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Cyclist Sues King County for $20 Million in Bicycle Accident Case
April 21, 2008

Give him a choice, and Jeffrey Totten would prefer to have his physical and mental faculties just as they were before his bicycling accident, instead of the $20 million claimed in the lawsuit. All the money in the world couldn't compensate for paralysis in your left side, memory loss and the bleak possibility of being confined to a nursing home facility for the rest of his life.

September 4, 2006 started out as a day full of hope for Jeffrey. The Seattle resident was a project manager at an energy consulting firm, and had just received news that he had been accepted at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, where he planned to pursue an MBA in Sustainable Business. Things couldn't look better for the young engineer, and he had planned to spend the day cycling with his friends. He has been a lifelong outdoors enthusiast, and that morning set off with his friends to one of Seattle's bike parks. A few miles into the bike path, Jeffrey found a downhill stretch in the path, and began cycling downhill. There was no reason to suspect anything, or fear any eventuality. After all, it was the bicycle path, which as everyone knows are safe for bicyclists, right?

Wrong. There was a utility hole in the pavement, and before Jeffrey could know what had hit him, he had been thrown off the bike and smashed to the ground.

In the days following his hospitalization, it was clear that Jeffrey had suffered severe brain injuries. He was paralyzed on his left side, and couldn't even begin to sit up, walk, eat or talk on his own. After months of rigorous treatment and the devotion of his wife Danielle, Jeffrey is only now beginning to gain some of his faculties back, but to expect a complete recovery would be overly optimistic.

His wife has now sued King County for a sum of $20 million for failing to maintain the metal plate that Jeffrey's cycle struck before he was thrown off. Although Jeffrey has made some progress in the months since the accident, she says he still needs very expensive medical care. Jeffrey is at present in a California-based nursing home facility, where bills for his treatment are $1000 per day. It's a lot of money to expect his family to come up with, and they have set up an auction site where they plan to raise money for his care.

With healthcare costs rising the way they have, and when you factor in inflation, the $1000 a day tab will increase as the months go by. The $20 million settlement will only help Jeffrey cope with his medical bills, but it doesn't give him back the promising future that he had before the accident, and it doesn't give him his life back.

There's no reason why pavement on a downhill bicycle trail should not have been well maintained. Speed accelerates while going downhill, and had the County had even a semblance of a maintenance plan in place, it's safe to assume that his accident could have been avoided.

If you have been injured in a bicycle 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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Patrolman Under Scanner in Cyclist Accident
March 13, 2008

Tragedy struck a group of cyclists, one of them an Olympic hopeful on Sunday when they were struck by a patrol car driven by a member of Santa Clara County Sheriff's department. The cyclists who were killed were Matt Peterson and Kristy Gough. The third cyclist, Christopher Knapp was injured. A fourth cyclist Daniel Brasse was cycling on ahead and therefore didn't meet the same fate as his friends. According to witnesses, there was nothing in the weather or the road conditions that pointed to the possibility of an accident. It was daytime, and it was a sunny morning with clear visibility, when Deputy James Council, who was driving his patrol car, came at them, and knocked the three off their cycles.

Petersen died at the scene while, Gough died at hospital a few hours later. According to eyewitnesses, who included a doctor who was at the scene and rushed to give emergency aid to the victims, the deputy was walking around in a daze after the accident murmuring that he had fallen asleep at the wheel. He seemed very disoriented, witnesses said.

What happened next seems even more surprising. Another deputy at the scene escorted Council back to his squad car and prevented him from speaking to anybody. He was reportedly taken to a crisis center to recover from the trauma. There was no instant alcohol test to check for drunken driving, as is the norm in such cases. It is this seeming partial treatment of their own that has placed Santa Clara County under a microscope.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith was adamant that the department showed no special concern for Council and treated him the way ordinary citizens would be treated if they had caused a fatal accident. That seems a little hard to believe. If you or I were in an accident that caused hardly any injuries, and the cops had even the slightest inkling that we had had too much to drink, you can be sure they would whip out a chalk and draw a line on the street in a jiffy. That doesn't seem to have happened in James Council's case at all. The man had just managed to cause the death of two persons and had gotten away with nothing more than a comforting arm around the shoulder from his fellow deputies.

Even more strange is the circumstances of the accident. How did a deputy driving his patrol car manage to veer off across a double yellow line and into a group of cyclists? Was there alcohol or drugs involved? For now, there has been no information on whether any blood sample has been taken to check for alcohol, so we have no way of knowing yet. Furthermore, Council's father has been a deputy for over 23 years. Have all these factors colored the County's judgment and caused it to become a little more partial towards the patrolman? We can expect the answer in coming days.

Also disturbing is Council's previous brush with the law. Prior to being hired by the sheriff's department, he had been convicted of street racing. Back in 2001, Council was also charged with 2 drunken driving counts. These might or might not have a bearing on the case, but the fact is that this is a man who on at least two occasions in his life had thought nothing of getting behind a wheel too inebriated to drive. These incidents taken separately might not seem like more than youthful folly, but taken together in the context of Sunday's horrible tragedy, they do seem to suggest that Council should probably not have been behind the wheel of his squad car that day.

Riding a bicycle can be treacherous, especially with the number of careless car drivers with which bikers are forced to share the road. If you have lost a loved-one in a bikeaccident, 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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Driver in Huntington Beach Accident Might Have Been DUI
February 21, 2008

In August, we ran the story of Danny Oates, a 14-year-old Huntington Beach, California boy who was hit by a truck while riding his bike to school. It was the first day after summer vacation, but Danny never made it to school. The impact of the crash threw the teenager between 50 and 100 feet. He was killed instantly.

The driver of the truck, Jeffrey Woods, drove his truck onwards before hitting a tree and ended up in the backyard of a home. At the time, the incident seemed like an accident, and many were wiling to give Woods the benefit of the doubt. The media reported that he was devastated over the death of the young boy and racked by guilt.

The media got it all wrong, apparently. The Orange County Register reports that Huntington Beach police detectives filed an affidavit on February 13 requesting the cellular phone records of Jeffrey Woods at the time of the crash. They have reason to believe that Woods was involved in a drug deal at the time he crashed his truck into Danny, and that he might have also been under the influence of an opiate at the time of the crash.

Detectives seem to have sufficient reason to believe that the crash was not simply a matter of failing to see the young boy on his bicycle - it could possibly have been more criminal than that. Examination of Woods' cell phone after the crash revealed potentially incriminating text messages that were sent out at the time of the crash, or just before the crash occurred. In one message, Woods seems to have texted the message "Need bars? "Bars" is the slang name for Xanax, the prescription drug that contains the anti-anxiety drug Alprazolam. This drug is often prescribed to treat bipolar disorders and to relieve severe anxiety.

Slang names for other drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin were found in text messages on Woods' phone. The timing of the messages was too close to the time of the crash to discount the possibility that Woods might have been actually engaging in a drug deal at the time of the crash.

The police are looking to interview the persons who are mentioned in the text messages, hoping for clues as to whether Woods was in the process of acquiring or selling drugs at the time of the crash.

A further investigation of Wood's messages has revealed that he was trying for three days prior to the crash to obtain Xanax, but had to finally settle for Vicodin instead.

If the detectives manage to get access to the cell phone records and can prove that Woods was actually texting and was under the influence, it will add a whole new light on the Oates case. Texting while driving is reprehensible enough. Combine that with being under the influence of drugs, and you have a potent mix of DUI and cell phone misuse.

A young boy is dead because an alleged drug dealer was too busy trying to score his next fix to concentrate on the road. If the detectives are successful in proving Woods' actions at the time of the crash, we hope the Oates family will pursue legal action against Woods.

If you or a loved-one have been injured or killed in a bicycle accident, you need the help of a top California personal injury law firm. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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Bicyclist's Family Seeks More Compensation in Thousand Oaks Wrongful Death Case
October 30, 2007

Glenn B. Garvin was not just a successful endodontist, but an avid bicyclist and a respected member of the Thousand Oaks community. He served as a member of the city's traffic advisory board, had been happily married for the past twenty five years, and had two teenage sons.

On September 16, 2006 Garvin was riding his cycle along Westlake Boulevard. 82-year-old Norma Siegel was driving her vehicle northbound when she suddenly veered into the bicycle lane and collided with the cyclist. Garvin suffered massive head injuries and died. His family now wants to seek extra monetary compensation in the wrongful death case that just got underway in Ventura County Superior Court. According to the suit, Siegel had been informed by her ophthalmologist barely 10 days before the accident that she had cataracts in both eyes. In fact, just the day before the accident, the suit claims she received another warning from her ophthalmologist.

Compensation was fixed at $39,878 to cover medical expenses and funeral costs. The family now says Garvin's past and future earnings need to be compensated too.

According to the Ventura County Star, the lawsuit calculates Garvin's earnings in 2006 to be $746,333. Garvin family attorneys say the family lost its main breadwinner and the community lost a respected leader who was committed to bicycle safety. They haven't yet specified the amount of additional damages the family will be claiming, but based on figures of Garvin's earning that year, his young age at the time of the accident and his standing in the community one expects it will be sizable.

A person with a known medical condition who's responsible for causing an accident that results in the wrongful death or injury to another may be liable for compensation for damages. If you need advice regarding an accident you've been involved in, contact the California bicycle accident attorneys at The Reeves Law Group.

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BicyclistInjured in Orange County Accident
October 04, 2007

A 58-year-old cyclist was injured Monday evening when a truck collided with her bicycle on Laguna Canyon Road before crashing down an embankment.

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California Bicyclist Killed in Accident Identified
September 21, 2007

The San Diego Medical Examiner's Office has identified the man who was killed in a bicycle accident earlier this week. He has been identified as Manuel Hernandez, a 30-year-old migrant worker from Guatemala.

Last Wednesday, SignOn San Diego reported the crash that occurred at the intersection of Black Mountain and Kearny Villa Roads. Hernandez was riding his bicycle at about 10:15 pm when a 1991 Mercedes crashed into him. Paramedics performed CPR on Hernandez, but he succumbed to his injuries a few hours later at a hospital. The driver of the Mercedes, a 52-year-old man insisted he didn't see Hernandez. It's believed that Hernandez was living with a few roommates in Mira Mesa, California.

Close to 800 bicyclists die in bicycle related accidents in the US every year. Of these over 100 deaths occur in California alone. Besides these, there are thousands of injuries that are caused as a result of bicycle accidents. The problem is even more acute in California because of the numbers of people who take advantage of the sunny weather to hit the streets on their cycles. In campus cities like Berkeley where cycling is a routine form of transportation, the number of bicycle accidents is inversely proportional to the local populations. For obvious reasons, bicyclists bear the brunt of any injuries that are sustained after an accident. Just a few weeks back, a young boy from Huntington Beach, California was killed when his bicycle was crashed into by a car.

If you've been injured in a bicycle accident, you might be entitled to compensation for your medical expenses and loss of wages. The experienced bicycle accident lawyers at The Reeves Law Group bring substantial expertise in handling cases relating to injuries caused by bicycle related accidents. Initial consultation is free and you don't pay until we have negotiated a settlement for you.

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Bicycle Accident Kills California Teenager
August 30, 2007

It was a back to school story that started off like millions of others around the country. 14-year-old Danny Oates of Huntington Beach, California was looking forward to getting back with his classmates after three months apart. Like all California kids, he'd spent the summer at the beach under the warm summer sun. He'd recently trimmed off his mullet to the amusement of his family and friends, and was even looking to recover from a lost summer love.

On Wednesday afternoon, Danny jumped on his bike and began riding towards Sowers Middle School, barely half a mile from his Huntington Beach, California home. He never made it. A Ford F-150 coming from the opposite direction crashed into the teenager throwing him 50 to 100 feet. Danny died soon after impact.

The driver of the Ford F-150, a 20-year-old Huntington Beach, California resident has not been taken into custody, but toxicology reports are pending to ascertain whether there were alcohol or drugs involved. After the tragic bicycle accident, he was taken to the Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, California to be evaluated for internal injuries.

According to Huntington Beach police, the Ford F-150 swerved across traffic lanes and veered into oncoming traffic before striking Danny. The cause of this erratic driving is not known at this point. The truck reportedly traveled at least 25 feet after hitting Danny, knocked against a palm tree before crashing into the yard of a home nearby. Investigations into the bicycle accident are expected to begin, and a review will be submitted to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

In the days after your loved ones dies a wrongful death due to negligence, it's natural to feel confused and traumatized. While nothing can ever reverse personal tragedy, a wrongful death claim can help prevent future tragedies and help the victim's family recover financially. If you've lost a loved one in an accident, call the experienced auto accident lawyers at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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