San Francisco Personal Injury Law Blog

Police are still looking for a white van that was involved in a hit-and-run with a school bus in San Francisco yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, January 18th at around 2:50 p.m. near Harrison and Cesar Chavez streets. If you have information regarding this hit-and-run please immediately contact the San Francisco Police Department.

The school bus was carrying 20 children. Luckily, no one was injured.  The other vehicle, a white van, drove off after the collision and the driver has not been found, according to CHP Officer Kevin Bartlett.

I regard hit-and-run drivers as a special kind of criminal. To negligently hit another vehicle is forgivable. As long as the offending driver is made accountable, then compensation for negligence is just like paying a debt. But, a hit-and-run driver is disregarding the rules that help us live together in our community, and that is not excusable. And to hit a school bus and not even stop... Come on, that is really low.

As a San Francisco Bay Area Personal Injury Attorney, and father, I care deeply about the safety of our younger generation. I dedicate myself to determining who should properly be made accountable for collisions whether they are pedestrian or bicycle or car or truck or even school bus accidents. The rules of the road say that when you act unreasonably and someone is hurt thereby, you are responsible for the harm you cause.

With a hit-and-run accident, however, no matter who really caused the accident, the driver who sped off is considered at least partially at fault.

About the author:  Claude Wyle is an aggressive advocate for Bay Area child safety and has handled many cases involving injuries to children. Claude has decades of experience representing those harmed by the wrongful conduct of others, and, as a San Francisco personal injury attorney, has fought to protect the rights of injured adults and children throughout his legal career.

The infamous Devil's Slide stretch of Highway 1 (SR-1) is currently slated to be closed permanently to cars and motorcycles in late 2012 when the Devil's Slide Tunnel Project will be hopefully completed, offering a solution to this notoriously unstable and unsafe section of highway.

As the location of so many motorcycle and car injuries and fatalities, this stretch of Highway 1 on the beautiful California coast has developed a very bad reputation over the last decades as an accident location.  And also, as a landslide-prone section of highway, Devil's Slide is often closed whenever there is a storm, as sections of the highway give way and fall.

Highway 1 has also proven to be dangerous for many drivers and motorcycle riders since the highway is so narrow along the cliffs, with many blind corners. The drivers are drawn by the natural and dramatic beauty of the coastline. The riders are drawn by the challenging turns. Both drivers and riders have often found this stretch of road overly challenging and hazardous.

The coast between Pacifica and Montara is perhaps unsurpassed in scenic beauty and is surely a motorcyclist's dream.  But with the long history of closure due to rockslides and land slippage, and seemingly constant repairs, Devil's Slide will finally be by-passed by two inland tunnels, providing a safe, dependable highway between Pacifica and Montara.

As an avid motorcyclist, and San Francisco Motorcycle Attorney, I will miss riding my own motorcycle along this scenic stretch of coast, but I recognize the dangers from rockslides, and also the dangers with typical traffic traveling along the cliffs with narrow roads and so many blind turns.  While I don't like riding my motorcycle in tunnels, I support the building of a safer road for all travelers, both local and touring, even though I will miss this fun and challenging piece of our California coast.

The perk to this project, which many bicyclists and pedestrians will enjoy, is that the bypassed section of Highway 1, together with 70 acres of State right of way, will be available for public access and recreational use following the planned tunnel opening in late 2012.

About the author: Claude Wyle is an aggressive advocate for San Francisco Bay Area motorcylists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Claude has decades of experience representing those harmed by the wrongful conduct of others, and, as a San Francisco motorcycle, bicycle and pedestrian accident attorney, has fought to protect the rights of those injured throughout his legal career. Claude is also an avid cyclist and motorcyclist himself and member of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition and is a sponsor of Safe Routes to School. This year, Claude is going to lecture to End Distracted Driving. Please follow this blog for more details on future events aimed at ending distracted driving in California and nationally.

I must report that a Mission district bicycle car crash caused serious personal injuries a few nights ago.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommends a ban on all personal electronic devices while driving.  Despite the new fines imposed in California for texting-while-driving from a cell phone while driving an automobile, I still hear about fatal accidents and serious personal injuries which result from this most obvious form of distracted driving. 

I am supportive of NTSB's recent decision to recommend a national ban on the usage of all personal electronic devices while driving a motor vehicle. 

NTSB bases its decision on findings from various national statistics on distracted driving, as I have also discussed in the past.  Recently the NTSB was highly influenced by the investigation of a fatal accident in Missouri where a 19-year-old pickup driver sent 11 texts in the 11 minutes before the accident, including one right before the impact that killed two people and injured 38.

The NTSB's recommendations urge all 50 states and the District

"to ban the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those designed to support the driving task)."

According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, 35 states, including Maryland and Virginia, and the District ban texting while driving.

While driving a car, concentration on driving must be the highest priority.  When we are taught to drive, did the instructor or our parents ever say that driving was just a part of multi-tasking? With so many things to pay attention to while driving, how could anyone actually think that they have the ability to also send texts and still drive safely? Roads are more congested than ever, and yet drivers are paying less attention than to driving than they did a decade ago.

Traffic accidents are the number one cause of death of teenagers, and does anyone believe that distracted driving is not largely to blame?

Why do I report wrongful deaths that happen in the San Francisco Bay Area? It is my view as a San Francisco Personal Injury Attorney that this injury news is important to keep in the public mind and not swept under the rug.

I believe that people should know that failing to keep a proper lookout or driving unreasonably can and often does lead to serious personal injuries or even deaths.  It is negligent.  And it is vitally important that the details and facts surrounding these types of accidents and others be discovered so that we can hope to learn from past mistakes, change unreasonable conduct and thereby improve safety.

With the Holiday driving season upon us, the message on distracted driving is simple: There's no call or text message that's so important that it can't wait.

I have joined a national group of attorneys who will be lecturing at high schools and other places to teens regarding the dangers of distracted driving. The group is called End Distracted Driving (EDD), and I hope to be able to blog more about this topic as our program takes off nationally.  I encourage anyone interested in this issue to join two distracted driving groups, endDD.org and noDD.org.

About the author: Claude Wyle is an aggressive advocate for San Francisco pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. Claude has decades of experience representing those harmed by the wrongful conduct of others, and, as a San Francisco Wrongful Death Attorney, has fought to protect the rights of injured individuals throughout his legal career.