If you were asked to name the types of crashes that cause the most deaths, you might say head-on collisions. Or, if you know something about traffic statistics, you might expect intersection crashes or left turns to be high on the list, or even single-vehicle crashes off the road.

You might not expect that rollover crashes are still one of the crash configurations with a high number of fatalities each year, but they continue to rank near the top.

Increased Concern

The popularity of SUVs, beginning in the mid-1980s, led to both an increase in rollover crashes and concern about the design of these vehicles. The problem was real: When the US Department of Transportation took a hard look at the data in 2002, they found that rollover deaths had risen 9 percent across the 1990s, despite a decrease in passenger car rollovers. The reason? A more than one-third increase in incidents involving light trucks and SUVs.

Other interesting information was revealed, including that victims in rollovers were noticeably less likely to be wearing seat belts than the average driver. And yes, the data showed that SUVs had a higher chance of rolling when their drivers tried to maneuver before a crash, but that more than half of all drivers in multi-vehicle crashes that included a rollover fatality made no attempt to avoid the crash at all.

Improved but Not Removed

In 2005, more than 10,800 people died in rollovers, about 27 percent of all crash fatalities, and around four in ten of those rollover deaths were in passenger cars (not SUVs). Those numbers have been on a mostly steady (but slow) decline for some time.

By 2014, rollovers accounted for under 19 percent of crash deaths (nearly 7,600), and in 2016, the estimate was below 7,500 total, with tens of thousands more injured. But that was nearly one-third of fatalities that year, while rollovers only made up a few percent of all crashes.

Single- and Multi-Vehicle

It’s true that the majority of rollovers are single-vehicle crashes. But they still happen in crashes with other vehicles. In February, a pickup in Lakewood was left on its roof after causing a crash at an intersection. A day rarely goes by without news of a crash of this type, like the one earlier this month in El Cajon, where a two-vehicle collision left one on its roof.

Orange County Car Accident Lawyer

It doesn’t matter what type of crash you’ve been in, when you’re the victim of someone else’s careless driving, it’s critical that you take all the steps necessary to ensure that you are compensated for all damage and injury caused. Your medical expenses and lost wages need to be recovered—and without the right legal assistance that can be difficult.

Contact the experienced automobile accident attorneys at Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys today at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below to schedule a free consultation to discuss your case. We’ve helped hundreds of clients settle their cases successfully, and we’re ready to help you.

In personal injury claims, victims are sometimes injured so severely that they are unable to work for a long period of time, and sometimes they are never able to return to their old jobs.

Clearly, when an injury is catastrophic the injured party will seek a greater amount of damages—both economic and noneconomic—than when an injury is temporary. And catastrophic injuries often leave both physical and non-physical scars, all of which need to be taken into account when determining the current and future needs of the victim.

What Is a Catastrophic Injury?

Precisely what qualifies as a “catastrophic injury” is a moving target. Current state law doesn’t get into an explicit definition, describing a catastrophic injury only as one “including, but not limited to, loss of a limb, paralysis, severe burn, or severe head injury.” That’s led to some debate over what does and doesn’t qualify as catastrophic, especially when it comes to psychiatric injuries.

The definition in federal law doesn’t provide detailed guidance because it only characterizes an injury by the end result: “an injury that permanently prevent(s) an individual from performing any gainful work.”

But between those definitions and general practice, it’s usually agreed that severe burns, amputations, traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries (including paralysis), major organ damage, and severe broken bones qualify. Incidents that result in serious psychological injury, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, are also usually considered.

Causes of Catastrophic Injury

We might expect that catastrophic injuries only happen in industrial workplaces and a few other settings, but the truth is that they can happen under many circumstances—almost too many to mention.

Work accidents can cause them, of course, but so can car and truck accidents, public transportation crashes, and even situations that don’t seem like they could escalate to that level of severity, such as slip-and-fall accidents, defective product issues, and even dog bites. Most accidents of all kinds don’t reach a catastrophic level, but it can happen.

Orange County Catastrophic Injury Lawyer

The costs related to a catastrophic injury are equally catastrophic. Immediate medical expenses will give way to rehabilitation and long-term care needs. A person affected in this way will often lose all future income as an effect of the injury, and yet living expenses and other needs continue to accumulate.

That’s why when you’ve suffered a catastrophic injury it’s vital that you work with someone who understands how to help. Each situation is different, but the attorneys at Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys have the experience needed to approach every catastrophic injury case effectively.

Give us a call today at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below to schedule a no-cost, no-pressure consultation to discuss your case and learn more.

California is one of many states that allow a driver who has been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) to plead to a lesser charge. One of those lesser charges is “wet reckless” (reckless driving involving alcohol).

Understanding what this charge means and how it works is useful when you’ve been in a crash with a driver previously charged with wet reckless. The existence of this plea on a driver’s record can be meaningful to your own car accident case and settlement.

Why Does Wet Reckless Exist?

Some states don’t allow a DUI charge to be pled down, even on a first offense with no harm caused. California law instead takes the approach that in some situations a compromise works for everyone. In this case, the prosecution can benefit by getting a plea to a lesser charge. They might be concerned that their evidence might not hold up in court, often because the defendant’s blood alcohol level was right around the legal limit.

The defendant who takes the plea admits guilt to an infraction but avoids the more serious DUI charge, which carries fines, license restrictions, jail time, probation, and other potential penalties.

Wet Reckless Restrictions

Being able to make a wet reckless plea is far from automatic and there are important conditions involved—no property damage or injury can have been caused, for one—but it allows a first offender to avoid the more serious DUI charge. While it keeps a DUI charge off the guilty party’s record, the court can place the defendant on probation and require him or her to enroll in an alcohol and drug education program.

Most importantly, the charge and plea stay on the defendant’s record, and if they have an additional DUI offense within ten years, the wet reckless will be converted to a DUI charge, causing the new offense to count as a second DUI with additional penalties.

The rules will be tightening soon, too: Beginning in 2019, the courts will have the option of requiring those convicted of wet reckless to use ignition interlock devices while on probation.

Why Does All This Matter?

If you’ve been the victim of a crash caused by another driver, it’s important to know if the driver has previous convictions—including a wet reckless charge—in their past. The record of offenses, their circumstances, and any previous harm caused by a driver can be important factors in a case; they can affect whether a case goes to trial or is settled, as well as what settlement is reached.

Orange County Car Accident Lawyer

After a car crash has left you injured or with property damage that needs to be repaired, contact the team at Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys. Our experienced automobile accident attorneys know how to approach all kinds of motor vehicle accident cases, regardless of the circumstances, and we’ve helped hundreds of clients recover their medical expenses, lost income, and many other costs that they face after a crash.

We offer each client a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss his or her specific case, so you have nothing to lose. Call us today at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below to learn more.

It’s easy enough for people to understand that the victims of accidents suffer physical injuries, but it’s sometimes not recognized how serious the psychological and emotional damage caused by a traumatic event can be.

The fact is that in the same way that serious injuries can leave a person with long-term or permanent disabilities, some incidents are so disruptive to a person’s life and can be so difficult to face psychologically that they leave a victim with long-term or even permanent problems. These difficulties might only manifest under specific circumstances, or they can afflict a victim in such a way that even facing normal activities is a challenge.

More Common Than Many Realize

Human beings are not frail creatures, but few of us go through life with an unlimited capacity to face hardship and suffering. It’s long been known that shocks and trauma can leave a person in a less steady psychological state, but a better understanding of this kind of psychic injury was only reached in the twentieth century.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was only added to the standard list of psychiatric diagnoses in 1980, despite having been described under other names and studied by medical professionals for more than a century. Reliable estimates now suggest that nearly 8 percent of all adults will suffer PTSD at some point in their lives, with as many as 3.5 percent suffering from it in a given year. PTSD is often what is at issue in an injury claim when pain and suffering is discussed.

No Trivial Diagnosis

PTSD and other emotional injuries should always be taken seriously. The incidents that cause them are not the routine hardships of daily life nor even the serious problems people face at times, such as a divorce, a bankruptcy, or a personal failure on the job. Serious psychological scarring is instead the result of those moments that are “outside the range of usual human experience.”

These are often traumatic and disruptive events, such as violent crimes and sudden physical harm, including unexpected work injuries and accidents or car crashes.

Valid Workers Compensation Condition

In addition to being a reason to claim and receive compensation in a personal injury suit, the State of California has recognized PTSD as a valid form of on-the-job injury, making a harmed worker eligible for benefits required for treatment, for more than two decades. As in the case of any injury, a worker must prove that the condition was the result of events that happened on the job.

Orange County PTSD Lawyer

When you’ve been harmed, it’s important to consider all forms that damage can take, both physical and psychological. If it’s time for you to consider a claim for PTSD, turn to the experienced attorneys at Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys for a free, no-obligation review of your case. Call us at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below to schedule an appointment.

An important part of any lawsuit is specifying the remedy being sought. In a personal injury claim, two of the important factors in every claim are the harm or injury that has been caused and the damages or reparations that are being requested. These two factors go into creating another important part of most personal injury lawsuits: the demand letter.

Important in All Cases

A demand letter (or demand package—in this post the terms are interchangeable) can be important in almost any kind of personal injury case. Whether the claim is centered on a slip-and-fall accident, a dog bite, or a car crash, the demand letter will serve a number of useful functions. For one thing, simply writing the letter will serve to collect all the details of your claim. It forces you, as the potential plaintiff, to specify exactly what wrong you’re seeking to right. The damage done, as well as the circumstances that caused it, will be outlined in your letter. It will also include the amount being sought to correct the harm that was done.

This is an excellent opportunity for you and your attorney to make sure that all your details are correct. Not only do you want to make sure that you can accurately describe what happened, but when you tally up the costs you seek to recover, you may discover that you’ve forgotten something.

Depending on who the letter is intended for, you may also need to include other information. When seeking compensation for an injury, for example, you might need copies of medical reports and receipts from treatment, in addition to those for related expenses such as transportation or a home health aide. This can begin to pile up (which is why calling it a “demand package” can be appropriate).

Why the Demand Letter Matters

A demand letter might seem like a formality, but it shows the other party that you’re serious about your claim. If the other party hasn’t been giving your claim the attention it deserves, the demand letter can be an effective wakeup call: Most cases settle before trial, but legal experts believe that about one-third of all civil disputes move to a settlement simply because of a demand letter.

Don’t Overstep

You’re legally entitled to make a demand for harm done to you, and it’s important to do so. However, California courts have ruled on more than one occasion that a demand letter has overstepped acceptable bounds and become an attempt at extortion. This happens not when a demand threatens legal action (which is often part of the demand process), but when a demand makes other threats that can be viewed as harassment, such as the filing of false criminal charges or the public release of potentially embarrassing materials unrelated to the case. A knowledgeable attorney will make sure that this kind of mistake doesn’t happen with your demand letter.

Orange County Personal Injury Lawyer

The experienced attorneys at Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys have helped hundreds of clients navigate the sometimes complicated waters of personal injury claim filing. If you find yourself in a situation where pursuing a civil suit is a necessary step to correct a harm done to you, give us a call at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below. We offer every client a free, no-obligation consultation to go over the specifics of his or her case and suggest how to move forward.

Are older drivers really a problem? All of our lives we’ve heard stories and jokes about their driving behavior and the problems they cause on the roads. But is this a real concern or just a case of stereotyping and ageism? If you are an older driver (age sixty-five and above), or you’re concerned about them, you want to know the facts. Let’s take a look.

More Seniors, More Accidents

In 2016, the most recent year with full data, the number of drivers sixty-five and older involved in fatal crashes was up 8.2 percent (noticeably more than the 5.6 percent increase in all fatal crashes for the year). The only category with a larger increase was young drivers (under age sixteen).

That increase by itself might not be alarming, but some underlying numbers could be. Over the past ten years, the number of drivers age sixty-five and over has increased by 33 percent, far more than the 7.5 percent overall increase. Drivers in that age category have been involved in a disproportionate increase in fatal crashes over that time period: They’re up 19.9 percent over ten years (they were down for every other age group, and down more than 7 percent overall).

California: Ahead of the Curve

Can you believe that as soon as eight years from now as many as one in four licensed drivers in California will be over the age of sixty-five? That’s a possibility the CHP noted not long ago in a press release announcing a new, free driver safety course for older drivers. The course is touted as a refresher, designed to help seniors evaluate their own abilities and improve their safe driving skills.

It’s too soon to tell if the message will get across. A report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 90 percent of older drivers have not installed any equipment on their vehicles to make them safer and easier to handle. These devices aren’t meant to be simple conveniences but are instead meant to improve vehicle safety while allowing seniors to continue driving as they age.

Safer for Seniors, Safer for Everyone

Older drivers face challenges, but so do all of us, and making driving safer for older drivers can help everyone. Some of the devices AAA looked at (such as extra mirrors to remove blind spots) would help all drivers.

Those who look at traffic safety know this well. Since 1998, the Federal Highway Administration has recognized that the “typical” driver and pedestrian in the twenty-first century are both likely to be sixty-five or over, and it regularly issues a road design handbook that takes this into account (while applying ideas and principles that improve roadway safety for all users).

Orange County Car Accident Lawyer

When you’ve been in a car crash, the most important thing to you isn’t knowing how old the other driver is, but knowing that you’ll be compensated for all repair costs and medical expenses that you face. Regardless of how the crash happened and who was driving, you need an experienced automobile accident attorney to help with your case.

At Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys, we’ve helped hundreds of clients reach the settlements they need to put their lives back on track. Call us today at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation to discuss your case.

You’ve been injured in a car accident in California. The other driver caused the crash. Now what? There’s a lot to understand, think about, and act on, but one thing to remember is that California is a tort or “fault” state when it comes to auto insurance.

You might have heard these terms before, but if you’ve never had to deal with an accident claim, you might not have given them much thought. What do they mean?

Tort (Fault) vs. No-Fault

About one quarter of US states have adopted what is known as a “no-fault” insurance system (California is not one of them). In these states, a system is in place to make sure that most car accident injury claims are handled without the need for lawsuits. The idea behind these systems was to take the burden of these suits out of the courts, to save everyone time and money. No-fault systems also make sure that those with serious injuries receive appropriate compensation.

The rest of the states (including California) still rely on a system that, by default, does nothing when someone is injured in a crash. If a victim wants to recover damages for his or her injuries—medical expenses, lost wages and income, rehabilitation costs, and so on—he or she needs to file a civil lawsuit (a tort) against the person who caused the accident.

What Insurance Is Required?

While California is not a no-fault state, there is still a state requirement that every driver have liability insurance. A driver needs $15,000/$30,000 coverage for death and bodily injury (the separate numbers are for a single victim and multiple victims). A driver also must have at least $5,000 in property damage coverage.

These are minimums, and a driver can carry much more insurance than this. But drivers must meet the minimums: If a driver is caught without insurance, he or she will be fined at least $100 (and it could be more). If lack of insurance is discovered at the scene of an accident, the penalties will be much stiffer: A driver could have his or her vehicle impounded and license suspended with much higher fines.

Who Do You Sue?

Since no action will happen unless you make it happen, you have to sue the driver who hit you. Your insurance company might help, but their interest is usually limited to the amount that driver is insured for.

Your injuries might be much more serious, however, and recovering the true costs associated with them may require a personal injury lawsuit. That’s where an experienced accident attorney comes in. They’ll gather evidence, develop a solid demand letter, and follow through on whatever legal filings need to be made to ensure that your claim has the best chance of succeeding. They’ll deal with the other driver’s insurance company, its investigators, and its experts.

You could do all this yourself, but bringing in an attorney is usually a much better idea. They have experience and expertise that you don’t, but—more importantly—pursuing your claim will be the lawyer’s job while you get on with the other things your life demands.

Orange County Car Accident Lawyer

If you’ve been the victim of a car crash, Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys can help you with the many details involved in your automobile accident case (such as the statute of limitations). Give us a call today at 949.535.1341 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation to discuss your case.

A Lake Elsinore man was killed in a crash while riding his motorcycle earlier this month, reminding us of the hazards bikers face. The early evening crash in Lakeland Village on Friday the 15th also injured one other person. The collision happened on Grand Avenue when the biker crossed into the other lane and into the path of another vehicle. A passenger in that car was hospitalized with minor injuries.

Other Recent Crashes

A crash in Winchester on December 3 took the life of a Temecula motorcyclist and left a party van engulfed in flames, but there were no other injuries (only the van driver was aboard at the time). A crash on December 1 in Temecula left one biker seriously injured.

Another crash, in Moreno Valley and also on December 1, left a resident of that town dead after his motorcycle collided with another vehicle. Few details of that incident were publicized.

California Helmet Safety: Very Good News

Helmet use was not mentioned in any of the reports on these crashes, but California has seen very good compliance with helmet laws. The most recent federal report estimated that about 259 lives were saved each year thanks to helmets, but also noted that, because helmet use is already so high here, only about another eight lives would have been saved with 100 percent compliance.

Helmets aren’t foolproof, but they make crashes more survivable.

Bikers Still at Risk

California’s report for 2014 (the most recent for the state) recorded more than 12,000 bikers injured and 540 killed in traffic incidents that year. Motorcycle operators were determined to be at fault in a little more than half (55 percent) of injury-causing collisions and close to two-thirds (64 percent) of fatal crashes.

It’s not clear why there’s such a discrepancy or why motorcyclists are more often found to be at fault (in an ideal world, you’d expect all drivers to be at fault about half the time).

Bikers remain more vulnerable than other motorists in any case. The data in recent years seems shocking, but it doesn’t lie: Per mile traveled, motorcycle operators are close to five times more likely to be injured in a crash and an astounding twenty-nine times more likely to be in a fatal accident.

Everyone on the road needs to do a better job of looking out for motorcycles, but it’s imperative that bikers are extra aware of their situation to avoid potential crashes.

Riverside Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Motorcyclists are frequent accident victims, but just like other motorists, they sometimes cause crashes, too. As an experienced motorcycle accident law firm, Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys can help you with either type of case. We put the victim first and do everything possible to make sure you’ll receive the compensation you need to get your life moving again.

Give us a call today at 949.535.1341 or fill out the form below to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation to discuss your case.

It’s been a bad stretch for motor vehicle collisions with pedestrians in Orange County recently. There have been several high-profile incidents already this month, and with December usually ranked as one of the worst months for pedestrian crashes, we’re bound to see more before the new year.

Pedestrians are advised to be extra cautious at this time of year, and drivers—who, after all, are behind the wheels of the most dangerous element of the collision equation—are urged to be more alert than usual during the winter months.

Different Circumstances, Similar Results

The first crash happened in Huntington Beach on the 7th. A man who was walking in one of the northbound lanes of Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) near Seapoint Street was struck and killed around 5:30 in the morning. The driver who struck him stayed at the scene, and part of highway was closed for more than four hours.

The following evening, just a few miles farther north on PCH, a woman was struck and hospitalized in serious condition at First Street in Seal Beach. That driver also stayed on the scene.

Just a couple of hours earlier in Garden Grove, a seventy-one-year-old man was struck as he crossed Brookhurst Street near Bixby Ave. That victim, unfortunately, died at the scene. The driver in that collision also stayed on the scene.

The fact that all three of these drivers stayed on the scene is unusual but a welcome change, considering that, in recent years, California has had a big problem with hit-and-run drivers.

Seasonal Increase in Risk

In 2015, Orange County ranked a better-than-average forty-fourth among California counties in pedestrian injuries and fatalities, with 938 total incidents. Statewide, California saw 742 pedestrian deaths that year.

But those incidents aren’t evenly distributed from month to month. The shorter daylight hours at this time of year always bring more danger: During the winter months (December, January, and February), nearly two-thirds of all pedestrian fatalities occur between 3 p.m. and midnight. In fact, two of the three incidents mentioned above were in that time window.

Orange County Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

Despite the best intentions of ambitious programs like Road to Zero, pedestrian traffic fatalities are likely to be a concern well into the future. When you find yourself the victim of a car crash, whether as a motorist or a pedestrian, it’s important to work with a firm with years of experience helping clients secure fair compensation.

Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys offers every client a free consultation. Give us a call at 949.535.1341 or fill out the online contact form below to schedule yours today.

Every member of the girls’ junior varsity basketball team from the Newport Christian School in Newport Beach was reportedly injured when their van failed to stop in traffic and rear-ended another vehicle, ultimately becoming part of a five-vehicle crash.

The November 16 crash on the 91 Freeway in Riverside, near the Adams Street exit, left all eastbound lanes closed for nearly an hour in the early afternoon. The road was partially reopened at that point, and the crash was completely cleared within two hours, although delays lingered.

Thirteen people, including all eleven girls on the team, were taken to area hospitals. The most seriously injured victim was said to have a broken bone. At least one driver of another vehicle involved in the crash was among those taken for medical treatment.

Bus Crashes a Daily Occurrence

Buses, including school buses and vans used to transport students, are involved in a lot more crashes than you might suspect. In 2015, there were about 53,000 crashes resulting in property damage, about 15,000 crashes with an injury, and 257 crashes that led to a fatal injury. Only 295 people died in bus crashes that year, compared to a total of more than 35,000 in all motor vehicle crashes.

The good news for bus passengers, but not for the pedestrians and other motorists involved in bus crashes, is that the majority of victims in those fatal bus crashes (246 of 295, or more than 83 percent) were outside a bus and not passengers on one. Even when an occupant of a bus is a victim, it’s more likely to be a bus driver than a passenger.

School Bus Crash Risk Low

School bus crashes are infrequent events, although they still happen. Historically, they account for less than 0.5 percent of all crashes and an even smaller portion of all traffic fatalities. It’s still not difficult to find examples, though, and we’ve seen a few recently that not only involved buses but affected other school sports teams.

A bus crash in Missouri in September claimed the life of a middle school running coach, while in October three people on a bus carrying a high school football team were injured when another vehicle crossed the median. (The driver of the other vehicle died in that collision.) The players from Newport Beach were fortunate that the end result of their crash was not so bad, although more vehicles were involved.

Orange County Bus Accident Lawyer

When you’ve been the victim in a motor vehicle accident of any kind, including a bus crash, call on the experienced team at Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys. We understand all the potential complications in this kind of case and have helped many clients settle their cases with those who caused them harm.

We also offer a free, no-obligation consultation to all new clients to discuss the details of their injuries. Give us a call today at 949.535.1341 or fill out the form below to learn more or schedule an appointment.