San Francisco Injury Lawyer Blog

National School Bus Safety Week

October 30, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Our children are our nation’s most precious natural resource and they can’t achieve without an education. Safety in our schools has been a hot topic of late, with recent tragedies focusing the discussion on school violence. School safety is, however, a much broader issue and it begins even before children cross the threshold of the school building. School bus safety, a topic that our San Francisco school injury law firm believes receives far too little attention, requires the cooperation of many groups and individuals. School bus drivers, vehicle manufacturers, operating companies, school boards, bus riders, and all the drivers who share the road with school-related vehicles all play a role in ensuring children are safe while travelling to and from school.

CHP Joins in National School Bus Safety Week

Last week, schools in California and nationwide observed School Bus Safety Week. California Highway Patrol (“CHP”) announced its involvement in a press release, stating a desire to bring awareness to the issue of safe transportation for students statewide. According to the CHP, nearly one million students ride on California’s school buses every day, cared for by more than 25,000 certified bus drivers. School bus drivers undergo a rigorous certification process that include 40 hours of training, background clearance, drug testing, and physical examinations. Drivers are also required to hold a current first aid and medical card. Buses also undergo an annual inspection.

Mold Infestation Basics

October 30, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Be Aware of Halloween Dangers

October 29, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

For many, fright is part of the fun on Halloween. However, the best fear is controlled; a scare that comes while knowing one is ultimately safe and secure. Attention to Halloween safety is crucial to ensuring that the thrills and chills don’t turn into true danger. There are many elements to a safe October 31st and this post will focus on only two of the many safety issues: the threat of burn injuries and the danger to pedestrians on Halloween. Both of these topics are of great concern to our San Francisco injury attorney and we encourage victims of either threat to call our firm if someone else’s negligence contributed to your injury.

Halloween Burn Injuries

Burn injuries are one of the biggest threats to a safe Halloween celebration. Despite a federal law requiring costumes meet flame-resistance standards, flammable costumes remain a real threat. ABC News references 16 costume-related burn injuries since 1980, including a twelve year old who died after a brush with a lit pumpkin caused her costume to ignite. These numbers likely fail to account for fires blamed on other causes, including fires started by decorative items. Halloween is, according to the U.S. Fire Administration, one of the top five days for fires sparked by candles in the U.S. Preventing fires and burns requires vigilance. We also believe that using product liability laws to hold companies liable for unsafe products will also help prevent future burn injuries.

Castro Valley Nursing Home “Closes,” With Fourteen Residents Left Behind

October 27, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

As a San Francisco nursing home abuse law firm, we have seen far too many cases involving the neglect and maltreatment of vulnerable individuals. The law is supposed to help prevent these cases, but a recent headline draws attention to dangerous gaps in both law and practice of senior care in California. In this post, we present a story in which many people contributed to a shocking case of nursing home abuse. However, we cannot present this story without also noting the story’s heroes, people who chose to act with compassion and heart when they saw dangerous neglect and who refused to be part of the problem.

Paramedics Discover Residents Abandoned at Closed Senior Care Center

Reporters with The San Francisco Chronicle are following an unfolding story of a system that placed the residents of a Castro Valley assisted living facility in danger. California’s Department of Social Services ordered the closure of Valley Manor Residential Care, located at 17926 Apricot Way, effective Thursday October 24. Details relating to the closure process, including the role of the Department and the center’s management, remain to be discovered (Note: A later report carried by ABC cites the Department’s complaint which details a history of violations at the facility, including severe understaffing). However, it appears that most of the staff left the facility on or prior to Thursday’s closure date. On Saturday, according to Alameda County sheriff’s deputies, paramedics were called to the site. Upon arrival, they found the posted closure notice on the door. Inside, they found fourteen sick and elderly patients still living in the building.

Drunk Driving: No One is Immune

October 26, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

It is hard to imagine that anyone old enough to drive has not heard that alcohol and driving are not a safe combination. The dangers of drunk driving are taught in school (even outside of driver’s education classes) and by parents, reiterated in numerous public service announcements, and tucked in countless other media messages. Still, there are many people who think the warning doesn’t apply to them. These people know that driving under the influence can be deadly, but still step behind the wheel believing that they can handle it. Most would never explicitly say they are immune to danger, they just act like it. Our San Francisco drunk driving accident lawyer knows how wrong they are and that this attitude puts both the individual and innocent bystanders at risk.

San Francisco Police Officer Accused of Causing Crash When Driving Drunk

Police officers often receive advanced driving instruction and one wonders if this extra experience led one California officer to decide he could handle driving despite being severely intoxicated. At his arraignment on Thursday morning, covered by The San Francisco Chronicle, Sergeant Thomas Haymond pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the events of October 8. On that night, according to prosecutors, Haymond drove his personal vehicle into a parked car with enough force to push the parked vehicle into a tree. The incident occurred around 8:30 P.M. near the intersection of 12th Avenue and Lawton Street. Investigators believe that Haymond drove away from the scene to his Moraga Street home. Police arrested him approximately 30 minutes after the crash, having located him by following a trail of debris leading to his location.

Chain Reaction Crashes: Five Dead Following Multi-Car Accident in Lodi

October 24, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

In our work as an Oakland personal injury law firm, we represent people who are injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, recklessness, or wrongful actions (or, in limited cases, inaction). Determining and proving fault is critical to obtaining a verdict in the plaintiff’s favor and to recovering money damages. While fault is sometimes easy to spot, such as when a drunk driver veers off-road and hits a pedestrian on the sidewalk, it can also be one of the most complex issues in a trial. For example, determining liability and fault in a chain reaction crash often requires a detailed fault analysis. These multi-vehicle incidents involve at least as many stories as the number of cars in the collision and part of our job is to parse out responsibility and prove the degree of each defendant’s liability.

Five Killed in One of the Worst Crashes in Lodi’s History

A multicar crash in Lodi is being called one of the worst accidents in the city’s history. The Oakland Times (reprinting a Contra Costa Times article) reports that police and paramedics responded to a call around 5:21 P.M. on Tuesday at the intersection of Ham Lane and Vine Street. Although investigators are still looking into the cause of the five car chain-reaction crash, witnesses standing near Lodi Middle School report seeing the driver using a cell phone as he sped through the intersection. Subsequent to the crash, that vehicle ended up in front of the school’s driveway with severe front-end damage. The five car collision left several injured and five dead, including a very young child and a pregnant woman.

Bay Area Residents May Not Be Able to Breathe Sigh of Relief, Even as Feds Fine Valero for Pollution

October 23, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

We tend to take the air we breathe for granted, with the vital element of life often characterized as one of the free things in life. But there are few things in life that can be as quickly and pervasively polluted as the air we breathe, and our San Francisco toxic tort attorney Gregory J. Brod is reminded of this fact and how important it is for those who fall ill from the inhalation of polluted air to find experienced legal representation to win the compensation from polluters that the victims of pollution deserve.

The San Francisco Bay Area received an up-close-and-personal reminder of the fact that companies emitting harmful pollutants into the air very much exist in our region when it was announced Tuesday that the Valero Refining Co. agreed to pay more than $300,000 in civil penalties for air quality violations. According the Bay Area Quality Management District as reported in a story in the San Francisco Chronicle, the energy firm was cited for 33 violations in 2011 and 2012 committed at its Benicia refinery. Among the specific violations emanating from the Benicia refinery were those that involved excessive emissions and gas leaks.

In 2013, Valero earned the dubious distinction of being named one of California’s top producers of toxic substances, ranking as the 10th biggest source for chemicals and pollutants in the state, according to a January assessment by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Bay Area, Valero ranked just behind the ConocoPhillips refinery in Rodeo as the region’s biggest emitter of poisonous substances in the region – the company was linked to the release of 504,472 pounds of toxic substances into the air, water or ground.

However, in a version of the saying, “We’ve seen this act before,” the recently announced penalties against Valero are not the first time the energy company has landed in hot water with the government over pollution and paid a penalty as a result. Indeed, the federal government levied a much bigger penalty against Valero in June 2005 as a result of the emission of harmful substances. In a settlement with the Justice Department and the EPA under the Clean Air Act, Valero was required to pay $5.5 million in penalties and to defray the cost of supplemental environmental projects valued at another $5.5 million in the six states where Valero refineries are located. Once again, among the 14 refineries at the center of the settlement, Valero’s facility in Benicia but also its refinery in Martinez were involved. In the 2005 settlement, Valero was expected to reduce harmful emissions by more than 20,000 tons per year from its 14 refineries, including nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and particulate matter. The federal government also authorized injunctive relief that called for the following goals:

Valero was to spend more than $700 million on injunctive relief through 2012.
Valero was to guarantee emissions reductions of specific substances at each refinery.
Valero made a commitment to reduce the number and severity of major flaring events at all of its facilities.
Valero made a commitment to put in place improved procedures for reducing benzene emissions and volatile organic compound leaks from its equipment.

Civil Liability for Bullying

October 23, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

For some, the adolescent years are fun and exciting, filled with new adventures and the start of lifelong friendships. For others, they are filled with torment. Bullying is not a new problem, but it has become increasingly serious. The internet and social media allow bullies to reach their targets 24/7, making it nearly impossible for the victims to escape. Our focus on school law has expanded to include this development and Attorney Greg Brod is proud to stand-up for victims as a San Francisco bullying lawyer. This is a fast-evolving area of law that continues to grow in importance with each story we hear of severe bullying, especially when those stories have ended with a victim turning to suicide to escape. We believe in civil liability for bullying, including claims against bullies and the adult/institutions that turn a blind eye to the cruelty.

The Story of a Child’s Torment

On September 9th, bullying claimed another young life. As detailed by ABC News, twelve year-old Rebecca Sedwick took her own life when she jumped from the tower of an abandoned concrete plant. It wasn’t her first suicide attempt; Rebecca cited bullying as the reason she cut her wrists back in December. A 14 year-old girl allegedly recruited Rebecca’s former best friend, also age 12, to help lead the torment which included intimidation, name-calling, and at least some physical violence. On at least one occasion, the older girl suggested Rebecca “drink bleach and die.” Online bullying involved as many as fifteen girls. The bullying continued even after Rebecca’s mother pulled her from the school. Reports suggest the bullying started over a boy.

Youth Sports-Related Injuries by the Numbers: a Hefty, Growing Toll

October 21, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Last week on these pages we discussed how, as high school sports have become an increasingly competitive pursuit, the number of serious sports-linked injuries have also increased. However, according to a recent report in the San Francisco Chronicle, the increasing tendency for youths to concentrate on one sport for longer periods of time has loomed as another reason for the surge in youth sports injuries, a development that has our personal injury attorney particularly concerned.

As the article in the Chronicle suggested, the quest for sharper skills as well as scholarships and college success has been a driving force behind the focus on one sport among youths. Unfortunately, this trend has translated into repetition, more strain and thus more injuries. Indeed, injuries blamed on overuse are responsible for half of all sports injuries among middle and high school students, with specialization a likely cause. And there has been a startling five-fold increase in the number of serious elbow and shoulder injuries to youth baseball and softball players since 2000.

A closer look at the statistics on youth sports injuries supports the notion that the trend toward specialization has had some negative physical consequences for its participants. A report in USA Today graphically illustrated that 1.35 million youths a year sustain serious sports injuries that are diagnosed in emergency rooms in the United States. The most common injuries that triggered ER visits in 2012 were, in descending order, 451,480 for strains or sprains, 249,500 for fractures, 210,640 for contusions and abrasions, and 163,670 for concussions. During 2012, football and basketball vied for the highest number of injuries among athletes age 19 and under, with the former responsible for 394,350 injuries and the latter 389,610 injuries. The next closest popular sport to be linked to an ER-treated youth injury in 2012 was soccer, with 172,460 injuries. Not surprisingly, football was responsible for the highest number of concussions – 58,080 – among athletes age 19 and younger in 2012, with 47 percent of all youth sports-linked concussions sustained by those youths age 12 to 15.

The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford has compiled some other unsettling statistics concerning youth sports injuries in the United States, including these:

Looking at just children and adolescents age 14 and younger, approximately 3.5 million are injured every year while playing sports or engaging in recreational activities.
While deaths from sports injuries are rare, brain injuries are the No. 1 cause of death among sports-related injuries.
Sports and other recreational activities are tied to approximately 21 percent of all traumatic brain injuries sustained by children and adolescents.
More than 775,000 children and adolescents age 14 and younger receive treatment in hospital emergency rooms every year due to suffering a sport-related injury.

D.A.’s Decision on Firefighters in Asiana Crash Puts Focus on Good Samaritan Law

October 18, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

When one surviving passenger from an ill-fated Asiana Airlines jumbo jet attempting a landing at San Francisco International Airport ended up on the tarmac and then was struck and killed by a San Francisco Fire Department fire truck on July 6, the tragedy ranked as one of the more bizarre developments of the crash landing that claimed three lives. And now San Mateo County’s district attorney has announced that the firefighters involved in the response to the airplane crash will not be criminally charged in connection with the death of the person who was run over and killed, but San Francisco airplane accident attorney Gregory J. Brod would caution that the decision does not address the question of any potential civil litigation.

Factors Included First Responder Reports, Videos and Autopsy
As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe on Friday declared that his office would not file criminal charges against the SFFD firefighters whose fire truck hit and killed Chinese student Ye Meng Yuan, 16. Ye somehow ended up on the tarmac after the crash landing of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 and was still alive but under a foot-deep layer of fire-retardant foam when she was struck by the fire truck. Wagstaffe said that his office had opted not to file charges against the firefighters after considering reports from police, firefighters and other first responders, footage from numerous video recordings, as well as the findings of San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault. The coroner’s autopsy found that Ye died of multiple blunt-force injuries that were consistent with being struck by at least one motor vehicle.

Wagstaffe’s office had jurisdiction concerning the accident because of SFO’s location in San Mateo County, and Wagstaffe said that Ye’s death “was a tragic accident that did not involve any violation of our criminal laws.”

Civil Litigation Still Being Considered
While the SFFD firefighters are now out of jeopardy when it comes to criminal charges, the Ye family attorney is considering filing a civil lawsuit under the claim that the girl’s death was “completely avoidable,” and that the firefighters allegedly knew that she was outside the airplane and in the midst of the firefighters before they sprayed the foam on the ground and basically neglected her.

Any defense of the firefighters involved in the first-response mission surrounding the Asiana Airlines crash against a civil lawsuit will largely rest on California’s version of what are known as Good Samaritan laws. And that relevant code, California Health and Safety Code Section 1799.102, will offer solid immunity grounds for the firefighters:

No person who in good faith, and not for compensation, renders emergency medical or nonmedical care at the scene of an emergency shall be liable for any civil damages resulting from any act or omission.

However, while the firefighters may be in the clear legally, the doctrine of sovereign immunity would have to apply to remove their employer – in this case, the SFFD – from legal crosshairs. A key authority on the matter of sovereign immunity – whether private parties can sue the government for torts committed by its officers or agents – is California Government Code Sec. 815.2:

(a) A public entity is liable for injury proximately caused by an act or omission of an employee of the public entity within the scope of his employment if the act or omission would, apart from this section, have given rise to a cause of action against that employee or his personal representative.
(b) Except as otherwise provided by statute, a public entity is not liable for an injury resulting from an act or omission of an employee of the public entity where the employee is immune from liability.
Continue Reading ›