Archives : 2009 : March
Placer County has Highest Drunk Driving Conviction Rate in California
Placer County seems to crack down harder on drunk drivers, at least according to a report by the California Department of Motor Vehicles. According to the report, the conviction rate for DUI in Placer County is 99.2%. The report compares data relating to DUI arrests throughout the state right up to the end of 2007. Across the state, the conviction rate was an average of 79.4%.
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Increase in Numbers of Female Motorists Involved in California Drunk Driving Car Accidents
This is one equality milestone we really didn’t need – according to BNET, the numbers of female drivers involved in serious alcohol-related accidents in California has more than doubled.
According to the California Insurance Commissioner, the numbers of women motorists between the age of 21 and 24 involved in drunk driving accidents where there is a death or injury, increased by 116%. For the general population, this rate has increased by just 50%. There is more than just one reason for this increase in the number of young California women who seem to be trying a little too hard to keep up with the men. For years, the drunk driving accident statistics in the state has been dominated by men. Although men continue to be more likely to be involved in an alcohol-related accident, the gap between the two genders is quickly narrowing.
Nursing Home Residents at Risk for Abuse from Mentally Ill Patients
Across the country, a majority of states including California are seeing an increase in the number of mentally ill patients who are being dumped into nursing homes meant for the elderly. This is placing thousands of elderly residents in these facilities at risk of being abused or attacked by these patients.
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Hayward Resident Killed in Alcohol-Related Car Accident
A Hayward resident was killed in a car accident last week, and the driver responsible for the crash has a plausible explanation – he has told police that he was speeding at the time of the accident to be able to return an SUV belonging to his aunt.
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Berkeley Wakes up to Need for Road Safety After Series of Pedestrian Accidents
Residents in Berkeley are waking up to the need for reevaluating pedestrian safety after two young children were killed in separate accidents.
On February 27th, 5-year-old Zachary Michael Cruz was struck by a truck as he stepped off a curb. Zachary was killed just a few days before his sixth birthday. At the time of the fatal accident, he was with a teacher and other kindergarteners. Zachary was declared dead at the scene of the pedestrian accident. Tragic as little Zachary’s death was, it was far from the first time that a child of this age had been killed on Berkeley streets. Just weeks earlier, a 6-year-old girl who darted into a crosswalk near her school, was struck by a car. The girl suffered a skull fracture, and required hospitalization for about a week. In both the accidents, the drivers involved were not arrested or cited. The investigation into Zachary’s accident is still ongoing, but speed, drugs and alcohol are not believed to be factors in the accident.
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Wheelchair-Bound Man Killed in Santa Rosa Pedestrian Accident
It’s still too early to tell who was to blame in the pedestrian accident in Santa Rosa, California last week in which a wheelchair-bound man was fatally injured. The man was killed when he was struck by a car early Friday morning. He had been crossing Guerneville Road when he was struck by a Mitsubishi driven by 24-year-old Santa Rosa resident, Antonio Salano Villa.
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Santa Ana Marine Indicted for Murder in Car Crash That Killed Orange County Doctor
Lance Cpl. Elijah L. Ferguson of Santa Ana had numerous chances to keep out of his car and avoid an accident on the night of February 22, 2008. His fellow Marines made several attempts to make sure that the intoxicated Ferguson was not able to drive off in the drunken state that he was in. The Marine ignored all of them, and stubbornly set off in his Dodge Caliber. A little while later, the Dodge Caliber with the drunken Ferguson at the wheel, slammed into an Aston Martin that was stopped at a red light. The devastating impact killed the driver of the car, Dr. Michael Aung Sein, a prominent Orange County radiologist, and sent his wife Grace to the hospital with back and brain injuries. Ferguson had just attended a briefing about the dangers of intoxicated drinking hours before the car crash.
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Stimulus Funds May Kick Start Clean up of Abandoned Mines
Efforts to get California’s numerous unsafe mines that are a potential accident and injury hazard cleaned up and closed, might get fresh impetus from the federal stimulus package. The package includes more than $1.5 billion for the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service and the Forest Service. The funds are expected to be used for eliminating the safety hazards posed by abandoned mines scattered across California, Arizona and Nevada.
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Holding Companies Responsible for Foreign-Made Defective Products may Protect Consumers
It’s hard to remember a time when the American consumer was in greater danger from defective and dangerous products than the present. It seems like lead-painted toys, contaminated drugs and other defective products have become a far too common feature in the lives of ordinary Americans. Whether you are buying a crib for your child or a new car, safety is of paramount concern to the consumers, and yet too often, products that end up in consumer hands prove to be unsafe, and even dangerous.
Common Car Related Injuries
Car accidents are not the only way that people get injured in an automobile. There are other injuries that are just are likely to occur, and most of them occur when the car is stationary. Forbes has a report on common injuries and accidents related to automobiles that have nothing to do with collisions.
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