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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

What role does drugs or alcohol play in trucking accidents?
The rules governing alcohol and drug use by truck drivers are strict, and truck drivers are subject to random drug testing.  Truck drivers violate federal regulations when they operate a commercial truck with a BAC of .02 percent or greater.  If a driver will be operating a big-rig, the commercial driver is also prohibited from engaging in any “safety sensitive function” within 24 hours of consuming alcohol.  Any truck driver whose BAC test at .04 percent or higher must submit to another test before being permitted to return to duty.  Operators of tractor-trailers also must submit to random testing for narcotics like methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana and other drugs.  A year long study of trucking accidents conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board found that 67 percent of truck drivers that died in trucking accidents had a drug in their blood while 33 percent of those drivers had a detectable level of alcohol or psychoactive drugs in their blood.

What are Hours of Service Rules?
Truck driver fatigue is considered a factor in as many as 20-40 percent of all trucking accidents.  Because tired drivers can result in critical driving errors or falling asleep at the wheel, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has promulgated rules that limit the amount of time that truck drivers can be on the road without a minimum rest period.  Violations of these HOS rules are often at the heart of many trucking accident cases in the Bay Area.  Although drivers are required to maintain logbooks that provide a record of their compliance with HOS rules these records are frequently distorted.  Our experienced San Francisco trucking accident attorneys often use other documents like lodging or fuel receipts or electronic data saved on the tractor-trailer’s black box recorder to expose misrepresentations in driver logbooks.

How should I respond to the trucking company’s insurance carrier after the accident?
The answer is that you should not respond at all until you have obtained legal advice from an experienced San Francisco trucking accident lawyer.  Commercial carriers have a team of lawyers and experts who are trained to assist their clients in avoiding or minimizing liability.  Any information that you share with the insurance company is likely to be used by the insurance company against you at some later point in the case.

What types of collisions are unique to tractor-trailers?
The unique physical characteristics of tractor-trailers mean that they may be involved in accidents that are very different from other vehicles.  Some of the types of crashes involving semi-trucks that are unique to these vehicles include:

• Jackknife Collisions: These accidents occur when the trailer of the vehicle begins to move at a faster rate of speed than the cab resulting in the vehicle folding like a pocketknife.  The force of the trailer swinging around may cause the cab to fold back and face in the opposite direction of the trailer.  Jackknife trucking accidents are particularly dangerous because when the cab folds back toward the trailer the driver loses all control of the semi-truck.  The vehicle may lose its load or rollover, which are both very dangerous for those in nearby vehicles.

• Under-Carriage/Override Accidents: These collisions can have tragic and gruesome results when a passenger vehicle travels under a 18-wheeler or the truck travels over the top of a passenger vehicle.  These accidents often happen because the guards designed to prevent a vehicle from becoming entrapped under the tractor-trailer are inadequate.  These accidents frequently result in fatal collisions where the roof of the passenger vehicle is ripped away or crushed.  These violent collisions can result in decapitating of passenger vehicle occupants.

• Load Related Accidents: Many trucking accidents are caused by overloading commercial trucks or improperly securing loads.  When a truck is overloaded, the truck is even less responsive so the driver may not be able to stop or safely maneuver a tractor-trailer in time to avoid a collision.  In cases where a load is not properly secured, the load may shift causing the vehicle to be off balance.  If a tractor-trailer is unbalanced, the driver may lose control of the big-rig, or the vehicle may roll over.

Contact Us For Your Free Consultation

We invite you to read the third installment of our blog on frequently asked questions about San Francisco trucking 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 truck accident lawyers.  If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a San Francisco trucking 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.

Despite significant efforts to reduce the risk of teenage car accidents, teen drivers continue to pose the highest risk of causing a fatal car accident.  The scope of the risk posed when inexperienced teen drivers transport other teenagers becomes clear when a few statistics are considered:

• Car accidents are the leading cause of fatalities for teens between the ages of 13-19.
• Motor vehicle accidents account for one-third of all deaths for teens between 13-19.
• Sixty percent of teen motor vehicle fatalities involve accidents driven by other teenagers.
• The teen accident fatality rate increases with the addition of each additional passenger.
• Approximately 83 percent of teens that die in auto accidents are passengers.

These statistics when taken together make a compelling case for the benefits of restricting the ability of teenagers to transport teen passengers.  Unfortunately, this restriction can sometimes be difficult to enforce particularly when parents turn a blind eye to such conduct.  The failure of many parents to restrict their teenager from transporting friends is partially responsible for the continuing high rate of accidents that result in teen fatalities.

A new study just released by the American Automobile Association quantifies the benefits garnered by restricting teen drivers from transporting other teens.  The new study indicates that the presence of teen passengers dramatically increases the risk of car accident related fatalities.  The study revealed the following impact on fatalities rates:

• The rate increases 44 percent with a single passenger under 21.
• The fatality rate doubles with two passengers under 21.
• There is triple the fatality rate with three passengers under 21.

Ironically, the study found the opposite result on fatality rates when a teen driver transports a passenger 35 or older.  A teen driver’s fatality rate drops by almost two-thirds when a passenger age 35 or older is in the vehicle.  Presumably, the presence of an older more experienced driver discourages high risk driving behavior.  The clear takeaway from this new data is that parent should refuse to permit their kids to transport other teens or to agree to be passengers in the car with other teen drivers.  If your child or teenager is injured in a car accident, our experienced San Francisco car accident attorneys provide compassionate and aggressive legal representation to Bay Area car accident victims.

Contact Us For Your Free Consultation Today!

Our San Francisco accident attorneys invite you to contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply.  The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman offers a free initial consultation so that we can assess your case.  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.

What makes commercial trucking accidents more dangerous than other motor vehicle collisions?
A full loaded tractor-trailer absolutely dwarfs a typical passenger vehicle.  When a tractor-trailer is loaded to maximum capacity, the vehicle may weigh 80,000 pounds.  One way to put this into perspective is to imagine stacking 26 passenger vehicles on top of each other and slamming them into a single passenger vehicle.  The massive difference in weight and ability to withstand the force of impact in a collision makes occupants of passenger vehicles extremely vulnerable during a collision with a tractor-trailer.

How does California compare to other states in terms of the risk of being involved in a commercial trucking accident?
California leads the nation in terms of the numbers of injuries and fatalities suffered in trucking accidents.

How common are trucking accidents?
There are approximately a half a million trucking accidents in the United States annually resulting in approximately 5,000 fatalities.

Are there factors involved in trucking accidents that make it more likely that damages will be awarded?
While trucking accidents are more difficult to litigate and commercial carriers have enormous resources to fight trucking accident claims, truck driver and commercial carriers are held to a higher standard of care than an ordinary motorist.  When regulations promulgated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are violated, these violations may constitute the basis for finding that the driver and/or commercial carrier engaged in negligent conduct.

What special challenges do plaintiffs face in litigating a trucking accident claim?
When a trucking accident occurs, it is important that the law firm you work with have extensive knowledge of trucking regulations, industry practices and the propensity of commercial carriers to make critical evidence conveniently disappear.  If a prompt investigation is not conducted and aggressive steps taken to preserve evidence, the tractor-trailer may be quickly repaired and put back in service.  This may result in the loss of evidence in the form of physical damage to the tractor-trailer that might help an accident reconstruction expert analyze the cause of the collision.  When the vehicle is placed back in service, there is also a risk that important evidence stored in the trucks onboard data recorder will be eliminated.  The experienced trucking accident attorneys at our law firm take swift action to prevent such evidence from being destroyed in our cases.

Why are driver logbooks so important in trucking accidents?
Driver logbooks provide critical evidence in tractor-trailer accident cases because they provide a record of the driver’s compliance with hours of service (HOS) rules.  These rules are designed to keep fatigued drivers off the road.  The logbooks track the hours when a driver is behind the wheel, on duty but not driving and the length of break periods.  Logbooks can also provide critical information about pre-trip and post-trip inspection which may explain maintenance issues and mechanical failure.

These are just a handful of the many questions we routinely receive about San Francisco trucking accidents.  If you are involved in a San Francisco trucking accident and have questions, we welcome you to contact us.

Contact Us For Your Free Consultation

We invite you to read the second installment of this FAQ concerning San Francisco tractor-trailer accidents.  While we have tried to address common questions, the best way to obtain detailed information is to call and speak to one of our experienced San Francisco trucking accident attorneys.  If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a San Francisco tractor-trailer 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.

Many presume that a medical emergency or health related condition while driving is not the type of situation that may give rise to a car accident claim based on negligence.  However, there are many situations where a physical infirmity that interferes with the safe operation of a motor vehicle may be the basis for a car accident lawsuit based on negligence in San Francisco or throughout the Bay Area.

When a medical condition is blamed for being the cause of a motor vehicle collision, this does not end the inquiry into whether the driver that suffered the attack was negligent.  The issue generally becomes one of foreseeability.  If a driver is prone to epileptic seizures, for example, the driver may have a reasonable basis to anticipate that it is not safe to drive.  Cases involving alleged sudden medical emergencies that interfere with driving ability will typically turn on a careful analysis of the facts and circumstances involved in the collision.

Critical questions may include the following:

• Was the driver subject to similar prior sudden medical emergencies based on a known medical condition?
• How frequent and recent was any prior medical emergency of this nature?
• What measures were taken by the driver to prevent such unanticipated medical problems?

The analysis will turn on the degree to which the medical emergency was foreseeable based on factors such as these.  It is not nearly as uncommon as you might think for a negligent driver to raise a defense based on an unforeseeable medical emergency.  When this defense is raised, a review of medical records for the defendant and disclosures made regarding the medical condition when seeking one’s driver’s license is appropriate.

Contact Us For Your Free Initial Consultation

If you are involved in a car accident in San Francisco, your life can change in the blink of an eye.  If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a defective braking device accident, you should contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply.  Our San Francisco car 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.