According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the light rain in San Joaquin Valley has led to several motor vehicle crashes.

Aside from a head-on collision in Highway 168 at Prather at noon, the CHP also responded to an injury crash on southbound Highway 41 south of Herndon Avenue at 1PM and a two-vehicle crash caused by a dog on Highway 180 at Fulton Avenue.

The latter accident allegedly occurred when the two drivers tried to avoid hitting the dog and ended up skidding on the rain-slicked road. The two drivers suffered minor injuries and the runaway dog was uninjured and reported to the California Humane Society.

Elsewhere, in Missoula, Montana, icy conditions caused by overnight freezing rain caused nearly 20 car accidents, majority of which were single car crashes where several vehicles slid off the road.

Driving under the extreme weather conditions (heavy rain, snow storm, etc) is one of the many causes of a car crash accident. Rain in particularly, can cause car accidents even if the driver is driving below the posted speed limit.

According to the California Driver’s Handbook of 2009, roads are at their most slippery usually when it first starts to rain or snow because the oil and dust have not been washed away yet.

In order to drive safely under the conditions and avoid liability for any injury or death unintentionally caused by a car accident, here are a few tips on how to drive in the rain:

• Slow down at the first sign of rain or snow on the road. Driving slower would increase your tires’ traction on the road surface so you would be less likely to skid or slip even if there is oil or grease.

• Turn on your windshield wipers, headlights, and defroster. This will help increase your visibility even if the rain or snow is falling down heavily.

• If your windows fog up, if you don’t have a de-fog function in your car, keep your air conditioning blowing at both your windshield and your back window.

• Do not make any sudden or sharp brakes. This will cause you to lose traction and control of the vehicle.

• If visibility is really bad or you cannot see more than 100 feet ahead, do not drive more than 30 mph. Driving slower would also increase your chances of a better reaction time in case the vehicle ahead of you would suddenly stall or stop.

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Following a drunk-driving rollover crash which killed his passenger, 17-year old Gerardo Chacon, 21-year old Reyes Miranda is now facing charges of vehicular manslaughter and causing great bodily injury while under the influence of alcohol.

According to the authorities, Miranda was over-speeding on East Vista Way near Mason Road before he lost control of his 1990 Ford Mustang. He struck a guardrail and bus stop shelter before the car rolled over several times.

Chacon, who is a junior at Vista High School, got partially ejected from the vehicle and died on the road. Miranda also suffered injuries and had to wear a neck brace when he appeared in court.

Following the crash, Miranda’s BAC level was measured at 0.11 percent which is well above California’s legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Miranda’s attorney, Herb Weston is claiming that the manslaughter charges should be dropped against his client as there isn’t enough evidence to support the claim that Miranda was speeding.

Generally, a rollover crash occurs due to the driver’s loss of control of the vehicle and for the following reasons:

• Driver loses control of vehicle, it slides sideways and “trips” over an object such as curb, guardrail, tree stump, or soft or uneven ground.
• The vehicle is going too fast or speeding and the driver makes a sharp turn.
• The vehicle gets flipped by a guardrail or other ramp-like object or when the vehicle falls sideways or front-first down an embankment.
• High center of gravity and additional cargo and passengers in the vehicle.

Drunk drivers are more likely to overspeed than regular drivers and speeding, as seen from above is directly related to vehicles rolling over. A vehicle moving at a high rate of speed is more likely to rollover because the driver would lose control of the vehicle.

There is a greater risk of death and injury in rollover crashes compared to other kinds of vehicle mishaps. This is especially true for occupants such as Chacon who may or may not wear a seatbelt, as most rollovers usually lead to partial or full ejectment of occupants from the vehicles.

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A three strikes bill for DUI is currently in the works in California to give judges the power to revoke the driving license of a repeat offender after three DUI’s.

Assemblyman Jerry Hill, the main proponent of the said legislation, sees the bill as a means to get drunk drivers permanently off the road even before they can kill or injure a motorist or pedestrian.

Under the law in California, driving licenses are only revoked because of death or injury caused by the driver. Likewise, the Department of Motor Vehicles only counts convictions from the past 10 years.

Aside from empowering judges to revoke the driver’s license after three DUI convictions, the DMV may also consider the defendant’s entire history of drunk driving in a suspension case.

Opponents of the bill on the other hand, such as the California DUI Lawyers Association, argue that passing Hill’s proposed law will only increase the number of unlicensed drivers on the road as it will not dissuade convicted drivers.

The Three Strikes DUI Bill, if approved and signed by the Congress and the governor will take effect on January 2011.

Every year in the United States, more than 5,000 people die from alcohol-related crashes. According to the Fatality Analysis Reporting

System, as much as 32 percent of all motor vehicle accidents were caused by drunk drivers.

While California has several DUI laws such as the Zero Tolerance Law, Ignition Interlock Devise Law, drunk driving still continues to be a problem and a primary cause of car crash fatalities and injuries.

While it would be interesting to actually see whether or not the law would give rise to more unlicensed drivers on the road, victims of drunk drivers can still go after the drunk driver for damages and proper compensation.

Generally, if the other party in an accident is proven to be drunk, he is also most likely to be considered as liable for any injury suffered by the victim.

Drunk driving victims can recover medical expenses, future medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, disability, loss of quality of life, the present and the future impairment, loss of consortium, and the loss of services.

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Motor vehicle accidents can happen at any place, at any time and to anyone – even to a Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle officer.

According to the California Highway Patrol (CHP), an off-duty motorcycle officer was involved in a solo vehicle crash on the 405 Freeway in Long Beach where the unnamed officer sustained an elbow injury.

The crash which is under investigation has caused considerable traffic in the area. The LAPD officer was allegedly on his way home and was riding a Department-issued motorcycle at the time of the accident.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, approximately 80 percent of all motorcycle crashes result in injury or death. The high rate of injury and death is mostly attributed to the fact that motorcycles offer virtually no protection in a crash.

Unlike seatbelts, airbags, sturdy roofs, and door beams of cars which offer a measure of protection to its occupants, the best protection motorcycle riders have against death and injury in case of a crash is a motorcycle helmet.

Also, motorcycles are more likely to crash than any other motor vehicle.

Because motorcycles are designed to have high performance capabilities such as maneuverability, agility, ability to stop and swerve quickly, it has sacrificed the stability and protection offered by other vehicles such as a passenger car. Its size also makes it less visible to other vehicles on the road.

No matter how good or skilled a person is in riding a motorcycle – whether as a new rider or someone who rides it for a living, for many motorcycle riders, an accident is pretty much inevitable.

The only thing that would tip the scale between life and death in a motorcycle crash is a helmet. Wearing a federally-approved helmet would decrease the chances of serious head or neck injury by as much as three times.

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