Southern California Injury Law Blog

Orange County residents had more to fear last Halloween weekend than scary costumes and haunted houses after five pedestrians and bicyclists were struck and killed in less than forty-eight hours. One accident in Santa Ana left locals especially horrified: on Halloween night a speeding driver struck three teenage trick-or-treaters and fled the scene, leaving them to die in the street. Once authorities apprehended the driver they discovered that he had been driving on a suspended license from an August conviction for hit-and-run and DUI and that he had an extensive criminal record.

How Common Is Hit-and-Run in Orange County?

Although we hear about hit-and-run accidents in the news somewhat frequently, Orange County ranks just below average for its incidence of such collisions, placing 22nd in a comparison of 58 counties in a California Office of Traffic Safety ranking system in which 1st place is considered the worst. Hit-and-run was a factor in 935 of the crashes that resulted in injury or death in the county that year. Compare this to Los Angeles County, which ranked the 2nd worst for hit-and-run and where it was a factor in 5,893 crashes.

We’ve been writing a lot about Uber lately-and not good things. First we told you about drivers attacking and attempting to sexually assault passengers in San Francisco and Los Angeles; and then we shared that authorities in both of these cities were targeting Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing companies for misleading customers about how thoroughly they were conducting criminal background and driving record checks on their drivers. Now there are two more reasons not to use Uber: its drivers are still sketchy and so is its surge-pricing strategy.

Uber Driver Reportedly Kidnapped Passenger

SFGate reported today that a woman requested an Uber car to drive her home from a party but was instead taken almost 20 miles out of her way to a dark, empty parking lot. It was the middle of the night, and, when she tried to exit the vehicle, the driver locked the doors. He finally relented and took her home after she began screaming and causing a commotion. When the woman reported the terrifying incident to Uber, the ride-sharing company sent her an email apologizing for the ‘inefficient route.’ Uber responded that its “driver called 911 to ask for assistance with an intoxicated rider who requested an extended trip,” that night. Despite this contradictory information, the company has refunded the woman for the ride.

English: A car with a parking ticket in Tel Aviv (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have you ever spent a seeming eternity circling city blocks looking for parking and then, once you’ve finally found a free spot, been baffled by signage giving you conflicting information as to whether or not you can even park there? We’ve all been there, right? Well, thanks to the efforts of some City Council members, Los Angeles parking conditions could improve soon.

Yesterday, City Council members asked transportation officials to approve two programs that could ease Los Angeles parking conditions by providing drivers with less confusing signs and prohibiting the use of mobile apps to auction off metered parking spots for profit, reported the Los Angeles Times. A local graphic artist has created a grid-like format for the new signs that divides parking restrictions by day and hour and uses green and red time blocks to indicate when it’s permissible to park. The Department of Transportation will test the new design out over the next 45 days prior to issuing its approval. The Times did not indicate when a decision on the ban on selling public parking places would be made.

Los Angeles Times Building, downtown Los Angeles (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Catching a cab can be challenging, costly, and sometimes an all-around bad experience if the driver is rude. For years, that was our only option. Getting a lift in a stranger’s car was, understandably, considered dangerous and out of the question-if we recall correctly, it even had a name: hitchhiking. Technology has brought us a long way, though, and now ride sharing services are so pervasive we’re often finding ourselves accidently hopping into the first Prius we see thinking it’s our Lyft driver. Unfortunately, despite assurances of thorough criminal background checks from these companies, their drivers’ records may not be as clean as they’ve led us to believe.

Ride Sharing Companies Under Fire for Misleading Customers