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Pedestrian Killed in Accident in Downtown Los Angeles

California pedestrian accident lawyers have been tracking with great concern the increasing number of accidents involving pedestrians occuring on the streets of southern California. In the latest of such accidents, a fashion photographer was killed when he was hit by a car in the Arts District this week.

The accident occurred on Monday.  31-year-old Daniel Salazar Moreno was taking pictures of a model on 6^th Street, when the two were struck by a Honda Accord driven by Moises Casillas. The car apparently ran off the roadway, and stuck the photographer and the model. Moreno was declared dead at the scene of the accident. The model Adriana Placios suffered a fractured leg and knee, and was rushed to the hospital.

Police have spoken to Casillas, and do not believe that he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash. Casillas insists that the crash was caused by a mechanical malfunction of the car. He is expected to be booked for felony vehicular manslaughter.

Investigations into the accident will consider mechanical malfunction as a possible cause. In some instances, mechanical faults in the vehicle may contribute to loss of control leading to an accident. In cases of mechanical malfunction of an automobile causing an accident, there may be more than one person or party that can be held accountable for injuries in the accident. The automobile manufacturer can be named in the lawsuit if a California product liability attorney can prove that a design or manufacturing fault in the automobile was responsible for the crash. Car maintenance or repair companies, and manufacturers of auto parts may also be named in a lawsuit.

Mechanical malfunctioning may not be as frequent a factor in car accidents, as speeding or drunk driving, but the result of such malfunctioning can be devastating.  In August this year, a California Highway Patrol Officer and his family were killed when their Toyota Lexus accelerated to uncontrollable speeds and crashed. The officer Mark Saylor, his 13-year-old daughter, his wife and his wife’s brother were killed instantly in the crash. Calls to 911 made from the car indicated that the car had experienced sudden and unintended acceleration to dangerous speeds, and that the brakes had failed too. Saylor’s own car was at the shop, and he was driving a loaner car from a local Lexus dealership.

That accident has opened a can of worms for Toyota. Instances of unintended acceleration with Toyota cars have been in the news before, but this tragic accident garnered international media attention. The accident has set off a chain of events at Toyota, including a recall of 3.5 million Camrys, Lexus and other models. . Toyota at first led California product liability lawyers and its customers to believe that the problem lies with a floor mat issue in its vehicles. It has since then said that it will replace or fix the gas pedals in many of its models to control the acceleration problem.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of pedestrian accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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