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  The   Modesto Bee  is reporting a disturbing trend of pedestrians being hit on Highway 108. The roadway claimed another victim last month, which now puts the total at 17 in just over a year. Our Modesto personal injury lawyers know that California leads the nation in pedestrian accidents. Law enforcement will be beefing up patrols and will issue tickets to both drivers and pedestrians. Drivers will get a $243 ticket for not stopping for people in the crosswalk and pedestrians will be issued a $203 ticket for walking in front of cars. The police plan on using pedestrian decoys to see if vehicles will stop at crosswalks. We recently reported on our Modesto Injury Lawyer Blog about the high rate of pedestrian accidents in Stockton, Modesto and the surrounding areas. The Governors Highway Safety Associations Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State reports that California had 563 pedestrian deaths in 2009. For the first 6 months of 2010 we h...

  Police will be out in full force this Memorial Day holiday weekend in an attempt to decrease risks of a   car accident in Modesto . The Modesto Police Department Traffic Unit will be out on our roadways to conduct DUI and Driver's License checkpoints at a number of undisclosed locations. There will also be a special DUI Roving Saturation patrol during the upcoming holiday weekend, according to   The City Of Modesto . Our Modesto injury attorneys urge all motorists to practice caution on our roadways over this Memorial Day weekend. The city of Modesto has seen nearly 400 drunk driving accidents that have resulted in 6 fatalities and nearly 400 injuries over the course of the last 3 years. This holiday weekend brings an increased risk of serious and fatal accidents. Overall traffic fatalities declined by more than 20 percent throughout the entire state of California during the past few years. The state saw a decrease from 3,995 fatalities in 2007 to 3,081 fatali...

  A recent article in the Sacramento Bee reported that fatal   car accidents in Modesto,  Stockton and throughout the state of California have dropped for the fifth consecutive year. According to the article, the   California Office of Traffic Safety  reported 2,715 deaths on roadways last year, a 12 percent decrease from the previous year and nearly 40 percent decrease from 2005 when an all-time high was reported. Normally we would find these statistics commendable but with the economic downturn and high unemployment rates, our Modesto car accident attorneys know that less traffic has a lot to do with it. Very little has changed in terms of the number of distracted drivers, speeders, drunk drivers, and now drivers who operate under the influence of legally prescribed medical marijuana. If you have been involved in an accident, an experienced attorney can help determine the cause of your accident and who is responsible for damages. Legal use of medical...

  In 2010, Stanislaus County recorded more than a dozen pedestrian- or bicycle-involved fatal Modesto car accidents, the Modesto Bee reports. Early morning on Jan. 13, the first pedestrian victim of 2011 was killed while crossing McHenry Avenue. He was not using the crosswalk, but investigators reported that other vehicles stopped for the man. The driver has yet to be cited or arrested, but Modesto police say it appears the 32-year-old is at fault. Such accidents frequently lead to serious or fatal injuries and should always be handled by an experienced Modesto personal injury lawyer. In an effort to make streets safer for our youngest pedestrians, school districts in Stanislaus County, across California and, literally, around the globe, participated again last October in the International Walk to School Day. About 500 area school children and their parents hit the streets and walked to school, the Modesto Bee reports. IWS is a global health-...

  Sports fans will be gathering for one of the most year's popular kinds of parties this weekend, Super Bowl XLV. Even if you aren't a fan of football, Super Bowl parties are entertaining affairs, typically filled with fun, friends, good food and plenty of drink. Our  Modesto personal injury attorneys  encourage you to drink responsibly and to be a responsible party host. Drunk driving crashes are a leading cause of  car accidents in Modesto  and elsewhere. Nationwide, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash every 45 minutes, according to the  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Appointing a designated driver can reduce the chances of you, a friend, or a loved one being involved in a serious or fatal injury. . As part of a national campaign, the NFL, along with  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,  the HERO campaign, and  Mothers Against Drunk Driving  are promoting the slogan  Fans Don't Let Fans Drive Dru...

  The Bureau of Land Management is investigating a racing promotion company after eight onlookers died in a crash that took place during the California 200 off-road race this summer. In addition to those who lost their lives in the crash, ten others were injured when driver Brett Sloppy lost control of his tricked-out Ford Ranger pickup truck, flew in the air and rolled into the crowd of people. In the safety rules set forth by Mojave Desert Racing of El Monte, the promoter of the race, spectators were supposed to be at least 100 feet away from the course. Child support lawyer . However, according to an article in the LA Times and supporting videos of the crash, viewers were just feet away from the speeding off-road vehicles. The Bureau contracted with Mojave Desert Racing to have fans at least 50 feet away from racing vehicles, but that was also not adhered to, obviously. The federal agency says it had begun an "official national review" of the accident, along with current...

  As more and more details emerge from the long-running high-profile coverage of prescription medication abuse scandals allegedly responsible for the deaths of Michael Jackson and Anna Nicole Smith, our Modesto car accident lawyers know that illicit and prescription drug abuse is a frequent contributor to serious and fatal car accidents. Now, a recent study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reveals that post-mortem testing of fatally injured drivers reflects a spike in drug use by drivers involved in fatal car accidents. Drug crimes lawyer . With that said, the NHTSA notes that drug involvement does not mean the driver was impaired or that drug use caused the crash. It does, however, validate the notion that prescription and over-the-counter medication use and abuse has emerged as a national issue when it comes to driver safety. Based on the NHTSA's Fatal Accident Reporting System census, in 2009 one in three car accident fatalities involved drivers who tested...

  You may have heard it in the news. The number of roadway fatalities is at a low not seen since 1949. What officials aren't crowing about is that the number of fatal motorcycle accidents in Modesto and elsewhere continue to be near record highs. Over the last two years, we haven't seen these numbers budge despite all of the safety and awareness campaigns. Even with the near 2 percent decrease in the number of overall motor vehicle fatalities across the nation in the last year, we still saw about 4,500 motorcyclist fatalities in 2011 and about the same in 2010. Child custody . Motorcycle fatalities continue to be one category of highway safety where there is pretty much no progress being made. "It is disappointing that we are not making progress in motorcycle safety," said Troy Costales, GHSA Chairman, "particularly as fatalities involving other motorists continue to decline." Our Modesto accident lawyers understand that there are a number of reasons why ...

  There are five components that states can enact to their Graduated Driver's Licensing (GDL) program to help to reduce the risks of teen car accident in Modesto and elsewhere. With all five components, we could save about 500 teen lives and prevent about 10,000 car accidents in Modesto and elsewhere every year. What are these components? According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS): -Nighttime driving restrictions -Better driving hour requirements -Passenger restrictions -Minimum driver's licensing age and a minimum permit age, according to the Our Modesto car accident attorneys understand that our state may not have the strictest Graduated Driver's Licensing (GDL) laws in the land. Research shows that states with the toughest laws typically see the lowest rates of accidents among drivers aged 15- to 17-years-old. Child custody . Where our GDL program lacks, parents are asked to step up, to enact their own household driving rules and to enforce them...

  As we recently reported on our Modesto Injury Lawyer Blog, the state of California might not be tough enough on our teen drivers. Our state's Graduated Driver's Licensing (GDL) program could toughen up its restrictions to help to reduce the risks of accidents for our young drivers. According to the newly-released stats from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), car accidents in Modesto and elsewhere continue to be the number one cause of death for teens across the country. Lawyer firm in Pennsylvania . In 2010, there were more than 1,960 teen drivers who were killed in car accidents in Modesto and elsewhere. There were another 185,000 young drivers who were injured in these kinds to accidents during this time. California led the country when it first passed its GDL law back in 1997. We put this program into place in an effort to reduce the number of teen car crashes and to help to reduce the number of teens who are injured and killed each year. Under t...

 In a recent drunk driving car accident in Modesto, a local police officer was injured after his car was hit from behind by driver suspected of being under the influence of alcohol. Just after midnight, the officer was stopped at a red light on Standiford Avenue and Sisk Road when he was rear ended by the suspect, according to the Modesto Bee. The driver was arrested for driving on a suspended license and on suspicion of driving under the influence. Our Modesto accident attorneys understand that about third of all fatal car accidents involve a drunk driver. According to the recently-released statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were 10,230 people who were killed in alcohol-related car accidents in California and elsewhere in 2010. These kinds of accidents and every single one of these fatalities are preventable. In addition, there were hundreds of thousands more who were injured in these crashes. California ranked in at second place f...

  We've been experiencing temps in the mid to upper 90s for quite some time now. With the summer come high temps as well as risks for heatstroke and other heat-related injuries in Modesto and elsewhere. For that reason, officials with the City of Modesto are working to raise awareness about these conditions and these injuries. Officials with the City of Modesto have even teamed up with those at the Modesto Regional Fire Authority and a number of other agencies to help to monitor any changes in the weather and to relay the information to residents. Lawyer office in Pennsylvania . As of now, the National Weather Service has not issued any Excessive Heat Outlooks, Warnings or Watches for the state, but that could change any day. Currently, there are no plans to open cooling centers. It's important to remember though that that could quickly change. City officials remind residents that now is the perfect time to freshen up your hot weather safety know-how. Injuries from the heat ...

  Car manufacturers might be trying to build safer cars and transportation officials might be trying to make our roads safer for everyone, but the truth of the matter is that we're seeing more and more fatal accidents on our roadways. According to CNN Money, the first three months of 2012 showed a near 15 percent increase from the number of fatal car accidents during the same time in 2011. Lawyer firm in Pennsylvania . Risks are expected to continue to increase as the economy recovers. During the first four months of this year, there were nearly 8,000 people killed in traffic accidents in the U.S. During the same time period in 2011, only about 6,700 people had been killed on our roadways, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Our Modesto car accident attorneys understand that there are a number of reasons why transportation officials think we may be experiencing this increase. One of the top reasons is the unseasonably warm weather we've s...

  With distracted driving resulting in more than 3,000 deaths each year (and more than 415,000 injuries), the federal government is awarding grants to states like California, which have enacted primary enforcement laws addressing the issue.blackcellphone.jpg Modesto personal injury lawyers understand that $17.5 million has been set aside to divvy up among those 10 states, plus Washington D.C. and Guam, that have deemed use of handheld cell phones while driving a primary offense. Having the measure as "primary offense" means that an officer in California can stop you and cite you solely for talking on the phone or texting while driving. Lawyer firm in Pennsylvania . In states where such actions are considered "secondary offenses," it means that an officer can't stop you solely for talking on your phone, but if he or she has another legitimate and lawful reason to stop you, you can be cited for it. The grant has been awarded by Congress under the Moving Ahead f...

  The California Highway Patrol and several other local law enforcement agencies will be ramping up patrol efforts over Labor Day Weekend, in hopes of curbing drunk, distracted and reckless drivers. Modesto car accident lawyers know that this is by far one of the most dangerous holidays for travel, in California and throughout the country. Last year, nearly 30 people were killed in traffic crashes last Labor Day weekend. Another 1,500 were arrested for DUI. Last year, there were two more fatal accidents in southern California during Labor Day weekend than there were the year before. Lawyer firm in Pennsylvania . Here's a round-up of how last year's Labor Traffic Fatalities: An 18-year-old rear-ended a vehicle on southbound 52nd Street, causing both vehicles to burst into flames, killing a nearby pedestrian and critically injuring three others. The 18-year-old driver was arrested on charges of DUI and second-degree murder. A pickup truck driven by a 17-year-old male flipped ...

 Each and every day, there are about 10,000 people in the U.S. who celebrate their 65th birthday. More than 80 percent of drivers 65 and older regularly take medication. And two-thirds take five or more daily, according to FOX News. Yet only half have talked with a medical professional about the possible safety issues related to driving and the medications they're taking. Lawyer firm in Pennsylvania . We encourage you talk with your elderly loved ones about the medications they're taking and how they may be impacting life behind the wheel. Urge them to talk with their doctor or physician about the effects that these prescriptions may be having on their ability to drive. Our Modesto car accident lawyers know that medications aren't only affecting elderly drivers. This is a safety issue of growing importance nationwide. It's important that you're aware of the side effects of individual drugs, as well as what impact combining medications may have on your driving abi...

  You might think you're calm behind the wheel, but far too many drivers aren't. U.S. News reports that, of a survey of more than 500 drivers, about 90 percent of them said that they had either seen a road rage incident in the last year or they've been a victim of one. The issue came to prominence in the '90s, when several studies found there were nearly 220 people murdered and another 12,000 people injured because of these kinds of incidents. Vehicles and firearms were the most common weapons used in such cases. Lawyer firm in Pennsylvania . Most are sparked by trivial matters, including parking spots, slow drivers and even horn honking. Our Modesto car accident lawyers understand that many cases do not rise to the level of road rage, which is generally defined as a criminal offense like assault. However, aggressive driving is present in a large number of accident cases. These habits include tailgating, horn honking, making gestures to other drivers, changing lanes e...