Goodcases News by Ian Zimmerman

The period between Memorial Day and Labor Day have been designated by both Volvo and AAA as the “100 Deadliest Days” for teenage motorists.  During this period, teenagers seek and often receive expanded driving privileges from parents because of prom, graduation and summer vacation.  Far too often, these special moments can turn to tragedy because cars filled with celebrating teenagers result in driving distractions for inexperienced drivers who make critical driving mistakes.  This time period includes seven of the ten deadliest driving days for teen drivers.

In one notable tragedy reported by national media sources, a childcare provider lost her 18-year-old daughter in the late hours after her daughter’s prom.    The daughter was not driving but was a passenger in a car driven by a teen driver with 6 other teenage passengers.  The vehicle was involved in a single vehicle accident, and five of the passengers were ejected from the vehicle resulting in the daughter’s death.  The mother indicated after the collision that she wished she had talked to her daughter about driver safety, including distracted driving and drunken driving.  The mother believed that if she had spent more time talking to her daughter about the risk of distracted teen driving her daughter might be alive today.

There are a number of new studies by AAA that indicate both the positive impact of parents taking time to discuss driving accident risks and traffic safety with their kids and the dangers of teenager drivers being distracted by teen passengers.  A number of recent studies by AAA indicate that earlier and more extensive conversations with teenage drivers about driving safety results in teen drivers that are less likely to participate in high risk driving behavior.  This research suggests that it is important to take time especially during this particularly dangerous period for teen drivers to discuss the most serious driving risk with your kids old enough to drive, including speeding, drunken driving and distracted driving.

Another recent study by AAA indicates that there is a direct correlation between the number of passengers in a car driven by a teenager and teen accident fatality rates.  The results of the study found that the fatality rate for teen drivers is nearly 45% higher when just one passenger under 21 is present in a vehicle.  These rates jumped to 66% with two passengers under 21, and three passengers meant the fatality rate for teen drivers tripled.  The study magnifies the importance of parents standing firm that their teenager should neither agree to transport teen passengers nor agree to be a passenger in a vehicle driven by a teen driver.  The combination of driver inexperience and driving distractions is a potentially deadly mix.  When teen drinking is added to the equation, the results can be heartbreaking.

Teen drivers in California are not allowed to transport passengers under the age of 20 for the first twelve months that they have their driver’s license or until they reach the age of 18.  The AAA studies suggests that parents may want to consider discussing the issue with their kids and even think about imposing more extensive restrictions or rules.

Contact Us For You Free Consultation Today

If your teenager has been injured or been taken from you in a fatal collision, our experienced San Francisco car accident attorneys may be able to help.  It is important to contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply.  We invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation.  We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits.  We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.

Motorists driving in San Francisco or anywhere in California face a significant risk of being involved in a collision with a driver who is uninsured or lacks adequate insurance to fully compensate the victim for his or her injuries and financial losses.  Fifteen percent of all California drivers (more than 1 in 7) are uninsured.  The high number of uninsured drivers in California is a product of several factors: (1) a large population of undocumented immigrants without driver’s license, (2) our relatively high cost of living that leaves drivers with less disposable income and (3) a struggling economy that makes it difficult to afford auto liability insurance.

When you are involved in a collision with an uninsured or underinsured driver in California, you may face massive medical bills, unpaid wages and property damage as well as pain and suffering and other types of losses with no source of compensation.  When our San Francisco car accident clients are involved in a collision with an uninsured (UM) or underinsured (UIM) driver, our experienced Bay Area car accident team carefully analyzes other available sources from which our San Francisco car accident attorneys may seek financial compensation for our clients.

Sometimes there are other responsible parties that contribute to serious car accidents besides just the negligent driver.  These responsible third parties may include many parties, such as the car owner, public entity charged with building and maintaining roads, vehicle manufacturer for defective vehicles and other whose negligence played a substantial factor in causing the car accident resulting in your injuries.

Even when a driver has insurance, there is a high probability that the driver may lack sufficient coverage to compensate your for your loss.  The minimum liability coverage required of a California driver is only $15,000 per accident victim and $30,000 cumulative coverage for all victims.  If a driver carries only this minimum level of coverage, the coverage is likely to be far less than your medical bills not to mention other losses like lost wages, vehicle damage, pain and suffering, impaired quality of life, loss of spousal companionship and services and other damages.  If there are more than two people injured in the collision, the cumulative coverage may be exhausted before you are paid anything.

When no responsible third party can be identified that contributed to your Bay Area car accident, our experienced team of San Francisco car accident lawyers may be able to assist you in pursuing a claim against your own UM/UIM insurance coverage.  Uninsured motorist coverage provides compensation to a policyholder involved in a collision with an uninsured driver.  If you purchase car insurance in California, you have uninsured motorist coverage unless you expressly opt out, which is never a good option.

Underinsured motorist coverage provides a source of financial compensation when a negligent driver has insurance but lacks adequate coverage to cover the full value of an accident victim’s losses.  If you are involved in a collision and suffer $100,000 in damages, but the other driver has only $50,000 in liability coverage, for example, you may pursue a claim against your UIM insurance up to your UIM coverage limit.

While you have a fiduciary relationship with your insurance carrier, your interest is directly opposed to the interest of your insurance company when you are pursuing a UM/UIM claim.  Our experienced San Francisco UM/UIM attorneys can negotiate with your insurance company to obtain the compensation that you are entitled to under your policy.

Contact Us For Your Free Injury Consultation

If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a San Francisco car accident caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver, you should contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply.  Our San Francisco auto accident attorneys invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation.  We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits.  We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.

Rear-end collisions are the most common type of motor vehicle collision, but they are also frequently misunderstood.  Because many rear-end collisions occur at relatively low rates of speed, many people presume that these collisions generally do not result in serious injuries.  The reality is that severe debilitating injuries often occur in car accidents where a vehicle is struck from the rear even at low rates of speed.  However, many times whiplash injuries are the cause of this severe pain and prolonged periods of disability.  Insurance companies are notoriously uncooperative when dealing with whiplash injuries suffered at low rates of speed.  A common strategy of auto insurance companies is to derisively characterize such accidents at “low impact collisions” and claim that any resulting injury claim is either exaggerated or the product of malingering.

Although proving the severity of one’s injuries in a rear-end accident resulting in whiplash injuries can be challenging, liability may be fairly clear in these cases.  The vast majority of the time those who are rear-ended are either stopped or moving very slowly.  Because drivers are required to allow enough following distance so that they can stop if the flow of traffic comes to a standstill, the driver that collides with another vehicle from behind will typically be considered negligent.  Rear-end collisions are frequently caused by drivers who are distracted or intoxicated.  While rear-end collisions are already the most common form of collision, the increase in driver distractions, including mobile phones, iPads, car DVD players, GPS devices and more are responsible for the continuing trend toward more rear-end collisions.

Because most rear-end collisions occur at low rates of speed, it is especially important that you seek prompt medical attention.  A whiplash injury that occurs during a rear-end car accident is caused by the head and neck being hyperextended when the vehicle seat forces the vehicle occupant’s torso forward while the head and neck of the occupant falls backward.  The head and neck are then thrust into a hyperflexed position.

Soft tissue injuries like whiplash injuries can be difficult to diagnose so insurance companies tend to minimize these injuries.  While a standard x-ray many not reveal whiplash injuries, there are other diagnostic tools that your physician may use to provide evidence of whiplash.  Dynamic x-rays may be used, which involve tilting the head backward and forward when taking x-rays.  Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) screenings also are more effective at detecting evidence of soft tissue injuries like hyperextension or hyperflexion of the neck.

If you are involved in a rear-end collision in San Francisco, it is important not to speak with the insurance company adjuster for the other driver.  While insurance companies frequently point to a lack of vehicle damage to support their position that no permanent or serious injury could have occurred, a lack of vehicle damages does not mean that a person did not suffer serious injury.  The bumpers of motor vehicles are designed to withstand far more impact and force than the human body.  Most serious injuries in rear-end car accidents occur at speeds of speeds between 8-12 mph.  Motor vehicles generally are built to withstand impact of 12 miles per hour without vehicle damage.  It is also important to know that the peak acceleration of the head in a collision far exceeds the peak acceleration of the vehicle.  A crash at 5 mph causes about 10-12 g of acceleration of the occupant’s head.

Contact Us For Your Free Accident Consultation Today!

Many people that suffer whiplash injuries suffer from pain and disability for months while others experience chronic pain on a permanent basis.  If you or someone you love has been injured in a San Francisco rear-end car accident, you should contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply.  Our San Francisco accident lawyers invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation.  We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits.  We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.

Car accidents whether on crowded San Francisco streets or the busy freeways that connect San Francisco to the South Bay, East Bay or North Bay are a way of life for Northern California drivers.  Although virtually all families throughout the Bay Area will be touched by a drunk driver, distracted driver or other unsafe motorists at some time during one’s life, most people assume that San Francisco car crashes are something that happens to other people.  When one is actually involved in a serious collision that results in injury to vehicle occupants, it can be a stressful and confusing experience.  The prospects of dealing with legal and insurance complications while trying to recover from one’s injuries can be overwhelming.  Because we frequently receive questions from San Francisco car accident victims about their rights and remedies, we have provided an FAQ that addresses some of the questions we hear most frequently.

Is the risk of being involved in a car accident really that significant?
There are almost six million car accidents per year resulting in more than 30,000 fatalities and more than two million more people being injured.  Almost a third of these fatalities are caused by drunk drivers and many more result from speeding or distracted drivers.  The risk of being involved in a San Francisco auto accident is substantial because there are so many drivers who do not exercise reasonable driving conduct.

What are the most common causes of San Francisco car accidents?
The most frequent causes of car accidents in the Bay Area include:

• Distracted drivers
• Alcohol or drug impaired drivers
• Texting and driving
• Tailgating other vehicles
• Running through stop signs or traffic signals
• Speeding or failing to slow down in rain or fog
• Failing to check blind spots or otherwise making unsafe lane changes
• Failure to exercise caution at intersections and crosswalks
• Not complying with the California Rules of the Road

While there are many other types of unsafe driving behavior that may contribute to a serious car accident, these are frequent causes of car accident related fatalities.

How soon do I need to seek legal advice or initiate legal action following a San Francisco car accident?
Time is of the essence in pursuing a car accident claim in San Francisco because prompt investigation is an important part of pursuing such a claim.  Witnesses may forget the details of what happened, and vehicles may be repaired preventing accident reconstruction experts from having enough evidence to develop a persuasive explanation for the cause of a collision.  There are also formal deadlines imposed, such as the statute of limitation and the California Tort Claims Act.  The statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit for a car accident claim in California is two years.  However, specific circumstances can affect when the time starts or result in the time being tolled (suspended) for some period so you should consult with an experienced California car accident attorney.  If a governmental entity is the defendant, you must file a claim with the government within six (6) months of your car accident pursuant to the California Tort Claims Act.  Failure to comply with either of these deadlines could result in a complete bar to your ability to pursue your claim regardless of the merits.

Should I contact or communicate with the other driver’s insurance company?
It is never advisable to communicate directly with the other driver’s insurance company without legal representation or advice.  Insurance companies handle thousands of such claims and know how to obtain information that may compromise your claim.  The best practice is to avoid all communication and not to sign anything.  Once you decide on a San Francisco personal injury law firm to represent you, the law firm will contact the insurance company and handle the negotiations and litigation.

Contact Us For Your Free Accident Case Consult

We invite you to read the second installment of our blog on frequently asked questions about San Francisco car accidents.  While we have tried to address the most common questions, the best way to obtain detailed information is to call and speak to one of our experienced San Francisco car accident attorneys.  If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a San Francisco car accident, you should contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply.  We invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation.  We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits.  We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.

Commercial drivers of tractor-trailers became subject to a ban on handheld mobile phone use in January of 2012.  However, many drivers of tractor-trailers are grumbling that if restricting their use of mobile phones while driving is a sound public safety precaution, then a ban that applies to all drivers of motor vehicles would be even better.  This is not a completely unrealistic position because the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) proposed just such a global ban on all mobile phone use by all motorists just last year.  In fact, the NTSB went even further proposing not only a universal ban on all mobile phone use but also a ban on other portable electronic devices that do not support the task of driving, such as GPS devices.

Because the danger posed by mobile phone use while driving increases the risk of motor vehicle collisions for all drivers, truck drivers and commercial carriers argue that the trucking industry has been unfairly singled out.  It is worth noting that all drivers in California are required to adhere to a ban on handheld mobile phone use, but this is not the policy in many states.

The debate about the appropriateness of exclusively restricting drivers of tractor-trailers to hands free use is compounded by the fact that there is a fair amount of data suggesting that hands free cell phone use may not be any safer than handheld use of mobile phones while driving.  The Governors Highway Safety Association analyzed hundreds of distracted driving studies over a ten-year period and concluded there was no evidence that hands free use of a mobile phone offered any safety benefits over handheld mobile phones.

While putting aside the effectiveness of hand free laws limiting mobile phone use while driving, there are differences that may justify focusing on the trucking industry when enacting restrictions on the use of electronic devices when driving.  The massive weight of a tractor-trailer means that when a tractor-trailer driver makes a mistake when driving a big-rig the consequences typically are far more severe with one in eight traffic fatalities resulting from a trucking accident.  Further, it is the occupants of the other vehicle who suffer major injuries 98 percent of the time.  Given the high stakes when a tractor-trailer is involved in a motor vehicle collision, the disparate treatment of drivers of tractor-trailers and passenger vehicles may be appropriate.

Trucking companies may counter that drivers in the other vehicle rather than the truck driver cause the majority of trucking accidents.  However, the bottom line is that when barreling down the freeway at fifty mph commercial drivers need all of their attention focused on their driving.

Contact Us For Your Free San Francisco Truck Accident Consultation

If you are injured or lose a loved one in a San Francisco tractor-trailer collision involving a distracted truck driver, you should contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply.  Our San Francisco truck accident attorneys invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation.  We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits.  We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.

Head-on collisions are among the most deadly motor vehicle accidents in the Bay Area because the vehicles absorb the entire force of impact as they move toward each other.  A recent accident in North Contra Costa County (Brentwood) provides an example of the serious nature of these dangerous collisions.  A Ford Ranger pickup and a Toyota Sienna minivan were involved in a head-on crash early Monday morning.  Two of the vehicle occupants involved in the collision were airlifted to the hospital after suffering major injuries.

A head-on collision occurs when the front ends of both vehicles are involved in the point of impact.  These types of dangerous car crashes are most common on freeways when drivers enter the freeway traveling in the wrong direction or at intersections.  A head-on collision on a freeway typically is the result of a driver inadvertently entering the freeway from the off-ramp or crossing the center median into oncoming traffic.  A variation of this type of head-on collision occurs when a vehicle proceeding down a highway makes an unsafe lane change and moves into the adjacent lane of oncoming traffic to pass another vehicle.  The enormous force of the impact generated by vehicles moving toward each other at freeway speeds makes head-on freeway accidents especially dangerous.  When head-on collisions occur at intersections, it is usually the result of drivers disobeying red lights, yield signs, stop signs or otherwise disregarding right of way rules.

Because roadways are designed so that vehicles do not travel in the same lane of traffic in opposite directions, head-on collisions are almost always caused, at least in part, by the negligence of one of the drivers.  The types of negligent driving that typically contributes to a head-on collision includes:

• Drunk driving
• Distracted driving
• Running traffic lights or stop signs
• Failure to yield
• Turning the wrong way down a one way street
• Entering the freeway from an on-ramp
• Drowsy drivers
• Unsafe passing on two lane roads

The physics of a head-on collision make these crashes highly likely to cause life-altering injuries.  However, the nature of the danger is slightly different than many people presume.  If two vehicles are moving toward each other at fifty mph, it is a common misperception that the force of impact is twice the intensity as a vehicle slamming into a brick wall at fifty mph.  In reality, the force is exactly the same because of Newton’s Third Law of Motion, which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  Because the force is equal and opposite, this means that the vehicles move away from each other with the same force that they collide with one another.  What makes these accidents so deadly is the factor of increased speed.  There is four times as much energy released on impact for every time speed is doubled.  This is why head-on collisions at high rates of speed tend to result in catastrophic injury and wrongful death.

Contact Us For A Free Consultation

If you or someone you love is seriously injured in a head-on collision on the streets of San Francisco or a Bay Area freeway, our experienced San Francisco auto accident attorneys at the Law Office of Ian Zimmerman may be able to represent you in seeking financial compensation for your injuries or loss.  We invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation.  We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits.  We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.