Archive for May, 2009

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Attorney Habbas Hired in Excessive Force Case

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Personal Injury Attorney Samer Habbas was recently hired in an excessive force case against the Riverside police.

Acevedo’s family has hired attorney Samer Habbas to begin investigating if excessive force was used.

Habbas said the preliminary report from the Riverside County coroner’s office showed Acevedo had been shocked twice and suffered multiple scratches and cuts on the head and face and multiple bruises and cuts to the arms and legs.

He called the incident tragic, saying that most of it happened in front of Acevedo’s girlfriend and mother and that he had a 2-year-old and 4-year-old.

Riverside police give version of man’s death while in in custody.

New Motorcycle Crash Study Stalled for Cash

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

According to the Los Angeles Times, Southern California’s pilot study of motorcycle accidents has stalled for lack of funding. The pilot program, the first in over twenty years, has successfully collected data from over 50 motorcycle accidents.

The next phase of the project is an assessment of its effectiveness. Unfortunately, that next step may never come due to funding issues. Currently the study is short at least two million dollars. The last major study of motorcycle accident data in the United States was completed in 1981.

For now, law makers and safety experts will have to be satisfied with the data gathered from a decade old European study. The Motorcycle Accident In-Depth Study (MAIDS) gathered information from motorcycle crashes in Europe. The study was updated with information from five countries and focused on fatal motorcycle crashes.

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Making a Safer Playground

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

AthleticNews.com discusses the efforts of communities and states to make safer playgrounds. According to the article, over 200,000 children are treated in emergency rooms for injuries suffered on America’s playgrounds. Serious head injuries, concussions and even catastrophic brain injury can result from slips and falls on asphalt and other surfaces that were once routinely used to cover playgrounds.

Thanks to advances in material science, modern playgrounds are becoming a little safer.

Synthetic materials, such as polyurethane-bound shredded plastic, synthetic rubber tiles and other advanced products represent a high tech approach to mitigating the dangers of playground injuries. On the low-tech end of the spectrum, rounded sand, pea gravel and shredded wood chips provide a forgiving playground surface for children.

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Medical Malpractice Settlement for $135,000

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Samer Habbas settled a medical malpractice claim against a dialysis center for a client who was injured after the completion of her dialysis treatment.  After the treatment, client was instructed to walk over and weigh herself on a scale.  As she stepped on the scale, she fell and fractured her ankle.  Case settled in mediation.

Accident Tax at the Center of Capitol Debate

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

When the fire department responds to an auto accident caused by a nonlocal driver, who should foot the bill? That question is in the air around the capitol, thanks to a move by auto insurers and other groups to stop local governments from levying fees for emergency services.

The controversial fees, which are being implemented by several local California governments, charge at-fault nonlocal drivers for fire and other emergency services. The reasoning behind the proposals is that local residents pay for their emergency services through property taxes, while nonresidents who cause accidents are effectively getting services for free.

Opponents of the proposals are lobbying at the state capitol to put an end to the practice. According to insurers and other special interests trying to block the action, these fees for service effectively charge drivers twice-once for property taxes in their home communities and again through insurance premium increases.

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