California Injury Lawyer Blog

Every single hour, 52 California residents are injured in a hit-and-run accident. According to statistics, each year over 19,000 people are injured and 150 are killed in such accidents. Here is one recent example – a mother and her three children were seriously injured in a crash in a South Los Angeles neighborhood. The victims were traveling in an SUV that was hit by a silver Mercedes, which, according to witnesses, ran a red light in the intersection. Firefighters had to extricate the victims from the wreckage. Paramedics performed CPR on two of the children, including an 18-month-old, who went into cardiac arrest following the high-speed crash. 

As for the driver of the Mercedes, he did not waste more than a few seconds to see what happened to the people in the other car, before he fled on foot. Local police were keeping an eye on the hospitals in the area as they believed the man might have been injured. 

What to do if you were involved in a hit-and-run?

Accidents involving box trucks and other large trucks can have particularly devastating consequences. Due to the immense size and weight of a box truck, a collision can result in significant harm to a victim’s person or property. Many factors can lead to box truck accidents, whether they result from the truck driver’s actions, a defective tire or other truck part, or even inclement weather conditions. Given these different scenarios, a plaintiff injured in a box truck accident must pay close attention to the role of fault when bringing claims against various defendants.

Recently, a chain reaction accident involving a large box truck left three people injured. The crash occurred in rainy conditions on the interchange between the 14 and 5 freeways in Santa Clarita. An earlier accident underneath a guardrail left a semi-truck flipped over and an SUV pinned against a wall. After this first accident, a box truck then veered over the guardrail above and landed upside-down on top of the semi-truck and SUV, further damaging the vehicles. Two people were transported to the hospital after the box truck crash, and one person was hospitalized after the first crash.

How Can You Demonstrate Fault in California Box Truck Accidents?

Determining fault in a box truck accident is not always straightforward and will depend on which parties a plaintiff names in a lawsuit. If suing the truck driver, one factor that can help a plaintiff demonstrate fault is the truck driver’s conduct while driving. For example, truck drivers may be operating their vehicle under the influence or engaging in distracted driving. A plaintiff would then need to prove that the driver’s carelessness caused the plaintiff’s injuries. In some situations, the plaintiff can also sue the truck driver’s company if the driver was operating the truck in the course of their employment with the company. Before recovering against the truck driver’s employer, the plaintiff must first prove the driver was negligent. This situation may be more complex if truck drivers exercise care while driving but lose control of their vehicle due to a faulty part. Under these circumstances, plaintiffs may also choose to sue the truck’s manufacturer or the company that made a specific defective part.

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When a person is injured on someone else’s property, California law may impose a duty of care on the owner to maintain the safety of their property. This is especially true when a property owner stands to benefit from other people’s use of their property. The classic example is a business that owns a parking lot so that customers can easily drive to and patronize their store. When an accident happens in a commercial parking lot, questions of liability for a victim’s injuries may be complex.

As a recent news article reported, one person died and several others suffered injuries after a car ran into a taco stand in Pomona, California. The taco stand was situated in a grocery store parking lot. As a driver entered the parking lot, she ran through the taco stand, scattering glass and taco supplies along the parking lot and flipping tables on the sidewalk. The crash injured twelve people and left at least one person dead. The driver fled the scene before later turning herself into authorities.

Can a Person Sue a Parking Lot Owner in California?

In California, a person can sue a parking lot owner for injuries suffered in a parking lot on certain conditions. To pursue a negligence claim against a parking lot owner, the owner must have a duty of care to the injured person. Typically, parking lot owners have a duty of care to maintain safe conditions in the parking lot for pedestrians and vehicles who patronize the parking lot. California also imposes a duty of care on property owners to warn guests of any potentially dangerous conditions that are not open and obvious. On the other hand, a parking lot owner can escape liability if the cause of the plaintiff’s injuries was so open and obvious that a reasonable person would have easily avoided it. The rationale behind this bar to recovery is that certain hazards should serve as warnings in and of themselves.

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California is known for its miles of scenic roadways. As the most populated state in the U.S., California boasts 396,540 miles of roads on which thousands of drivers travel every day. Unfortunately, around 3,600 fatal crashes occur on California roads each year. Approximately 178,300 people per year suffer injuries from a California car accident. Not every road, however, has an equal number of crashes or fatalities.

Recently, a news article identified the ten deadliest roads in California. Relying on data from the National Highway Safety Administration during 2017-2019, the article ranked the roadways based on the number of fatal accidents, fatalities, and the average number of fatal accidents per mile. Based on these variables, the most dangerous road in California is the 15 Freeway in Hesperia between Exits 138 and 129. During 2017-2019, nineteen fatal accidents occurred on this freeway, averaging 4.2 fatal accidents per mile. Ranking second is the 80 Freeway between Exit 14a and Exit 8a, spanning Berkeley, Oakland, and Emeryville. On the 80 Freeway, 15 fatal accidents occurred with 17 total fatalities, averaging 3 fatal accidents per mile. In total, between 2017-2019, roughly 10,500 fatal accidents occurred on California’s roads.

As the article reported, California also has the fourth worst drivers in the country. An insurance rate comparison company ranked each U.S. state by number of accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, and citations. According to the rankings, California drivers have the fourth-highest number of accidents and citations and the fifth-highest number of reported DUIs. They fare better on speeding violations, ranking at 37. However, the company attributes the low number to California’s famous traffic, which prevents drivers from speeding. Based on the same metrics, the city of Bakersfield, California has the worst drivers of any U.S. city, including the highest number of reported DUIs. Among the ten cities with the worst drivers, eight are California cities.

Car accidents may result in physical, financial, or emotional harm to some or all parties involved in the crash. However, accidents in which a motor vehicle operator was driving under the influence (DUI) can be particularly devastating. Because drivers are under the influence, they often lack the ability to control their vehicles, leading to significant yet entirely preventable accidents. Too often, DUI crashes lead to severe injury or death of other drivers or their passengers, who frequently are not at fault for the accident.

As a recent news article reported, a car crash involving a suspected DUI driver killed one person and injured five others. According to investigators, the driver likely veered into the incoming lane, directly colliding with a 21-year-old woman carrying four passengers. The woman died at the scene, while the passengers suffered injuries ranging from minor to serious. The suspected DUI driver was also injured in the crash. At the hospital, police arrested the driver on suspicion of driving under the influence and vehicular manslaughter for the woman’s death.

What Damages Can You Recover from a California DUI Accident?

California law allows injured persons to recover both compensatory and punitive damages. Compensatory damages can begin to help redress the losses an injured person has suffered as a result of an accident. These can include both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages can include property damage—such as damage to a vehicle—along with medical expenses incurred from the accident, or lost wages due to an inability to work following the accident. In California, a court can infer an injured person’s loss of earning power from the nature of the injury.

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Self-driving cars, once considered pure science fiction, now represent a multi-billion dollar industry. They have become increasingly popular on the roads and are hailed as significantly safer than regular cars. But a recent report by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that self-driving cars were involved in nearly 400 crashes in the past 10 months.

In a recent devastating accident, a California couple was killed while in a self-driving Tesla. The married seniors had exited the highway into a rest area. Where the exit lane split between the car and truck lots, the couple’s car headed into the truck lot. The car then ran into a parked truck, which crushed the car’s front end and roof. The truck’s driver was not injured, but both members of the couple died at the scene.

The increasing number of self-driving cars on the road raises a crucial question: Who is at fault when an autonomous vehicle crashes, the driver or the car? In California, the answer may well be both.