Oakland Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

It was recently announced that AC Transit has agreed to pay a woman $10.5 million in settlement of a personal injury claim arising out of a bus accident. Such eye popping numbers often raise eyebrows and questions about our legal system. In my experience as an Oakland personal injury lawyer, I have found that when large numbers like this are paid out, there are usually very serious and permanent injuries involved. This case was no exception.

In 2008, 23 year old Abby Nicols was crossing the street in a crosswalk, with the green light facing her. An AC transit bus driver took a right turn from an adjacent street and struck her in the crosswalk. Abby was trapped under the bus for fifteen minutes before she could be extracted by emergency personnel. She suffered a crushed hip, and multiple fractures of her pelvis and femur. She suffered permanent nerve damage. This twenty three year old woman will require lifetime medical care for these injuries, including future surgeries. In short, her life will never be the same. In addition to compensation for these tremendous physical injuries, she was awarded compensation for all of her past and future medical bills, and her past and future loss of earnings and earning capacity.

You can see that although 10.5 million dollars is a lot of money, it is not an unreasonable amount considering the life altering effect these injuries had on the young woman. Indeed, there is no question in my mind, that she would rather have not been hit than receive the large personal injury settlement for this bus accident.

Bus companies are often public entities and usually are not easy to deal with. As an Oakland bus accident lawyer, I have had to represent many clients against AC Transit and other transit lines, such as the San Francisco Muni. One thing clients do not realize is that since these bus lines are public entities, special procedures must be taken.

Normally, in a personal injury claim, an injured person has two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. However, when a person is making a claim against a public entity, such as AC Transit, you must file a government claim within six months of the date of the injury. If a claim is not filed within six months, the person will lose their right to sue (subject to some very limited exceptions).

The government claim must describe who was injured, how the injury occurred, the factual and legal basis for the claim, the types of damages sought, and the identity of responsible parties. If a claim is not properly filled out, a party will lose the right to purse that particular theory of recovery. Therefore, it is important to have well qualified legal counsel prepare the claim to assure that all possible theories of recovery are alleged in the claim.

Usually, these government claims are rejected by the public entity responsible for the injury. After the rejection of the claim, the injured person has six months from the date of the rejection of the claim to file a lawsuit. If the lawsuit is not filed within this time frame, the lawsuit will be thrown out of court.
As you can see, government claims procedures are quite complicated. If you are injured in a bus accident, or any type of accident where a public entity is responsible, you should consult with a lawyer well trained in government claims to make sure your rights are protected. For more information, see "Six Things You Should Know if You Want to Sue the Government in California."

Resources:

AC Transit agrees to $10.5 M settlement in crash, San Jose Mercury News, September 13, 2011

Two years ago, Thomas Avery, a Northern California man in a wheelchair was being hoisted onto a paratransit bus when the hoist broke. As a result, the man fell backwards falling six feet and causing him to hit his head. This bus accident caused him severe brain damage.

Investigation after the accident showed that bolts on the lift were either missing or loose. Mr. Adams sued the City of Roseville and the transit company, MV Transportation, for the damages resulting from traumatic his brain injury. A jury recently found the City and the transportation company liable for negligence and awarded the man $6.4 million dollars in compensatory damages.

Bus companies are considered common carriers. Under California law bus drivers and operators are required to use the highest degree of care in transporting their passengers (Civil Code section 2100) Thus, a bus company is liable for even the slightest degree of negligence. Additionally, a bus company or any common carrier, must provide vehicles which are safe and fit for the purposes to which they are put (Civil Code section 2101). In this case, the jury found that the transportation company was 83 per cent responsible and the city of Roseville was 17 percent responsible for this traumatic brain injury.

As an Oakland personal injury lawyer, I understand how persons suffering from disabilities must rely upon public transportation. It's a crime when people such Mr. Adams depend on the bus company to maintain their buses in a safe condition, and the company fails him. In this case, the failure led to catastrophic injuries which will permanently affect the quality of this young man's life.

Resources:

Washington Post, Judgment Against Transit Company, October 13, 2010

cbs13.com, Quadriplegic Man Wins $6M Suit Against Roseville, October 12, 2010

Recently, there was a tragic fatal accident involving a bicyclist in Oakland. According to the newspaper accounts, a bicyclist was passing a parked car on MacArthur St. As he passed the parked car, the driver of the car opened his door causing the cyclist to strike the door. The impact caused the cyclist to be thrown into oncoming traffic and as a result he was struck by a AC Transit bus and killed.

There are two things that we can learn from this tragedy. First, as drivers, we have the legal responsibility to make sure there is no oncoming traffic before opening a car door. If we don't and we cause a collision, we are legally responsible for the collision. Therefore, we should look carefully before opening the door, and should open the door slowly and continue to look to make sure that we have not overlooked an approaching cyclist or other vehicle.

As cyclists, the law places us in a predicament. The law requires us to drive as far to the right side of the road as practical (except where to avoid parked cars). So we must drive to the right, but pull out into traffic to go around parked vehicles. This can be dangerous as going from the far right into traffic can also cause collisions. As a practical safety matter it is best to drive well to the left of parked cars, to avoid opened doors, and remain in that same line of travel.

Unfortunately, as a Oakland personal injury lawyer and an avid cyclist myself, I have seen first hand many such tragedies which could have been avoided.

Resource:

Bicyclist dies in collision with AC Transit bus, SFGate.com, May 20, 2010