Information

Causes of Serious Auto Accidents

June 27, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

Have you ever driven past an accident on the side of a highway and thought, “What in the world happened?” Sometimes it’s not easy to actually tell what happened at the scene of an accident, especially when you only have a few seconds to assess the scene before you drive right by.

Now you may not have to wonder about these accidents any longer. The Auto Insurance Center, an information and news site dedicated to keeping up with the latest in car insurance news, began researching the answer to that very question. The center combed through records in the United States from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatal Accident Reporting System, which has been keeping records on every serious and fatal car crash in the United States from 2009 to 2013.

The data itself showcased the number of pedestrian, driver, and passenger deaths that resulted from those accidents. When the center finished compiling their information, that made a color-coded map to show which fatal accident was the most common in each state. The map included nine colors:

California DUI School

June 3, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

All drivers convicted of a DUI in California must enroll in DUI school. Enrollment must be complete within 21 days of the sentencing. The provider of DUI program instruction must be licensed by the state and provide services in person only. There are several classes available online but California does not recognize them. However, there are over 250 in person providers in the state and most are readily available. All require an order from the court or a license suspension from the DMV.

California-DUI-School DUI charges can often be reduced to a wet reckless charge. A wet reckless charge is a reckless driving offense with a calculable amount of alcohol in the blood of the driver. It must be a very small amount and the reckless behavior cannot be of any serious type. If you’re DUI has been reduced to a wet reckless charge you must enroll in a DUI school, wet reckless program for a total of 12 hours.

The next most serious charge that requires DUI school is the first time offender program. A first time DUI offender with a blood alcohol level of under .20 percent will be required to enroll in at least 30 hours of an appropriate DUI program involving both drugs and alcohol issues. Thirty hours is approximately a 3 month course. If the judge decides the sentence should be stricter than average, the program can be extended to 6 or even 9 months. If a first time DUI offender has a blood alcohol percentage of above .20 percent, a 9 month or 60 hour course must be completed to satisfy the court.

Auto Accidents Are Top Cause of Teen Deaths in US

May 24, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

To most parents, there is nothing more terrifying than letting a teenager get his or her license and start driving. Parents tend to imagine every possible worst-case scenario – the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a drunk driver hits the teen’s vehicle – and really, they have cause to worry.

A new report states that auto accidents are actually the number one killer of teenagers in the United States, beating out both homicide and suicide. The study, which was funded by the General Motors Foundation, says that both drivers and passengers are at risk.

The report was mostly based off a national survey that looked at 1,000 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19. According to the report’s findings, 2,439 teenagers died in 2012 due to auto accidents on U.S. roads. Of those teenagers, about 56 percent of them were driving at the time, and 44 percent of them were passengers at the time. The study also found that more than half of those killed did not put on a seat belt.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Driverless Cars

May 20, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

How cool would it be to never have to drive your car again? Some people are lucky enough to experience this now. They have chauffeurs or private drivers to handle the task, but what about the regular, average Joes out there? What if you never had to worrying about making your morning commute because your car would simply drive you itself?

Self-driving vehicles are quickly becoming the new frontier of technology, capturing the minds of those in Silicon Valley, but the actual implementation of driverless cars might need to wait a generation or two. In a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 48 percent of Americans said that they would ride in driverless cars. More than half of urban and suburban citizens said they were at least interested in this technology, and a whopping 59 percent of college graduates in the U.S. said they would be willing to give it a try.

Before you know it, seeing a driverless car on the road could become part of your normal routine. You might even own one! Here is what you need to know about the driverless car phenomenon.

The Benefit of Uninsured Motorist Coverage

May 16, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

Personal injury lawsuits can really do a number on your finances. When you are hit by another driver, usually you will rely on their insurance to pay for the damages to your car as well as any medical fees. If the driver is uninsured, you will probably go after the driver with a personal injury lawsuit, but no matter what, it will cost you plenty of time and energy.

Some states are better than others when it comes to personal injury and safety. WalletHub.com rated all 50 states plus the District of Columbia in order from the riskiest states that will hit your wallet the hardest (#1) to the most lenient states that may save you money but not protection (#51). To judge the level of safety, the site looked at the level of auto insurance required for drivers.

Auto accidents are one of the leading causes for many personal injury lawsuits, and not all states require drivers to have enough insurance to cover damages. That means if another car in the state with the least strict laws hits you, there’s a good chance you will end up paying for your own damages, unless you chose to go after that driver in a personal injury lawsuit.

The Real Deal on California Insurance Adjusters

May 14, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

Insurance adjusters in California are merely employees of an insurance company. They are charged with the task of examining insurance claims for payment. They are considered the frontline in the war against the never-ending onslaught of accident claims. It is their job to pay out as little as acceptable. Many are capable, trustworthy citizens but there are some who will go the extra mile to save the company some money, even if it means bilking you out of your reasonable claim for reimbursement.

The most startling fact about insurance adjusters, the fact people must be continually reminded of, is their job is not to make it possible for accident victims to recoup their damages but to keep that from happening whenever possible. They are paid and often given bonuses to save the company from paying as many claims as possible. They meticulously search for any chance to deny each claim that crosses their desk. The reason this fact is so hard to remember is because they are so good at distracting victims from it. They strive to appear kind, caring, well-meaning and concerned for the victim. This is a falsehood.

Tools of the Trade

What Should I do if A Police Officer Hits Me in Sacramento?

May 7, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

Everyone has accidents. Even police and firefighters. Lawsuits against police and firefighters are governed by different laws than civilian lawsuits. A person who has been in an accident with a government vehicle may be entitled to file a lawsuit but it will proceed slightly differently than a private lawsuit. These types of lawsuits must be approached with extreme caution to avoid violating any of the specific regulations pertaining to these cases.

These cases can be tricky because the laws and responsibilities that apply to negligent civilian parties do not pertain to government entities or employees. While the law provides us with the California Code of Civil Procedure, Section 335, which summaries the rules for filing a personal injury lawsuit, it does not fully cover the proper procedure for lawsuits against public entities.

In Sacramento, Statutes of limitation, restrictions, immunities and requirements for claim presentation allow government entities to be exempt from civilian lawsuits in most cases. The Tort Claims Act, or California Government Code Section 810 explains most of these restrictions. In order to file a lawsuit you must determine if the case is covered under the government immunity.

How Do I Know How Much My Medical Malpractice Case Is Worth?

August 14, 2014 | by Moseley Collins

As patients, we expect that we will receive the best care possible from our medical providers. It is hard to believe that a medical provider would be negligent, careless or reckless in the manner in which he or she treats a patient. It is even more difficult to believe that patients in Sacramento and across California suffer injuries every day due to the mistakes medical professionals (i.e. doctors, lab technicians, nurses, etc.)

When someone is injured or someone dies because of medical malpractice, the patient or his or her family is entitled to receive compensation for his or her losses. This compensation can be for damages such as medical expenses, funeral costs, pain and suffering and lost wages. However, it is difficult for a medical malpractice attorney to accurately determine the value of a case, especially at the beginning of the case, because there are so many factors that may or may not influence the value of the claim as the case goes forward.

An experienced California medical malpractice attorney can often provide an estimate of what he or she believes to be the value of a medical malpractice claim based on his years of experience and the hundreds of cases he has handled. Typical, the value of the case is equal to the economic damages and the noneconomic damages.

New Concerns of Medical Malpractice

January 27, 2014 | by Moseley Collins

With the current focus on ObamaCare and what it means to the American public, it brings up new worries of medical malpractice and substandard medical care. Medical malpractice is defined as professional negligence by an act or omission by a health care provider. This implies that the treatment provided falls below normal accepted standards of care in the medical environment causing injury or even death to the patient, with most cases involving medical error. Some cases are so outrageous that they make the news headlines, like the recent case of the doctor carving on the wrong side of a patient’s brain. Another patient awoke after surgery to find doctors had removed the wrong leg! Even more shocking, a top surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England carved his initials into a patient’s liver, which was discovered by another surgeon during a different procedure. And a few years ago, a doctor performing a hysterectomy carved the patient’s name onto her uterus, claiming it was a ‘friendly gesture”. Another surgeon branded his initials into a woman’s abdomen after performing a C-section. Why would someone do that? Who’s going to even see that bit of handiwork anyway? Doctors claim the branding leaves only minor superficial burning and doesn’t cause harm to the patient. Some small comfort when you’re walking around with some crazy doctor’s brand on your guts! Now the question is how many other people are out there with organs bearing their doctor’s mark? This type of behavior is puzzling, shocking and extremely disturbing!

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, approximately 225,000 people die each year from medical malpractice. These incidents may be split into several categories: 12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgery, 7,000 deaths from medication errors in hospitals, 20,000 deaths from other errors in hospitals, 80,000 deaths from infections and 106,000 deaths from non-error, adverse effects of medication. The average annual number of suits filed each year is about 85,000, with the actual number of medical injuries estimated to be about one million per year.

Malpractice can be a result of poor communication or simply bad practice, and it is not just limited to the surgery field. Surgery is an easy field to pick on as there are plenty of cases of things like surgical instruments (forceps, gauze squares, clamps, sponges and more) being left in a body after surgery. There was even a comedy war movie back in 1964 called “Ensign Pulver”, where Pulver and his Captain are swept overboard during a storm, end up stranded on an island with a group of nurses, dancing natives, and one big case of appendicitis. The wise-cracking practical joke playing ensign gets his revenge on his tyrannical captain by placing several boiled and sterilized marbles in his abdomen during emergency surgery to remove the captain’s diseased appendix.

Exploring Complexities of Birth Asphyxia, Hypoxia and Intrauterine Hypoxia

January 22, 2014 | by Moseley Collins

Becoming a parent can be termed as one of the most wonderful events in a couple’s life. However, pregnancies may sometimes be subjected to complications and uncalled for predicaments. Some of the most critical problems include Birth Asphyxia, Birth Hypoxia and Intrauterine Hypoxia, which are discussed in this article.

The word Asphyxia means lack of oxygen. During pregnancy or right after birth the baby might at some point face a lack of sufficient oxygen that can profoundly affect the newborn’s proper growth, development and functioning. Due to this lack of oxygen, the cells’ functioning is impaired and the buildup of wastes can cause temporary or permanent damage to the babies’ key organs. Asphyxia can be caused by numerous reasons some of which include: early and abrupt separation of placenta from the uterine wall, presence of anemic cells in the baby, infections of any sort prevailing within the mother, complications that may arouse during delivery, lack of oxygen in the mothers blood, improper or incomplete development of the baby’s airways and/or an obstruction is present in the airways. Asphyxia can cause severe damage to the baby but it is dependent upon the severity of the condition and how quickly the treatment is given. Babies with mild cases of asphyxia may recover fully within a given time period. However, babies whose cells could not receive enough oxygen for a prolonged time may experience permanent injury to their brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, bowels or other organs.

Insufficient provision of oxygen to brain when occurs gives birth to Hypoxia and Cerebral Palsy, which initially affects the cerebral hemisphere and later the entire brain. Furthermore, developmental disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or impaired sight are subsequent health risks associated with Hypoxia. In some severe cases when the treatment is delayed the disease can cause organ failure and can be fatal. In case of organ failure, technologies such as Continuous Dialysis for kidney failure, ECMO for heart and/or lung failure and whole body cooling with Bedside Brain Monitoring are among the treatment options.