Posts Tagged ‘roadways’
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
Motorcycles are a popular form of transportation as well as being a popular form of leisure time activity in the State of California. According to the California Highway Patrol, there are over one million motorcycles registered in California and many more than come to visit and ride each year. Anyone that rides a motorcycle knows that the risks of serious injury or death are greater on a motorcycle than in a conventional vehicle in the event of an accident. The simple truth is that while a bike affords the rider and passenger a much greater feeling of freedom while riding, that same feeling of freedom also means less protection in an accident. The past few decades have seen massive efforts by both government and private groups to educate the public about the presence of motorcycles on the roads; however the number of serious injuries and fatalities continues to rise on California’s roadways. Each year, 10,000 bikers are seriously injured in California and almost 500 are killed. If you have recently lost a loved one to a motorcycle accident, then you may be able to file as a claimant in a wrongful death action according to California motorcycle accident lawyer Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates.
Statistics tell us that the vast majority of accidents that involve a biker are actually caused, at least in part, by the driver of the other vehicle. The fact remains that drivers in cars or trucks simply do not see motorcycles on the roadway until it is too late many times. If this was the case in your loved one’s fatal accident, then the other drive may have been negligent. When someone else is negligent and that negligence causes a death, then the surviving family members may be able to receive compensation for the loss of their loved one through a California wrongful death lawsuit. A lawsuit will certainly not turn back the clock and prevent the accident, but if you were emotionally and/or financially dependant on the decedent, then you should receive compensation from the negligent party for causing their death. The amount of compensation that you may be entitled to will vary from case to case, but may include compensation for the loss of future earnings, loss of affection, loss of household support and loss of consortium among others.
Understandably, many people do not want to think about lawsuits and legal matter when they have lost someone close to them. It is important to remember though that there is a time frame within which you must initiate a wrongful death action or you will lose your right to pursue the compensation that you deserve. If your loved one supported you while they were alive, don’t you think they would want you to continue to receive support even though they are no longer with you?
If you would like any additional information or would like to schedule a free and confidential detailed evaluation of your potential California wrongful death motorcycle accident case, please contact the law offices of Ledger & Associates at 1-800-300-0001 or visit them online at www.ledgerlaw.com.
Tags: accident, accident case, accident lawyer, accidents, california motorcycle accident lawyer, claim, claimant, compensation, death lawsuit, decedent, injury lawyers, killed on motorcycle, law, law offices, lawsuit, lawsuits, lawyer, Ledger, ledgerlaw.com, loss of consortium, motorcycle accident, Motorcycle Accident Lawyer, motorcycles, Negligence, risk, roadways, schedule, state of california, statistics, surviving family, trucks, vehicle, wrongful death, wrongful death law, wrongful death laws, wrongful death lawsuit
Posted in Motorcycle Accident Lawyer | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
All of us have been on the road at some point in time with the big trucks. Sharing the road with semis is something that all of us accept if we spend any time at all on America’s highways. Trucks are still one of America’s main forms of transportation for commercial good and products. Without them, and the drivers that are willing to pass their days over the road, we would not have the variety of produce, meats, clothing and household goods that we enjoy today. The truth is that we are dependant on these rolling behemoths to bring us the goods and products that we use every day. What do who know though about who is driving these trucks and whether or not they are taking required safety precautions? What happens when one of the drivers pushes their body too far – past the point at which the body must rest?
The fact is that each year truck accidents kill over 5,000 people and injure another 150,000 on America’s highways. According to one report, one in every four multiple-vehicle accident involves a large truck. Large trucks are involved in vehicular accidents twice as often as passenger vehicles resulting in over 800 drivers of large trucks dying each year. Despite the stringent requirements for obtaining a commercial driver license, it appears as though truck drivers are still involved in a disproportionate number of accidents each year. Commercial truck drier’s are required to complete a rigorous hands on training school as well as pass background checks, drug test, driving tests and written tests before they can obtain a commercial driver license. So why are these highly trained and screened drivers still getting into accidents?
One of the leading causes of truck driver accident is fatigue. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is charged with overseeing large trucks on American roadways. The FMCSA tells us that in recent years, as many as 750 people were killed and another 20,000 injured as a direct result of driver fatigue. Long hours on the road can take its toll on a driver. Although the federal government has set strict regulations regarding the number of hours a driver can spend on the road, drivers continue to reach the point where fatigue takes over and they loose control for that split second-just long enough to cause an accident. In a passenger vehicle, if you start to lose control you can generally gain back the control rather easily if you react quickly enough. In a large truck, however, once you start to lose control getting it back may be impossible due to the sheer size and weight of the truck. As a result, thousands of Americans are injured or killed each year due to the negligence of a driver that was simply too tired to drive.
Whether the driver himself made the decision to keep on truckin’ or whether his employer was pushing him on, the bottom line is that if you were involved in an accident with one of these “kings of the road” and you believe that accident may have been caused by fatigue, then you may be entitled to compensation for any injuries that you suffered. Contact the California truck accident law firm of Ledger & Associates at 1-800-300-0001 or visit them online for more information at www.ledgerlaw.com.
Tags: accident, accident law firm, federal motor carrier, federal motor carrier safety administration, highways, ledgerlaw.com, loose control, motor carrier safety, motor carrier safety administration, Negligence, ploy, point in time, roadways, safety, safety administration, safety precautions, semis, truck accident, truck accidents, truck drivers, trucker fatigue, trucks, vehicle, vehicle accident, vehicular accident, vehicular accidents
Posted in Trucking Accident Lawyer | No Comments »
Friday, April 16th, 2010
Almost all states requirement drivers to show proof of financial responsibility in order to legally drive on their roadways. California is no exception to that rule. California Insurance Code §11580.1b sets out the minimum liability insurance requirements for private passenger vehicles as follows: $15,000 for injury/death to one person; $30,000 for injury/death to more than one person; and $5,000 for damage to property. Despite these legal requirements, many people drive without liability insurance. It may be that their insurance has lapsed due to an oversight or possibly because they simply couldn’t afford to pay for it. Regardless of the reason, San Diego car accident attorney Emery Ledger is frequently asked what happens if someone is injured in an accident that was not their fault but they did not have the legally required liability insurance.
The California legislature and courts debated that issue for years before reaching a conclusion back in 1996. Proposition 213 finally decided the issue in somewhat of a compromise between the two sides. Proposition 213 essentially says that if you are the victim in a car accident wherein you were not at fault, but were driving without the legally required liability coverage, then you are still entitled to recover economic damages from the car accident, according to San Diego car accident attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates. You may not, however, recover non-economic damages. Non-economic damages are what most people think of as pain and suffering. What this means, in most cases, is that you can recover the cost of your medical care, property damage to your vehicle, lost time from work and other out of pocket expenses. You will not be able to get additional money for any emotional toll that the accident took on you. There are additional provisions under Proposition for special circumstances such as when one of the drivers was driving under the influence or when one of the drivers was in the commission of a felony but the above applies to the majority of uninsured situations.
While there may be other penalties that impact your driver’s license, the bottom line is that if you were injured in a car accident and you were not at fault then you may still be able to recover compensation for the injuries you have suffered. As you may know, those damages alone can add up rather quickly and you should not have to shoulder the financial burden of paying for them if you were not at fault in the car accident. If you have been in a car accident, then don’t be afraid to contact an experienced San Diego car accident attorney to discuss your specific case. Emery Ledger, of Ledger & Associates has been practicing personal injury litigation for over twelve years in the San Diego area and would be happy to offer you a free detailed evaluation of your car accident case. He can be reached at his office at 1-800-300-0001 or you can visit him online at www.ledgerlaw.com.
Tags: accident, accident attorney, accident case, attorney, car accident, car accident attorney, compensation, damages, driving under the influence, economic damages, ego, emery, emery ledger, fault, injury, insurance, liability, Liability insurance, litigation, money, offer, pain and suffering, Personal Injury, roadways, states, suffering, vehicle
Posted in Auto Accident Lawyer | No Comments »
Monday, March 29th, 2010
Statistics tell us that the vast majority of drivers on America’s roadways use a cell phone while driving on a regular basis. At any given time of the day, on any given roadway in America there are thousands of drivers using a cell phone. Despite laws in over 20 states prohibiting the use of handheld devices, people continue to use them. According to Santa Barbara personal injury attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates, using your cell phone while driving may make you a negligent driver.
Negligence is a legal term used to mean fault or blame. In order to be found negligent, four elements must be met: duty of care; breach of duty; causation; and damages, says Santa Barbara personal injury attorney Emery Ledger. The first element, duty of care, has been argued over and debated for decades, if not centuries. It can mean different things in different types of cases. In essence, you must show that the person that caused the harm had a duty to protect the person that suffered the harm. In car accident cases, the courts long ago decided that once you decide to operate a vehicle on a public roadway, you owe a duty of care to all the other drivers and passengers on the roadway. This makes sense if you think about it. A vehicle is basically a two ton weapon and you should use care when operating it. So the bottom line is that any time you choose to operate a vehicle, you owe a duty of care to anyone that you encounter on the roadway.
So how does using a cell phone while driving breach that duty of care? The law expects you to use all reasonable care when operating your vehicle. Reasonable care includes paying attention to the roadway. If you are using a cell phone while driving, then your cell phone is causing a distraction which means you are not giving your complete attention to the road. As soon as you have allowed something to distract you from the roadway, then you may have breached your duty of care. Again, this makes sense. In the time it takes to dial a number or answer a cell phone call, an accident can happen. Studies tell us that we only have about two seconds to recognize and respond to a potential accident. If, in those two seconds, you are dialing a number or answering a call, then you have missed your opportunity to avoid the accident. That can, and often does, lead to a breach of your duty of care and consequently a collision, according to Santa Barbara personal injury attorney Emery Ledger.
Once you have breached your duty of care and caused an accident, the only element left is damages. If someone else suffered injuries as a result of the accident, then you may be responsible for their injuries. As you can see, using a cell phone while operating a motor vehicle is not just dangerous but negligent as well.
If you have been the victim in an accident and believe that the other driver may have been negligent, then seek the advice of a Santa Barbara personal injury attorney as soon as possible. You may be entitled to compensation for the injuries that you have suffered. Santa Barbara personal injury attorney Emery Ledger can be reached at 1-800-300-0001 or online at www.ldegerlaw.com
Tags: accident, accident case, accident cases, amp, attorney, causation, cell phone while driving, compensation, damages, distraction, duty of care, handheld devices, injury, juries, law, lawyer, Ledger, Negligence, paying attention, Personal Injury, personal injury attorney, personal injury law, personal injury lawyer, roadways, Santa Barbara car accident, statistics, vehicle
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Friday, March 19th, 2010
Orange County, California has some of the most beautiful scenic roadways in the nation. It also has some of the most congested roadways in the nation. If you live or work in Orange County then you know this. Congested roadways inevitably lead to car accidents. According to the California Highway Patrol, there were 13,414 injury accidents in Orange County for the last year for which figures were available – 2008. In addition, 152 people lost their lives in Orange County car accidents that year. If you have been involved in a car accident in Orange County, you may be asking yourself whether you really need to retain an experienced Orange County attorney to represent you in your personal injury case. According to Orange County personal injury attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates, that depends on a number of factors.
It is possible to represent yourself in a personal injury accident. The first factor that you want to consider is whether negligence is clear. Negligence is a legal term that is used to refer to fault or blame. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of people that have been involved in a car accident feel that the other driver was at fault. Sometimes, it is clear that the other driver was at fault. In cases such as that, where the other driver and their insurance company are accepting the blame, you may be able to handle your case without the help of an experienced personal injury lawyers, according to Orange County personal injury lawyer Emery Ledger. Frequently, though, the other driver, or their insurance company are not willing to accept the blame. In California, negligence can be more complicated because they operate under a comparative negligence theory. This means that both of you could be responsible for the accident. Negligence is apportioned according to how much each party contributed to the accident. This tends to make it less likely that the insurance company will accept 100% of the blame for the accident. If negligence is not agreed one from the start, then you are better off retaining a personal injury lawyer to help settle the issue.
The other factor that you need to consider when deciding whether you need to hire a personal injury lawyer is the amount of your damages. If you are unable to settle on a damages (a legal term for injuries) figure, then you will have to file your lawsuit in court and litigate it in court. If your total damages figure is less than $7500 then you may file the claim in Small Claims Court, says Orange County personal injury lawyer Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates. Small Claims Court is more user friendly with less emphasis on the Rules of Procedure. If, however, your damages exceed $7500, then you will need to file in Superior Court. Filing and litigating a lawsuit in Superior Court is much more complicated and time consuming. As a general rule, if you think that your damages will exceed the amount allowable in Small Claims Court, then you are better off hiring an Orange County personal injury lawyer to prepare and fight your case for you.
If you would like to speak to an experienced Orange County personal injury lawyer about your case, please contact Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates at his toll-free number 1-800-300-0001 or visit him online at www.ledgerlaw.com
Tags: accident, car accident, injury accidents, lawsuit, lawyer, Ledger, Negligence, orange, orange county personal injury, orange county personal injury attorney, orange county personal injury lawyer, Personal Injury, personal injury accident, personal injury attorney, personal injury case, personal injury law, personal injury lawyer, personal injury lawyers, roadways
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Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
With spring just around the corner, motorcycle enthusiasts are gearing up to get back out on the road. For anyone that loves to ride, there is nothing like getting back on your bike after a long winter spent waiting for the weather to break. Of course, if you are lucky enough to live somewhere where the weather cooperates year around, then maybe you haven’t had to wait, but the majority of us aren’t that lucky. Even in California, the torrential winter rains this year have prevented year around riding for many motorcycle enthusiasts so many have had to wait it out until spring decided to pop her head out of the clouds. For some, riding is a way of life, for others just a week-end hobby. Regardless of whether your bike is your primary form of transportation or a week-end luxury, remember that it can be dangerous.
Recent statistics report that in any given year, about 5,000 people are killed in motorcycle accidents and thousands more are injured, according to motorcycle accident attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates in California. The cause of the majority (almost three-fourths) of motorcycle accident is a collision with another vehicle. Of the remaining 25% of the accidents, rider error was the most common reason for the accident. Roadway defects and weather conditions account for less than 5% of all motorcycle accidents. Of the accidents that involved a motorcycle colliding with another vehicle, the other vehicle was at fault more than two-thirds of the time. What these statistics tell us is what most riders already know – that cars don’t watch for motorcycles on the roadways. Despite efforts by motorcycle groups to educate the general car driving public of the importance of being aware of motorcycles, the statistics tell us that car drivers still don’t watch for motorcycles. Part of the reason for this is that we are trained from the moment we begin driving to be alert to visual cues from other drivers – drivers of automobiles. We are trained to look for traditional vehicles. We are also accustomed to watching for a pair of headlights to tell us that a vehicle is approaching or is in our path. The human brain can only take in so much information at a time and it tends to dismiss excess information if it feels it is not critical at that point and time. When we are driving, we are taking in a lot of information at one time – information that is critical to our ability to drive. If a single headlight enters our field of vision, we sometimes dismiss it as not critical because we are not trained to recognize it as a vehicle. Additionally, something smaller than a traditional car – like a motorcycle – sometimes gets filtered out when we are driving. For this reason, it is even more important that car drivers conscientiously make an effort to look for and beware of motorcycle riders.
For more information motorcycle safety, please feel free to contact motorcycle accident attorney Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates on his website at www.ledgerlaw.com or at his toll-free number – 1-800-300-0001.
Tags: bikers, cars, fault, field of vision, killed, law, Ledger, luck, motorcycle accident, motorcycle accident attorney, motorcycle accidents, motorcycle enthusiasts, motorcycle groups, Motorcycle safety, motorcycles, roadways, safety, statistics, vehicle, weather
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Thursday, March 4th, 2010
The vast majority of us would agree that texting while driving is a huge distraction and it creates an unnecessary danger to everyone on the nation’s roadways. At the present time, nineteen states, the District of Columbia and Guam have completely banned drivers from sending or receiving text messages while driving. Other states limit novice drivers from being allowed to text while driving. The United States Government has also chimed in on the dangers of texting while driving. On January 26, 2010 the United States Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a federal ban on texting for commercial truck drivers. The national ban is the result of a national summit convened last year on the issue of distracted driving. As a result of the ban, any commercial bus or truck driver caught texting while driving will face civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750, according to personal injury attorney Emery Ledger with the California law firm of Ledger & Associates. While the DOT’s efforts are to be applauded, they may fall short of covering the most dangerous “drivers” of all. With most states moving toward banning, or at least restricting, the use of cell phones and specifically texting with a cell phone and the United States government banning truckers and commercial bus drivers from text messaging while driving, you may think that the bases are covered. But what about all the other commercial “drivers”? What about cruise ship captains? Charter boat captains? Train engineers? Subway conductors? Neither state governments nor the federal government has yet to address any of these “drivers”, yet they have the potential to cause the most harm, says personal injury attorney Emery Ledger. He should know – his firm Ledger & Associates is representing one of the seriously injured plaintiff’s in one of the worst train accidents in United States history. The 2008 Chatsworth train collision killed 25 people and seriously injured many more. Results of the National Transportation Safety Board inquiry revealed that the engineer that was responsible for heeding and obeying traffic lights was busy text messaging just seconds before the Metrolink train collided head-on with another train. Had the engineer not been distracted, he may have seen the red light that was on to warn them not to enter that stretch of track. Federal Aviation regulations do prohibit pilots from engaging in any activity not related to flying the plane while in the air, however many pilots don’t appear to heed the rule. Cruise ship and charter boat captains are not prohibited from texting while piloting their vessels, despite the fact that they frequently carry the lives of hundreds, sometimes thousand, of people in their hands. In 2008, Amtrak carried over 27 million passengers during the course of the year. The Metrolink train that collided that same year had 222 passengers aboard. Anyone that is responsible for the lives of that many people should not be allowed, under the law, to engage in any activity that will distract them from driving. “The Metrolink accident never should have happened” says Emery Ledger of Ledger & Associates. While we are passing all these laws banning texting and driving, let’s make sure that we include everyone that may be operating a commercial boat, plane, train or anything else that carries passengers and maybe we can avoid another Metrolink disaster. If you would like to speak to Emery Ledger regarding this, or any other subject, please call 1-800-300-0001 or contact him online at www.ledgerlaw.com
Tags: accident, accidents, attorney, bus, bus drivers, cell phone, conductor, distraction, governments, injury, killed, law, Ledger, messaging, noun, Personal Injury, personal injury attorney, plaintiff, red light, roadways, safety, text, texting, texting while driving, traffic, train accident, train engineer, transportation safety, truck drivers, united states
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