By San Jose Personal Injury Lawyer on August 18, 2011 -
Capitola’s city council is planning to vote on new regulations to govern skateboarding in Capitola Village after a 17-year-old skateboarder plowed into an elderly woman in a crosswalk, causing her to suffer fatal injuries, according to a recent news report from CBS affiliate KION. The accident is not the first skateboarding death in Capitola this year; in April, a 20-year-old man suffered fatal brain damage after crashing on Monterey Avenue. He was not wearing a helmet.
These accidents and others have prompted the Capitola City Council to consider a new ordinance banning skateboarding all the way up to the top of the steep hills that lead into Capitola Village. As experienced Capitola accident injury lawyers, we understand the motivation for such a ban. Local ordinances already prohibit skateboarding in the Village itself, but not all skateboarders realize that skateboarding in the village is illegal. By extending the ordinance, the city council hopes to increase awareness of the no-skateboarding zones and prevent the kinds of fatal accidents that have occurred when skateboarders picking up speed on the hills crash or collide with another person.
Supporters of the new ordinance point out that the increased sidewalk and road traffic around Capitola make skateboarding a perilous activity for both boarders and others sharing the pavement. Opponents, however, insist that skateboarding is a safer mode of transportation than bicycling or motor vehicles, which are involved in far more accidents each year than skateboarders.
Safety on roads and sidewalks is a must, no matter how you choose to travel. If you or someone you love has been injured in a pedestrian, skateboard, or bicycle accident in California, please don’t hesitate to contact the experienced Capitola accident attorneys at Van Der Walde & Associates. Our number is (877) 862-6228. Call us today for a free and confidential consultation. You may also follow our Capitola Lawyers Twitter account.
By San Jose Personal Injury Lawyer on December 30, 2009 -
The Sacramento Bee recently ran an article that revealed that the streets of San Francisco are the second most dangerous place for pedestrians. Reportedly, San Francisco ranks solely behind New York City as the nation’s leader in pedestrian fatalities. According to Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, the two groups that created the report, San Francisco ranks No. 40 overall on the “Pedestrian Danger Index.”
Claims made by Walk San Francisco, a pedestrian advocacy group situated in San Francisco, state that the fatality rate per 100,000 people in the city is 2.6 percent. This figure is 70 percent higher than the national average. The report also speculates that most pedestrian deaths are in fact preventable, with the primary causes of such accidents being a lack of safe sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian signals, and other preventative measures put into place to protect pedestrians. And San Francisco isn’t the only area in Northern California that failed to rank well for pedestrian safety. The Sacramento-Arden-Roseville metropolitan area ranks No. 22 nationally, while the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area comes in at No. 26.
Pedestrian safety should be of the utmost concern to state departments of transportation and county and municipal transit agencies. In the event that negligent action on the part of some governing party leads to pedestrian injury, then that party may be held liable for damages associated with the injury. In fact, in any type of accident, the negligent party who contributes towards causing the accident can often be held liable for monetary compensation to assist injured individuals in recovering from their accident.
At Van Der Walde & Associates, our experienced San Francisco pedestrian accident attorneys will examine every detail surrounding your accident, and will hold negligent parties responsible for contributing to your accident. We will seek monetary compensation on your behalf while ensuring that your rights as an injured pedestrian are protected. If you have been injured, please don’t hesitate to contact our personal injury lawyers today for a free consultation of your case. Call us at 877-862-6288.
Source:http://www.sacbee.com/trafficnews/story/2327863.html
