Bullhead City Personal Injury Law Blog

Yet another early morning Arizona car accident has resulted in death and serious injuries. The Phoenix collision occurred in the first hour of a weekday morning in mid April. One person died in the car accident, another suffered serious injuries and a pregnant woman suffered unspecified injuries.

The early evidence suggests that a car ran a red light at a Phoenix intersection. The car collided with a pickup truck, throwing its driver from the cab and causing his death. The pickup, in turn, collided with a third vehicle. A pregnant woman, said to be 22 years of age, occupied that vehicle. She was transported to a hospital, though Arizona authorities indicated that she appears to have escaped serious injury.

Two wheeled vehicles have their own sets of problems. The risk of a bicycle or motorcycle accident on Arizona roadways can come from something as small as a rock or a larger obstacle that threatens a rider's balance. A bicycle accident last summer in Tucson is being blamed on new streetcar tracks in the city. The seriously injured woman has notified the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) as well as the city's transit service of her intention to sue.

A local safety alliance says there have been as many as 30 bicycle accidents attributable to the streetcar tracks. None, however, were reportedly as serious as the one that caused a brain injury to an Arizona woman in Aug. 2012. On her bike, she was turning at an intersection when her wheel got stuck in the spacing between the tracks and the roadway, causing her to crash. Her claim asserts that she is permanently disabled, and she seeks a settlement of $3 million as reimbursement for damages suffered.

All too often, we read media reports of an Arizona auto accident where a driver leaves the scene of a crash involving personal injuries. In addition to violating the law, those individuals appear to have placed their own self interest ahead of any car accident victims. A recent collision in Yavapai County underscores the point.

The car accident occurred near Jerome on the first Wednesday in April. Two vehicles were said to be involved, a car and a pickup truck. It was not immediately clear how the vehicles came into contact, although authorities reported that each sustained driver's side damage.

While all Arizona motorists owe a duty of reasonable care to others on our roadways, that duty is not always honored. While the law and common decency require us to be on the lookout for fellow travelers, we also have the responsibility to safeguard ourselves. Defensive driving has saved a good number of people from a car accident resulting from a sudden change in circumstances. Unfortunately, even the most alert drivers sometimes simply find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. That may explain what happened in one recent crash that proved fatal for a driver in Scottsdale.

The car accident occurred in mid-March on a Thursday afternoon. A driver was headed east on the Loop 101 Freeway when a ladder fell onto the freeway from a vehicle ahead. The driver quickly maneuvered to avoid the ladder. A multiple vehicle crash ensued that involved at least three other vehicles, one of which caught on fire after being crushed. The driver that initially sought to avoid colliding with the fallen ladder was killed.