Traffic Accident News And Advice Blog

Martin Solorio, 11, died in an Azusa car versus bicycle collision Sep. 3 at the intersection of Baseline Road and Rockvale Avenue when he was struck by a motorist while riding his bike in a crosswalk. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported the driver, 42-year-old Francine Willis, was booked on unrelated arrest warrants and is yet to be criminally charged in connection with the fatal Azusa bicycle accident.

Martin was reportedly riding his bicycle after finishing his first day of middle school when the vehicle struck him. The boy was thrown 100 to 125 feet from the crosswalk and died from fatal head injuries.

My heart goes out to the family of young Martin Solorio. Please keep them in your prayers.

According to officials, Willis, the driver who struck Martin, already had two traffic-related arrest warrants. Investigators are still looking into how this auto vs. bicycle accident occurred. I’m sure they will look into whether Willis was under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs at the time of the accident.

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Posted In: Bicycle Accidents

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Moises Romero, 47, of Caruthers, died in a bicycle accident in Fresno County. Romero was hit by a sport utility vehicle near the intersection of Mountain View and Tahoe Avenues in Caruthers according to a story in the Fresno Bee. California Highway Patrol officials say that Romero rode into the path of a Ford Escape driven by a Riverdale man.

I offer my deep condolences to Romero’s family for their irreparable loss.
According to CHP’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), there were four bicycle accident fatalities and 157 injuries involving bicycle accidents in Fresno County in 2006.

If I were a member of the Romero family, I would question how officials arrived at the initial determination that Romero rode into the path of the Ford Escape. Did they base that inference on what the driver of the Ford Escape said, or were there other eyewitnesses who corroborated that information? If I were an attorney representing the Romero family, I would not buy the story unless there is specific evidence and eyewitnesses other than the driver of the SUV saying that Romero was at fault.

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One man was killed in a South Los Angeles school bus accident Aug. 16, the Los Angeles Times reports. The school bus collided with a Nissan compact car on East Slauson Avenue east of Avalon Boulevard, according to Los Angles police officials.

There were no children or other passengers on the school bus, but the impact of the crash is believed to have killed the 30-year-old driver of the Nissan on the spot. A 24-year-old passenger in the Nissan suffered minor injuries. The school bus driver was reportedly uninjured. Officials have not released the names of the deceased victim and injured passenger.

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Martha Ovalle, a 32-year-old Costa Mesa resident, died in a Newport Beach pedestrian accident Aug. 29 after she was struck by a sport utility vehicle while crossing the road.
Ovalle was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene shortly after she was hit by a GMC Yukon westbound on Westcliff Drive near Dover Drive even as she was crossing on a marked crosswalk, the Daily Pilot reports.

Newport Beach Police cited the driver, 41-year-old Martin Kuehl of Costa Mesa, for the fatal Buckingham Lane and Westcliff Drive street intersection accident and also arrested him for a parole violation. Newport Beach traffic investigators say Kuehl didn’t seem to be speeding. They say drugs or alcohol did not play a part in the crash either. But they are not ruling out that a distraction such as a cell phone may have caused Kuehl to hit Martha Ovalle.

This is the second Newport Beach fatal pedestrian accident in one week. On Aug. 25, Michelle Kim, 54, of Redondo Beach was struck and killed by a minivan when she crossed Newport Place Drive outside a crosswalk. The driver in that case, Sung Van Le of Santa Ana, was questioned by police and released.

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Posted In: Pedestrian Accidents

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David Church Deane, 28, of Costa Mesa, who worked as a production assistant on the “Judge Judy” show was killed in a head-on motorcycle accident when he collided with a pickup truck on the Angeles Crest Highway, according to a CBS News report. The motorcycle accident occurred Aug. 21 at 11:50 a.m.

California Highway Patrol officials say initial reports place the blame squarely on Deane who they say was speeding and then crossed over double yellow lines and struck a 2006 Dodge Ram pick-up truck. Deane was traveling eastbound and was rounding a curve at a high rate of speed when the head-on collision occurred, CHP officials say. Deane was thrown to the side of the road and the motorcycle ended up wedged under the truck. He was reportedly pronounced dead at the scene.

Continue reading "Costa Mesa Man Dies in Altadena Motorcycle Accident " »

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Posted In: Motorcycle Accidents

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Keanu Irvine Lee Davila, 16, of North Las Vegas, died in a fatal bicycle accident Aug. 20. According to an article in the Las Vegas Sun, Keanu was struck by a car near Alexander Road and Coleman Street as he was riding his bicycle. He was taken to an area hospital, where he later died.

North Las Vegas Police, who are investigating this bicycle accident, are saying that the teenager was riding his bike close to the curb when the driver of a silver Honda Civic pulled to the right and hit him from behind. Keanu landed on the hood of the car, his head striking the windshield. He was carried another 40 feet on the car’s hood before falling on the street.

Please keep Keanu’s family in your thoughts and prayers. I am deeply sorry for their loss.

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Joan Hyler, a prominent talent manager in Hollywood who has represented celebrities such as Madonna, Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol, was critically injured in a Malibu pedestrian accident. According to this KNBC news report, Hyler was hit by a passing car as she was parking her vehicle on Pacific Coast Highway. She is said to be in critical condition.

According to the California Highway Patrol’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS), in Malibu alone, there were a total of 125 injury traffic accidents in 2006, three of those fatal accidents.

There is not much information with regard to this Malibu auto accident. There is any number of ways this accident could have happened. It could have been an impaired driver at the wheel who was driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. The driver of the vehicle that hit Hyler may have been distracted. He or she may have just been careless or negligent and missed seeing Hyler.

Continue reading "Malibu Auto Accident Critically Injures Hollywood Talent Manager" »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents , Pedestrian Accidents

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Tyler Wilkinson, 17, of Long Beach died in a fatal Santa Clara County rollover accident after the Jeep Wrangler he was riding in crashed into a vehicle trying to merge onto Highway 152 near Dunne Street. According to this news report, the auto accident occurred when 28-year-old Erika Neves of San Jose merged onto the freeway from the shoulder where she had parked.

The driver of the 2008 Jeep Wrangler tried to avoid Neves’ 2005 Mazda sedan, but ended up striking the back of the Mazda, which spun around and came to rest on the right shoulder. The Jeep continued up the freeway shoulder and up an embankment before rolling over and landing on its wheels. Tyler, who was the right front passenger, was ejected from the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the Jeep was an unidentified juvenile and was uninjured. The driver’s father, 60-year-old Manual Madula, who was also a passenger in the Jeep, suffered head and chest injuries. Neves suffered minor cuts to her face and arm.

My heart goes out to the family of the teenager, Tyler Wilkinson. I offer my condolences to the family for their terrible loss.

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Timothy Douglas Curl, 43, of Temecula died in a motorcycle accident in San Clemente Aug. 19, according to an article in The Orange County Register. Curl was riding a 2006 Yamaha motorcycle south on El Camino Real when he lost control of the bike, according to Lr. Hal Brotheim of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. He was wearing a helmet, but died of injuries after he was thrown from his motorcycle and hit the curb.

I offer my condolences to Curl’s family. It’s too early to tell what caused this single-vehicle accident. According to a report by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2005. there were a total of 4,553 motorcycle accident deaths of which 2,021 or 44 percent were single vehicle crashes. The same report also states that the number of single vehicle crash increased by 58 percent between 2001 and 2005.

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Posted In: Motorcycle Accidents

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A truck driver whose loaded big rig slammed into the back of a minivan on Interstate 5 in Mission Viejo, killing three young siblings from Ladera Ranch, pleaded no contest to three counts of vehicular manslaughter Aug. 22, according to this NBC News report. The Mission Viejo big rig accident occurred on May 4, 2007, when Kyle Coble, 5, and his sisters Emma, 4, and Katie, 2 were killed.

Prosecutors said Jorge Miguel Romero, 38, of Apple Valley, was inattentive, not keeping enough distance between his truck and stopped traffic and hitting the brakes too late to stop. All these amounted to criminal negligence. Romero is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 14 at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach. He could be sentenced up to three years in prison.

A recent investigation by the Register last month revealed that the trucking company Romero was working for, KW Express, itself had 15 safety violations that surfaced during federal and state inspections. Let’s look at some of these violations. Drivers were allowed to work before they completed pre-employment drug screening. Drivers’ time cards were falsified. Vehicle maintenance records were not kept. And a company spokesman was quoted in the newspaper saying it was all a result of “innocent ignorance.” If the Cobles are represented in a civil trial by one of Orange County’s best personal injury attorneys, those violations won’t look so innocent to an Orange County jury.

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Posted In: Truck Accident

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Fewer people nationwide and in California are dying in auto accidents, according to a news report in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. According to this article, which examines an interesting trend in auto accidents, fatalities in auto accidents have dropped nationwide by 3.9 percent from 2006 to 2007. In California, there has been a 6.3 percent drop in roadway fatalities while in New York there has been an 8.3 percent decrease in auto accident-related deaths.

The only area where there has been an increase in fatalities is motorcycle accidents, which have increased nationwide from, 4,837 deaths in 2006 to 5,154 in 2007 – a 6.6 percent increase. This rise in motorcycle accident fatalities has been attributed to an increase in the number of riders.

This is no doubt a promising trend, which officials are attributing to a variety of causes from fewer people driving because of higher gas prices to improvements in auto safety technology. However, this reduction in traffic fatalities is only one side of the coin. There was another study released earlier this year by AAA, which said that accidents costs $164.2 billion each year, which amounts to an annual per person cost of $1,051. While the number of traffic accident related deaths has come down, the total number of traffic accidents continues to increase.

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Posted In: Auto Accidents

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Kevin Wellmerling, 49, of Clearlake and two teenage girls from Cobb reportedly suffered major injuries in a head-on collision on Highway 29 near the Twin Lakes community, according to this news report. California Highway Patrol officials say a 17-year-old girl driving a 2002 Chevrolet Suburban southbound may have lost control of her vehicle after being distracted by a dropped soda can. She then crossed over to the northbound lane, colliding head-on into Wellmerling’s 1995 Pontiac Grand Am.

CHP officials say initial reports had it that the teenage driver dropped a soda can at her feet and was trying to pick it up when the auto accident occurred. But they later gathered that a 16-year-old girl, who was a passenger in the Suburban, had unbuckled her seatbelt to retrieve the can when the accident occurred. The 16-year-old suffered minor to moderate injuries while the 17-year-old driver suffered major injuries as did Wellmerling.

This is an unfortunate accident caused by a possible distraction to a young driver. Fortunately everyone survived. It could have been much worse. My best wishes for a full and complete recovery to all those involved.

According to a recent study conducted by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Co., 90 percent of teenagers said they rarely or never drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs. But they did report a host of other in-car distractions that researchers say help make traffic accidents the number one killer of American teens with a fatality rate four times higher than drivers between ages 25 and 69. About 5,600 teenagers died in auto accidents in 2005 and about 7,500 were driving vehicles that were involved in fatal California auto accidents.

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Posted In: Auto Accidents

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