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Memorial Day Car Accidents in Los Angeles Kill Seven
May 27, 2008

The Memorial Day weekend turned into a tragedy for at least seven Los Angeles residents who were reported killed in accidents across Los Angeles. 27 were also injured in these car accidents.

The most destructive car accident occurred when a van speeding south on Crenshaw ran a red light and collided with another van. The second vehicle was thrown into the air. By the time it smashed onto the ground, it had exploded into flames. This set off a chain reaction, with at least four other vehicles running into the burning van. Three people died in that crash, including two children who died at the scene. At least 100 emergency workers were called in to control the flames. By the time the flames had been doused, the six-car pileup had been declared the worst disaster of the holiday weekend.

The six-car accident was not the first one of the weekend to cause such destruction. A white Range Rover on Crescent Drive veered off the road and rolled 250 feet down a steep hill, before landing upside down on a carport. Inside were five passengers, including the driver, a 70-year-old man and a toddler in a car seat. The 70-year-old man was declared dead at the scene. A 20-year-old passenger was taken to hospital, where she died. The driver of the van, who is suspected of being the older man's caretaker, has been critically injured. Two other passengers suffered moderate injuries, including a toddler who had a miraculous escape.

Another four-vehicle car accident on Monday evening, this one on the southbound Hollywood freeway, led to at least two vehicles overturning. No fatalities were reported, but at least 8 people, including a child, are reported to have been injured.

Every year, the media and the state police send out their routine "be safe on Memorial Day" messages, but it doesn't seem to sink deep enough to avoid such fatalities. Many factors contribute to an increasing number of car accidents over the holiday weekend. Alcohol is definitely the most important factor in car accidents that occur over a major holiday. Add to this the fact that there are many more vehicles on the street, all in a hurry to get to someone's backyard or pool party, and you see that conditions are prime for devastating car accidents to occur. In the six-car wreck, the van that set off the crash ran a red light.

Accidents, whenever they occur, are unfortunate, especially when they involve fatalities or severe injuries. If these occur around a beloved holiday, it's particularly heartbreaking.

If you have been injured in a car accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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Parents of Girl Injured in Car Accident Sue Turlock School District
May 02, 2008

New signs that warn drivers of a school crossing have been installed at the crosswalk where Geer and Pedras Roads in Turlock, California meet. But it's a little late in the day for them to be of any use to Rachel McClure. The 7-year-old is brain damaged after a car accident in the crosswalk. Her family has now filed a lawsuit against Turlock Unified School District seeking $2.8 million in damages.

Last October, Rachel, along with her older sister Rebecca, was heading home from school, and stepped into the crosswalk. They didn't see the Toyota Camry that was racing trying to beat the red light until it had slammed against Rachel. The girl was flown to University of California at Davis Medical Center in Sacramento after the car accident. She was in the hospital for a total of four weeks, one of which she spent in a coma. She suffered a range of injuries in the car accident - a broken leg, a broken hip, skull fractures and brain injuries. She has suffered long lasting effects of the car accident - brain damage.

The driver of the car, an illegal alien, is believed to have fled back across the border. Rachel's family also blames the Turlock Unified School District, which is named in the lawsuit. Rachel and Rebecca, who attended Crowell Elementary School, were told last year that they were being moved to another school, where they would have no bus service. Their mother, Tonya, is disabled and has no driver's license, and she petitioned the district for a bus pickup. The district informed her that her girls could attend Sandra Tovar Medeiros Elementary School in north Turlock. The children would be picked up and dropped off at the Crowell Elementary School, and would have to walk from there. This was where the car accident occurred.

The crux of their lawsuit is that there were no crossing guards posted at the point where Geer Road meets Pedras Road. There were two crossing guards posted at two other points, although the school has not confirmed if they were on duty at the time of the car accident.

In their response to the lawsuit, the school board authorities have passed off the blame of the car accident on the McClure's, saying they "assumed the risk" when they decided to send their daughter to school knowing that she had to walk home after being dropped off at Crowell Elementary. Actually, there shouldn't have been an element of risk in a child walking home from school, and there wouldn't have been if there had been a crossing guard posted where the car accident occurred. Going to and coming home from school should not be a dangerous matter, especially when the school district has taken the responsibility of busing them to and fro on itself.

If arrangements could not have been made to provide a bus service that would pick them and drop them off right at their doorstep, there should have been crossing guards to make up. These were 7 and 8 years old girls, - you can't just dump kids of that age at a major and busy intersection, cross your fingers and hope someone won't take it into his head to speed or run a red light. The school district has not only been negligent, but also callous in its response to the McClures.

If you have been injured in a car accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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Witnesses in Bakersfield Car Accident Case Testify
May 01, 2008

A team of expert witnesses has finished testifying in the vehicular manslaughter case against Gordon Douglas Tutton, who was involved in a fatal car accident last year.

61-year-old Tutton is accused of running a stop sign on the Lerdo Highway last August, and crashing his car into a SUV carrying a woman, her son and a friend. The boy, 16-year-old Brock Christian Bellue, was killed in the car accident. His mother, Bakersfield, California resident Kellie Roland, had been driving the car. She suffered broken ankles. The other person in the car was Jordan Root, the 13-year-old child of a family friend, who suffered minor injuries.

The weeks of testimony since the car accident has raised several possibilities, and new facts have come to light. For one, blood tests done on Tutton have revealed the presence of Valium and traces of marijuana in his blood. So, he wasn't just speeding and breaking traffic rules, but was also intoxicated. The case has now been handed to the jury who has to decide whether Tutton was behind the wheel of his car at the time of the car accident. Both Kellie and Root, who were in the car at the time of the crash, have firmly pointed to him as the driver, and said they have no doubt that he was the one driving. However, his defense team has rounded up three police officers who claim that after the car accident Shalee Cole, who was in the car with Tutton, confided that she had been driving the car. When asked to testify, Shalee invoked the Fifth Amendment, which could be seen as an admission.

There are several other factors that have sent the case swinging in either direction. For instance, defense experts have said that Cole suffered injuries that are consistent with someone who was driving at the time of the car accident. But emergency room doctors who treated Shalee after the car accident have said that she suffered no injuries to areas that could have been hurt were she driving, like on her chest. Cole's mother also played a part in the case, telling the jurors that her daughter had confided in her that she had been driving the car.

Tutton himself hardly paints the wrongly accused figure here. He has been accused of drunk driving in the past, and has faced prior charges of drug possession and selling marijuana.

Tutton's defense says he has been made a scapegoat in the car accident, and the police and the community in general, have been too quick to blame him. He said the proceedings sometimes resembled an "inquisition." The jury will continue deliberating on the matter, so we could have a few more days to wait until the truth about whether this was an "inquisition" or a regular DUI case comes into the open.

Regardless of whoever turns out to have been driving the car the night of the accident, we hope Brock's family will pursue all legal courses open to them.

If you have lost a loved one in a car accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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