San Francisco Injury Lawyer Blog

A Reminder: Santa Rosa Renters, Like All California Tenants, Have Rights Regardless of Housing Shortages

February 20, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

For quite some time, the local and national press has been bringing attention to the San Francisco housing shortage. It is important to remember, however, that this is not a problem limited to San Francisco. The problem stretches across Northern California and includes a shortage of affordable housing in Santa Rosa. It is important that renters remember that, shortage aside, they do have rights and should not be afraid to speak up about an abusive landlord or unfit dwelling. Our Santa Rosa tenants’ lawyer is committed to protecting renters and ensuring units are both affordable and fit to be called “home.”

Prospective Renters Camp Out to Apply for New Santa Rosa Apartment Building

A story in this week’s Press Democrat brings attention to the Sonoma County affordable housing shortage. The piece reported on would-be tenants camping out for up to two nights in hopes of applying to live in a new complex set to open in May at the intersection of Petaluma Hill and Kawana Springs roads in southeast Santa Rosa. Management personnel said they’d never seen anything like the campers before with a prospective renter reporting that people can spend years on waiting lists to get into an affordable rental property.

Oakland Injury Attorney Examines the Threat of Rental Truck Accidents

February 18, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Whether it is to facilitate a do-it-yourself move, to haul equipment for a landscaping project, or for some other transport need, many of us will rent a truck at some point in our lives. Rental companies often tout the ease of driving these vehicles, assuring prospective customers that they can handle the task of driving even if the largest vehicle they’ve piloted in the past is a mini-van or SUV. Still, renters and everyone else on the road are relying on the rental company to provide a safe vehicle. Rental truck accidents happen for a range of reasons. In today’s post, our Oakland rental truck accident lawyer explores these accidents, specifically the dangers that negligent upkeep or other vehicle-related problems pose to all travelers.

Rental Truck Accident in San Jose Early Tuesday morning, according to a report in the Oakland Tribune, a rental truck accident halted traffic on Highway 101 South between Brokaw Road and First Street in San Jose for one hour. CHP Officer Ross Lee told reporters that a rental truck swerved off the road onto the right shoulder and plowed into a chain-link fence. With the fence wrapped around the driveline and rear axle, the truck proceeded to head left, driving through a guardrail and crossing all four lanes of traffic with the fence in tow. Luckily, the driver was not injured and, likely thanks to the early hour, no other vehicles were involved. The cause of the incident remained undetermined at the time of the report, although the CHP noted they did not suspect drug or alcohol use.

Report Examines Rental Truck Safety Following Fatal Accident The accident in San Jose could have had a much more tragic ending, a truth brought home by a November 2011 report in the Hartford Courant. The report followed a crash in which a rental truck driven by a Yale student hauling beer kegs to a football tailgate plowed into a group of pedestrians killing one woman and injuring two others. Although the article preceded an investigation, the author suggests the accident would likely add to the controversy over rental truck policies nationwide, policies that put untrained drivers at the helm of 5-ton vehicles despite few maintenance requirements.

California Legislature Eyes Adult Bicycle Helmet Requirement

February 17, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

At the Brod Law Firm, we are strong supporters of Northern California’s bicycle riders. Attorney Greg Brod is a member of both the San Francisco and Marin County Bicycle Coalitions and our team has San Francisco bicycle injury law firm helped many injured riders recover compensation from those who put them at undue risk. While we are dedicated to pursuing those whose negligent decisions harm (or even kill) riders, we also urge riders to make every effort to keep themselves safe in the event of a crash. One step every rider should take is wearing a bicycle helmet for every two-wheeled trip.

Riders Split Over Helmet Requirement for Adult Bicycle Riders

This weekend’s San Francisco Chronicle reported on a conflict among California riders regarding a potential change in the state’s helmet laws. Currently the law requires minors to wear bicycle helmets but State Senator Carol Liu has introduced a bill that would require adult riders to don a helmet or face a $25 fine. If approved, the legislation would make California the first state to require helmet use by riders over age 18. The pending bill would also require the use of reflective clothing at night.

Behind the Statistics: Drunk Driving Victims and Perpetrators

February 13, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 10,322 people died in alcohol-related crashes in 2012. This means that nearly 30 people die every single day in the U.S. in crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver, one life lost every 51 minutes. As a drunk driving crash law firm in Santa Rosa, we never forget that there are real people behind every statistic. The impact of drunk driving is very real.

On occasion, we like to use this forum to look at specific stories of drunk driving’s impact. Since our practice focuses on the victim, we often highlight stories that help readers appreciate the real people behind these numbers. Our goal in doing so is to remind readers that there are real faces behind the numbers and hopefully make people think twice before stepping behind the wheel.

A Young Family Forever Changed by a Drunk Driver

Cell Phones & Car Crashes: An Underreported Safety Threat

February 11, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Almost any driver would tell you that cell phones are a factor in countless car crashes. Yet, the same driver might insist he or she is the exception, that s/he has the skills needed to pilot a car safely while using a cell phone, maybe even while texting. Science and crash studies, many cited previously on our Oakland distracted driving law firm’s blog, prove this is simply not the case. While there is a lot of data on the subject, pinpointing the total number of cell phone crashes has proved an elusive goal for reasons explored in today’s post.

Investigators Eye Cell Phone Use in Jenner Crash

Olympian turned reality star Bruce Jenner was involved in a deadly highway crash in Malibu last Saturday that, per the Oakland Tribune, killed one and injured seven. Police are now asking all drivers involved in the multi-vehicle accident to voluntarily turn over their cell phones so that investigators can review call and text data. Even with the phones, Sgt. Brooks of the LAPD notes it can be hard to tell if a driver was texting at the precise moment of the collision. Among other things, authorities will look for a series of texts that span the accident window to determine if cell phone use was a factor in the accident.

A Bedbug Primer for California Renters

February 10, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Many of us recall being tucked in to be at night as children with a teasing parent saying “Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite!” Thankfully for many of us bedbugs were just the stuff of nursery rhymes like cradles in treetops. In recent years, however, bedbug infestations have become all too real for more and more Americans. The pests strike across class lines and have been found in the fanciest hotels and the most rundown apartment complexes. When an outbreak is caused or extended by a landlord’s refusal to properly address the problem, our Northern California bedbug lawyer is ready and able to help.

Bedbugs: The Pest, The Impact, The Response

The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), the Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all agree that bedbugs are a public health pest. The EPA’s website includes a series of pages titled: “Bed Bugs: Get Them Out and Keep Them Out.” Adults are about the size of an apple seed with a flat oval-shaped body that balloons after a feeding and a “musty-sweetish” odor. Young bugs are translucent and can be tough to spot if not recently fed, while bed bug eggs are only the size of a pinhead and pearl-white, with an eye spot.

Fire Injury and California Landlord/Tenant Law

February 6, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

We learn about fire safety from a young age, but it is knowledge none of us ever expect to need. Imagine how frightening it would be to face a significant fire in your home. Imagine how much that fear would escalate if safety devices malfunctioned, leaving you trapped by a fire that grew while a smoke alarm stayed silent or unable to escape because a fire exit was blocked or otherwise inaccessible. This scenario is all too real and far too common. Our San Francisco tenant’s fire injury attorney helps when rental unit fires stem from a landlord’s failure to maintain a safe living environment.

Mission District Apartment Fire Kills One and Injures Six

Fire fears became a reality for residents of one Mission District building last week. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a fire broke out at a three-story multi-use building at 22nd and Mission around 6:45 PM on January 29. The four-alarm blaze killed one resident and injured six people, including a firefighter. It left 54 people homeless and also caused damage to retail and office spaces. Investigators have yet to pinpoint a cause, although the building’s owner suggested a faulty microwave sparked the fire.

Protecting the Right to Privacy in California’s Civil Courts

February 4, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

We have come to expect a certain level of privacy in our lives. This includes simple things like expecting people to respect a closed bathroom door and much more complex matters like the protection of electronic health records. With technology changing at a rapid pace, our understanding of individual privacy is changing too. The law is also evolving and, as Northern California privacy rights attorney Greg Brod knows, under some circumstances a violation of an individual’s right to privacy can give rise to a civil claim under California law.

Richmond Man Faces Criminal and Civil Charges for Allegedly Stealing Racy Cell Phone Pictures

One Richmond man is facing both criminal and civil claims involving the alleged theft of racy photos from a woman’s cell phone. According to The Oakland Tribune, Jose Robert Miranda was working at a Radio Shack in Corte Madera when a 28 year old woman brought her phone to the store to have the screen repaired. The woman says that at some point after that visit she was deleting photos from her tablet, which was connected to the phone, when she noticed that 17 pictures had been sent to an unfamiliar number. The photos involved were private pictures of the woman in little or no clothing. Central Marin Police determined that Miranda had serviced the phone at Radio Shack. According to police, Miranda essentially admitted to stealing the photos and sending them to his own device.

Aviation Accidents: Statistics & Causes

February 3, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Some people will tell you that luck comes in threes; stub your toe, trip over your kid’s skateboard, and you best be on high alert. While we can’t vouch for that particular sentiment, it does seem like there have been a number of serious airplane accidents in the recent past, many of which we’ve discussed in these pages. This prompts our San Francisco airplane accident attorney to take a look at the numbers.

Pilot Locked Out of Cockpit on Delta Flight

Before getting to the stats, there’s one particular incident that made headlines not for the outcome but for the seeming absurdity of its situation. On Thursday, as Good Morning America reported, a Delta Air Lines plane travelling from Minneapolis to Las Vegas made an emergency landing after the pilot became locked out of the MD-90’s cockpit. Apparently, the pilot had left the cockpit to use the restroom but the door malfunction when he tried to return to the helm. A piece of string was later deemed the culprit. Passengers say the pilot calmly explained the situation to all onboard. The First Officer successfully landed the plane to a round of applause. Not one of the 168 people on board suffered injury. The successful resolution turned what could have been a tragedy into an amusing anecdote. The crew did alert the tower and there were ground crews ready to help had a problem occurred.

The Costs Of Car Crash Injuries

January 30, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Every accident has a story and it is often the details of that story that make a difference in civil litigation. Our Sonoma crash law firm often talks about some recurring details on this blog, looking at specific types of crashes, specific causes, and specific outcomes. Sometimes, however, we like to take a step back. Today’s post begins with a local accident and then pulls the lens back to look at the cost of car crashes in the U.S. and some proven strategies for car crash prevention.

Serious Injuries in Sonoma Crash

A frightening crash west of Sonoma appears to have involved two of the biggest dangers on the road: drunk driving and failing to wear a seatbelt. The Press Democrat that 50 year old Charles Purdon’s Jeep crashed into a tree off of Carriger Road on Tuesday night. Police suspect he had been drinking, noting they had received a call about a possible drunk driver in a Jeep shortly before the accident. Purdon was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision, a factor that authorities believe contributed to his extensive injuries. It took nearly an hour to extricate him from his crumpled vehicle with firefighters eventually cutting the car away from Purdon’s leg which had become entangled in the Jeep’s dash. CHP officers arrested Purdon on suspicion of drunk driving.