Auto Accidents Category Archives — San Mateo Injury Lawyers Blog Published by San Mateo, California Injury Attorneys — Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

Livestreaming and How it Can Play a Role in a Car Accident Case in California

May 21, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

Modern technology gives us options that would have seemed unthinkable fifty, forty, or even thirty years ago. That device in the palm of your hand can give you the opportunity to have a full-on, face-to-face audio and video interaction in real time. While this can bring loved ones closer together, it also has the potential to open a live window to others’ tragedy or terror when things go wrong. As with any evolution in society and technology, there are ripple effects within the law, and that may include using a loved one’s livestream as part of your vehicle accident case. Rely on an experienced San Mateo car accident lawyer to help you best utilize all the evidence available to strengthen your case.

Not every case important to auto accident plaintiffs is itself a vehicle injury case. A sad case from Southern California is an example. One spring day, D.K., the mother of a toddler son for whom she had hired a healthcare services company to provide in-home care, opened a phone app and pulled up a livestream of the “nanny cam” installed in her son’s room.

The mother “watched and heard in shock and horror, while the incident was happening in real time,” as the nurse employed by the healthcare company allegedly hit, slapped, pinched, violently shook, and generally abused the two-year-old. The abuse allegedly caused doctors to have to remove one of the boy’s eyes, and also inflicted other serious injuries.

What to Do If You’ve Been Hurt in a Head-On Crash in California

May 8, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

One of the most dangerous vehicle accident scenarios you can face is a head-on collision. Statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that head-on accidents had a 58% fatality rate in 2017. The causes for head-on accidents are many but almost all of them involve someone engaging in negligent or reckless conduct. If you have been hurt or have lost a loved one to one of these extremely damaging accidents, be sure to get the legal help you need by retaining a knowledgeable San Mateo car accident lawyer right away.

The Bay Area witnessed another one of these tragic events recently. According to the San Mateo County Coroner, a 25-year-old San Francisco man died as a result of a head-on collision in South San Francisco. The accident, which occurred shortly after noon, also seriously injured two other people, the San Mateo Daily Journal reported. The police did not immediately release any additional details about the crash, according to the report.

A few days later, another head-on accident yielded more tragedy. A Chevrolet SUV and a Dodge pickup truck collided head-on in Modesto. The southbound SUV, for unknown reasons, crossed into the northbound lane and the vehicles slammed head-on into one another. The two occupants of the SUV died, and the driver of the truck suffered “moderate” injuries, according to an ABC 10 report.

The Multiple Legal Actions Your Family May Need After Losing a Loved One to a Fatal Single-Vehicle Accident in California

April 28, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

Recently, this blog touched upon fatal single-vehicle accidents and some of the legal issues that they can present, including ways of holding the defendant liable. Of course, getting a judgment of liability is not the end of the process. A proper outcome means also getting a full and fair sum of damages. As you are dealing with the tragic loss of a loved one, look to an experienced San Mateo auto accident lawyer to handle the legal processes and get your family the full compensation you deserve.

Santa Clara was the site of one of the latest of these fatal single-vehicle crashes. According to Patch.com, a motorcyclist traveling northbound along the San Tomas Expressway hit the center median and crashed. The motorcyclist was transported to a nearby hospital but died as a result of his injuries.

Statistics show that there generally are more than 3,000 fatal vehicle accidents every year in California and most are single-vehicle crashes.

Taking on – and Winning – an Injury Lawsuit in California Based on a Fatal Single-Vehicle Crash

April 20, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

If you scan the news stories about fatal vehicle accidents, you’ll inevitably notice that a lot of the stories have something in common: the vehicle in which the deceased was traveling was the only car, truck, van, or SUV involved in the incident. In fact, statistics from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show that, here in California, the majority of fatal vehicle accidents are single-vehicle crashes (56%). If you were hurt (or a loved one was killed) in a single-vehicle accident, there may be multiple options for getting the compensation you need, so waste no time in reaching out to a skilled San Mateo car accident lawyer.

Many times, it’s not immediately clear what caused the wreck. For example, losaltosonline.com described a recent crash in Santa Clara County thusly: “for reasons currently unknown, the 2006 Toyota Sienna minivan containing the young men left the roadway and entered the center median, where it overturned and struck several trees.” The San Diego Union-Tribune described a recent Southern California single-vehicle fatal accident this way: “Details of what caused the Cadillac sedan to hit the pole were not immediately available.”

Several factors can be triggers for fatal single-vehicle accidents. They can include a driver driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, a driver driving while distracted by a cell phone, a driver who was driving while fatigued or drowsy, a driver who was speeding, an inexperienced driver, or a driver who was navigating a road that had poor drainage or poor sightlines, among other things.

A Head-On Crash is Just the Latest Reminder of the Dangers of Distracted Driving in California

April 15, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

In 2019, more than 3,100 people lost their lives on U.S. roads because a driver was driving while distracted. A California Office of Traffic Safety survey revealed that, that same year, almost 58% of the drivers surveyed indicated that they “had been hit or nearly hit by a driver who was talking or texting on a cell phone.” If you or a loved one were injured due to the actions of a distracted driver, reach out to a San Mateo car accident attorney at your earliest convenience.

One of the latest examples of this ongoing problem comes from Santa Cruz County. Back in late January, a man from Sacramento took his eyes off the road to look at his cell phone, according to the California Highway Patrol. Distracted by his phone, the driver unintentionally steered his northbound BMW across the double-yellow line of Highway 17 and into the path of a southbound transit van.

Fortunately, in this case, both drivers were able to walk away from the head-on crash, according to the Mercury News. The CHP officer who worked the crash expressed his disappointment to the Mercury News about the continued prevalence of distracted-driving accidents. “Unfortunately we do have to keep saying it, don’t we?” The officer also noted that even just the brief period of time that it takes to read a notification can be long enough to lead to an accident, according to the report.

A Tale of Two Outcomes: What a Pair of California Injury Cases Can Teach About the Importance of Good Legal Representation

March 5, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

Statistics show that people who hire an attorney to handle their accident case come away better for it. The Insurance Research Council found that of the people injured in auto accidents who subsequently sued and settled, the settlements achieved by people with attorneys were more than triple the size of the settlements obtained by people without attorneys. In short, while retaining legal representation may seem daunting at first, you’ll likely find that you can’t afford not to have a skilled San Mateo injury attorney on your side.

To get an idea of what a huge difference this can make, let’s look at a pair of California cases. One was a 2015 Santa Monica bus accident in which the Court of Appeal issued a ruling earlier this year. The other was a more recent bus accident in Fresno.

In some ways, the cases were exceptionally similar. As noted above, both occurred aboard buses. Both of those buses were city-owned. Both of the injured passengers were people who utilized the assistance of wheelchairs, and both were hurt when their bus drivers hit the brakes suddenly and that abrupt braking sent them tumbling from their wheelchairs onto the floor of their buses.

A Northern California Driver’s Alleged Road Rage Has Left One Person Dead and Another Injured

February 21, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

A senseless act in Sunnyvale left a man dead and a woman injured, according to a KPIX report. A driver and his passenger were shot in what police believed was an act of road rage. Road rage is a danger to everyone on the road as it often leads those consumed by it to do dangerous things, with crashes, injuries, and sometimes deaths occurring as a result. If you’ve been hurt in a road rage accident, then the law may entitle you to recover a substantial sum in compensation. To help you in the pursuit of your legal action, an experienced San Mateo car accident attorney can help guide you effectively along the way.

In the Sunnyvale accident, a 23-year-old man apparently experienced road rage due to the driving of a 20-year-old man nearby. The former raced in front of the latter and slammed on his brakes. The younger man crashed into the rear of the vehicle in front of him. The 23-year-old man approached the rear vehicle and fired several shots that killed the 20-year-old man and injured his female passenger, according to reports.

Road rage is a massive problem, including here in Northern California. According to SafeMotorist, road rage triggered a total of 218 murders and 12,610 injuries nationwide over a period of seven years. The Insurance Information Institute found that, from 2003 to 2007, more than one-half (56%) of all fatal accidents involved at least one driver driving aggressively.

An Allegedly Impaired Driver Triggers a Multi-Vehicle Crash in Northern California that Kills One Pedestrian

February 14, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

When you lose a loved one due to the negligent or reckless conduct of another, you are doubtlessly traumatized. You may be in shock. You may feel at a loss for what to do. Even in this overwhelming circumstance, after you’ve taken the time to take care of yourself and your family, take the time to contact a knowledgeable San Mateo wrongful death attorney. Your family has suffered an invaluable personal loss, but has also suffered an economic loss, as well. The right legal action can help with the financial damage this accident has caused.

A terrible auto accident near San Francisco State University likely traumatized the many people impacted by it, but undeniably altered the trajectories of at least two lives – the survivors of the one man who was killed in the crash.

Just before 8:00 am one early February morning, an eight-car pile-up occurred in the northbound lanes of Lake Merced Boulevard, according to a KTVU report. The crash caused five non-life-threatening injuries. The driver who caused the accident was an intoxicated person behind the wheel of a stolen car, according to police. A sixth person, a pedestrian who was out for a jog, was killed in the crash, leaving behind a wife and three-year-old child.

Why Delayed Symptoms After a California Car Accident Happen and What They Mean for You

February 4, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

Back on New Year’s Day, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s website published some useful information that knowledgeable San Mateo car accident attorneys, as well as those who’ve been in a crash, already know: that the injuries you suffer in an accident – even a low-speed one – will not always trigger immediately apparent symptoms.

Sometimes, it may take days or even weeks for the symptoms to appear. Our bodies are programmed, in the immediate aftermath of serious trauma, to dump large amounts of adrenaline into our systems. That adrenaline helps our bodies deal with the blow we’ve just been dealt. That physiological reaction may also cause certain people not to feel pain for an extended period of time.

The reality is that each person is unique, and each person’s body’s responses to a crash are also unique. Just because Person A experiences significant pain almost immediately after their crash while Person B takes days or weeks for their problems to lead to the perception of pain doesn’t automatically make Person B’s harm any less authentic or any less serious.

Making Sure that Your California Auto Accident Lawsuit Includes Everyone Who Might Be Liable to You

January 30, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

As future attorneys, many law students train in something called “issue spotting,” which means identifying and understanding all of the potential legal issues within a complex set of facts and then comprehending how to apply the law to those facts. That’s important because, when you as a client hire an attorney, that’s what you want: a knowledgeable and insightful professional who can take the jumbled ball of facts that you provide to him/her and decipher all of the claims, arguments and legal maneuvers that those facts make available to you. This is what an experienced San Mateo car accident attorney does every day, and why having that kind of legal representation can pay massive dividends for your injury case.

A recent accident case from Southern California is a good example of what we mean. In that case, a man’s car broke down on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles County. The man coasted his disabled vehicle onto the shoulder of the freeway. He then called his automobile club for roadside assistance.

After more than two hours on the shoulder of the freeway, the man still had not received assistance. As he continued to wait, an unlicensed driver spun out of control, ran onto the shoulder of the freeway and rear-ended the man, causing him to suffer significant injuries.