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Author: Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys

Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys was founded by three former defense attorneys who were tired of helping insurance companies and big corporations save money by paying the least amount possible to resolve claims. We wanted to open a law firm where we could use our years of experience handling the toughest and largest claims to benefit the individual. Each of us were tired of being cogs in the wheel that focused on paying the least amount possible to injured persons regardless of injuries or the validity of their claims.

Summer is just around the corner, and while that brings sun and fun, school vacations, and all kinds of trips and recreational outings, the Southern California branch of AAA has been taking the time to remind all of us that the days between Memorial Day and Labor Day also come with some unwelcome baggage: year after year, this stretch of approximately one hundred days is the most dangerous for drivers—but especially for teen drivers.

Annual Crash Spike

According to AAA, which has labelled this period the “100 Deadliest Days,” fatal crashes involving teen drivers jump 15 percent during the summer window. They attribute the seasonal increase to a combination of inexperience (teens have had the least practice as drivers) and greater road exposure (with classes out, teens spend more time behind the wheel).

Teen drivers are also more likely, as a group, to engage in dangerous behaviors while in a vehicle. The auto club cites data showing that at least three factors are more common in crashes involving teens than they are for most other drivers: distracted driving (such as texting) is a cause in nearly six out of ten crashes; 60 percent of teens killed in crashes were not wearing seat belts, which would have reduced their risk of serious injury or death in a crash; and speeding is involved in nearly 30 percent of fatal teen crashes.

These and other factors weigh heavily on the youngest drivers: sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds are three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than more experienced drivers. When discussing what has been the most high-profile problem in recent years a AAA spokesperson noted that “Combining distractions and inexperience behind the wheel is a recipe for disaster.”

Everyone Can Help

We’re sorry to point out that at least one local teen has died in a car crash since the start of these deadly days: A nineteen-year-old was killed in a high-speed crash, possibly while street racing, during the first week of June.

Teen drivers should remember that they are not invincible. Cars are powerful, heavy, fast moving—and potentially lethal high-speed projectiles. They should always be used carefully, especially by drivers who haven’t yet become proficient behind the wheel.

At the same time, parents need to teach by example. It isn’t enough to tell your teen not to drive while distracted or to stick to the speed limit. If a parent doesn’t follow their own advice, the lesson is wasted. Always drive the way you want your teens to. You’ll be a better and safer driver for it, and so will they.

Other teens can also exert positive peer pressure by always driving responsibly and demanding that their friends do the same. Showing disapproval can be equally or even more effective: If a teen asks a peer to stop a dangerous behavior, or refuses to get into a friend’s vehicle because of how he or she has behaved in the past, it can have a profound influence on a teen driver’s future actions.

Riverside Car Accident Lawyer

If you’ve been hurt in a car crash, give Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys a call. Our experienced team understands all aspects of automobile accident law, and we’ve helped hundreds of clients reach appropriate settlements in their cases. Reach us at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below to schedule a free appointment to discuss your case and how we can help you move forward.

A tanker truck carrying over 8,000 gallons of gasoline crashed in Atwater (outside of Merced) on May 23, killing the driver and sparking a massive fire. The investigation of the crash is still ongoing, but the driver appears to have lost control and overturned the tanker while exiting Highway 99 to make a delivery nearby. The load immediately burst into flames, and it’s been reported by some witnesses that the truck was already on fire before the crash.

 

Dramatic, Terrifying Situation

You’ve probably seen some of the photos and video from the crash scene. Huge fireballs billowed above the site and at least two explosions were reported. Workers and customers in nearby businesses fled, describing a wave of fire caused by the gasoline as it spilled down the street. The tanker was left in charred fragments as lampposts and street signs were melted and the road itself was damaged by the blaze. A nearby McDonald’s suffered direct damage from the fire, and at least one other vehicle was burned almost beyond recognition.

This latest trucking crash, along with another fiery truck crash, an overturned load, and a fatal car accident—all in the same week—add to Highway 99’s bad reputation: Last year, one organization declared it to be the most dangerous highway in the United States.

 

Businesses Optimistic for Recovery

Several businesses on the street were forced to close after the crash, but most reopened within two days. Unfortunately, those businesses depend on traffic from the freeway, and a week after the crash that exit remained closed.

The owner of a gas station at that exit estimated business was down by 50 percent, and others might have been doing worse, but they seemed optimistic that things would pick up again, especially if the road is repaired soon. The exit was closed over the busy Memorial Day weekend holiday, which cost many of them still more. CalTrans has not issued an estimate for when the exit will reopen.

 

Investigation Continues

While the driver had a spotless record, the trucking company’s history is not so pristine. Public records show the company has had twenty-one collisions since 2015, including two fatal crashes. The company says it is cooperating with authorities and will not discuss the crash publicly until the investigation has been completed.

Truck safety has been a growing concern in recent years. At the beginning of May, SCPR produced a lengthy story on the growing number—and growing cost—of truck crashes in Southern California. Truck traffic has been increasing, as has the expense of major accidents: Nationally, the total cost of a large truck accident is around $7 million (five times that of the average fatal car crash). While not at record levels, the number of crashes in California has been creeping up steadily.

 

Orange County Truck Accident Lawyer

While the driver was the only fatality and no one else was injured in the Atwater crash, that’s not always the case. In April, a crash and subsequent fire involving a tanker, two other trucks, and at least five other vehicles, left one dead and ten injured on the I-5 near Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

If you’ve been injured in a crash involving a commercial truck, the experienced truck accident law team at  Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys can help. Contact us online today using the form at the bottom of this page or call 949.535.1341 to schedule a free consultation to discuss your case.

May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month in California, and even though it’s coming to a close it’s not too late to stress motorcycle safety. The operators of all vehicles on California’s roads are collectively responsible for everyone’s safety. Whether you drive a motorcycle, a car, an SUV, a big rig, or anything else with wheels and a motor, you should do your part to make the roads safer for everyone, not just motorcycles.

Bikers at High Risk

A few weeks back The Press-Enterprise published a lengthy piece on motorcycle safety and crash statistics in Southern California. The numbers aren’t pretty. Already through the first four months of 2017, eleven people had died in motorcycle crashes just in western Riverside County. Statewide last year, CHP estimates that 476 motorcyclists were killed and more than 14,000 injured in crashes.

While crash statistics consistently show that about half of all motorcycle crashes don’t involve another vehicle, the rest do. That means that others on the road—the drivers of cars, trucks, and other vehicles—cause about half of all fatal motorcycle crashes. But in some ways it doesn’t matter who causes a crash: Motorcyclists suffer injuries at five times the rate of all other drivers per vehicle mile travelled, and they’re killed on the road at a rate twenty-six times higher than that of other motorists.

Safety Month Hasn’t Been Entirely Safe

We always hope that campaigns like California’s Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month will have the intended effect and lead to improvements for everyone, but we often don’t see an immediate effect. By looking at the news coverage in Southern California, you might even think there’s been no effect at all.

Near the beginning of the month, a Palm Desert man who was later charged with DUI committed a hit-and-run crash on two motorcyclists, one of whom was moderately injured. In San Jacinto, a rider was injured when a car made a sudden left turn from a side street into the path of a motorcycle. (That is an all-too-common cause of motorcycle crashes: 42 percent of fatal crashes with another vehicle happened when the other vehicle took a left turn across a motorcyclist’s path.) Only last week, a woman was killed in San Jose when her motorcycle was struck by a driver who ran a red light.

Every incident like this is tragic, but if an awareness campaign like the one CHP sponsors can lead to fewer crashes, it will benefit every driver on our state’s roads. When drivers are more aware of motorcycles, it’s a safe bet that they’re more aware overall, and that’s good for everyone.

Orange County Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

When you’ve been the victim in a motorcycle crash, you need the help of an attorney who understands all the considerations in this type of accident. Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys has worked on many motorcycle accident cases. We understand the causes, the types of injuries, and the other concerns that are important in motorcycle crashes.

Give us a call to schedule a free consultation to discuss your case. Our number is 949.535.1341 or you can contact us online through the form below to have someone reach out to you at your convenience.

All car crashes are potentially expensive in many ways, but Riverside County has recently seen some of the costliest kind, in terms of both the financial impact and the effect on people’s lives. We’re referring to wrong-way crashes, which are especially dangerous because the victims often have little or no warning. There have been two high-profile crashes caused by wrong-way drivers in our area already this year.

Corona Wrong-Way Injures Seven

One happened on the I-91 in Corona around 2:20 a.m. on March 19. A driver entered the eastbound lanes of the highway and drove west for around six miles before colliding head-on with another car. Four other vehicles were also struck. Six other motorists were injured and sent to area hospitals with minor to moderate injuries while the wrong-way driver was reported to have suffered major injuries. That driver is suspected of driving under the influence.

Three Hurt in 215 Wrong-Way Crash

Only one week later, on March 26, police received reports of a vehicle traveling the wrong way on the 215 in Riverside. Before they could respond, that vehicle struck another. The wrong-way driver was seriously injured, and two people in the car that was struck suffered critical injuries and could only be freed from the wreck using the Jaws of Life. It’s not known if drugs or alcohol were a factor in that crash, but the possibility is being investigated.

Ten Miles on the Wrong Side!

It was also in March that another wrong-way driver was arraigned for an incident last November that—fortunately—ended with no injuries. In that case, the driver travelled an astonishing ten miles southbound on the northbound side of the 215, ignoring Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies and CHP officers who tried to get him to stop. He may have briefly reached a speed of 100 mph during the pursuit and only stopped when he encountered construction barriers. He has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence of drugs.

Uncommon, but Deadly

Wrong-way crashes are uncommon, relatively speaking: They make up only about 3 percent of all crashes. But an analysis last year by the Boston Globe collected some disturbing facts about wrong-way crashes. For one thing, they’re as much as twenty-seven times more likely to cause a fatality than other types of crashes. They’re also more likely to happen in off hours (between midnight and 3 a.m., with most on weekends). Perhaps most worrisome of all, the drivers who cause them are more likely than those in other crashes to not be properly licensed, and in fatal crashes alcohol is involved at more than double the rate seen in other kinds of crashes. The statistics are out of date, but a 2012 report from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration found that between 300 and 400 people die each year in this type of crash.

Riverside Car Accident Lawyer

When you’ve been the victim of a crash caused by a wrong-way driver, or by any other careless or negligent driving, you could have serious expenses, from the replacement cost of your vehicle to lost wages and income to steep medical bills and expensive long-term treatment or rehabilitation. Get in touch with a firm with experience in the practice of automobile accident law. Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys has helped many clients recover the damages they’re entitled to. Give us a call today at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below to find out if we can help. The consultation to discuss your case is always free—you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

You probably have a sense that some roads and intersections are more dangerous than others—maybe you go out of your way to avoid a particularly busy intersection, or you stay off some streets because you’re convinced they’re just not safe, either because of some issue with the road itself, or because of the drivers you encounter there. But are some streets themselves more dangerous? According to a number of sources, both strictly measured and unscientific, the answer is “yes!”

 

Danger No Matter How You Slice the Data

Last year, OC Weekly teamed with a local data analysis firm to identify the most dangerous intersections in the county. They mined CHP’s public database of accident reports and came up with a list of the thirteen worst street crossings based on the total number of collisions in the twelve months just passed. Be sure to check out the list as chances are that you know some of these locations. You might even drive through some every day.

Of course, the number of collisions is just one way to measure how dangerous an intersection is. Different criteria can come up with different results. A different analysis by a California law firm using much of the same source data but ranking intersections not only by collisions but also by injuries and fatalities came up with very different results: None of those pegged by OC Weekly even made the top 400 statewide.

Several years ago, The Orange County Register also looked at fatalities, and their list was completely different. There are a lot of reasons why there might be so little overlap, including using different measures at different times, but as a driver (or a pedestrian or a cyclist), it’s helpful to keep in mind that any intersection can be dangerous, so you should always be on your guard.

 

How They Make Us Feel

About a year before their scientific approach, OC Weekly also produced a list based on how their staff felt about different stretches of Orange County road. That was based purely on their personal opinions, and while there’s only a little overlap with the others, that list included photos that make it clear why some of these places are notorious.

One thing is clear, whether it’s the infamously deadly stretch where Santiago Canyon Road, Jamboree, and Chapman come together, or the thirty-four-crossing “Orange Crush” interchange (listed by Guinness as the world’s most complex), Orange County has some dangerous sections of road. In most years, the county sees about one hundred roadway fatalities and many more injuries.

 

Orange County Car Accident Lawyer

You can take every precaution behind the wheel, but even being the safest driver on the road and studying every list of dangerous streets won’t completely protect you. There are millions of other drivers on California’s highways, and hundreds of thousands of intersections—and they can align to cause a crash at any time.

If you‘ve been the victim of a serious crash, turn to Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys. We have extensive experience with automobile accident law, and we offer a free consultation to every new client. Give us a call at 949.535.1341 or contact us online to schedule yours today.

There’s an old joke that “Dog Bites Man” isn’t news but that “Man Bites Dog” is. But we think that’s really getting it wrong: Dog bites have been on the rise in California for more than a decade, and that problem hasn’t gotten the news coverage it deserves. We only hear about dog bites in the most extreme cases, such as the December incident when a former police dog attacked and seriously injured two people in a town north of Los Angeles. One of the victims later died from his injuries.

 

Dog Bite Capital?

A report by the California Department of Public Health in 2014 found that dog bites had gone up sharply in the previous ten years, especially the most recent five years. Related follow-up data in 2015 showed that emergency room visits for dog bites had increased by more than 10 percent since 2010.

In fact, based on insurance claim data, California was the state with the highest dollar amount of claims paid out to settle dog bite injuries in 2013. Dog bites, which are usually settled against homeowner insurance policies, accounted for about one-third of all homeowner insurance payouts that year. By 2014, the average amount to settle a dog bite in California had reached more than $33,000.

 

Serious Injury Potential

Some people may try to shrug off bites by dogs and other animals as not very serious, and in some cases that may be true. But dog bites have the potential to cause extremely serious injury, even death. In a typical year, more than 4.5 million people are attacked and bitten by a dog; close to one in five of those bites becomes infected. Most bites don’t have fatal consequences, but these injuries can leave the victims with problems that last for years.

 

No Perfect Breed, No Typical Attack

While some breeds are portrayed as more dangerous than others, any dog can cause harm. Some small breeds actually bite more often, but the large breeds—because of their size and strength—cause the most serious injuries. Attacks happen in all sorts of circumstances, both on and off the dog owner’s property, with dogs that are properly restrained and with those that aren’t. Some attacks are unprovoked, some are triggered by something a person does. Victims come in all ages and genders, but small children are the most at risk.

Because of this unpredictability, dog owners should always be diligent about keeping their dogs on their property and keeping them properly restrained. Everyone should be careful around dogs, especially unfamiliar animals, and keep out of reach even of restrained dogs. When an animal is seen running loose, it should be reported to the proper authorities to reduce the chance of an incident happening.

 

Orange County Dog Bite Lawyer

If you’ve been bitten or otherwise injured by a dog, it’s important to get experienced help in your corner as you seek to recover damages for your injury. Those injuries and their lingering effects can be severe: a man bitten by a San Diego police dog in 2015, for example, was left with a permanent disability in one leg. It’s vital that your legal team has the ability to get your injuries properly evaluated so that your settlement adequately covers all care, rehabilitation, and other ongoing expenses.

Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys has handled this type of case before and is ready to put our dog bite injury experience to work for you. Give us a call at 949.535.1341 or contact us online today to schedule a free consultation. The LiveChat feature on our website is also available to quickly answer many of your questions.

A still-unexplained bus crash last month left a motorist dead and more than two dozen people injured. Most of those hurt were aboard the bus, but two occupants of another vehicle were also hospitalized after firefighters cut them free from their mangled car. A California Highway Patrol team will continue to investigate the crash.

 

Midday, Dry Road Crash

The February 27 crash happened in Kramer, a small town about a two-hour drive north of Los Angeles. The bus was about halfway through a run from Fresno to Las Vegas when, for reasons still not clear, it drifted out of its lane and struck two cars moving in the opposite direction nearly head-on. Both cars were completely wrecked and one ended on its side. The bus itself, a small charter with twenty-six people on board, rolled and came to rest right-side-up. Nine of the twenty-six people transported to hospitals were reported to be in critical condition.

This happened around noon on a Monday on a relatively remote stretch of state highway, and there has been no word on possible contributing factors. But high winds prevented rescuers from transporting several of the victims by helicopter.

 

Safe but Not Risk-Free

Serious bus crashes are uncommon, but they often play out similarly to the Kramer crash. Although this was a smaller bus (actually a conversion van) and many of the passengers were injured because the vehicle rolled, it’s more common for those who are seriously injured or killed to be in another vehicle in the crash—not the bus.

In 2015, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which monitors the safety of large trucks and buses, recorded 295 fatalities in bus crashes. But most of those (246) were to people who weren’t on a bus—mainly occupants of other vehicles involved in a crash or pedestrians. Although bus passengers, just like passengers using any other mode of transportation, are at risk of injury or death in an accident, buses are a much safer method of travel overall. For regular commuters, the risk of being in a fatal accident is seventeen times greater for those in cars over those in buses, even with the same annual mileage.

 

Memory Still Fresh

It was only five months ago that an even more serious California bus crash grabbed headlines nationwide. Thirteen passengers were killed and thirty-one injured when a tour bus that hadn’t slowed crashed into the rear of a semi-truck in a construction zone near Palm Springs. An official determination of the cause of that crash hasn’t been made, but several of those injured and relatives of some of the deceased have already initiated negligence and wrongful death lawsuits against the bus company.

 

California Bus Accident Lawyer

When you have been harmed in a bus crash, whether as a bus passenger, a pedestrian, or an occupant of another vehicle, you want to be made whole again. It’s important to your recovery to collect damages from the responsible parties to cover your medical bills, lost wages or salary, and any other expenses that result from the accident.

The team at Kohan & Bablove,Injury Attorneys has been settling motor vehicle crash cases, including bus accident cases, for years. Get in touch with us to schedule a free consultation to go over the details of your case. Our phone number is 949.535.1341 or you can contact us online through the form below or by using the LiveChat feature of our website to begin the conversation immediately.

On February 27, 2017, a Cessna 310 carrying five people crashed into a Riverside neighborhood shortly after taking off from Riverside Municipal Airport, on the return leg of a trip from a Disney park cheerleading competition. The plane came down in a residential area, destroying homes on impact. Four of the five people aboard died; one survived with serious injuries. Remarkably, no one on the ground was killed, though at least one resident was home at the time, it was the second small plane crash in that same neighborhood within two years.

Quick answer: After a small plane crash, potential defendants can include the pilot, the aircraft’s owner or operator, and a maintenance provider, but the aircraft manufacturer is often protected from liability once a plane is older than 18 years under a federal law called the General Aviation Revitalization Act, with some important exceptions.

Back in 2016, a California woman rear-ended by a driver who was texting on his iPhone didn’t just sue the driver, she sued Apple, arguing the company had the technology to disable texting while driving and chose not to use it. The case made headlines and raised a question a lot of accident victims still ask: if a phone company could have prevented a crash, can you hold it responsible? Here’s what actually happened to that lawsuit, and what the law says about pursuing a phone manufacturer today.

Quick answer: California courts have consistently rejected claims that a phone manufacturer is legally responsible for a distracted driving accident, because the driver’s choice to use the phone, not the phone itself, is treated as the cause of the crash. The driver, not Apple or any other manufacturer, is who you can hold liable.

Two days before Christmas, a batch of corn masa sold at an Amapola market in Downey turned out to be defective  ruining tamale preparations for families who’d already bought their ingredients, spent hours cooking, and planned their holiday around a meal that never made it to the table. It’s a small story compared to a major national recall, but it raises a question a lot of people never think about until it happens to them: what are your legal rights when a food product itself is the problem, not just how it was cooked or served somewhere else?

Quick answer: If a food product is contaminated, spoiled, or otherwise defective, California law may allow you to recover compensation from the manufacturer, distributor, or retailer  through a product liability claim if you were injured, or a breach of warranty claim if your losses were financial.

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