You and Your Passengers Must Wear Seat Belts?

Most drivers, no matter how carefully they drive, will be involved in one or more vehicle collision throughout their lifetime. The chances of you being killed or injured in a vehicle collision are greater than you may think. One person in three is going to be injured or killed. To increase your odds of surviving an accident, use your seat belts each and every time you are in a moving vehicle. Ensure you and your passengers wear both your lap and shoulder belt if the vehicle comes with both, whether or not the vehicle comes with air bags. Wear your seat belts each and every time you drive. It’s the law!

Children eight years and older, but under 16 years old must be properly secured by having an appropriate safety belt. Children under eight years old, who are less than 4 feet 9 inches tall, have to be properly secured in a child passenger restraint system which fits federal safety standards. However, children under eight years old, that are 4 feet 9 inches tall or taller, may be secured with an appropriate safety belt.

Here are a few additional techniques for using a child passenger restraint system:

The back seat is the safest place in the car for kids 12 years old or younger.

Children, who weigh to 20 lbs. up to age 1, must be secured in a child passenger restraint system secured to the back seat facing the back of the car. Children must not be placed facing forward or backward in the front passenger seat if the vehicle comes with an air bag. Your local law enforcement agencies, fire departments, or perhaps a child passenger safety (CPS) technician can check out proper installation of your child passenger restraint system.

Common Causes of Vehicle Collisions

A few of the common reasons for vehicle collisions are:

• Unsafe speed
• Driver distractions
• Driving on the wrong side of the road
• Improper turns
• Violation of the right-of-way rules
• Violation of stop signals and signs
• Cellular telephone use

Choosing a Lane

When news stations report vehicle collisions, they refer to numbered traffic lanes. The left lane is the “Number.1 Lane.” The lane on the right of the “Number 1 Lane” is the “Number 2 Lane”, then the “Number 3 Lane”, etc.

For anyone who is made aware of a motor vehicle collision through the news or your GPS, avoid driving close to the collision or take another route, if possible. In the event you must drive near a collision scene, do not slow down or stop and look at the accident because you could cause another collision. Drive carefully and watch for people in the road. Always obey an order from a police officer or firefighter directing traffic at a vehicle collision scene, even if you must ignore normal traffic laws or signs to accomplish this.

When You See a Motor Vehicle Collision

Should you be the very first person at a vehicle collision scene, pull completely off the road, away from the collision. Emergency personnel have to be able to see the collision and stop next to it for quick access to injured persons.

Determine if someone is injured. Search the area for victims who may have been thrown from a vehicle. They can be hidden in tall grass or bushes.

Call 9-1-1. If another person stops to help, ask that person to call 9-1-1.

The individual calling 9-1-1 must be prepared to respond to questions and supply information, including the location of the emergency (cross streets, freeway on/off ramp information) and exactly how many people require assistance (is anyone bleeding, unconscious, or with no pulse).

Don’t hang up the phone! Allow the emergency dispatcher to hang up first.

If at all possible, use flares or emergency triangles. If you find a gasoline leak or fumes, don’t use the flares and don’t smoke!

Help anyone that isn’t already walking and talking. Do not move an injured person unless she or he is in a burning vehicle or perhaps in other danger. Moving someone incorrectly often makes an injury worse.

Move the automobile(s) involved out of the traffic lane if it’s not disabled. Turn off the ignition of wrecked vehicle(s). Don’t smoke! Fire is a great danger.

If you are Involved In A Collision?

In case you are involved in an automobile collision-STOP. If you don’t stop, you may be convicted of a “hit and run” and may be severely punished. Someone could be injured and require help. Call 9-1-1 immediately to report the collision to the police or CHP. You must show your driver license, vehicle registration card, proof of financial responsibility, and current address to the other driver or persons involved in the accident, or any peace officer. Evidence of financial responsibility is usually an insurance provider name and a policy number. If you do not have it, you will get a citation along with a $250 fine.

You must do the following:

Move your motor vehicle off the street or highway if no one is killed or injured. Should you not move your motor vehicle or have it taken off the road or highway, any peace officer or authorized personnel may have your motor vehicle removed and impounded. (CVC §§22651 and 22651.05)

Pull to the side of the road and stop in the event you kill or injure an animal. Look for the owner. In the event you can’t find the owner, call the nearest humane society, police, or CHP. Don’t attempt to move a wounded animal. Never leave an injured animal to die.

Try to look for the owner in the event you hit a parked vehicle or any other property. Identify yourself before you leave. In the event you can’t find the owner, leave a note with your name and address (and the name and address of the owner of the vehicle that you are driving) inside the vehicle or securely attached to it. Report the collision without delay to the police or, in unincorporated areas, to the CHP.

Report the collision in writing to the police or CHP without delay if anyone is killed or injured and law enforcement wasn’t present at the scene. In the event the driver of the vehicle involved in a collision is physically unable to report a collision to the police or CHP, any occupant inside vehicle at the time of the collision shall make the report on behalf of the driver.

You or your agent, broker, or legal representative should do the following:

Report the collision by completing a Report of Traffic Accident Occurring in California (SR 1) to the DMV within 10 days when there is in excess of $750 in damage to the property of any person, or anyone is injured (no matter how slightly) or killed.

How Much Insurance are you required to have?

You must be financially responsible for your actions whenever you drive as well as for all motorized vehicles you own. Most drivers decide to have an automobile liability insurance policy as evidence of financial responsibility. If you have a collision not protected by your insurance, your license will be suspended. When the driver involved in the collision is not identified, the owner of the motor vehicle involved will have his or her driver license suspended.

The minimum amount your insurance must cover in the state of California is:

$15,000 for a single death or injury.

$30,000 for death or injury to multiple people.

$5,000 for damage to property caused by one accident.

Reporting a traffic accident to DMV

If you have a collision, report it to the DMV using the SR 1 form. You or your insurance agent, broker, or legal representative must complete the SR 1 report and send it to the DMV within Ten days if a person is injured (regardless of how minor the injury) or killed or property damage is over $750. The SR 1 report is necessary in addition to every other report made to law enforcement, CHP, or your insurance company.

The SR 1 form is available at DMV field offices, at CHP offices, or online at www.dmv.ca.gov. The SR 1 form is necessary whether you caused the collision or not, and even if the collision occurred on private property.

Your driving privilege is going to be suspended if you don’t complete a SR 1 form or if you didn’t possess the proper insurance coverage at the time of the automobile collision.

Every vehicle collision reported to the DMV by law enforcement shows on the driving record unless the reporting officer says someone else was at fault. Unless there is a corresponding police report on file that indicates someone else was at fault, every vehicle collision reported by you or some other party in the collision will likely show on your driver record if:

Any vehicle or property involved has over $750 in damage, or

Anyone is injured or dies.

It does not matter who caused the vehicle collision. The law says DMV must keep this record.

California Motor Vehicle Accident Recap

The subsequent information can help you complete the SR 1 form (maintain it in your glove box). Avoid the use of this article instead of filing the SR 1 form.

Your insurance company name and policy number.

Time and date of the accident.

Location of the accident.

NOTE: You have to give your current address and show these documents to any peace officer and person(s) involved in the vehicle collision:

Your driver license.

Your vehicle registration card.

Evidence of financial responsibility which includes your insurance company name and policy number.

Other Party’s (Driver’s) Information:

Driver’s date of birth.

License number and state.

Driver’s name and address.

Vehicle license plate number and state.

Driver’s insurance company name.

Policy number and expiration date.

Policy holder’s name and address.

Vehicle owner’s name and address.

Injuries or property damage.

The Law Offices of Norman Gregory Fernandez & Associates handles car accident cases and other motor vehicle accident cases all over the state of California. You can read about these cases at http://www.thepersonalinjury.com . If you want to discuss your case, you may call us for a free consultation at 800-816-1529 x. 1.

California Car Accident Attorney Website

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

James Lee is arrested in connection with a crash that killed 4 year old.

A 4-year-old boy was killed Sunday night in South San Jose after an alleged drunken-driver returning from a heavy metal concert slammed into the back of the family’s broken down pickup truck.

 James “Jimmy” Francis Lee’s blood-alcohol level was “about twice the legal limit” of 0.08, said California Highway Patrol Officer Brien Rayner. “He said he fell asleep.”

About 6 p.m., the boy’s father had been unbuckling his 4-year-old son from the back of the family’s Chevrolet S-10, which was parked on the shoulder of southbound Highway 101 near Bailey Avenue when a Ford F-150 smashed into the truck. The boy’s mother and 12-year-old sister had already gotten out of the truck and were not injured.

Lee, 44, of San Jose was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on charges of felony DUI and vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, according to Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Rick Sung. He has not yet been arraigned, and has until Wednesday to be formally charged if he remains in custody. 

The Santa Clara County coroner’s office identified the boy as Jose Cortes-Diaz of Gilroy. 

The names of his parents and sister were not made public. The boy’s father suffered a broken jaw and fractured rib, according to the CHP reports.

The CHP said the collision caused the Ford to roll over onto its roof and the Chevy to roll down an embankment. The CHP noted that the Ford had been traveling about the speed limit of 65 mph or 70 mph at the time of the accident. 

The crash sent a tool box from the pickup bed of the family’s Chevy flying right into Jose’s head.

“Oh Jesus!” Lee’s father, James Lee Sr., 64, of San Jose, said in an interview when he was alerted of the boy’s death by the Mercury News. “I am so sorry for that little boy. Everybody likes my son. He’s a great kid and a good-hearted guy. But he had no business driving.”

Lee Sr. said he believed his son was at a concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on Sunday, where bands were playing in the Rockstar Mayhem Festival. Lee Sr. said his son, a father of two daughters, had recently bought a home in Gilroy. Father and son have worked for about three decades together as truck mechanics in San Jose.

Emergency crews said Jose was barely breathing when they arrived.

“The little boy was wedged behind the driver’s seat,” said San Jose fire Capt. Chuck Rangel. “He wasn’t doing too good.”

Firefighters pried him out with the Jaws of Life and hoisted him into a LifeFlight helicopter and flew him to San Jose Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, officials said.

At the time, Santa Clara County sheriff’s helicopter happened to be flying in the area. Pilot Rob Heyde and partner, Deputy Leo Gonzalez, saw there were injuries down below, and traffic was beginning to jam up. The two decided to make an emergency landing on 101, after clearing the freeway using their public announcement system.

“They really went overboard to help,” said Sung, of the sheriff’s office. They were joined by a San Jose police motorcycle officer who was also there by chance.

Lee Sr. said his son had been in jail perhaps 15 years ago, but he couldn’t remember for what. Lee Jr. has no criminal record as an adult in Santa Clara County. According to a records search by the Department of Motor Vehicles, Lee is a commercial driver who had a spotless driving record.

Lee Sr. said his son, who attended Del Mar High School in San Jose, had been trying to get his life together after a bad relationship. But according to his father, Lee Jr. didn’t have a known drinking problem.

“I wasn’t aware of one,” Lee Sr. said.

San Jose Car Accident Attorney Website / San Jose Truck Accident Attorney Website

The Napa County California Sheriff’s Office identified the dead as Matthew Jay Smith, 48, of Ashland, Ore., Laura Katharine Smith, 19, of Downingtown, Pa., and Richard Smith, 80, and Sally Smith, 74, both of Simbsbury, Conn.

Napa Sheriff’s Capt. Tracey Stuart said Sally and Richard Smith were on vacation in the Napa Valley. They were returning to Napa after picking up their son and granddaughter when the deadly chain-reaction collisions occurred.

The California Highway Patrol said a westbound big rig driven by Gustavo Lopez, 42, plowed into the back of the victims’ Suburu Forester that was stopped in heavy rush-hour traffic.

The Forester was pushed into the path of an eastbound tractor-trailer hauling concrete pipe. The big rig, driven by Woodland resident Luis Marabilla, 44, crushed the car, pushing it back across the westbound lane onto the shoulder of the road.

Lopez’s truck continued west and side-swiped a Chevrolet flatbed truck that Hilario Trujillo Jr., 33, was driving.

The victims were declared dead at the scene, the CHP said. Trujillo and Marabilla were uninjured, and Lopez was taken to Queen of the Valley Medical Center with minor injuries.

It appears Lopez was driving too fast for the conditions, based on the slow traffic and the size of the truck he was driving, CHP spokesman Jaret Paulson said.

Lopez told officers that traffic was stop-and-go as he traveled along Jamieson Canyon Road. 

He had stopped just prior to the crash, then accelerated through his gears. 

When traffic stopped again ahead of him, he had too much velocity to stop in time, CHP Officer Ryan O’Day said.

Lopez likely wasn’t speeding, but he was going too fast for conditions, Paulson said.

“It just looks like gross inattention at this point as to what caused the collision,” O’Day said.

Under federal law, commercial drivers must submit to a chemical test if they are in an accident. There was no sign that Lopez was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, O’Day said.

Lopez had started his trip in Woodland so he likely hadn’t been on the road long enough for fatigue to be a factor, O’Day said. Lopez wasn’t carrying a load so he wasn’t in a hurry, he said.

The CHP will decide whether to forward the case to the Napa County District Attorney’s office for prosecution. 

“Being that four people are dead because of inattention, I would be surprised if they didn’t press some sort of charges,” O’Day said.

They could range from reckless driving to vehicular manslaughter, he said.

Thursday’s crash brings the fatality total this year to eight victims from five crashes on Napa County roads.

The last time four people died in one crash was on Nov. 15, 2008, on Deer Park Road near Sanitarium Road outside of Angwin, O’Day said.

Napa County hasn’t seen a crash that killed more than four people since it started keeping records in 1999, he said.

The last time someone died on Jamieson Canyon Road was in December 2004, Paulson said.

Napa Valley California Truck and SUV Accident Attorney Website

Authorities say motorists exchanging information after a crash on the Ventura (101) Freeway in Sherman Oaks were hit by another vehicle, causing a second accident that killed three.

The fatal accident happened at about 2:10 a.m. Sunday on the freeway near the Coldwater Canyon Avenue exit, CHP Officer Anthony Martin said.

The California Highway Patrol says three people had been involved in a prior accident and had stepped out of their vehicles to exchange information when they were struck by another vehicle. Three other people were injured.

The identities of the deceased were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

How much do you want to bet that the person or persons who hit and killed the persons on the side of the road exchanging information were drunk or under the influence of drugs and alcohol?

Sheman Oaks, Calfornia Car Accident Attorney Website

Three of five people killed in a chain-reaction crash on the southbound 5 Freeway near the 14 freeway, early Monday were local children, authorities said.

Cynthia J. Hernandez, 9, Edgar A. Hernandez, 8, and Xochitl M. Hernandez, 5, all of Whittier, were killed after the car they were riding in collided with an overturned pickup truck at 12:14 a.m. on the southbound 5 just before the Balboa Boulevard exit, said California Highway Patrol Officer Jon Lutz.

Their cousin, Luis Villegas, 12, of Oakland was also killed.

The back of the Nissan the children were riding in caved in when the car was then rear ended by a Chevrolet Suburban, Lutz said. No one in the SUV was seriously injured.

The children’s mother, who is in her 30s, survived and was taken to an area hospital in critical condition. Another man in his 20s was also in the car and was taken to the hospital in critical condition, Lutz said.

John Blackburn, 54, of Frazier Park, who was the driver of the pickup truck that triggered the accident when it hit the center divider, spun out of control and overturned, was killed.

If you our your family has been injured in a car accident call us for a free consultation at 800-816-1529 x. 1.

Santa Clarita Car Accident Attorney and Wrongful Death Attorney Website

A CHP spokesman said the exact time and circumstances of the crash remain under investigation and, due to the fire that engulfed the car shortly after the early morning collision, neither the identity, sex or age of the driver could be confirmed.

Officer Marvin Williford said the crash occurred sometime before 6 a.m., when the car, a Mercedes-Benz, was traveling north along Winters Road south of Putah Creek Road. It apparently swerved out of control across the southbound lanes of the narrow rural roadway and ran off the pavement and into an orchard.

Traveling at an unknown rate of speed, the car slid sideways, sheered off a large walnut tree, then caught fire.

The smoldering wreckage wasn’t discovered until about 6 a.m. when a local laborer reported the crash. When firefighters arrived, they found the fire was out and the car had been reduced to a charred shell. One occupant was found in the wreckage.

Because of the extensive damage to the Mercedes sedan caused by crash impact and the fire, CHP investigators were not immediately able to determine the exact year, model or registration of the car. The most accessible vehicle identification numbers of the car also were obliterated.

On Friday night, the Solano County Coroner’s Office said the victim is believed to be a male, but other identifying information is pending further investigation.

Anyone with information about the crash can contact the Solano area office of the CHP in Fairfield at 428-2100.

Winters, California and Fairfield, California Car Accident Attorney

California Highway Patrol officers arrived at the scene on Hale Avenue south of Kalana Avenue and determined it was unsafe to shoot the horse to put it out of its misery, according to the California Highway Patrol. They immediately called animal control and tri-county officers arrived before 8 p.m.

“Usually we do, however it was very close to a residential area,” CHP officer Jaime Rios said. “We didn’t feel that it would be safe at the time.”

He said if an animal is suffering and it’s on a freeway or in a rural area, officers will euthanize it. Rios said passengers did not see the horse once it was hit and suffering.

Rios said the bus on southbound line 68 was traveling about 40 mph when it struck the horse.

VTA spokesperson Jennie Hwang Loft said the horse ran loose from a group of horses in a pasture when it ran in front of the bus. She said the bus driver suffered minor injuries.

A VTA bus stop is located at Hale and Kalana avenues, but authorities are unsure how near it was to where the accident occurred. The roadway was closed for about 90 minutes and the bus was eventually towed away. The horse was taken away by tri-county officers. Passengers were eventually picked up by another VTA bus and taken to their destination.

No passengers reported any injuries, but the bus sustained extensive damage, according to the VTA. Rios said no drugs or alcohol were involved.

Authorities are still working to locate the owner of the horse and plan to contact neighbors today. There will not be any criminal charges filed because no passengers were injured. Rios said he can’t say if there would be any civil charges filed.

A man who drove by the incident, but did not want to be identified, said the horse was laying in the middle of the street, flopping around.

“I’ve seen a lot, but that was pretty brutal,” he said.

All animal owners in California are strictly liable for the acts of their animals. If any of the bus passengers, or the bus driver was injured in this crash, the animal owner would be liable for their injuries because they failed to contain their animal, and let it get loose.

All California animal owners must ensure that their animals are not let loose and are contained. Had the owner of the horse not let the horse get loose this potentially devastating accident woudl not have happened, and the horse would still be alive.

 Morgan Hill Bus Accident Attorney

The accident was reported about 9 p.m. on I-8 west of state Route 79. A 66-year-old woman traveling westbound on I-8 in a 1998 Chevrolet Lumina, going about 75 mph, for unknown reasons drove off the south side of the road through a dirt and grass divide and onto the eastbound lanes of I-8, where her vehicle struck two cars, said California Highway Patrol Brian Pennings.

The woman was trapped in her vehicle until emergency crews could extricate her. She was taken by helicopter to a hospital with a broken right ankle and internal injuries, Pennings said.

A 27-year-old driver also had to be extricated from his 2007 Honda Accord, which was struck head-on by the Lumina. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital after he complained of pain, Penning said. The 34-year-old driver of the second car that was struck by the Lumina wasn’t injured.

All eastbound traffic was shut down at Willows Road after the 9 p.m. crash for about an hour, Pennings said.

If you or your family have been the victim of a truck crash, car crash, or other motor vehicle accident in San Diego, California or anywhere in California call us for a free consultation at 800-816-1529 x. 1, or go to http://www.thepersonalinjury.com

San Diego Car Accident Attorney Website

He was identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office Saturday as David Norman Reid, who lived with his wife and family in Spring Valley, California.

Reid was driving a Dodge Caravan east on state Route 94 about a mile west of the school when the driver of a Ford Mustang crossed over the double-yellow line and collided with him head-on, the California Highway Patrol said.

Reid’s 17-year-old son, who was in the passenger seat, suffered serious injuries and underwent surgery Saturday, said the school’s assistant principal, Jeff Kover.

The driver of the Mustang, former student Andrew Bellatti, 18, and his 16-year-old female passenger, a current student, also were injured. They were reportedly released from the hospital Saturday.

It was unknown why Bellatti had crossed into oncoming traffic, but investigators said speed was a factor.

The speedometer on the Mustang was frozen at about 80 mph, said CHP Officer Brian Pennings. He said there was no indication that Bellatti had been racing, or that drugs or alcohol were a factor in the accident.

The road was wet, but it was not raining at the time, he said.

Reid’s son followed in his older sister’s footsteps by joining the charter high school’s drama club, and their parents became well-known volunteers over the past several years.

Reid did everything from building sets and chaperoning to serving at concession stands during plays.
“He’s easily one of the nicest guys you could meet. He always had a good joke or story,” Kover said. “He was there any time we had an event going on, a production or a show. They were always helping out.”

High school records show that Bellatti, who graduated last year, was a pitcher and first-baseman on Steele Canyon’s baseball team. He signed with the Tampa Bay Rays after turning down a scholarship offer to Cal State Fullerton.

Last summer, Bellatti pitched for Tampa Bay’s rookie team in the Gulf Coast League. Professional baseball’s spring training begins next month.

It would appear from the basic facts of this case that the driver of the Mustang was speeding way over the speed limit when he crossed into oncoming traffic and is most probably responsible for the wrongful death of David Norman Reid. We at the California Personal Injury Lawyer Blog send our prayers and condolences to his family.

If you or your family has suffered through the wrongful death of a loved one, you may call our office for a free consultation at 800-816-1529 x. 1.

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