A 44-year-old triathlete in training for an upcoming event was killed last week in a bicycle accident in Contra Costa County.

According to the California Highway Patrol, the accident occurred at 5 pm in the afternoon. The victim, John Greaves, was riding south on Camino Tassajara when his bicycle was hit by a Honda Civic. According to the CHP, the motorist seems to have lost control of his car. After hitting Greaves’ bicycle, the car swerved into the northbound lane and struck another vehicle. Greaves and his bicycle fell under the automobile, and the bicyclist suffered serious injuries. Greaves was declared dead at the scene of the crash. The Honda driver, Hong Guo sustained injuries in the accident.

According to news reports, the stretch of Camino Tassajara where the accident occurred has no bike lane or shoulder. In addition, cars frequently use Camino Tassajara to get to the I-580 and I-680 freeways. That has led to the area becoming heavily congested. According to the California Highway Patrol, they are looking for an SUV that was close to the vehicles involved in that accident. The SUV left the scene soon after the crash, but police are hoping that the driver can provide clues to the cause of the crash.

As of now, police do not suspect that drugs or alcohol played a part in the crash. Greaves was a branch manager at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Walnut Creek. He was an avid cycling enthusiast and was training for the Vineman Triathlon.

Bicycle accidents can leave the biker with serious injuries that can often be fatal. In a collision between a motor vehicle and a bicycle, it’s the bicyclist who has the greater likelihood of sustaining injuries. A helmet can protect the bicyclist from the kind of head injuries that usually occur after accidents like these, but there’s little a helmet can do to protect against the other catastrophic injuries that can result when a bicycle collides with a automobile.

In such accidents, we find the bicyclist often suffers spinal cord injuries like spinal fractures, and head injuries that, if not treated in time can leave a person with long-lasting health effects. These are life-altering catastrophic injuries that can require months of extensive treatment, including surgeries and hospitalization. Persons, who suffer from spinal cord injuries at their worst, may suffer from partial or complete paralysis. Individuals may have to relearn the ability to feed themselves, bathe, change clothes and other routine activities. Persons who suffer from brain injures after a bicycle accident may find that the road back to recover is just as long. Even after treatment these individuals may still suffer from effect of the injury, which can last for the rest of their lives. These effects can include amnesia, memory loss, lack of concentration, hallucinations, headaches, fatigue, depression etc.

Injured bicyclists may be eligible for compensation for the injuries and losses they suffer in an accident. The compensation can include damages for monetary as well as non-monetary losses.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bicycle accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

A 23-year-old man is on trial in Ventura County on murder charges related to an alcohol-linked car accident that occurred in 2006.

On October 28th that year, Lester Varnum allegedly drove a truck into two men one of whom was killed. David Sosa died in the collision while Felipe Arujo was injured. Arujo has testified that Varnum was driving the car that slammed into him and Sosa. According to Arujo’s testimony he, Varnum, Sosa and another man called Noe Lopez were drinking at the restaurant where they worked after it had closed for the night. Varnum was intoxicated, and the three men decided to drive him home. They dropped Varnum outside his front door but he was unable to get into the house because nobody was home. Apparently, the men then decided that Lopez would drive Sosa and Arujo home, and would return the truck back to Varnum the next day.

When the three got back into the truck, Varnum flew into a rage. According to Arujo, the inebriated man believed that the three were trying to steal his truck. Varnum pulled open the door of the truck and in a fit of rage, dragged Lopez out. The two began to fight. When Varnum was finally overpowered, the three began to walk back home, leaving Varnum and his truck behind. Varnum didn’t let the matter rest there. He got back into the truck and drove after the three men. According to Arujo, he and Sosa began to run but they couldn’t outrun the truck. Varnum slammed the truck into Sosa and Arujo. Sosa died instantly.

Varnum is claiming a head injury that caused him to lose consciousness and strike his car against the two men. His attorney insists that his client was kicked in the head by Lopez during the fight, and lost consciousness for a while. Apparently, he was not aware of his actions when he ran over Sosa. According to the attorney, he was not conscious even though he “appeared to be functional.”

Varnum has his rights to his defense, however, this seems like a case of road rage gone horribly far. Road rage can be defined as aggressive driving by a motorist that can cause harm to other motorists. It can run the gamut from cursing and yelling at other motorists and making rude gestures at them, to trying to run a driver off the road, cutting them off unexpectedly and other potentially dangerous behaviors.

A driver in the throes of road rage may slam on the brakes suddenly, causing a motorist behind them to crash into their vehicle. Every year, there are hundreds and thousands of instances where motorists lose their cool on the road attempting to take out their frustrations on fellow motorists. Taken to the extreme, road rage can lead to severe injuries and even fatalities. Pedestrians and bicyclists seem to be the focus of road rage-related accidents more frequently than drivers of other vehicles.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of drunk driving accident. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

An Oxnard man has been arrested for his involvement in a hit and run bicycle accident in which he struck two people, killing one man and injuring his son. According to the Ventura County Star, the accident occurred on Sunday afternoon. 45-year-old Kern County resident Rodrigo “Rod” Armas was bicycling with his 14-year-old son on the shoulder of the 34000 block of the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. The two were on their way back to Malibu as part of the annual Los Angeles Wheelmen Grand tour event. The bicycling event begins and ends in Malibu after covering 200 miles Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

When motorist Robert Sam Sanchez struck the two cyclists, Armas was thrown off his bicycle. He sustained serious injuries, and died at the scene of the crash. His 14-year-old son suffered numerous broken bones and was taken to the UCLA Medical Center. He is reported to be in stable condition. Armas is survived by his wife, son and two daughters.

Police have now arrested Sanchez, who drove on after the bicycle accident. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, he traveled approximately 1 mile before he ditched the truck. Police found him at the spot, still showing signs of alcohol intoxication. He has been arrested, and is being held on a $100,000 bail.

Bicycling shouldn’t be a dangerous activity. In fact, it has too many benefits to even begin counting. It’s the most eco friendly manner of traveling and has limitless health benefits. If more people began cycling, it could decongest our crowded highways and smoothen the flow of traffic. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to make it easier for people who want to use their bicycles, to do so safely. Unpredictable gasoline prices have over the past year led to thousands of motorists across the country turning to their bicycles as an affordable means of travel. This increased number of cyclists on California highways has also meant a higher level of accidents involving bicyclists.

It’s not just in California that the number of bicycle accidents has increased the way it has. Across the country, some of the biggest cities have seen a large increase in the population of bicyclists and a corresponding rise in the number of accidents.

Part of the problem has to do with a lack of awareness about the rights of bicycle riders. Other factors include the lack of safe bicycling areas like bike lanes for these riders. That leads to tense situations in which motorists and bicyclists are competing for the same space. The result is often an accident with devastating consequences for the bicyclist in an overwhelming majority of the cases.

Because of the lack of any protection except for their helmets, bicyclists usually tend to suffer severe injuries in the event of a crash. The impact of these injuries can be lessened somewhat if a bicyclist is wearing an approved helmet. But helmets can’t protect from severe debilitating body injuries. Survivors may face weeks and months of extensive surgeries and hospitalization before they can begin to return to their normal lives.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bicycle accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

The California Department of Health has warned consumers against eating a brand of Alfalfa sprouts because of the risk of possible salmonella contamination.

The Department of Public Heath has recalled the products by Culver City-based Kowalke Organics. These products come with sell-by dates between June 18th and June 30th. According to the Los Angeles Times, the products were sold at Whole Foods Market stores and Southern California Gilson’s. The products include:

• Kowalke Organics Alfalfa Sprouts, 4-ounce, 8-ounce,1-pound and 5-pound packages
• Kowalke Organics Dinner Salad, 6-ounce package
• Kowalke Organics Onion Mix, 4-ounce package

According to Mick’s Produce Inc which operates the company, it’s recalling all its Alfalfa Sprouts products voluntarily. According to him, one package in the lot with a sell by date of June 21 has tested positive for Salmonella. The company owner says that the products were clean when they left company trucks. He believes that the contamination could have occurred down the line in the stores.

According to Health Department Spokesmen, sprout contamination usually originates from seeds, and so, the department has recalled all Alfalfa products that germinate from the affected lots of seed.

So far, there have been no reports of any instances of Salmonellosis from the contaminated sprouts. Fortunately, it seems like the California Department of Public Health has worked swiftly to contain the problem and recall possibly contaminated products before an outbreak.

It’s been a bad year for food safety in California, and around the country. We began the year with an outbreak of Salmonellosis across the country that hospitalized more than 700 people and left several dead. The victims were mostly elderly residents of nursing homes who had consumed peanut butter contaminated by salmonella.

That infection was traced to contaminated peanuts from a food processing plant in Georgia. The peanut butter salmonella food poisoning crisis was quickly followed by another food safety scare, this time involving contaminated pistachios. The FDA warned consumers to avoid eating pistachios and foods containing pistachio nuts. That outbreak resulted in a voluntary recall of more than 2 million pounds of roasted pistachio nuts by California-based Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella.

Last week, Nestle Inc. recalled several batches of its Toll House cookie dough after reports of E. coli poisoning. That outbreak had at least 66 people sick in 29 states, including California. The Toll House contaminated cookie dough poisoning scare has already resulted in one food poisoning lawsuit filed by a San Mateo woman. An 18-year-old woman who was hospitalized for a week with E. coli poisoning after eating the raw cookie dough, has sued Nestle. The Food and Drug Administration has advised consumers not to eat the cookie dough even after cooking, because of the risk of cross contamination of the hands and cooking surfaces.

The new FDA chief has also made it clear that food safety will be a big priority for the agency. California food poisoning lawyers believe it’s about time that food safety was given the priority it desperately needs.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of food poisoning. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

32 French tourists who were injured, as well as the survivors of two other passengers who died in a tour bus accident in Soledad, California in April have filed lawsuits against the tour bus company and the organizers of the trip.

The lawsuit which was filed in Monterey County Superior Court names several French and Canadian travel companies that arranged the tour. The charter bus company that provided the bus which crashed, Brea-based Orion Pacific has also been named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Besides, the estate of John Egnew, the bus driver who was killed in the crash, has also been named in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs include 32 French tourists who were injured, many of them seriously, as well as family members of two tourists who died when the bus crashed into a concrete wall and overturned. Survivors of two other tourists who were killed will also eventually be added to the lawsuit.

The bus was carrying 34 French tourists, a Canadian tour guide and the bus driver John Egnew. The bus crashed into a wall and flipped over, throwing several of the passengers as well as the bus driver out of the bus, and onto a road below. They died instantly. Rescue operations were hampered by the fact that the accident took place on a desolate highway. Several of the injured had to be airlifted to the hospital with critical injuries. Since the bus accident, these people have had to spend several days in Monterey hospitals as they received treatment for their injuries.

According to the attorney for the plaintiffs who’s also the attorney for the French consulate in San Francisco, all the survivors of the bus accident have returned home to France, where some of them are still hospitalized for their injuries. According to the lawsuit, several passengers were “seriously injured and suffered severe orthopedic and neurological injuries”. At least one victim had lost an arm in the accident. The tour names Capitalese Tours, a French tour operator and Contact Amerique, a Canadian company that specializes in conducting international tours. According to the lawsuit, the tour organizers were negligent by their failure to ensure the safety of the group. Egnew had previously been involved in a serious accident, and the tour organizers should have been aware of this fact. The lawsuit alleged that the 69-year-old driver “did not process sufficient skills and stamina” to make the 2000-mile trip.

In 2005, Egnew had been involved in a pedestrian accident in Las Vegas when his bus struck a 71-year-old woman who was crossing the street. He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor traffic violation. The woman in that accident suffered serious injuries, including a broken pelvis and brain damage. She later settled with the bus company for $750,000. However, as we reported earlier on our blog, the California Department of Motor Vehicles had no information about Egnew’s involvement in the Las Vegas pedestrian accident. His traffic violation misdemeanor there was not reflected in DMV records.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bus accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

An accident involving a Pasadena ARTS bus and a car on Tuesday morning has injured seven people. According to news reports, the accident occurred at 10:45 in the morning near the Senior Center. The bus apparently jumped the curb during the collision. It knocked down a traffic signal before finally coming to a stop against a palm tree.

According to police, one of the vehicles ran a red light before the bus accident, but they are still investigating who was at fault here. Seven people sustained moderate injuries, including back and neck injuries. At least three other people sustained minor injuries, and were treated at the scene and released. The driver of the sedan was also evaluated at the scene before being released.

According to police, it was extremely fortunate that there were no injuries to pedestrians at the site. There usually tends to be heavy pedestrian traffic in the area as people walk in and out of the Senior Center. Investigations into the bus accident have already begun, and will take a while to complete.

Persons injured in a bus crash may be eligible for compensation under California’s laws. Depending on the circumstances of the case, the liable parties can include the bus company, companies that are responsible for maintaining the bus, or state or city agencies.

A bus company, maintenance company or manufacturer may be liable if the accident occurred because of a defect in the bus. These defects can include malfunctioning brakes, a defective steering mechanism or tires in danger of a blowout. The maintenance of the bus is not the only way that a bus company could be negligent. If the company hired unqualified or inexperienced drivers or failed to supervise or train these employees properly resulting in accidents, the company could be named in a bus accident injury lawsuit. Further, the bus company could be held liable for its failure to enforce proper safety precautions.

Often, bus companies contract the maintenance of their fleet to a separate independent company. If the maintenance workers fail to perform proper repairs, then the company may be named in an independent lawsuit for negligent maintenance.

Besides, state, county, or city governments may also be held responsible in case of a defective road design or poor road maintenance that contributed to the accident. If the bus was a transit bus owned by the government, then the government could be held responsible. Besides these, other kinds of owners and operators who can be held liable in injuries resulting from a bus accident include school districts and school boards for negligent conduct of drivers in a bus crash, tour operators, and cruise buses that ferry cruise passengers.

Beside these, bus accident lawsuits may also name other parties that are usually involved in motor vehicle crashes. These include the driver of the bus themselves who can be named for negligent driving, and other motorists whose negligence may have cause the accident. The manufacturer of the bus can also be named for defective parts that contributed to the bus accident. Your bus accident attorney will be able to identify the parties who are liable in order to file a claim.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bus accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

Nine people have been killed and more than 80 people are believed to be injured in a train accident involving a Washington Metro train that crashed into the rear of another stopped train.

The accident occurred during the rush hour on Monday evening. The Washington metro train that was moving, hit the first train with such force that the lead car from the moving train was split wide open, flipped into the air and landed on the top of the second stopped train. It was the deadliest accident in the history of the Metro, and rescue personal spent much of Tuesday pulling off layers of debris to find survivors and bodies. As a precautionary measure against another potential computer malfunction, Metro trains on Tuesday were all operating on manual control.

As more details come in, we learn that the National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed that the operator of the moving Metro train had activated the emergency brakes. According to investigators, the moving train was in automatic mode, which means that the computers on board should have controlled the train’s speed, bringing it to a stop before it came too close to the stationary train. The Metro train in fact, according to the Washington Post, is equipped with a computerized signal system that is meant to prevent collisions. The system is designed to detect the position of the trains on the same track, and to activate emergency brakes if the trains get too close. Computer failure is being looked at as a main factor in the tragic train accident.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board also say that the agency had warned Metro transit system in 2006 that older trains would have to be replaced, or if a replacement was not possible, at least retrofitted to enhance their ability to survive an accident. But the transport system apparently kept the old fleet running, citing lack of funds for a new fleet.

This isn’t the first time that Metro’s older automated system has been brought into question. An earlier close call in June 2005 involved a Metro train that came close to a crash because of signal issues in a tunnel under the Potomac River. A train conductor noticed that his train was getting too close to the train ahead, while the system continued to indicate that the track was clear. In that incident, the operators slammed on the emergency brakes in time to avoid an accident. The problem was attributed to a faulty communications cable. In 2007, The Federal Railroad Administration issued a safety warning after which the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority replaced the signal relays that controlled rail movement.

As investigations into the accident continue to pickup speed, the cell phone and texting records of the driver of the train will be checked to determine the possibility of driver distraction as a factor in the crash. The driver, who was also killed in the accident, has been identified as Janice McMillan. She began training to become an operator in January 2009, after completing two years of service as a bus driver. Investigations are also considering a passenger’s statement that the train had stopped for a while, and then started again before the accident. So far, there is no evidence that McMillan’s errors contributed to the train accident.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of train accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

The truck driver, who was involved in a fatal crash on the Angeles Crest Highway in La Canada Flintridge, has been charged with two counts of murder. Marcos Costa has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

On April 1st, Costa was at the wheel of a big rig coming down the Angeles Crest Highway. As the truck entered the intersection, it appears to have experienced a brake failure. The truck crashed into several vehicles, including one that was carrying 12-year-old Palmdale resident, Angelina Posca and her father. Both father and daughter died in the accident. The big rig continued to mow down several other vehicles, before it finally came to a stop inside a book shop. At least twelve people were injured in the crash.

Authorities believe that Costa ignored warning signs when the truck first began to experience brake failure. As a result, the truck went out of control in a busy shopping area full of stores and restaurants. Several cars were damaged, including the Posca’s Ford Escort which was pushed 150 feet from the point of impact.

In September of last year, a similar accident involved a truck loaded with 78,000 pounds of onions. That tractor trailer too suffered a brake failure coming down the Angeles Crest Highway. It crashed into several cars in a parking lot, injuring one person, and leaving a trail of damaged cars behind. Following that crash, a 16-year-old La Canada Flintridge schoolgirl Malia Miles, pointed out the safety hazards from trucks coming down the highway in a report that was presented to city officials, who then forwarded it to Caltrans.

La Canada Flintridge city authorities and the California Department of Transportation have been involved in a war of words involving truck safety at the intersection over the last year. City officials had asked for additional safety enhancements to be made to the intersection where Costa’s truck went out of control. The same points were raised in Miles’ presentation. However, Caltrans failed to act, complaining that lack of resources prevented it from shifting more funds to the intersection.

Since the truck accident, Caltrans has issued a temporary 90-day ban on the movement of big rigs on the Angeles Crest Highway. There are also measures underway to make that ban permanent.

It’s inexcusable that the California Department of Transportation failed to act in spite of receiving evidence that the movement of trucks on the highway was dangerous. State authorities are responsible for making sure that our highways are safe for people to use, and don’t turn into death traps. Caltrans had enough warnings about the dangers of runaway trucks on that highway, and enough time to make the kind of safety enhancements that were necessary at the intersection. These could have included warning signs and more regulations on truck drivers using the highway. That didn’t happen, and a young girl and her father have had to pay the price for the agency’s negligence.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of truck accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

A truck accident in Hollister, California caused by a driver making an illegal U-turn has killed one person, and left two people hospitalized with critical injuries. According to news reports, the tractor-trailer was traveling on highway 152 when the driver apparently made an illegal U-turn. A car was unable to stop in time to avoid the large truck. The car crashed through the bottom of the trailer, shaving off the entire top portion of the vehicle.

One 18-year-old occupant, a Turlock Resident died at the scene of the crash. The other two occupants, a Hughson man and a 19-year-old Ceres woman who was also driving the car, had to be airlifted to the Regional Medical Center in San Jose with critical injuries.

The California Highway Patrol has already begun an investigation, and investigators are looking into why the truck driver suddenly tried to make a U-turn into the eastbound lanes. So far the tractor-trailer driver has not been arrested or cited. There is no information yet on the speed of the car at the time of the truck accident. We will have to wait for investigations to be completed before we can determine what happened here.

However, across California every year, hundreds of big rig accidents can be traced to negligent driving by truck drivers. Making errors of judgment when you are behind the wheel of a passenger vehicle can be bad enough, but when you are driving a large commercial truck weighing up to tens of thousands of pounds, errors can have very serious consequences.

Tractor-trailer drivers may drive at speeds that are too high for traffic and weather conditions, may tailgate, or fail to signal properly when making a turn, coming to a stop etc. These failures can lead to extremely serious accidents, with the motorist nearby bearing the brunt of the injury.

Every year, an average of 5,000 people are killed in tractor-trailer accidents in the US. Not all of these will be caused by the truck driver. Negligent motorists who drive too close to a truck, speed or race it, drive drunk or under the influence of drugs or at excessive speeds, use cell phones while diving, attempt to drive in a risky manner around the tractor trailer – such drivers can cause serious accidents in which it’s the motorist who suffers the most.

Truck drivers may also be negligent in their failure to inspect loads, and make sure that these are secured properly. An improperly secured load can shift during movement, leading to loss of balance and loss of control over the truck. Drivers who are working longer hours than they are allowed to can dose off at the wheel with serious consequences. Even with federal standards that mandate the maximum hours that the driver can be behind the wheel, truckers may still manipulate their logbooks to be able to work for longer numbers of hours. Trucking companies may fail to maintain their trucks properly, causing mechanical failures like tire blowouts that increase the risk of an accident. As California personal injury lawyers often see, the consequences can be devastating.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of truck accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

A 28-year-old drunk driver has been arrested for murder after he struck a motorcycle on the 215 freeway, killing the motorcyclist and injuring the passenger.

Rimforest-resident Daniel Palmer is the son of a prominent local resident and president of the local association of building contractors. According to the California Highway Patrol, Palmer was driving a Ford Ranger pickup south on the freeway when he made an unsafe lane change. His pickup truck hit a Suzuki motorcycle. The motorcyclist James Hayward Julian was thrown into the guardrail on the center median. He sustained serious injuries, and died at the scene of the accident. His passenger, Rosie Bowman, sustained a broken elbow and multiple scrapes. She was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center for treatment. Palmer’s truck then veered into the third lane, striking the rear of a big rig being driven by trucker Darryl Penland. Penland did not suffer any injuries, but there was minor truck damage.

California last year passed a law which requires persons who apply for a driver’s license to sign an acknowledgement that if they kill someone in an accident in which they are found to have been driving intoxicated, they will face murder charges. It’s not clear if Palmer obtained his license before the date the law went into effect, but he does have an earlier conviction for driving under the influence on his record. That means that he would have attended some kind of drunk driving education program where he would have been made aware of the dangers of drunk driving. Drunk drivers who attend DUI classes are informed that if they drive under the influence, they could kill themselves or others.

Last year, lawmakers passed a strong drunk driving law that went into effect on July 1st 2008. Under the law, a person applying for a new license or renewal in California will be required to sign a written acknowledgement that certifies that they are aware that if they are involved in a fatal accident caused by their drunk driving, it can result in murder charges being brought against them. The written acknowledgement will serve as evidence if the driver is involved in a DUI accident in which a person is killed.

The law is just one more example of how California lawmakers have taken strong steps to deal with the problem of drunk driving. It’s too early to say how much of an impact the new law has had on people’s willingness to get behind the wheel in an intoxicated state, but there is no doubt that the law will prove to be tough on those who have sign the acknowledgement and cause fatal accidents while driving drunk.

California has some of the country’s toughest laws against drunk driving, and these have lead to drunk driving fatality rates dropping over the past few years. Even so, there is a long way to go for California personal injury lawyers who wish to see drunk driving offenders get the strictest punishment possible, so they can be kept off the road.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of drunk driving accident.  Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.