Time to Put Down Your Cell Phone, It’s The Law!
As of Thursday June 10th, Washington State Patrol Officers will enforce a zero tolerance policy towards driving while holding your cell phone. Hands-free devices are okay, but if you're caught holding a phone up your ear, you'll be busted. At the Law Offices of Kirk Bernard, we're all for anything that will help reduce accidents caused by distracted drivers.
Washington State passed legislation two years ago which made the act a secondary violation, meaning that law officers had to have a primary offense to pull them over. Speeding, running a red light, or illegal lane changes were all things that would give them a reason to stop you. They could then issue an additional fee if they found you were talking on your cell phone.
Drive With Your Pet? You May Want to Reconsider…
While there aren't any definite statistics on actual accident rates involving pets and car accidents, the fact remains that they can put you at serious risk. Currently, pet related accidents are merely lumped into the distracted driving category along with swatting an insect or reaching for a coffee.
At this point in time, Hawaii is the only state to implement an outright ban on driving with your pet in your lap, claiming that pets interfere with a driver's ability to maintain control of the vehicle. Two years ago, governor Schwarzenegger vetoed a law passed by legislature that would fine drivers for having a pet in their lap. His reasoning was that he was only focused on passing laws that met California's top priorities at the time. Similar legistlation was shot down in Virginia. As a Personal Injury Attorney Seattle, I think that anything that can potentially decrease car accident rates should be a priority.
Florida Tops Charts For Suspicious Insurance Claims
Staged car accidents are becoming more and more frequent across the country, especially in the wake of our country's recent financial crisis and economic downturn. Desperate people are turning to desperate measures that go so far as to stage a car accident resulting in fake injuries and exaggerated car damage.
Florida tops the chart with more than twice as many fraudulent insurance claims than the next two states on the list, New York and California, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. In less than a year's time, over 260 people have been arrested on accounts of auto insurance fraud. Unfortunately, these bogus claims, often lead to skyrocketing insurance rates for the rest of us.
Crooks have crafted a few different ways to take advantage of you and your insurance company. As an attorney at the Law Offices of Kirk Bernard, it's heartbreaking to hear stories of people's lives destroyed by an accident that was caused intentionally. Government agencies need to ramp up their efforts to crack down on these criminals. Here are just a few examples to watch out for:
Lord Jesus Christ Run Down By Car
Lord Jesus Christ was in a marked crosswalk walking across the street when he was struck by a Massachusetts driver. Police officers gave the young woman at fault for hitting Christ, a citation at the scene for neglecting to yield to the pedestrian. Christ, whose name was confirmed when officers checked his identification, luckily only sustained minor injuries which included lacerations on his face. The 50-year-old man was discharged from the hospital shortly after his injuries were treated.
This case brings up a good point regarding pedestrian laws. Nearly all states have laws requiring drivers to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk. A crosswalk can mean a marked crosswalk with horizontal white stripes and a blinking yellow light, or it can just be a regular intersection without any of that. Regardless, pedestrians have the right-of-way since they are at a great disadvantage should they come in contact with a car. At the Law Offices of Kirk Bernard, we have seen devastating accidents with life-long disabilities resulting from pedestrian accidents. Unfortunately, many could have been avoided had drivers and pedestrians exercised greater caution.
Is Charging At-Fault Drivers For Accidents Legal?
The Fire Department of Chula Vista, California is proposing to charge drivers who cause accidents requiring the services of the Fire Department. They estimate that approximately $100,000 is spent each year on the department's assistance in auto accidents. Each year, they respond to about 420 accidents which use their time and resources. By charging the drivers at fault, they can recoup a good chunk of their expenditures.
The City of Chula Vista claims that they think this is a fair since taxpayers wouldn't have to foot the bill for accidents that they didn't cause. The amount charged would vary depending on the severity of the accident and the amount of assistance required. The majority of car accidents would cost $435 while accidents requiring extraction from a vehicle would cost $1800, and a fire would run you $605. In the event that someone needs to be airlifted to a nearby hospital, the fee would jump up to $2100.
Georgia State Bans Texting While Driving
On April 27th, 2010, Georgia's House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill that bans texting and driving as well as talking on your cell phone while driving. Once the bill becomes a law, it will ban cell phone use for teens age 16 and 17, and will ban texting while driving for drivers of all ages. Offenses made by juvenile drivers come with a penalty of $150 fine with a 90 license suspension (or suspension until they turn 18 if that comes first). The $150 fine is doubled if another traffic violation occurs at the same time, for instance speeding while driving and texting. Adult drivers will only be fined $100.
Many feel that while the law is a step in the right direction, the penalties that come with it are not stringent enough to really deter people from texting while driving. Personal injury attorney, Kirk Bernard, feels that the law should extend to ban all drivers from talking on the cell phone while driving, regardless of their age.
If the bill becomes a law, it will be dubbed the Caleb Sorohan Act to commemorate Caleb Sorohan, a 19 year old boy who was killed due to an accident he caused by driving while text messaging. Currently, the bill is awaiting a signature from the Governor.
Georgia now joins the nine other States who have passed laws banning text messaging while driving. These other states include Oregon, Washington, New York, Colorado, and Virginia. Many of these states, such as Washington, have made texting and talking on a hand-held cell phone a primary offense so that a police officer can make a citation without needing another offense as a reason to pull the driver over.
As a Seattle personal injury lawyer, I have seen an explosion of car accidents caused by cell phone use and texting while driving over the last two to three years. Often times, the people who survive the accidents are still left with debilitating injuries that can last a lifetime. A Youtube video made by a police department in the UK is circulating at a rapid rate and was showcased in this clip from the Today Show. They created a public service announcement that graphically portrays a horrific car accident that kills four people, as a result of a driver who is text-messaging and crosses into oncoming traffic. You should be prepared that this video is extremely graphic, but it might be the key to discourage drivers from texting while behind the wheel.
More resources regarding texting and driving can be found here.
Pedestrian Bus Accidents Occuring More Frequently
The latest news of a TriMet bus accident that killed two young women and injured three others, sheds light on the increasing rates of bus accidents that injure pedestrians. As a Seattle Personal Injury Lawyer, I have seen an increase in the frequency of bus accidents involving pedestrians over the last few years. In this particular instance, the bus driver struck the pedestrians while making a left-hand turn. Even though the pedestrians had the right-of-way to cross the street, they ended up pinned underneath the Municipal bus.
So far, reports have shown that bus driver Sandy Day was not talking on her cell phone, text messaging, intoxicated, under the influence of drugs, tired or inexperienced. More than likely, the driver had difficulty seeing the pedestrians since it was late at night and they may have been in her blind spot. The father of one of the victims made a statement saying, "These bus drivers just got to pay attention," said Sale. " Too many people are getting in accidents."
Only a week ago, a San Francisco man died after being pinned between two Municipal Railway buses. A Utah woman is luckily to be alive after a turning bus struck her in a crosswalk last summer. She suffered life-threatening injuries, including brain damage, and her life will never be the same again. These tragic stories are becoming all too common. In our firm, Tacoma personal injury lawyers have fought for the rights of many pedestrian victims. Sadly, many of these accidents could have been avoided if bus drivers were more cautious of pedestrians, and if pedestrians were more aware of the dangers presented by buses and their blind spots.
In our opinion, there's many changes that should be implemented to avoid accidents like this from happening in the future. One of the best things we can do is to make buses and other vehicles have a protected left hand turn signal so that they must wait for the green-arrow before turning. Also, passing a law that buses that prevents buses from initiating a right-hand turn on a red light would help. Both of these ideas would keep buses from interfering with pedestrians who have the right-of-way to cross the street on a green light. A simple and inexpensive fix would be to implement signage at crosswalks on bus routes that serve to educate pedestrians of the dangers of turning buses.
California State uses technology that notifies pedestrians when a bus approaches. To avoid accidents resulting from pedestrians stepping into the street to get the attention of approaching buses, many cities are starting to adopt blinking lights that signal to bus drivers that people are waiting. Improving mirror placement on the sides of buses will help drivers to recognize when pedestrians are located in their blind spots. Right convex mirrors allow drivers to view their entire front bumper which alleviates head-on collisions while audible turn signals notify pedestrians when a bus is turning.
At the Law Offices of Kirk Bernard, we hope that when all these ideas are combined, they can drastically reduce the incidence of bus accidents involving pedestrians. While they won't bring back the loved ones that have already been lost, these practices can prevent more people from becoming victims of these horrific accidents in the future.
Graco Cribs Recalled Due to Mattress-Frame Failure
According to reports made by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), product manufacturers Simplicity and Graco cribs issued recalls for multiple models of their baby cribs due to a malfunction in the hardware that holds the components together. The hardware for the mattress' tubular support frame has been known to fail and become detached. This then creates a void where small children can become trapped, strangled, and possibly suffocate or fall out of the crib.
This issue seems to be isolated to the product models where one side of the crib drops down to allow a caregiver to easily extract the child. So far 99 accounts of the failed mattress frames have been noted. In one of those instances, a one-year-old boy suffocated after becoming entrapped between the mattress and crib frame. All other failures resulted in minor injuries such as scrapes and bruises.
This recall targets roughly 217,000 Graco cribs in two dozen different models. Simplicity is no longer in business, after nearly all of their models have been recalled. Their products have been linked to 13 child deaths since 2005. Many of these cribs were available for sale at major retail outlets such as Target, Walmart and Babies R Us.
We understand how much faith you put into the products you purchase for your children and it can be horrifying to find out those items can cause serious injury or death. As a product liability lawyer, the Law Offices of Kirk Bernard has dealt with many cases regarding faulty products that have led to the injuries of small children. These products range from car seats, strollers, baby carriers and slings. If your child has been injured as a result of a defective product, we recommend that you contact an experienced, reputable attorney that can advise you on your legal rights. For more information on this recall, you can visit the CPSC website here.