Articles Posted in Motorcycle Accidents

A 12-year-old boy, who was riding in a motorcycle driven by his father, died after their motorcycle was hit by a 90-year-old driver making a left turn. According to an article in the Napa Valley Register, Eduardo Palafox was a passenger on a motorcycle driven by his dad, 32-year-old Jose Cruz Palafox-Iona.

The driver of a Subaru, driven by 90-year-old Marilyn Heinricher, collided with the motorcycle when the woman made a left turn, the article said. Paramedics performed CPR on the boy at the scene, but he reportedly died at the hospital. Both Heinricher and the boy’s father reportedly suffered minor injuries. Both father and son were said to be wearing helmets. Also, an accident reconstruction team is investigating whether Heinricher failed to yield right of way while making the left turn.

This is another tragic case involving an elderly driver possibly making an error on the road that turned out to be fatal. What a tragic loss for the young boy’s family. Our hearts and prayers go out to the Palafox family.
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Motorcycle accidents, according to most recent numbers, have climbed at least 25 percent over the last decade. With more motorcycles on the road, there is obviously a probability of more motorcycle accidents, but these stories we found just from scanning the news over the last 20 days, shows fatal crashes are also on the rise. Here is a compilation of fatal motorcycle accidents from around the country.

Albuquerque crash: A man died while riding his motorcycle in Rio Rancho, N.M. According to this article, 21-year-old Luke Ballejos was riding on Highway 528 when he collided with a car turning from the highway on to a surface street. Ballejos was not wearing a helmet, officials said.

Texas motorcycle accident: A 22-year-old woman was dead after losing control of her motorcycle at an Austin intersection, according to a news report. Officials are still looking into what caused Sherry Ann Marvel to lose control of her motorcycle.
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Officials in Santa Clarita are investigating a fatal motorcycle accident where a 25-year-old man was killed after crashing into a cement mixer truck. According to an article in the Santa Clarita Signal, http://www.thesignal.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=53125&format=print the collision – the second fatal motorcycle accident in just one week in that area – occurred at the intersection of Golden Valley Road and Robert C. Lee Parkway.

According to the report, the motorcyclist, David Glenn Garrett of Newhall, was traveling west on Golden Valley when he struck the right side of the cement truck, which was attempting to make a left turn on Robert C. Lee Parkway. Some witnesses reportedly told officials that Garrett was traveling at a high rate of speed, but officials have not yet been able to determine who was at fault, the Signal reports.

Garrett was dragged about 30 feet by the cement truck and died at the scene, the article said. The driver of the truck was on the job and was on his way to a construction site in the area. He was not injured. Investigators are also trying to pinpoint the cause of the accident. They will examine witness statements, speed assessments and toxicology tests to determine why the crash occurred and who was at fault, the report said.
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A 55-year-old motorcyclist was killed after a van driver made an illegal U-turn in his path on a San Diego street, according to a news report on Channel 10’s Web site. Robert Hugh Reed of Sacramento died at the scene from severe injuries he suffered in the crash, the news station reports.

The motorcycle accident occurred at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the 3000 block of Valley Road when a 40-year-old woman driving a van reportedly made an illegal U-turn right in front of Reed. The van driver, who has not yet been identified, was not injured in the crash. Officials are still investigating the crash, but the report says they are considering possibly filing vehicular manslaughter charges.
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A Los Angeles jury has awarded $15.7 million to a security guard and retired cop who suffered severe brain injuries after he was hit by a city-operated dump truck when he was riding his motorcycle in Northridge, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The lawsuit was filed by Barry Bowman, a 62-year-old man who worked almost 30 years with the LAPD, who was employed as a security guard on film shoots at the time of the incident, the newspaper reports. Bowman’s attorney told the Times that the city, from the beginning, refused to settle with Bowman, never offering more than $50,000. Bowman suffered severe brain injury, short-term memory loss after the incident and still requires 24-hour care.

The important issue for the jury in this case was whether the dump truck operator, who was contracted by the city, was acting as a city employee when the accident occurred. The city’s attorneys argued that the truck driver was done with his work for the day and was “off site” when the crash happened. The city also said that the truck was going at 2 mph, but Bowman’s attorney said the truck was going at 14 mph, according to an article in the Los Angeles Daily News.
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Motorcycles accidents are reportedly on the increase in the United States. Recent studies have found that motorcycle accidents have more than doubled over the last 10 years. California is only second to Florida among states that lead in motorcycle crashes. Here is a round-up of motorcycle accidents that happened around the country over the last few weeks:

Tricky turn: An unidentified man was said to have suffered critical injuries after he lost control of his motorcycle and went off the road in Rio Verde, Arizona, on Christmas Eve. The Arizona Republic reported that the accident occurred at a turn, but that weather and visibility were perfect. It’s not known if mechanical malfunction played a part in the accident.

San Jose fatal crash: David Flores, 47, reportedly died when he drove off the side of a San Jose road when he was on an afternoon ride with a friend, the San Jose Mercury News reports. According to his family, Flores was in a motorcycle accident in 2000 when he was hit by a woman who ran a red light. No one knows yet what caused Flores to lose control of his motorcycle.
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Motorcycle accident fatalities are very much a reality in California and across the United States. In fact, a recent article in the San Diego Union-Tribune points out that with more and more baby boomers riding motorcycles, serious injury and fatality accidents are on the rise.

The article talks about the spike in motorcycle accident deaths in North San Diego County. According to the report, the California Highway Patrol has already investigated 15 fatal motorcycle crashes this year, compared to eight last year – that’s almost a 100 percent increase over just one year. CHP officials say they don’t know what’s causing these incidents and what can be done to stop these deaths.

This reflects a nationwide trend as well, according to a recent report from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), which shows that motorcycle fatalities last year made up 11 percent of all traffic deaths in the United States. That number was only at 5 percent in 1997.
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A 24-year old Northridge man crashed his motorcycle into a left turning Honda Accord Sunday, September 30, 2007 at approximately 2 p.m. at the intersection of Tampa and Atlanta avenues in Porter Ranch according to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division as reported on DaileyNews.com.

The motorcycle was traveling north on Tampa Avenue when the Honda Accord turned left from south bound Tampa onto Atlanta, immediately in front of the motorcycle. The motorcycle crashed into the Honda Accord. The accident threw the motorcyclist from his bike and critically injured him, according to the LAPD Valley Traffic Division. Atlanta Avenue is a side street south of the Simi-Valley San Fernando Valley Freeway (118) and north of Devonshire Street.
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By: Staff Writer
Last week, a federal jury in Waco, Texas, awarded $6 million to a man who lost four fingers and suffered major injuries to his left leg after his motorcycle collided with an 18-wheeler. According to an article in the Waco Tribune, jurors deliberated for nearly three years before deciding that a Tennessee-based trucking company was liable because truck driver, Julie Renee Collins, was at fault in the big rig accident.

According to the article, Walter Browning was riding his 2003 Honda Shadow on Interstate 35, when Collins reportedly changed lanes hitting Browning and knocking him off the motorcycle. The jury did not buy the defense argument that Browning entered an entrance ramp and “drove directly into the tractor trailer”. Both the plaintiff and defendant’s attorneys hired accident reconstruction experts, each of whom painted a different picture for the jury and gave their own versions of how the accident may have happened.
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By: Staff Writer

The Los Angeles City Council has voted unanimously to give $1.15 million to the family of a motorcyclist who died after he was struck by a Los Angeles city employee, who was reportedly driving a city vehicle at the time of the accident. According to an article on CBS’ Web site, 26-year-old Mgrdich Hovsep Fidanian of Glendale was traveling south on Barham Boulevard on Oct. 13, 2005 when he was hit by a car that was turning left into a store driveway.

Fidanian’s parents and siblings filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angles stating that the driver of the car, who worked in the city’s finance department, used his car as a “city mileage vehicle” and was driving the car within the scope of his job as a city employee, according to the CBS news report.

Another aspect of this lawsuit was the issue of the “dangerous road condition” on Barham Boulevard. The family claimed in its lawsuit that the roadway was perilous for drivers and commuters because of trees, signs and elevations, which hampered the view of motorists. The lawsuit also argued that the posted speed limit on Barham Boulevard was too high given all these dangerous conditions. At the time of the crash, Fidanian was driving over the brow of the hill at the top of Barham Boulevard and through two sets of traffic lights, the CBS article said.
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