized transparent display screen. The display screen, located above the user’s right eye, responds to voice commands. In addition to accessing email and getting driving directions, wearers of the lightweight frames can look at something and instantly get information on the display about the item. Notably, legislators in three states (Delaware, New Jersey & West Virginia) have proposed legislation that would ban driving while using Google Glass.

Questions Remain About Tragic Train Accident

December 2, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

2013 has felt like the year of transportation tragedies. Along with the rest of the world, our team has watched with heavy hearts as major accidents have occurred involving trains, planes, boats, and automobiles with transit accidents across the globe and in our own backyard. Sadly, the holiday weekend saw yet another major transit incident. Like many of you, the team at our San Francisco transportation accident law firm is watching to learn what caused the tragic New York train accident and we are hoping those lessons can prevent similar accidents from occurring in 2014 and beyond.

The Accident Scene and Early Evidence

As of late Monday, CNN was reporting that the train derailment in the Bronx claimed four lives and left at least 67 injured, with 3 remaining in critical condition. The crash occurred approximately ten miles north of Manhattan’s Grand Central Station on the Metro-North Hudson Line, a commuter route that carried 15.9 million people last year. Authorities report 150 people were aboard at the time the train derailed and all seven passenger cars jumped the track. One witness summed up the scene as “very surreal and very scary.”

“You’re Cut Off”: Dram Shop Liability in California

December 1, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

It’s a classic image on television and movies, a person sitting alone at a bar, slumped over a beer. The bartender, white towel slung over one shoulder, removes the glass and says, “Gotta cut you off, buddy.” Alcohol sales are big business, but the profits can come with responsibility. In today’s blog post, we’ll look at dram shop laws, the statutes and court-made rules that address whether or not an establishment that serves alcohol (or even the server/bartender) is liable if they serve a patron who goes on to cause a car accident or otherwise injure another individual. Recent changes mean that the establishment is only liable in very limited circumstances, but it is still an important part of the “toolkit” that our San Francisco DUI injury law firm uses to help injured plaintiffs recover critically needed compensation.

An Overview of Dram Shop Laws and the Liability of Establishments that Supply Alcohol

Like much in the field injury law, the liability of establishments that sell alcohol for injuries to others as a result of an intoxicated patron is generally a matter of state law. The vast majority of states have statutes known as dram shop laws that specifically address this type of claim. Jurisdictions cite a general social contract theory as justification for holding entities and servers responsible for ensuring the safety of both patrons as well as third parties that may encounter those patrons. The responsibility to cut off a patron who is obviously intoxicated can also be justified as a duty tied to the right to sell alcoholic beverages to the community.

Black Friday Caps Off Grim Week for Pedestrians Hit by Motorists in Bay Area

November 29, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Holiday weeks are supposed to be times when people can, among other things, relax and enjoy the company of their family and friends. Thanksgiving probably is the iconic holiday for such pleasant pursuits, but as Bay Area personal injury attorney Gregory J. Brod has pointed out, holiday weeks can also be a deadly time for people on our roadways. In that respect, sadly, this Thanksgiving week has been notable for several tragic deaths of pedestrians struck by motorists on Bay Area streets and highways.

During the week from Friday, Nov. 22 through Friday, Nov. 29, it has been particularly perilous for pedestrians to cross the streets of San Jose. According to ABC7 News, there were three separate roadway incidents involving pedestrian fatalities in the Bay Area’s largest city since the holiday week commenced last weekend, and all tragic deaths occurred within a 48-hour time span.

Toddler Killed While Riding in Stroller
The first of the pedestrian fatalities was an especially heart-breaking one Sunday afternoon, as a 3-year-old boy riding in a stroller his mother was pushing at the intersection of Vine and Oak and was struck and killed by a motorist making a left turn. Two other pedestrians in the group were also hit while crossing the street, but they suffered minor injuries and were released from the hospital Sunday.

According to KTVU News, the boy was killed while his mother was taking him to a nearby playground from an intersection where neighbors have complained that a lack of a left-turn signal has set up a dangerous zone for pedestrians and motorists to cross paths. Now, at that same intersection, a makeshift memorial of candles and flowers has been created for the toddler.

On Sunday night, a ninth-grade student at James Lick High School in East San Jose was struck and killed by a car after she left her boyfriend’s house and attempted to cross White Road. The 14-year-old girl was taken to the hospital, where she later died, and her classmates were left mourning the teen as the school closed for Thanksgiving vacation.

San Jose Reaches Unenviable Milestone
On Monday just before 11 p.m., a 50-year-old woman was attempting to cross Monterey Road in San Jose when she was struck and killed by a motorist. With that victim’s passing, the 24th pedestrian death in San Jose this year, the city’s pedestrian fatalities hit an eight-year high.

On Friday, a man was pronounced dead on Interstate 80 after his body was found on a stretch of the highway west of Solano Avenue in Richmond at around 12:25 a.m., according to KTVU News. The California Highway Patrol said that the 32-year-old man was apparently hit and killed by a car after he got out of his own disabled automobile that was involved in a solo-vehicle crash and tried to walk to the highway’s right shoulder. Witnesses told the CHP that the man was struck several times by other vehicles that did not stop.

Finally, on Friday at about 5:30 a.m., a woman crossing Interstate 80 near 7th Street in San Francisco was struck and killed by an eastbound truck, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The woman was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where she died from her injuries. Police said that it was not clear what the pedestrian was doing on the freeway.
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The Importance of Motorcycle Education

November 27, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Motorcycle accidents are a reality. As a law firm for San Francisco motorcycle riders, we know from experience that many of these accidents are the result of careless drivers who do not watch for and do not respect motorcycles and their riders. We fight for these riders. We also believe that motorcycle education can help reduce the number of accidents by preparing riders for the realities of the road, including how to manage interactions with automobile drivers.

Fatal Motorcycle Accident in Pacifica

A report from CBS 5 is a heartrending reminder of the reality of motorcycle crashes. The accident occurred just prior to 9 P.M. on Monday, near Devil’s Slide in Pacifica. Salvatore O’Brien, a 24 year old San Francisco resident, was riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on Highway 1 when he collided with two vehicles travelling in the opposite direction. Office Michael Ferguson with the California Highway Patrol reported that the motorcycle burst into flames after the second collision, which involved a 2014 Subaru. O’Brien was lying in the road when paramedics arrived. They took him to San Francisco General Hospital and he was pronounced dead at approximately 9:45 P.M. The driver of the first vehicle was uninjured and the Subaru driver refused medical attention for his minor injuries. CHP officials confirmed that the two drivers had not been under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but it has not yet been determined if O’Brien was intoxicated at the time of the crash.