Tag Archive: Bus

6 People killed in Greyhound Bus Accident near Fresno.

Fresno Greyhound Bus Accident

Scene of horrific Greyound Bus Accident

FRESNO, Calif. — A Greyhound bus carrying 47 people and traveling to Sacramento from Los Angeles crashed on a highway in California’s Central Valley on Thursday, killing six and injuring many others.

California Highway Patrol Officer Michelle Sigmond said the bus driver swerved to try to avoid another crash involving an overturned SUV and slammed into a concrete center divider and then struck another vehicle shortly after 2 a.m. just outside downtown Fresno. The bus went down an embankment, hit a eucalyptus tree and came to rest on a freeway off-ramp with its front end smashed and tree branches jutting into the vehicle.

Twisted pieces of metal, broken glass and torn clothing littered the ground around the accident scene.

Arlen Snider, who had been traveling from Phoenix to Sacramento to visit his mother, said he was asleep in the middle section of the bus when the crash occurred. She awoke to the smell of smoke and injured passengers all around her.

“I woke up on the floor of the bus and started helping people off the bus,” Snider, who escaped uninjured, said after arriving in Sacramento’s bus terminal Thursday morning.

In addition to the six dead – four women and two men, including the driver – several people were hurt with injuries that ranged from critical to bruises and cuts, said CHP Officer Kirk Arnold.

It’s unclear if all of the fatalities were on the bus.

“I had just woke up and I heard a boom once, and a boom again and the next thing I know we were down this embankment,” Linda Gee, a passenger on the bus, told KMPH-TV in Fresno.

“I’m alive and I thank god I’m alive,” she said. “There was just bleeding everywhere.”

The bus departed Los Angeles late Wednesday and stopped in Fresno before continuing on its route to Sacramento. It was on its way to Madera for one of about eight scheduled stops when the crash occurred, according to Greyhound spokeswoman Bonnie Bastian.

A relief bus was sent to take nine passengers who wanted to continue on to their destinations.

Northbound lanes of Highway 99, a major route through the San Joaquin Valley, have been closed since the crash.

Fresno Bus Accident Attorney Website

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New California State Laws for the Second Decade of the 21st Century; The Year 2010; I think our State Legislatures have too much time on their hands! Read Below.

A Summary of California Laws for the year 2010Below is a summary of new laws for the State of California for 2010. Most will be going into effect on Friday morning.

Remember you are deemed to know the law; ignorance of the law is no excuse for violating it.

AB 9 (J. Perez) – Political Reform Act: FPPC – this law clarifies what constitutes improper campaign activity by a local government or agency during an election for a candidate or initiative.

AB 14 A motor vehicle can be declared be a public nuisance and impounded for up to 30 days when the motor vehicle is used in the commission of specified crimes related to prostitution.

AB 58 Now an Infraction to participate in a betting pool with less than $2,500 at stake.

AB 91 New “Ignition Interlock Device” Law requires first-time DUI offenders to install a device in their vehicles in a test program in Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Tulare counties.

AB 144 (Ma) – Last year in San Francisco, law enforcement confiscated over 1,000 illegal disabled placards. The widespread abuse has not only taken away parking opportunities for people who really need them, but has also exacerbated the difficult parking environment in San Francisco. The current penalty is a $100 fine.

AB 144 not only increases the fine for fraudulent use to $1,000, but also gives parking control officers the ability to cite violators. Currently, only police officers have the ability to cite violators in many instances.

AB 166 (Lieu) – Creates a cost-effective solution to deal with the growing number of abandoned boats in California’s waterways. The bill will establish a vessel turn-in program that permits boat owners to transfer ownership of their dilapidated vessels before they become an environmental hazard.

AB 171 (Jones) – Establishes basic consumer protection standards governing credit cards and loan products that are arranged in dental offices. The law is designed to protect elderly, low-income or limited-English-speaking dental patients who unwittingly signed credit card applications. The new law prohibits arranging credit while patients are under anesthesia, requires notice in the patient’s primary language, and requires refunds if dental services have not been provided within 15 days.

AB 232 (Hill) – Allows the California State Teachers Retirement System to implement technology improvements such as switching from paper transactions with customers to online and e-mail transactions. The changes will reduce environmental impacts and save the state about $1 million annually.

AB 242 (Nava) – Strengthens penalties for spectatorship at a dogfight in California.

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Tort Reform is a big Scam; Why Tort Reform will Hurt You and take away more of Your Freedom!

Tort Reform is a ScamWhen you hear the term “Tort Reform” realize they what you are really hearing is a call to take away your legal right to get compensation when you are injured due to the negligence of another, to protect big business, the insurance companies, the big pharmaceutical companies, and big medicine; as though they are not rich enough.

You will be the only one getting screwed with tort reform; mark my words.

 I hear a certain political party constantly preaching about tort reform this and tort reform that in a way to demonize personal injury attorneys as the fall guys for excessive costs of medical care, insurance, and everything else you can imagine.

You see they like to blame attorneys for taking on big business, the insurance companies, the big pharmaceutical companies, and big medicine, when they screw up and harm you.

Hell, 99.9% of the time, we are the only way you are going to be compensated when you are harmed due to the negligence of big business, doctors, pharmaceutical companies, or big insurance companies.

You don’t hear members of this political party telling you this do you?

One thing they don’t tell you is that since the 1970’s, there has already been a cap on general damages in medical malpractice cases of $250.000 in the State of California.

This means that if a doctor screws up and let’s say cuts out your only good kidney, or let’s say misdiagnosis an illness like cancer, you only get $250,000 for general damages in the State of California. Does this seem right to you? Hell no!

The laws of the State of California basically protect doctors from their negligence and the laws have done so since the 1970’s. States such as Texas have in the past couple of years, recently enacted their own tort reform laws. My understanding is that in Texas there is a $750.000 cap on general damages.

California is way behind the eight ball in this regard; we can only get $250,000 for general damages. It is time to either remove the cap in California or to increase it to reflect the inflation that has occurred since the 1970’s.

Look if you are the victim of medical malpractice, how much would the pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress be worth to you if let’s say a doctor screws up and cuts off the wrong leg, or even caused the death of a loved one?

Do you want some law to prevent you from recovering from your loss? This is tort reform. It is time to get educated folks and stop believing those talking heads who pocket big bucks from those who would save money with tort reform.

This is the essence of tort reform; it is taking away your legal rights, to protect a class of persons or corporations from the harm that they cause by limiting what you can get from them if they screw up your life.

You will see that one political party preaches about less government, and less regulation and intrusion, and they in the same breath will argue to regulate your legal right to obtain compensation as an individual when you are harmed. Who are they protecting? Big business, big medicine, insurance companies, everyone but you. These people are full of shit.

It does not matter what political party you are from when your life gets turned upside down in a personal injury case does it. In the end we are all the same; when we are sitting on our couch injured and hurting due to the negligence of another, all we want is to get better, to get compensated, and to get our lives back. Tort reform prevents this. This is what pundits do not tell you.

These are the same guys that are saying that providing medical coverage to millions of Americans, and prohibiting insurance companies from denying you coverage for pre-existing coverage is a bad thing. These guys are despicable.

It is time to expose the lies America. Tort reform is against your interest and your freedom as Americans.

This is another way to screw the little guy and protect those who are already making a fortune at your expense!

It is time to become educated folks. I am on the front lines of this fight on a daily basis. Any one of you could be sitting in my office looking for help for your personal injury case; you never know. What you should know is tort reform is bad for you; it is bad for all of us.

By California Personal Injury Attorney Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2009

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Woman Crushed to Death by a Bus in a Motorcycle Accident

Map of where motorcycle passenger was killed in CaliforniaTecate, California –

A 42-year-old woman from La Mesa was crushed to death by a bus while riding on the back of a motorcycle on a steep, winding grade just northeast of the Tecate border crossing with Mexico on the California side in Tecate, California.

Debra Louise Allen, 42, of La Mesa, was on the back of a 2003 Harley Davidson motorcycle at about 10 a.m. Saturday when the crash occurred on Highway 94 just east of the Tecate junction, according to a report by the medical examiner.

The motorcycle was passing the bus on the winding hill and hit it while moving back into the lane, said a California Highway Patrol dispatcher.

Allen was run over and crushed, and the driver of the motorcycle was pushed to the side of the road. His name was withheld, and the CHP did not have the extent of the driver’s injuries.

The bus was operated by a private charter company and was transporting people detained by federal immigration agents. The bus driver told CHP officers the motorcycle’s driver had cut him off.

California Motorcycle Rider, and Passenger, Accident and Wrongful Death Attorney and Lawyer

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Bus Driver is convicted in Colusa gambler bus crash; Charter Bus Safety Act, AB636

Quintin Joey WattsDriver Quintin Joey Watts faces a maximum of 76 years in prison for his role in the gambler’s special bus crash that killed 11 passengers on their way to Colusa Casino Resort last year.

A jury of six men and six women deliberated for three hours Thursday before convicting Watts of 11 counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and 21 counts of causing great bodily injury, stated the Colusa County District Attorney today.

“I believe this is the first case in California of gross vehicular manslaughter based strictly on sleep deprivation,” said the DA. “There was no alcohol, no drugs, no medication in his system, it was simply exhaustion.”

Watts, 53, had slept no more than three or four hours in the 27 hours prior to the Oct. 5, 2008 Sunday night crash on a rural road, the DA said.

Watts repeatedly told investigators, “I was hecka tired,” the DA stated.

“On the day before the accident, he got up at 4:40 a.m. and didn’t go back to bed until 4 a.m. and got up an hour or two later,” stated the DA.

Watts was on his third casino run in a day-and-a-half when he fell asleep at the wheel, three witnesses said.

One was Chouangseng Saechao, 48, “who was very badly hurt and had almost every bone broken in her body,” stated a case worker at Lao Family Community Development who is helping some of the 23 passengers who were injured in the crash.

“I’m happy he’s been convicted and will be in jail forever, but I feel very sad I have to carry this injury forever,” Saechao said through her case worker. “Any bus driver has to be checked and has to be a good driver.”

The California Legislature has passed The Charter Bus Safety Act, AB636 — sponsored by Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) — which will revoke operating permits of bus companies operating without proper permits or qualified drivers. The bill will suspend unlicensed bus drivers for five years.

Watts had a commercial driver’s license but did not have the proper DMV certificate to allow him to drive a bus with 10 or more passengers, said a spokeswoman for Jones. “And the bus company was registered as non-operational, even though the bus in the crash was still being used,” she said.

“The tragic loss of 11 of my constituents to a rogue bus operator demonstrates the need for the ‘one strike and you are out’ approach,” Jones said. “I have no patience for those who undercut the process, thumbing their nose at regulations, and making California roads unsafe for us all.”

Gov. Schwarzenegger has until Oct. 11 to sign or veto the bill.

California Bus Accident Attorney

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