Southern California Injury Law Blog

Knott’s Berry farms’ Xcelerator ride will be shut down until further notice while investigators try to figure out what caused a cable to snap and injure two people on the ride.

Orange County Fire Authority paramedics arrived immediately on the scene Wednesday when the accident occurred. There were 9 people on the ride at the time but fortunately only two were injured; a twelve year old boy was treated for a leg laceration and the other person complained of back pain. The two injured were taken to nearby hospitals but were expected to be released soon.

All rides at Knott’s Berry Farm, including Xcelerator, are inspected daily. The cable in question was replaced last December and according to the cable’s manufacturer is supposed to be good for one year. The ride has a drop of 205 feet and reaches a top speed of 82mph.

It is unusual to have a failure for an unexplained reason. In serious accident cases, an investigation by an Orange County personal injury attorney usually is a necessary, as company investigations may not be thoroughly neutral and unbiased. Have you or a loved one been injured at an amusement park? Call a California injury lawyer to decide what to do in your individual case. Jim Ballidis at Allen, Flatt, Ballidis and Leslie always offers a free consultation.

The chilling 911 call is difficult to listen to when you understand what is happening to this Southern California family. The last words spoken were “Hold on and pray” as the Lexus they were driving in was accelerating out of control and they had no way to stop it.

Mark Saylor and his family were driving a loaner Lexus sedan while his own was in the shop. As they were all riding in the San Diego suburb of Santee, for some unknown reason, the accelerator began to stick causing the car to gather speed upwards of 120 mph. According to Sheriffs’ witnesses, the driver then hit another car traveling through the major intersection, then ran over a curb and through a fence before exploding upon impact.

A preliminary report has found that a recalled floor mat may be the culprit in this tragic accident. The all-weather floor mats were originally designed for Lexus vehicles for model years 2004 through 2009. The mats were recalled in 2007 after they were found to slide too far forward and trap the gas pedal; causing the driver to possibly lose control of the car’s acceleration.

Toyota USA sent out letters to all Lexus owners at the time the recall was announced but it is unclear which type of mats this loaner car had.

If you have been in a auto accident due to a defective product, you (or a family member) need to call an experienced California product liability lawyer immediately. Jim Ballidis, senior attorney at Allen, Flatt, Ballidis and Leslie has been serving the Orange County community since 1975. Call us anytime at 1 888 752-7474.

An ongoing police investigation following an injury accident in Orange County needs your help.
September 11, in the morning, shortly after 7 a.m., a Dodge minivan was traveling northbound on Bear Street at Segestrom Avenue when it collided with a white Oldsmobile. The minivan rolled on its side and then trapped both the passenger and the driver. The driver and his passenger had to be rescued by Santa Ana firefighters and were treated by the paramedics.

The driver of the Oldsmobile fled immediately after the injury accident on foot and has not been seen. The police need your help if you witnessed any part of this accident because they are still determining who was at fault during this collision. Contact the Orange County Register at 714-704-3709 if you have any further information.

If you have been injured in an auto accident, you need a auto accident hit and run injury attorney to assist you. Contact the office of Allen, Flatt, Ballidis and Leslie for a free consultation, 1 888 752-7474.

Aqua-Leisure Industries has voluntarily recalled it baby float products upon immediate recommendation from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Several baby floats have been found to have seats and straps that tear, causing babies and small children to fall into or under the water. There have been 31 incidents to date and fortunately no deaths. Float devices include the names, “Deluxe Baby Boat”, “Baby and Me Combo”, and many animal-shaped flotation devices. For a full list of products and corresponding pictures, please visit www.cpsc.gov.

The flotation products were sold at stores such as Target, Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart, Dollar, Ace Hardware and Walgreen’s from December 2002 through June 2009. Although the recall does not include all of Aqua-Leisure’s products, it’s a good idea to inspect any flotation device when it comes to the safety of your children in a pool or lake. These straps can break without warning and create a major risk of drowning.

If you know someone who has been injured in an accident through a product defect, you need to speak with a California personal injury attorney before the statute of limitations has expired. Allen, Flatt, Ballidis and Leslie have served the community of Orange County since 1974. Call us at 1 888 752-7474 anytime for a free consultation..

Imagine going to your local daycare to pick up your child, only to find out he or she is “missing”. That’s what happened to Rosie Mendez in August when she went to pick up her 2 year old son. No one from the daycare or police notified her that her son had been missing for over two hours.

Her son Eric had been attending the YMCA’s Children’s Station daycare in central Orange County. Although the attendants at the daycare are not sure when it happened, somehow the two toddlers escaped from the grounds through a broken fence and were discovered missing during a routine headcount around 3pm. They were only discovered when neighbors saw two toddlers playing on the railroad tracks used by Metrolink. Police came and picked them up but still didn’t know where the children were from. They drove around until they spotted the daycare and assumed the kids had wandered away from the facility.

California state regulators are now investigating the daycare for any violations. This facility should be thankful that nothing tragic happened to these two toddlers, although Metrolink trains run every 30 minutes through this area of Anaheim.

Know your daycare facility, check for violations and make sure that you know their emergency procedures. This situation can happen all too frequently. As a father and a California personal injury attorney, I really cannot excuse the failure to notify the parents. Once the children were missing, an immediate call should have been made. I would want to know and help with the search, as I suspect you would too.

Orange County Fire Authority was called to a multi-vehicle crash in August to free people trapped in their cars. The accident occurred at the intersection of Katella Avenue and Los Alamitos Boulevard in the city of Los Alamitos. The intersection was closed to both South and Westbound traffic while the clean-up occurred.

Vehicles involved in the accident include a big rig truck, a white Toyota RAV 4 and another unidentified automobile. The truck driver appeared to not have been injured but the other two vehicles had numerous major spinal injuries. The injured were taken to nearby hospitals. It is unknown how many people were actually trapped but rescuers did have to cut through the wreckage to save people.

If you have been injured in an accident involving a truck, you need a California truck accident lawyer that is skilled in this area of the law. Contact Jim Ballidis, an expert California personal injury attorney serving the Orange County area since 1975. call us at 1 888 752-7474 for any personal injury need you may have.

There have been two vicious pit bull attacks in the last two weeks here in Orange County and other similar attacks throughout California this past summer. Is it the heat, the breed or have these dog owners been fooled in thinking these dogs are really good pets?

In the most recent case a three year old was mauled by her family’s pit bull in her own backyard. She is still in the hospital recovering from puncture wounds to her face and neck and several other lacerations. This young girl from the Orange County community of Fullerton was left to play alone in the backyard with the dog. In most cases, the owners always emphatically state, “this dog has never shown aggression before”. We have heard such statements in our cases before as a dog bite specialist.

In another vicious attack, in Dana Point Harbor, two dog owners were walking their dogs when the pit bull attacked and killed a terrier. Animal control declared the pit bull a "vicious animal" according to statute and the owner ultimately surrendered the dog to be euthanized.

California state law is clear that if you own a dog, you are responsible for its behavior. If you have been the victim of a dog attack, don’t hesitate to call a California dog bit attorney.

Cell phones produce heat, as anyone who has been on the phone can attest, after a few minutes. Heat has been known to cause destruction of cell membranes and was thought to increase the possibility of brain tumors. However, less visible is the electromagnetic radiation from a cell phone. There has been wide speculation that this radiation may also cause injury to the brain and or several types of cancer. In a call to action, many studies were orchestrated over the last 8 years and, like global warming and the debate about tobacco in the 60's, it is not surprising that there is disagreement.

A number of Independent studies have concluded there is a higher risk of brain cancer in users of cell phones, particularly in young users less than 18 years of age and in those that use a phone for more than 10 years. Some studies have estimated the risk as high as 240%. Now do I have your attention. Cell phone industry sponsored studies have naturally declared such conclusions groundless. Who is right!

As a California personal injury attorney of 25 years, I have seen the willingness of large industry to slant the truth about safety for profit. Tobacco was the recent Goliath to fall, but car manufacturers, crib manufacturers, and a slew of other products I have written about over the last few years, demonstrates that manufacturer studies are not to be trusted as reliable.

In response to growing global fear the increased risk of cancer might be true, a huge undertaking was initiated to do a global, multiple country assessment of these risks. Four years ago the data was finally compiled, but to date, no report has been issued. It is suspected that the researchers have significant disagreement about the results and conclusions to publish. It would be silly to think politics and economic influences are not also in play in such a serious and large effort.

A group of researchers has now come out with a report, "Cell Phones And Brain Tumors. 15 Reasons For Concern." In this report, they point to the lack of conclusions in the most recent global phone study as evidence of concern, refute many corporate studies with other study comparisons and give 15 grounds for you and I to be concerned about cell phone use and brain tumors. I would recommend you read the report yourself, and see if you are not persuaded cancer from cell phone use is a real and dangerous concern. Just the list of researchers that support the paper is worth a look, and comprises 45 scientists and 7 organizations from many countries.

Cell phone use is like smoking of the 60's, everyone was dong it, and we relied on the government and big business to protect us. This may simply not be a viable in this age. I am thinking for myself and I encourage you to do the same.

Oh and by the way, if you are thinking this might be a great lawsuit next week if you develop brain cancer, think again. The laws in federal court require that at least there be an accepted scientific community consensus that your cancer was caused by phone radiation. We do not have that consencus now, and the skeptic in me supposes that the cell phone industry would like to keep it that way for many years to come.

James Ballidis is a California personal products liability attorney in Newport Beach California.

In a dynamic story released yesterday in the LA times, a lawyer employed as legal counsel for Toyota, disclosed that Toyota had destroyed evidence that would be harmful in the defense of roll over cases. Toyota claims that the story is nothing more than ramblings of a disgruntled employee. What is alarming is that this "disgruntled" employee received a huge severance package, over 3 million dollars when he left. Furthermore, as an attorney, he will lose his legal license, if he cannot prove or substantiate his claims. Does this sound like a disgruntled employee, or a person with a conscious that is coming forward after all these years.

Rollover cases cause great and disastrous injury, and on many occasions wrongful death. For those that may think that rollover claims provide a windfall to attorneys and claimants, think again. Many cases take years to litigate. Many are lost because there is no way to prove the manufacturer knew of the defects before the accident occurred. In some cases, even if the company knew of the design defect, they argue that the defect was not the cause of a particular accident. The fight over what evidence exists and what is released to claimants and their attorneys during litigation is always protracted.

Some cases require $200-300,000 in expert fees to analyse the accident and vehicle. Black box technology is a closely guarded secret of manufacturers, so the claimants are many times completely reliant on the manufacturer's honesty and word that the data taken from the black boxes is accurate.

Unlike an airline crash, the black box data is not analyzed by independent investigators. You can see why Toyota and other manufactures do not want to turn over all evidence they may uncover, fearful that they may have more claims, when it is disclosed that the company knew and refused to change dangerously designed vehicles.

Add that California does not punish car manufacturers for destruction of evidence, and you have a no risk opportunity for the company to literally "try to get away with murder." I suspect when the dust settles, lots of "new" evidence will be uncovered, further underlining the lessons of this decade; corporations cannot be trusted to act ethically and without oversight.