San Diego Car Accident Lawyer Blog

At about 2 p.m. on February 25, 2009, a 63-year-old woman died on I-8 near Buckman Springs Road in eastern San Diego County when her blue Honda Civic was hit by a red 2007 two-door Pontiac driven by Linda Cahill, 50, of San Diego. You can read more about the car wreck in this San Diego Union-Tribune story.

Cahill, traveling in the fast lane on eastbound I-8, caused the car crash when her vehicle hit the Civic while trying to change lanes, forcing the Civic off the embankment. The driver of the Civic was ejected from her car seat while her front seat passenger, her husband, remained in the car and suffered several injuries. The driver was killed, but Cahill came out of the incident with no injuries.

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Witness say that Cahill had been driving recklessly before hitting the Civic.

Continue reading " Campo Woman Killed in San Diego Car Accident " »

Yesterday, John Sudac of Carlsbad plead not guilty to leaving the scene of a Solana Beach car crash that left the pregnant driver of the other vehicle dead along the side of the freeway. He faces manslaughter and hit-and-run charges that could cost him up to 11 years in prison if convicted.

This accident is notorious in San Diego County. Not only was it reprehensible that the pregnant driver was left to die on the side of the I-5 freeway in Solana Beach just north of Via de la Valle, but that someone else took her purse from the scene. There was a separate investigation to find the pregnant woman's stolen purse, and a man was arrested as a result, but that charge was dismissed when the purse was later found.

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Continue reading " John Sudac of Carlsbad Pleads Not Guilty to Fatal Hit and Run Solana Beach Car Accident " »

On the afternoon of Monday, February 23, an Otay Mesa car accident caused serious injuries to a pedestrian walking along the road. The news story can be found here.

The car crash happened when a speeding driver heading North along Heritage Road near Otay Mesa Road in San Diego swerved to avoid another car. At that moment, the driver lost control of his car, hit a catering truck, and sideswept some trees before hitting a 33-year-old man that was walking along the side of the road.

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San Diego Police Department officers said that the pedestrian's legs were pinned between the driver's car and a parked car. The pedestrian was rushed to the hospital where he was treated for several severe injuries.

The driver did not seem to be under the influence of alcohol.

Continue reading " San Diego Car Crash Leads to Pedestrian's Crushed Legs " »

On February 22, three San Diego men were either seriously injured or killed in three separate motor vehicle accidents throughout San Diego County.

Jamul Car Crash Kills Driver

A 24-year-old man died in a Jamul car accident along Skyline Truck Trail just west of Lawson Valley Road. The victim was identified as Manuel Rodriguez.

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San Diego Motorcycle Accident Causes Severe Leg and Back Injuries

A 20-year-old man broke his leg and suffered back injuries when he was involved in a San Diego motorcycle crash with a truck at the intersection of National Avenue and 31st Street in San Diego.

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Escondido Bicycle Accident Kills Bicyclist

A 29-year-old man was killed in an Escondido bicycle accident near the intersection of South Centre City Parkway and Brotherton Road in Escondido when his bicycle collided with a Toyota Corolla. Unfortunately, the best that the San Diego Medical Examiner's Office could do--the most dignity they could give to the victim--was to identify him as a local transient.

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San Diego law enforcement officers set up a drunk driver (DUI) checkpoint Sunday, February 22, on the Coronado side of the Coronado Bridge--the bridge connecting Coronado and San Diego. The checkpoint resulted in the arrest of 11 suspected drunken drivers and 28 cars were impounded.

According to a Chula Vista police officer, the operation was wrapped up early Sunday but none of the names for the people arrested were available.

San Diego law enforcement officials impounded the 28 vehicles from drivers without valid licenses (and presumably without valid insurance--another reason to make sure you have underinsured and uninsured motorist insurance coverage to protect you and your family if you are involved in a San Diego car accident).

The checkpoint was collaboration between Chula Vista, National City, Coronado, and the San Diego Police Departments and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

Continue reading " San Diego Faces Touger Crackdowns on Drunk Drivers " »

We recently obtained an excellent result for our client, Karl F., who was involved in a San Diego car accident. Not only was Karl extremely pleased with the result, but he was also very happy with the excellent personal service he received from the Jurewitz Law Group.

Here is what Karl had to say about his experience with our office.

The Jurewitz Law Group recently settled claims against a negligent driver's car insurance company and our client's under-insured motorist coverage. Here is what our client, Edward S., has to say about the job we did for him after his Imperial Beach car accident.

California Highway Patrol officers are still trying to identify a man killed in a Pauma Valley car accident.

Shortly after 4 p.m. on February 17, 55 year-old Edward Cory was heading westbound on State Route 76 in his 2003 Dodge Ram truck when he lost control of the truck and veered into the eastbound lane. Cory crashed into a 2005 GMC van near Rincon Creek Road. Cory and the driver of the van were taken to Palomar Medical Center in Escondido. The Pauma Valley car crash was reported by CBS 8 here.

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Cory was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the car crash and was hurled through the windshield of the truck suffering several injuries. The driver of the van was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The van driver was not the registered owner of the van and authorities are still working on identifying the body.

Continue reading " Pauma Valley Car Crash Victim Killed, Still Unidentified " »

A series of San Diego car crashes led to the death of one person in the Spring Valley area of San Diego on February 18. The car crashes occurred on Southbound State Route 125, near Jamacha Road in Spring Valley resulting in the closing of the freeway for about a half hour. The source for this post is a CBS 8 news story, posted here.

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The closure was caused by a three-car accident where one of the cars overturned and caught fire. The driver of the car died at the scene.

The freeway was fully open by 1 p.m.

Continue reading " Spring Valley Car Accident Kills Driver " »

The Jurewitz Law Group recently settled a injury accident claim arising from an Imperial Beach car accident. Our client's injuries were largely soft tissue, but were chronic in nature and required several epidural injections to manage his pain.

Read more about this case and our results here.

Data collected since 1998 shows that San Diego car accidents have been increasingly caused by young, female drunk drivers according to this news story.

The study, performed by Steven Bloch of the Automobile Club of Southern California, was started following the insane drunk driving incidents involving television celebrities Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Nicole Richie. These incidents made Block wonder if they reflected a larger problems facing communities like San Diego.

What Block found was that, in San Diego, young female drunk drivers between the ages of 21 and 24 saw the largest increase in fatal car crashes. In 1998, there were 49 fatal car crashes. By 2007, there were 110 fatal car crashes.

For example, in a 2007 North San Diego County car accident, a young Palm Springs womand named Deanna Fridley was charged with DUI and driving under the influence of methamphetamine in a head-on car accident that killed two couples from Escondido and Vista. She is presently awaiting trial on four counts of murder related to the car crash.

Bloch does point out that the majority of drunk driving related crashes still involve males. Males are still twice as likely to be involved in fatal drunk driver car crashes. However, the percentage of male drunk drivers involved in fatal car crashes has fallen while the percentage of female drunk drivers involved in fatal car accidents has risen dramatically.

Continue reading " San Diego Car Accidents Increasingly Caused by Female Drunk Drivers " »

A 28-year-old woman fatally injured in an Escondido car accident on February 15 was identified as Maria Caballero Rangel. Ms. Rangel was a passenger in a 1994 Nissan Sentra heading eastbound on Valley Center Road, just north of Lake Wholford Road in Escondido, when a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, heading west, veered into their path. Both cars crashed headlong, severely injuring Ms. Rangel

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The Ford Escape's OnStar system alerted rescuers after it came to rest upside down and with a smashed front end. The red Sentra was crushed, according to CalFire Captain Nick Schuler.

Continue reading " Woman Killed in Escondido Car Crash is Identified " »

On February 12, 2009, John David Byrd of Escondido was traveling along South Escondido Boulevard near Sherman Way in his motorized wheelchair when a 2001 Infinity QX4 struck him. The car accident happened while Byrd was traveling as a pedestrian along the shoulder of the road.

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When officers of the Escondido police arrived on the scene, they found Byrd still in his wheelchair pinned under the Infiniti SUV. He suffered severe trauma and injuries to the head and torso. He died at the scene just before he could be taken to the hospital. He was 52.

The driver of the SUV was not hurt and the accident is still under investigation.

The Jurewitz Law Group sends its' prayers to Byrd's family at this sad time. While the accident is still under investigation, it appears that the driver of the SUV was at fault for causing the accident. Byrd may not have been in the crosswalk or along the sidewalk (assuming there is one at this location), but if he was traveling along the shoulder of the road it is hard to imagine a reasonably safe driver hitting him. Bicyclists and others routinely use the shoulder of the road to travel and it does not appear that Byrd was in the lane of traffic.

At about 8:30 p.m. on February 11, a semi-truck with a tractor trailor was cut off by another vehicle while travelling westbound on I-8 near La Mesa. The truck veered across all of the westbound lanes, smashing through the concrete center divide into the eastbound lanes. At that moment, a pick-up truck travelling eastbound crashed into the big rig truck, killing the driver of the pick-up truck.

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The driver of the big-rig tractor trailor was ejected from his vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene by California Highway Patrol.

Forty gallons of gasoline were spilled and HAZMAT crews were sent to the scene to clean up the mess.

Debris from the car crash caused several other car crashes. The two left lanes of both the eastbound and the westbound freeway were closed for several hours.

Video and photographs of the trucking accident aftermath, can be found here.

Now San Diego can follow San Diego car accident lawyers, the Jurewitz Law Group, on the social networking "micro-blog" site, Twitter.com.

Want to know about news and issues facing San Diego's roads? Want to know about interesting developments in the law, particularly those facing San Diego car drivers and car owners?

You can follow our feed at http://www.twitter.com/sandiegoinjury and stay in the loop as events happen.

Most people have never hired a San Diego injury accident lawyer or attorney, let alone been involved in a car accident trial. However, if you'd like to know what it's like, our friends at the Maryland law firm of Miller and Zois have posted this trial transcript.

While the transcript involves a car accident trial in Maryland, the trial is very similar to what happens in a California car wreck trial.

If you're ever in a car accident in San Diego or California, be sure to contact the Jurewitz Law Group at 888-233-3180.

On June 6, San Diego professional surfer Milton Willis was driving his car northbound along Coast Boulevard near the intersection of 20th Street when he lost control of his car. His car crashed into a parked car and a palm tree, killing his passenger, Bradley Dillahunty. Willis was speeding at approximately 65 mph in a 25 mph when the crash occurred.

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We wrote about the car accident at the time here at the San Diego Injury Lawyer Blog.

Authorities have now charged Willis with gross vehicular manslaughter and DUI in connection with the accident. A $500,000 arrest warrant has been issued for Willis.

A 30-year-old man is suspected of crashing a Honda Accord into a Mission Beach home on Ingraham St. near La Mancha Dr. at about 12:15 p.m. on Monday.

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Police searched for the man for 40 minutes before they captured him at approximately 1:15 p.m. near Jewell St. and La Playa Ave. in Mission Beach. The man was caught and arrested after he broke into an apartment by smashing a window, injuring his hand.

The hit-and-run driver attempted to fool San Diego police by stealing and changing into clothes from the apartment, leaving his bloody clothes inside. However, officers captured him while trying to leave.

Early Thursday afternoon, a red Jeep crashed onto the boardwalk in Pacific Beach near Joe's Crab Shack restaurant. One pedestrian was nearly run over.

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The accident occurred when the driver, an Oregon woman, dropped off her husband and their dog at the curb near the boardwalk. Rather than putting her foot on the brake, she pressed on the gas and her Jeep jumped onto the boardwalk before finally stopping.

Nobody was injured in the accident, but a bicyclist and pedestrian were nearly struck by the jeep.

A 16-month-old Vista toddler was killed on Wednesday in a hit-and-run car accident when the toddler wandered into the road near the intersection of Smilax Road and South Santa Fe Avenue in Vista, California.

The toddler was struck by a dark sedan, but very little else is known about the vehicle.

This is yet another tragic accident involving a small child. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the toddler's family. There is nothing worse than the death of a child. They have our sympathies.

UPDATE: The accident victim has been identified as Christopher Castellanos.

Forbes Magazine issued a special report at the most frequent factors that cause fatal car accidents based upon data gathered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and the Traffic Safety Center at the University of California at Berkeley.

Amongst the factors covered in the report, the data shows that Saturday is the deadliest day of the week for auto accidents due to higher incidents of drunk driving. The most dangerous time of the year is August and the most dangerous hour is between 5 and 6 pm--rush hour. The most dangerous day of the year is July 4th.

Other factors included, not surprisingly, failure to wear seatbelts; driving over the speed limit; talking on cell phones; and drinking and driving.

Please read the report and keep these factors in mind the next time you are driving.

If you or a loved one have been injured--or killed--by the negligence of another driver, please contact the Jurewitz Law Group at 888-233-5020 to discuss your case.

(Hat tip: http://www.robertnkatz.com/)

Just after 9 pm this past Tuesday, a Toyota Camry heading westbound on Interstate 8 near Descanso was involved in a roll-over car accident, ejecting all eight passengers.

Five of the passengers were riding in the car while the other three were stuffed in the trunk. All eight were thrown from the car when it rolled over. Thankfully none of the passengers were killed. However, three of the passengers were critically injured and were airlifted to a nearby hospital. They in critical condition.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation. All eight passengers are believed to be illegal immigrants.

Luis Umberto Perez, 21, of San Marcos was arrested for suspicion of causing six hit-and-run car crashes in Vista and San Marcos this past Monday between the times of 6:45 and 7:45 PM, according to this North County Times news story.

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Perez was stopped after a half-mile car chase in Vista near the intersection of Hibiscus and Sycamore avenues. The California Highway Patrol reported that Perez was "extremely drunk" after being removed from hiswhite four-door Ford Explorer. His 1-year-old daughter was riding in the back seat.

During the chase, Perez reached speeds of over 100 mph. Itis believed that Perez hit the first car near the intersection of South Rancho Santa Fe Road and Linda Vista Drive continuing onto South Rancho Santa Fe Road and hitting a second car. Perez then headed westbound on Highway 78 where he hit three more vehicles.

When arrested he refused to identify himself and was booked into the Vista jail as "John Doe." After a search of DMV records, it was determined that Perez did not possess a valid driver’s license. His daughter was not injured and was released to her mother.

Bail is set to $130,800 with his initial appearance scheduled for today, Friday.

If you were in, or own, a car that received damage in Vista or San Marcos Monday night, do not hesitate to contact the Jurewitz Law Group at 888-233-5020 for assistance.

Heavy rains came to San Diego today and will remain over the County for the next four days. As usual, this means more car accidents--including deadly accidents--in the area as drivers try to remember how to drive safely in the rain.

Our office always receives more calls about San Diego car crashes immediately after a heavy rain storm. However, we'd rather see San Diegans remain safe on the roads.

Here are five tips to drive safely in the rain:

1. Avoid skids and sliding by driving slower than usual. San Diego drivers are used to driving 70-80 mph on the freeway. Don't. Slow down, particularly in curves and heavier traffic.

2. Don't steer or brake quickly. Use a slow, gradual touch. Quick movements can cause you to lose control over wet pavement.

3. If your car starts skidding in a fishtail, remain calm and take your foot off the gas pedal. Do not use your brake. Over wet pavement, your car can accelerate or steer but not both. By taking your foot off the gas and brake, the rear axle will come back in line.

4. Hydroplaning is a common problem that happens when the water in front of your tires builds up until your car is riding on top of the water rather than the pavement. To avoid hydroplaning, drive in the tire tracks of the car in front of you. If you find yourself hydroplaning, take your foot off the brake and gas pedal until you slow down enough so that your tires make contact with the pavement.

5. If you absolutely need to use your brake while hydroplaning, pump the brakes gently.

Stay safe on our San Diego roads over the weekend. If you are unfortunate enough to be involved in a car crash on our wet highways, feel free to contact the Jurewitz Law Group at 888-233-5020 anytime for free advice and assistance.

A car crash Tuesday on Interstate 15 in the Deer Springs area of San Diego, killed an Escondido teenager and seriously injured another woman.

The teenager, Brittany Grell, 18, of Escondido and a 21-year-old occupant were driving southbound on Interstate 15 shortly before 11 p.m. when their Chrystler Sebring swerved to the right, moved back to the left, and skidded into the center median before overturning and rolling several times. Both Grell and the other woman were ejected from the vehicle.

Grell was pronounced dead at the scene. Paramedics took the woman via ambulance to Palomar Medical Center for treatment of her serious injuries.

Witnesses report seeing a coyote on the freeway around the time of the accident, although it was unclear whether a coyote caused the vehicle to swerve.

Early on February 1, 2009, four people died in a car crash on Interstate 215 in Colton, near the Riverside / San Bernardino County line.

The accident happened when the driver of a Toyota 4Runner drove into the back of a 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier that was disabled on the freeway. The Cavalier burst into flames, killing all four people inside. The driver of the Toyota survived the crash.

The investigation into the cause of the accident is ongoing.

The California Public Utilities Commission suspended the license of a San Gabriel, California tour bus company following a fatal bus accident near the Hoover Dam in Arizona last week.

Seven bus passengers were killed and ten other passengers were injured in the accident. All passengers were tourists from China. Also injured in the crash were the driver of the bus and a motorcyclist.

The PUC stated that the company did not lose its' license due to the accident but because its' liability insurance lapsed on Monday. The company, DW Tours, also had been fined in the past for utilizing an unlicensed subcontractor operate some of its' bus tours.

The bus crash did not involve any other vehicles. The bus accident was caused when the driver of the bus veered towards the right shoulder of the highway, then flipped after the driver overcorrected his steering,.

Shortly before 5 AM this morning, a Riverside County fire engine responding to a car crash was involved in a car accident of its’ own when it collided with a pickup truck crossing the intersection of Etiwanda Avenue and Van Buren Boulevard near the Pomona Freeway in Mira Loma, California

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The fire engine, Engine 17 of the Glen Avon Station, was traveling northbound on Etiwanda Avenue andhad its emergency siren and lights on as it approached the intersection. However, the pickup driver, traveling westbound on Van Buren, may not have seen or heard the engine. A big rig tractor trailer had stopped in the left turn lane and obstructed the driver's vision.

Three firemen suffered injuries, The fire captain on the engine suffered a head laceration and two other firefighters were hospitalized. Unfortunately, a passenger in the pickup was killed.

The incident is still under investigation.

Early Saturday morning, Bruce G. Molina of Pala, California was killed in a fiery car crash on southbound I-15 at the State Route 52 intersection. He was 32.

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Molina was a passenger in a 2000 Kia Spectra being driven by a 28-year-old woman who was also a lance corporal in the Marine Corps. Her name has yet to be released.

According to accident investigators, the driver was speeding on southbound I-15 when the driver lost control and struck a concrete barrier causing the car to burst into flames. Both people were trapped in the car and died from burn injuries and smoke inhalation.

Our prayers go out to the families of Mr. Molina and the driver.

We just received this response from a San Jose / San Francisco car accident client, Amber L. of Palo Alto, California, whom we helped after she was involved in a very serious car accident on the freeway in Mountain View.

We consider this kind of great feedback from clients to be our end-goal: great customer service and results.

Here is what Amber L. had to say about her experience with the Jurewitz Law Group.