Last Monday evening, a 95-year old driver perished in an accident when his car was involved in a head-on collision with a bus.

The elderly Porterville man was driving westbound in his 1995 Pontiac on Road 296 when he inexplicably drifted into the eastbound lanes. He crashed into the bus driven by Cheryl Lyn Seitz, 48, of Porterville.

He was taken to Community Regional Medical Center where he died. Three bus passengers, David Johnson, 41, and Angela Roberts, 38, of Lindsay, and Luz Carrillo, 34, of Porterville suffered minor injuries and were taken Sierra View District Hospital for treatment.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there were 26 million Americans aged 70 years old and older living in the United States — approximately 67 percent these were also drivers. Now that baby boomers are fast becoming old, the growing number of elderly drivers now presents a serious road safety concern.

While elderly people do not get involved in as many crashes as teenagers, a number of them still lose their lives in fatal crashes. In 2008, as many as 4,268 people aged 70 and above were killed in motor vehicle crashes.

The main reason for fatality rates however, was the elderly driver’s fragility. Fragility or their risk of death in a crash increases around ages 60-64 and continues to rise with increasing age.

As drivers age, their physical, cognitive, and visual abilities may also decline. Most often, their vision starts to become impaired and they have slower reflexes. Also, many older drivers take medications for various age-related ailments. Medicine, whether prescription or over the counter, can impair driving ability at any age but can be especially impairing for an older driver.

So if you are an elderly driver, or know someone who continues to drive despite their old age and condition, it would be best to undergo screening the next time the license is to be renewed. It also isn’t advisable to take medication right before driving as some drugs can cause drowsiness and even trigger a DUI-related accident.

There is no general rule regarding elderly drivers being allowed to drive as long as they are able, therefore, it would be up to you, whether as the elderly driver or his/her family, to take appropriate measures to ensure that there is no road safety risk to avoid causing accidents.

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This just goes to show that even professional and record-breaking Tour De Force champion bicyclists like Lance Armstrong can get involved in a bicycle accident.

"Lance Armstrong injured in tour of California." (photo credit: examiner.com)

Earlier this week, Armstrong, who was in the Tour of California, was sent to the hospital after being injured in a bicycle crash. The accident happened on a two-lane road outside Visalia, when one of the riders in the main group skidded on gravel and fell, which triggered a chain crash accident.

Armstrong allegedly tried to get back into the race but had to quit because of an injury below his left eye and a wound in his elbow that kept him from holding on too long to the bars of his bike.

Precautionary X-rays were taken and aside from eight stitches below his left eye, Armstrong was fine.

Learning how to ride a bike may be easy, the hard part is how to safely ride one.

These days, heavily congested roads have forced people to resort to using motorcycles and bicycles for their transportation. Riding bicycles are certainly more environment-friendly and fuel-efficient but staying safe on the streets while riding a bike can be a challenge.

Sometimes, when there are no bicycle lanes, cars, SUVs, trucks, motorcycles and bicycles would have to share the road and this has been the cause of many bicycle accidents that have injured or killed thousands of people.

If Lance Armstrong got into a bicycle accident, the odds are, ordinary bikers riding for pleasure, exercise and transportation are even more likely to take a spill on the road sooner or later. So in the meantime, here are some bicycle safety tips:

•    Get a headlight and a rear light for your bicycle especially if you ride during the evenings.
•    Wear bright and/or reflective clothing.
•    Try to avoid busy streets as much as possible, most car drivers will be too busy or distracted to notice you.
•    Take the whole lane when you ride, or at least ride a little bit to the left, rather than stay on the right curb.
•    Never move left or make a turn without checking your area.

If you ride your bicycle safely and follow all of the above-mentioned tips but still get involved in an accident, you may file a personal injury claim especially if the other driver was negligent. Because just as you have the duty to be careful and diligent, so do the other motorists on the road.

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Every day, almost 12 people are killed in pedestrian and motor vehicle collisions according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Traffic Safety Facts. California is one of the top four states, including New York, Florida and Texas, in pedestrian fatalities.

In San Diego, a pedestrian suffered serious head injuries after he was struck by a Jaguar while crossing Federal Boulevard near Euclid Avenue in Webster.

According to the police, the accident happened shortly after 9:30 in the evening when the man suddenly stepped out from between two parked cars and walked right into oncoming traffic.

The Jaguar, which was driven by a man in his 30’s failed to stop his car in time from hitting the pedestrian. Police say that the pedestrian was drunk.

While drivers have the duty to exercise due diligence in operating their vehicles and to yield to drivers, pedestrians and bicycles who have the right of way – similarly, pedestrians have the same duty to exercise care and diligence on the road.

In a 2002 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) study, pedestrians were judged to be more at fault in most pedestrian and car collisions than drivers. Most were always judged culpable in midblock and intersection dash crashes – the collision wherein a pedestrian appears suddenly in the path of a vehicle.

Also, aside from walking right into traffic or vehicles and failure to follow traffic signals, intoxicated pedestrians are also a traffic safety problem.

Based on IIHS statistics, alcohol is also a major factor in pedestrian accidents – with drunk pedestrians more to blame than drunk drivers. As much as 54 percent of pedestrians aged 16 and above who were fatally injured in nighttime crashes (9 p.m. to 6 a.m.) had high BACs.

Drunk, distracted, and impaired drivers are usually held liable for pedestrian deaths and injuries. But in situations where the roles are reversed, when the pedestrian himself is careless, distracted or drunk, there can be no valid personal injury or wrongful death claim.

Accidents can be costly, especially if you alone will bear the price for your negligence or folly.

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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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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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