Sacramento Injury Lawyer Blog

Two airplanes almost collided south of our Sacramento home on Thursday at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The first plane, a WestJet, carrying 132 passengers was flying in from Canada. The second, a Northwest jet, carrying 150 passengers, was taking off. Reports state that the Northwest jet was traveling about 150 mph when the WestJet plane got in its way. Luckily, the WestJet plane was able to come to a stop before the two crashed into one another.

The dangerous mistake was made by both the WestJet pilot and the ground traffic controller for LAX. Reports state that the WestJet pilot was on the wrong radio frequency and could not get directions from the air traffic controller. When he was approaching the gate, the ground traffic controller cleared him without checking first with the air traffic controller.

No one was hurt in this close call. This accident could have been detrimental to many. If there was a crash and a subsequent lawsuit, the negligence of both the controller and pilot would probably serve as the cause.

If you or someone you love has been involved in a accident due to someone’s negligence, please call the Law Offices of Moseley Collins.

Fly, fly away…

For the full news article, please click here.

A lawsuit is being tried south of our Sacramento home in Los Angeles, California. A group of twelve Central American workers are suing the fruit companies, Dole and Standard, along with chemical companies, Dow and Amvac, after being exposed to dangerous amounts of pesticides. Eleven of the twelve men are now sterile, claiming that the high level of pesticides caused their infertility.

The pesticide, DBCP, was used throughout the 1970s and has since been banned in the United States. Plaintiffs claim that Dole carried out a number of intentionally dangerous activities, such as spraying the pesticides when the manufacture recommended mixing it into the soil and using 10 gallons of pesticide a year rather than the instructed 1 ½.

Dole has several defenses, stating that very little of the chemical was used only once or twice year (a tablespoon amount) and that the infertility in the workers could be due to other problems (such as excessive drinking and gonorrhea).

We will have to wait and see how this case turns out. Interestingly enough, there are four other cases in Los Angeles County, representing around 5,000 agricultural workers from the Central America area. Hopefully through all of this a lesson will be learned that we need to treat all employees with equal care, respect and protection.

If you or someone you know has been injured because of an employer’s neglect and abuse, please call our law offices. We are here to help.

Be careful out there…

For the full new article on this lawsuit, please click here.

West of Sacramento, in the San Mateo Superior Court, a verdict for $1.8 million was affirmed in a case where a man was seriously injured after a forklift fell on top of him. The plaintiff of the case, a forklift operator, alleged that the forklift had a defect in its design, placing “excessive stress on the tires”. The stress eventually caused a tire of the forklift to split, sending the forklift crashing down on top of the man, crushing his leg.

The injured man eventually lost his leg in the accident. The resulting $1.8 million verdict was for lost wages, medical expenses, and pain and suffering.

A design defect occurs when there should have been an alternative solution used in the making of a product and because of the product’s current design, the product is now unreasonably dangerous. If you or a loved one have ever been injured because of a defective design, please call our Law Offices for further help and advice.

Until next time…

For the full report on this case, please click here.

Many times when a dog attacks, a serious injury can occur in the victim. At our Law Firm in Sacramento, our clients that have experienced a dog attack have suffered both physically and emotionally. As I was reading an article in the news today, I came across a woman who was attacked by a dog during her job. I can only imagine the stress that will bring. The attack occurred west of our Sacramento home, in Hayward, California. The woman was a postal worker and she was attached by a pit bull on her mail run.

The news reports state that the woman, Virginia Joaquin, received injuries that required four-hours worth of surgery on her right hand. Luckily, when attacked, Virginia (undoubtedly), began to scream and neighbors rushed to her rescue, beating the pit bull away with a piece of wood.

If you have been attacked by a dog, you should seek medical and legal help. In California, State law places a person responsible for a dog attack if a person’s negligence causes the attack to happen, a person keeps a dog knowing that it has been known to attack others, or if a person is violating a leash law.

If you have been attacked or bitten by a dog and would like to receive more information, please contact the Law Offices of Moseley Collins.

Until next time…

For the full article on Virginia’s attack, please click here.

An activist group called Stop Hurting Our Children (SHOK) has arisen from a lawsuit that took place just west of Sacramento in Marin County, California. The lawsuit was brought on by families of eight children, after the children were injured from quick-release bicycles sold by Wal-Mart. The quick-release bicycles have been said to spontaneously pop off, causing injury to the anyone riding the bike. In the Marin County case, three of the eight children suffered from traumatic brain injury.

Bicycles that have a quick-release option were designed to allow the rider to take off the wheels of their bike without using tools. Many bike riders want the ability to remove the wheel(s) of their bikes for fixing flat tires, preventing theft, and putting bikes into cars. A website called Bicycling Life states the reason quick-release wheels come off is because the are often not put back on properly. There is a page on the website that describes the correct and incorrect way to put on a quick-release wheel. I suggest that if you do purchase or have purchased a bicycle with a quick-release wheel, you read the article.

If you have ever been injured in an accident by a product defect, please call the Law Offices of Moseley Collins for advice.

Until next time…

To read the article, please click here.

As a Personal Injury Attorney in Sacramento, I know that someone can easily slip and fall in a store when there has been a spill that has not been taken care of. Currently, there is a lawsuit against the superstore, Wal-Mart, claiming that Wal-Mart employees failed to clean up water on the store's floor and allowed a customer to walk in the puddle and subsequently fall.

The puddle of water was left near the main exit of the store and two employees were nearby when the injured person fell, supposedly leaving her “permanently injured”.

If employees leave a spill, such as water, on the floor of a store, a dangerous situation is present. For this case, there will have to be many questions answered, beginning with if the employees knew about the water spill, how long it had been there, if it was open and obvious to the injured person, and what the injured person was doing at the time.

If you have been injured or know someone that has been injured in a slip and fall accident, please call the Law Offices of Moseley Collins for advice.

Caution…

To read the full article, please click here.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/contentview.asp?c=198925

A terrible accident occurred at a local radio station in our home of Sacramento, California. 107.9, a popular station playing contemporary music, held a contest on their show which challenged contestants to drink as much water as possible without urinating.

The final winner, a woman by the name of Jennifer Strange, drank more than two gallons of water during the contest. Tragically, within hours of returning home, Jennifer died from water intoxication.

This instance did not occur without warning. During the contest, Jennifer spoke very slowly and complained of a headache and feeling lightheaded. Some people even called in to warn the two disk jockeys that people can die of water intoxication. The DJs stated that at the time they believed people were trying to sway the outcome of the contest and they brushed off the suggestions.

There are currently about 30 people that are bringing a lawsuit against the station that were in some way associated with the contest. The lawyer of this group states that the company had specific policies that needed to be followed, but were not. The two disk jockeys, Steve Maney and Lukas Cox, state they believed that management had approved the game, although comments made by the station say this was untrue.

This case is indeed a tragic one. Negligence on part of the disk jockeys as well as possible negligence of the parent company itself will need to be investigated. If you or someone you love have been seriously injured due to someone’s negligence, please call our Law Offices.

Our condolences to the family of Jennifer…

For more information, please read the news article in the Sacramento Bee.