There were about 20 people standing on a walkway built near a construction zone in San Diego, when it began to suddenly sway and fall. Now at least 15 of those who were on the walkway have been taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries that range from minor to serious.

The wooden walkway was built next to the construction site of a three-storey apartment building in down town San Diego. It was built to protect passing pedestrians from the debris falling from the construction going on. During lunch hour, when there are a lot of people using the walkway, there were 20 people or so on the walkway. Victims said they felt the walkway sway, and then buckle under, taking them with it. Some of the most severe injuries were related to two persons who had suffered a broken back and fractured leg. All victims are expected to make a recovery.

The building being constructed called Studio 15 is a low cost housing project, and the contractors of the project are Allgire General Contractors, a Carlsbad base company. Officials at the company failed to give any comments about the reasons for the construction accident, saying the matter was under investigation. It’s not the first time that a construction accident of this sort has taken place at the company. In fact, the exact same site was the location of a previous construction accident. In December last year, a fine of $200 was levied on the company for leaving a ladder unsecured. Another accident occurred in Encinitas, where the company was cited for not providing a guardrail to protect construction workers from an accident. In a time period from 1972, the company has had a total of 4 safety violations.

Some of the victims of this most recent construction accident were members of a homeless shelter just across the street from the walkway. Some of them were using the walkway during lunch hours when it collapsed, injuring several of them.

Obviously, there was carelessness or negligence at some level in this construction accident. A walkway doesn’t just collapse; there were structural faults here that will come out in further investigations. The company that was responsible for construction at the site will have to answer to how a walkway that hundreds of pedestrians use daily was allowed to be so unstable it fell apart for no reason.

It’s extremely fortunate that there were no fatalities here. From reports of the accident, it seeks that there were no warning signs that the walkway was about to collapse, so victims had no time to protect themselves from injury. There are some reports of construction scaffolding falling on the walkway triggering collapse. That needs to be investigated fully.

The injured should definitely look at getting compensation for their injuries. The homeless victims who were injured in the accident, most probably have no means to pay off their medical bills. They need to know that they have legal rights in this construction 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 construction 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.

A 56-year-old Salinas resident suffered serious head injuries after being thrown off his bike in a motorcycle accident at North Sanborn Road and Acosta Plaza. Jaime Juarez had stooped his Harley Davidson at a stop light at an intersection when he was hit from behind by a delivery truck. Juarez was thrown at least 25 feet in the air, and crashed to the ground, sustaining severe injuries to the head.

He was rushed to the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital where he has slipped into a coma. He has already undergone one surgery to remove a blood clot that had formed in his brain. For his family, the motorcycle accident and the injures it has caused have brought back painful memories of another tragedy – his older brother was killed after suffering from a head injury some 28 years earlier.

Juarez, who suffers from low blood pressure, has a 50 percent chance of compete recovery, his doctors say. His family had to plead with surgeons to perform the operation because of what happened with their older son. The clot seems to be reducing, but all is still uncertain for now.

Juarez was wearing a helmet, but the design provided very little protection considering the severity of the accident. Juarez’s fall from 25 feet in the air after the motorcycle accident couldn’t be shielded by the helmet.

Meanwhile, the driver of the truck that slammed into the Harley Davidson has been arrested on suspicion of felony hit and run. Drug and alcohol tests were conducted, but proved that neither played a part in the motorcycle accident. The problem appears to have been with the driver Luciano Acevedo’s speed as he drove the truck. He was driving at a speed higher than that recommended for the road, and was unable to stop when he approached Juarez’ motorcycle. After the accident, he drove a little further and parked his truck. When police questioned him, he reportedly first denied that he had been driving the tuck, but later confessed that he was the driver.

Acevedo is also waiting for changes in Juarez’s condition. Any changes in his situation could bring about additional charges for the 26-year-old driver.

Friends of Juarez both from business, - he owned two popular eateries in town before they changed hands – and from the motorcycling community in Salinas were quick to express their concern and their hopes for a speedy recovery for him.

For the Juarez family, to see another of their sons struggling with the same kind of head injuries that killed their older son all those years ago, is extremely traumatic. Juarez was totally blameless in this tragedy. His only fault, if you could call it that was that the helmet he wore failed to protect him as well as it should have. He was not breaking any laws, and he was not speeding or swerving to others paths. For someone to be put though so much trauma all for no fault of his, is extremely unfair. The Juarez family should definitely look at filing a civil lawsuit against Avecedo for the kind of physical and emotional trauma that he has caused Juarez.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of motorcycle 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.

It was a combination of several factors that resulted in the death of Eagleville resident Adam P. Hunsberger on July 11. Speed, reckless driving and a potent mix of alcohol and drugs played a part in dulling the sense of his friend Joseph T Cornog. He has now been arrested, and charged with causing his friend’s death in the drunk driving accident.

On the evening of July 11, the two friends partied together, and then drove off for home. At about 7 pm, as the car approached the Perkiomen Avenue and Fourth Street intersection in Schwenksville, PA, Cornog who as at the wheel seems to have lost control of his car. The result was a dramatic impact - the car flipped and became airborne, traveling 40 feet in the air before hitting the curb with a crash. Then, it rolled over several times. As the car continued to roll over, with its two occupants inside, Cornog was ejected from the drive’s seat and landed outside the car.

Hunsberger on the other hand, was only partially ejected. When emergency medical personnel arrived at the scene of the drunk driving accident, they found Hunsberger with severe and multiple injuries to his chest and abdomen. He was rushed to the Pottstown Memorial Medical Center where he died an hour later from his injuries.

Cornog who also suffered injuries received emergency treatment for his injuries at the scene of the accident. According to a first responder, Cornog expressed hope that Hunsberger would recover from his injuries. When asked how the accident happened, Cornog confirmed that the two had been partying and yes, he had been drinking.

Police found other evidence of the extent of the partying at the scene of the drunk driving accident. There was an empty six pack of beer, and as well as several bottles of beer, empty or half full found at the scene of the accident. Blood alcohol tests conducted after the drunk driving accident on Cornog showed a blood alcohol limit of 0.17. Tests also revealed that he had been under the influence of cocaine and marijuana at the time of the accident. If all these intoxicants in his blood were not enough, Cornog was found to have been driving at least 25 miles above the speed limit in the area at the time of the crash.
According to the Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney, Cornog’s use of alcohol and drugs turned his vehicle into a “lethal weapon.” We tend to agree with him. Descriptions of the accident and the injuries suffered by Hunsberger indicate the severe damage and destruction that occurred as a result of Cornog’s reckless behavior.

Regardless of the fact that that two friends had been partying together, Cornog is the only one who bears any responsibility in the accident since he was the one behind the wheel. In the kind of intoxicated state that he was in, he should have made other arrangements for him and his friend to be driven home. Instead, he chose to drive his friend to his death.

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 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.

A broken leg, broken wrist and severe cuts and lacerations on his face later, Miguel Jose Berger is thankful he’s escaped with no permanent fallout of the bicycle accident that he was involved in on Saturday.

The 31-year-old, who is studying to be an electrician at Cal State Bakersfield, was riding his bicycle with his three friends. They were all riding in a straight line northbound on Chester Avenue. As they neared the sidewalk, a truck driven by Oscar Gomez slammed into Berger’s bicycle, and sped away. Berger was thrown off his bicycle, and crashed onto the concrete pavement. There were severe lacerations on his face, and blood was spouting out fast. He also had a broken wrist and a broken leg. He had managed to avoid serious injury to his back by using his backpack as a cushion to shield the blow. There were lacerations and bruises on his legs. His friends fortunately were able to use emergency tourniquets to stop the pressure of the blood.

Thankfully, Berger survived without any lasting effects of the bicycle accident. He had to have stitches on his temple, scalp and ear. The doctors have also told him he may never have hair growth on his hairline again. His right ear was sliced away in the bicycle accident, and had to be reattached by surgeons. Even so, the cyclist who intends to be back on the pavement again on his bike soon, knows he is lucky to have escaped death. The amount of blood that he was losing could have lead to more serious consequences.

Meanwhile, the driver of the truck as expected fled from the scene of the drunk driving accident. Gomez it appears is no stranger to such accidents. In fact, he had just been included in another drunk driving accident a few hours prior to clipping Berger off his bicycle. He had hit another vehicle at the Fourth Street and Chester Avenue intersection at about 3:30 pm that day. Soon after that accident, Gomez fled form the scene of that accident, and then managed to crash into Berger.

Fortunately, he didn’t manage to get too far before he was found and arrested on suspicion of hit and run and felony driving under the influence. He is expected to be present at a court hearing at the Kerns County courthouse today.

As Berger recovers from his ordeal, he wants to send out one message – drivers need to be more aware of cyclists. It is a message that Los Angeles city officials too have grappled with in recent months, as incidents of bicycle accidents and altercations between motorists and bicyclists on the streets of our cities become more frequent. Gomez, in this particular drunk driving accident was under the influence, which explains his behavior a lot, but in the recent past, we have seen even sober motorists get aggressive on the road against vulnerable bicyclists. There seems to be a tendency to think of the streets as belonging to the cars and the sport utility vehicles, with no room for cyclists, who it is felt, are better off pedaling away in some quiet cycling trail somewhere.

With rising gas prices, cycling to and from work and other places of daily interest has become not just a trendy eco-friendly statement to make, but also a necessity for many people in California. Traffic safety officials need to take better steps to promote sharing of the streets, and avoid altercations between the two groups.

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 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.

A six vehicle pile up on the northbound I-5 Santa Ana freeway injured at least eight people, at least two of them critically. The pile up was set into motion after a truck accident in which a big rig ignored warning signs and slammed into several cars that were stopped on the freeway.

According to news reports, the truck accident happened on the I-5 freeway at about 12:18 am. Construction work in the area had resulted in a number of vehicles being diverted from the northbound I-5 freeway to the westbound 91. The vehicles had slowed down as they prepared to transition, when a big rig carrying produce from Mexico slammed into two vehicles on the freeway. The trailer detached from the truck and caught fire. The truck, which by now was completely out of control, crashed into three more vehicles that had slowed down.

Eight people were injured in the truck accident, and at least two of them are reported to be in critical condition. The two critically injured persons had to be extricated from the wreck. The other drivers suffered minor injuries. The driver of the truck was not injured in the accident.

Several lanes were closed for nearly five hours after the truck accident to clear the massive amount of wreckage that was left behind after the crash.

California Highway Patrol officers are still investigating the truck accident. The biggest question right now seems to be why the truck driver did not slow down when he reached the long line of vehicles waiting to detour. There were several signs notifying drivers of the construction work that was going on in the area. Other signs also warned drivers of the detour that lay ahead and warned them to go slow. Yet for some reason, the driver seems to have missed all of these warnings completely. There was absolutely no slowdown as he neared the line of vehicles.

The driver hasn’t been cited yet. California Highway Patrol officers do not seem to believe alcohol was a factor in the truck accident.

If alcohol wasn’t a factor, then there is doubtless another reason why the driver of the truck failed to not only notice all the signs that were posted along the freeway, but also failed to notice the line of cars that had slowed down and were waiting to detour. It’s common for truck drivers to be fatigued. Some truck companies fail to monitor the daily schedule of their drivers, and the number of hours spent behind the wheel without adequate rest. The result could be lethargy and dullness of the senses. Further investigations into this accident will no doubt have CHP officers looking at this and other possible reasons. A deeper investigation of the truck company that owns and operates the big rig is definitely called for here.

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.

A freak truck accident on Thursday in the town of Geddes, New York, about a mile from the state fair grounds, injured at least seven people in the van behind the truck, including three children in the van. The truck had just dropped off a portable toilet near the state fair grounds, where the New York State Fair had just been inaugurated by Governor David Paterson. It was returning back on Intestate 690 when the hydraulic lift at the top of the truck seems to have come off suddenly, and without warning. It smashed into a pedestrian bridge, and bits of concrete and debris from the bridge began raining down. Many of these concrete slabs fell on a Buick Rendezvous sport utility vehicle that was traveling behind the truck.

There were a total of seven people in the van – an entire family, including four adults and three children. All of them were injured in the car accident, and some of them very seriously. The two people sitting in the front seat of the SUV received the maximum impact of the falling concrete, 37-year-old Alan Zimmerman and his wife Jennifer. Jennifer was airlifted to a Syracuse hospital, and her husband too was rushed for emergency treatment for his serious injuries.

The other passengers in the SUV included Mary Ann and David Delano, both in their sixties, as well as the Zimmerman kids – Nicholas, Alicia, and Jonathan, aged from 5 to 11 years old. They were all rushed to the hospital. The driver of the truck, Shawn Sanford also suffered minor injuries, and was taken to the hospital. The most serious injury among the passengers of the SUV was an open leg fracture, doctors at the New York hospital where the family members were rushed have said.

Considering that we’re talking about large pieces of solid and heavy concrete raining down on a car, the Zimmerman family is extremely lucky that they escaped with injuries. There could have easily been fatalities in this case. Post the car accident, the bridge has been deemed unsafe for use, and it will need to be demolished. It’s extremely fortunate that nobody was using the bridge at the time of the truck accident, or we may have been dealing with a severe catastrophe, with fatalities involved.

So far, there has not been any explanation from the company that owns the truck, Robinson Roloff of Auburn, on the reason for the malfunctioning of the hydraulic lift. A truck with a defective lift should not be out on the streets, let alone on a busy highway, with proximity to a pedestrian bridge. Was there human error involved in the car accident? So far, there have been no details about any investigation into the causes of the car accident. The coming days will give us a clearer picture of the background details of this truck accident. Until then, we wish the Zimmerman’s – all three generations of them - who have been though a terrifying ordeal, a speedy covey.

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.

There’s more bad news from the Muni stable again. This time, a 63-year-old woman has been left hospitalized with life threatening injuries after being struck by an N-Judah streetcar in San Francisco.

The train accident occurred at about 8:51 am this morning. The woman, it seems, was walking near Judah Street at 30th Avenue. She was crossing Judah Street with her shopping bag in her hand when a Muni street car hit her. She was immediately rushed to San Francisco General Hospital. Her injures are apparently very serious.

A witness present at the scene of the train accident, who helped the woman and comforted her until the paramedics arrived, says that he saw the streetcar fail to stop at a stop sign. The man wished not be identified, but what he is saying definitely strikes a chord with residents of San Francisco, who either regularly commute by Muni, or have seen its drivers’ notorious rule-breaking habits at work.

Not stopping at stop signs, some frustrated commuters say, happens all the time with Muni. As usual, we have the barest minimum of action taken by Muni. The driver in question, who hit the woman, has been placed on “non driving status.” He has also been given drug and alcohol tests to check for a state of intoxication at the time of the train accident.

Mini’s record has been bad for a while now, but of late, it’s become absolutely appalling. Only in June, there was a train accident in which one Muni train rear-ended another, injuring several passengers. This was only one in a spate of train accidents at the transportation agency. In almost all of them the agency has maintained a stoic silence on the matter, choosing only to make lame explanations for this terrible driving record.

Protecting employees at the cost of passenger’s safety seems to be part of policy at the agency. When a driver is involved in a train accident that he or she is very clearly in the wrong for, all she can expect from Muni is a “ non driving status” and that’s about it. There seems to be very little accountability of the injuries that occur because of their train accidents, many of which seem to be caused by sheer negligence.

In one accident that we reported on, a Muni street car driver ignored a Muni traffic operator’s advice to go slow because she was in danger of hitting the car ahead of her. The result was an accident and many were injured. Who is to be held accountable for all the injuries, medical bills, trauma, days lost from work, loss of pay etc. when these train accidents occur? When will Muni be made to see that it’s not an authoritarian body that is answerable to absolutely no one? San Francisco’s once proud transportation system is fast becoming a buzzword for carelessness, inefficiency and yes, train accidents.

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.

One of California’s most scenic highways also has a reputation as one of the country’s most dangerous roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in fact, rates it as one of the nation’s deadliest, and just last weekend, Highway 74 claimed one life, and caused two separate car accidents.

The first accident involved a single car. A woman driving down Highway 74 seems to have lost control of her car. She died at the scene of the accident. The very next day, there was another accident. A woman driving an SUV managed to drive her car off the cliff near Big Horn. The car was found more than 70 feet below.

In both accidents, the California Highway Patrol has pointed out that the women were at fault. In the first accident, the driver appears to have been speeding before she lost control of her car. In the second case, the woman was suspected to have been under the influence of alcohol at the time of the car accident. However, these are not the only incidents that have plagued this beautiful highway in recent years. Acceding to California Highway Patrol, there have been at least 1221 accidents on Highway 74 in just eighteen months. A total of 5 deaths have occurred as a result of these accidents.

Motorists who use this road often are more than aware of the dangers. Many have had close shaves with other cars or with the steep curves that mark this dangerous road. Many Palm Springs residents use the highway to travel to Idyllwild.

California Highway Patrol officers however, have no plans to increase patrolling in the area, even with the large number of accidents that take place on this dangerous road. The agency has cautioned motorists to be very careful as they use this highway. The problem, they say, is that many motorists don’t take the trouble to check their speed as they drive. Once they reach a sharp turn – and there are plenty of sharp turns on Highway 74 – they find it hard to regain control of the car. The highway has a set 55 miles per hour speed limit, but highway patrol officers say they find many motorists flouting the speed limit. Motorists also don’t reduce speed as they near turns, which raises the risk of accidents further.

Highway 74 is a curvy road, and especially as people head downhill, it’s very easy to pick up speed. Even though most people who use this highway seem to be aware of the special risks that it poses, there are still problems with speeding on this road.

The sharp turns and curves of the highway are what give it its beauty and scenic views. They are also the parts where the maximum number of accidents on this dangerous road takes place. Better patrolling could definitely prevent accidents by warning drivers who are exceeding their speed limits.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of dangerous road 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.

Family members of Dominique Williams are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of the little toddler in a boat accident at Mosquito Beach in Yuba City. The 3-year-old was in the shallow water, just a few feet from the shore when he was struck by a water-ski. The boy suffered severe head injuries, and died an hour later.

Dominique had gone to the riverfront with his father, as the two were constantly in the habit of swimming in the waters of the Mosquito Beach. Dominique was used to the water, and was always especially thrilled when he saw the jet skis and other watercraft on the water. On that fateful Saturday on August 16, the men who were on the Jet Ski, 63-year-old John Blanchard and 50-year-old Allan Minkema, were apparently driving their Jet Ski at 15 or 20 miles per hour. Law requires that any watercraft that is close to shore waters where there are swimmers or bathers reduce their speed to just 5 miles per hour. The two men were at four times the speed limit.

Little Dominique, playing in the shallow water just four feet from the shoreline, didn’t even know what hit him until the water ski had already struck him, leaving him with severe head trauma. Both the men had their hands on the steering wheel at the time of the boat accident, the Sutter County Sheriff’s Department said.

The two men have been arrested on suspicion of felony vehicular manslaughter. They have been booked into Sutter county jail, and a bail of $50,000 each has been set. They can expect to be arraigned on the 29th of September at the Sutter County Superior Court.

The two men had reportedly been drinking at the time of the boating accident, and the blood alcohol count will be confirmed when results of their blood tests are received later this week. Alcohol-related charges have not yet been filed, because the reports are still pending, but if the report concludes that alcohol definitely contributed to the boat accident, there will be another serious charge added to their list.

What’s surprising about this accident is the age of the men involved. The two men in their fifties and sixties were old enough to know better. We see alcohol frequently causing such havoc on the water, and a number of boat accidents that we have reported on in these very pages, have had alcohol involved as a factor. But they involved young people who would be more likely to be reckless, careless or over-confident. When men who should know better choose to put other’s lives at risk by behaving like this, how, we wonder, can we hope for any kind of awareness in young people about the dangers of drinking while at the helm of a boat?

In 2006, of the 55 water-related fatalities that occurred in the state of California, at least 12 were found connected to the operation of watercraft. These are some of the easiest accidents to avoid. All that is needed to drive the watercraft at a reasonable speed, and to slow down to the speed limit when you near the shoreline. These are not difficult rules to follow for anyone, least of all two older, more experienced, citizens who should have been setting an example.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of boat 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.

What the California Highway Patrol suspected to be just another El Dorado motorcycle accident is now quickly taking on the shades of a murder.  Police have booked a young woman who is suspected of vehicular manslaughter after her car was involved in a head-on drunk driving accident that killed a young man on a motorcycle.

The young man, 23-year-old Anthony James Payne, and the woman 23-year-old Melissa Nichols apparently had been dating. At about 7:45 am last Friday, according to a witness, the two were talking to each other at Carson Road.  After the conversation, they appear to have each gone their own separate ways. Nichols drove off in her Pontiac Grand AM, while Payne sped off on his motorcycle.

After a while however, Payne seems to have had a change of plan, and turned his motorcycle around. He came back towards Nichols, and as he approached the Pontiac, she for some reason veered off into his lane, slamming the Pontiac onto the motorcycle head-on.  The impact was strong enough to throw Payne at least 200 feet into the air. The force of the impact as he crashed to the ground was tremendous, and he died on the spot.

In the beginning, CHP officers were inclined to treat it as just another result of the sort of drunken behavior that plays out on our streets daily.  However, Nichol’s passenger who was with her in the car at the time of the drunk driving accident seems to have given some testimony to the officers that seems to have pointed them to another angle altogether to this story.  The new evidence, CHP officers say seems to support a murder count.

Meanwhile Nichols, who’s suffered injuries in the motorcycle accident, was treated for minor injuries at the Sutter Rossville Medical Center.  After treatment, she was paid a visit by officers who have booked her under suspicion of vehicular manslaughter in a state of intoxication, and causing bodily injury driving while intoxicated.  She is currently at the El Dorado county jail.

What seems to have happened here is simple enough. The couple seems to have had relationship issues, and Melissa who was under the influence of alcohol seems to have done what people in an intoxicated state are bound to do – lose their powers of reasoning and identifying right from wrong.  Alcohol dulls a person’s good judgment to the extent that that the lose sight of the proper thing to do.  The police seem to have strong evidence in the form of testimony from Nichols’ friend who has come forward to do the right thing. 

Nichols can look forward to a lengthy prison sentence.  This young woman will certainly have a long time in the seclusion of jail in which she can reflect on her actions, and how they have ruined her life.

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 and motorcycle 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.