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An El Monte dad has filed a $100-million lawsuit against two men whose street-racing caused the deaths of his wife and two young children. The Whittier Daily News reports that Stephen Groce has also named Nissan North America in the product liability lawsuit stating that the 2002 Nissan Altima Dora Groce was driving at the time of the fiery crash on Oct. 16 had a defective fuel tank that exploded and caused the deaths.

The lawsuit announcement came on Tuesday, only two hours after the two men suspected of causing the crash – Martin Marones, 21 and Robert Canizalez, 19 – were charged with three counts of murder and face 15 years to life in prison for each one of those counts. Canizalez was arrested at the scene, but Marones fled, crossed the border and went into hiding at an aunt’s place in Mexico. He was arrested and brought back to the United States earlier this week, according to news reports.

Dora Groce was reportedly driving her children, ages 8 and 4, to a doctor’s appointment when the two men, who were involved in a street race on a residential street, broadsided her Altima. Groce’s car was pushed into a stopped pickup truck and burst into flames with the family inside. According to the article, autopsy reports show the mom died on impact, but that the children died because of the fire.
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This is the kind of accident that you may only see on screen. In Huntington Beach, one person was left dead after a horrific head-on collision that ripped a compact car in half. According to The Orange County Register, the fatal auto accident occurred at the intersection of Edinger Avenue and Newland Street Monday afternoon.

The Honda Accord and Toyota 4Runner rammed into each other after one of the vehicles lost control, hurtling toward oncoming traffic. One man riding in the Accord managed to escape with minor injuries even after that car was torn apart. The driver of the 4Runner is also listed in fair condition.

A whopping 108 vehicles, including 18 big rigs, were involved in a massive pileup on the California 99 Highway in Fresno Saturday that killed at least two people and snarled traffic on one of the state’s major north-south routes, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

While authorities investigating the crash believe that thick fog and excessive and unsafe speeds by several vehicles were major factors in the crash, police also arrested a 62-year old man on suspicion of drunk driving. This man’s car was reportedly near the front of the pile-up and authorities believe he may have contributed to one of the most horrific chain-reaction crashes in recent times. In fact, officials say it is one of the worst accidents on Highway 99 in the last decade.

Travis Rogers, 26 and an unidentified 5-year-old boy were killed in a separate vehicle, the article said. More than 35 people were transported by paramedics to various local hospitals. It was reportedly chaos on the highway. Many were trapped in their vehicles and had to be extricated. One car slid under a big rig. Hazmat crews were mopping up diesel fuel leaked from all the trucks involved in the crash.
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Sara, 21 and Kelly, 26 must have been having the time of their lives riding around in Beau James Robertson’s 2002 Chevrolet Camaro! In fact, as it turns out, Sara, Beau’s girlfriend, was in town to celebrate Beau’s 29th birthday. But, the celebration came to an abrupt end when Beau drove his Camaro off an overpass and onto U.S. Highway 101 where it was struck by an oncoming vehicle killing both Sara and Kelly, according to a news article posted on NBC’s Web site.

According to witnesses, Beau was speeding and attempted to make a right turn onto San Ysidro Road in Montecito, an area adjacent to Santa Barbara, the article states. Beau lost control of the car and crossed into the opposite lane, jumping the curb and blasting through the overpass’s metal guardrail.

The car dropped roughly 40 feet and landed on the passenger side atop the southbound side of Highway 101, with its roof facing oncoming traffic. According to NBC’s report, almost immediately, a family of five in a 1996 Silver Honda Sedan crashed into the Camaro at normal freeway speeds, sending it somersaulting. Sara and Kelly, neither of whom wore seat belts, were ejected from the car and pronounced dead at the scene.
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In 1991 John Henton won the Johnny Walker National Comedy Search and then he captured a coveted spot on the Johnny Carson show. In April of 1993, John Henton was cast, and lauded as a ‘break-out’ star, in the FOX-TV series Living Single starring Queen Latifah and Kim Fields Freeman. Then, came a starring role on “The Hughleys”.

However, in September 2000 Henton starred in his very own horror story when he was involved in a near-fatal car accident that destroyed his left eye socket, shattered both of his legs, broke nine teeth and ripped up his stomach. Henton, who had been drinking and doesn’t remember the crash, was driving at least 100 mph at the time of the accident, which happened shortly after he finished partying with friends and co-stars to celebrate the filming of “The Hughleys” Halloween segment. Henton’s injuries were so severe and deformed his features so badly that his agent went to Henton’s home to retrieve pictures to be used by plastic surgeons to rebuild Henton’s face.

A year later, in June of 2001, Henton, still hobbling around, had this to say: “There’s no time for a pity party. I have too much stuff to do.” As of 2006, it looks like Henton is still performing despite his horrible car accident. He calls his drunk driving accident his ‘wake-up call’.
Henton was one of the few involved in such a horrific crashto be lucky enough to “wake up.”
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A Georgia couple is suing their insurance company, Progressive, saying that the company spied on them by having their investigators, undercover, join their private church confessional group. The investigators joined the group in the hopes of getting information to use against the couple in an auto accident claim according to a news article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

An attorney for the couple, Bill and Leandra Pitts, told the newspaper that Progressive tried these tactics to avoid paying the couple’s claim. What’s more, Progressive’s CEO, who had previously admitted on the company’s Web site that their spying was “appalling”, has now issued a statement that those actions were in fact “reasonable.”

According to one of Progressive’s spokespersons quoted in the newspaper article: “While we believe what occurred was wrong, we don’t believe it provides the basis for a legal claim seeking a monetary judgment.” At least Progressive is consistent. It is like saying, “While your insurance policy covers you for the injuries you sustained, we don’t believe it is our best interest to pay your claim.”
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By: Staff Writer
A state appeals court has ruled that victims of a crash at the Santa Monica farmer’s market when an elderly driver drove into a crowd of shoppers, may sue the city for failing to adequately protect the people at the market.

According to an Associated Press news report, this ruling reinstates victims’ allegations that the city’s wooden barricades were not sufficient to protect them from the crash caused by 86-year-old George Rusell Weller on July 16, 2006. That crash killed 10 people and injured more than 70. Weller, who was convicted on 10 counts of manslaughter last year, was sentenced to five years of probation.

Many of the people who suffered injuries in this horrific accident, filed personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits against the city of Santa Monica, but a judge ruled in favor of the city, which claimed immunity from liability citing a traffic control map for the market, which officials said showed that they had taken traffic safety into consideration. The appellate court’s reversal of that decision was based on its assertion that the traffic map the city cited was not the same plan approved by the city’s traffic engineer 20 years ago.
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An award against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has been upheld by Wisconsin’s Supreme Court to the tune of $16.8 million. The money was awarded to an 86-year-old man who was paralyzed as a result of negligent driving by a church volunteer, according to an Associated Press news report.

Members of the state’s high court deadlocked 3-3, which meant that the appellate court decision to uphold the award to Hjalmer Heikkinen, was good. A diocese spokeswoman told AP that the money will be paid entirely by the church’s insurer, The Catholic Mutual Relief Society of America.

According to the article, the church member, Margaret Morse, while running an errand for the church, ran a red light and hit Heikkinen. Heikkinen was severely injured and paralyzed from the neck down. He sued Morse. Morse in turn sued the archdiocese and its insurer. A jury in 2005 found the church liable for the incident, awarding Heikkinen $15 million for past and future pain and suffering, $1.3 million for medical expenses and $500,000 to Heikkinen’s wife for loss of consortium.
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By: A Staff Writer
This is extremely scary. Street racing in Southern California has become a pastime, a hobby – like baseball or a video game. An article in the Los Angeles Times that analyzes the issue of street racing, which has recently claimed several lives in the southland, says 100 people die each year in California alone because of this phenomenon. What a dangerous, reckless and inconsiderate way to exercise your freedom! It comes at the cost of innocent bystanders’ lives.

There have been a string of tragic collisions over the last year in California in street-racing related crashes, the Times points out. And police officers are scratching their heads about how to combat this menace. A lot of victims have been very young people – children as young as 14 years old. A lot of these cases involve young, inexperienced drivers behind the wheel of souped up vehicles. Consider these tragic cases:

* Four teenagers, Perris High School kids, died in a crash on their way to a San Diego trip in February * A 14-year-old Riverside boy also in February died when the car he was riding in slammed into a light pole during an impromptu street race * Two UC San Diego students died in January when their BMW crashed into two trees, again during a race * Then this week, a mother and her two children, 8 and 4, died when a street racer slammed into the family’s car.
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A 21-year-old Huntington Beach woman, said to be one of the best softball pitchers in Orange County at one time, died in a tragic car crash in Costa Mesa over the weekend. Police now believe the single-vehicle crash was caused by what turned out to be a deadly combination of speed, alcohol and street-racing. According to an article in the Daily Pilot, Sara Noel Harris’ boyfriend told Costa Mesa police that the two were racing after drinking Sunday morning in a Newport Beach bar.

The article said Harris was drinking beers while the boyfriend had a few Mai Tais, a rum-based drink. Both then drove in separate cars apparently racing on the streets of Costa Mesa. Several witnesses told police that both the Audis were cutting and weaving in and out of traffic. At some point the boyfriend lost sight of Harris. Police say Harris may have lost control of her car and overturned on a curve and then over-corrected and crashed into a pole.

Harris was wearing her seatbelt, but it didn’t save her life. The Pilot report says she died of multiple traumatic injuries. This kind of a terrible tragedy is a no-win situation for everybody involved.
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