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A pickup truck crashed into a train after it was rear-ended by another vehicle in Hanford. (Video capture: CBS News)

Train accident: A pickup truck driver was injured Monday when a car rear-ended him and caused him to crash into a train in Hanford.

•   A pickup truck was stopped in the fog, at a railroad crossing. The crossing arms down and the lights flashing.

•   A car come up behind the truck and crashed into it, pushing the truck through the crossing and into a moving freight train.

•   The truck driver escaped with relatively minor injuries.

The accident occurred at about 8 a.m. in dense fog, according to a report in the Fresno Bee.

California Highway Patrol Officer Jerry Pierce said a 1995 GMC Sonoma pickup truck driven 26-year-old Laton resident Alonso Lopez stopped for a train at a railroad crossing at Kansas and South 10th avenues.

The crossing arms were down and the lights were flashing at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad crossing, the Hanford Sentinel reported.

While the truck was stopped, 21-year-old Catalina Audelos of Corcoran approached the crossing. With visibility of about 200 feet, Audelos apparently did not see the truck soon enough and crashed into it from behind.

The impact pushed the pickup truck  through the crossing and into the side of the moving freight train.

Lopez suffered facial lacerations and other “minor injuries.”  Audelos complained of neck pain.

The CHP did not say how fast Audelos was traveling when she slammed into the pickup truck. The accident is under investigation.

 Ask the Personal Injury Lawyer:

What is a minor injury?

Police and firefighter classifications of “minor injuries” can be misleading. Even a so-called “minor” injury may be far more serious than it initially appears and can have a major impact on the victim’s life. Some injuries aren’t even evident until days or weeks after an accident.

Injuries that are designated as “minor” may include whiplash, strains, sprains, lacerations, and bone fractures. All of these types of injuries may vary in severity.

* Whiplash, for example, is neck injury caused by sudden jerking or “whipping” of the head, as often occurs in car accidents, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It may not be noticed for several days, yet it can cause stiffness and numbness in the head, neck, back, shoulders, and arms. The initial symptoms may appear to go away and then return for months or even years, according to the NIH report.

* Strains and sprains are soft tissue injuries. Strains can cause pain, muscle spasms, swelling, and trouble moving the muscle, according to the NIH. Sprains involve pain, swelling, bruising, and being unable to move the joint. Initial treatment often requires taking time off work to rest the injury, sometimes followed by longer-term physical therapy.

* Lacerations include cuts, tears, and puncture wounds. A variety of factors determine how quickly a laceration may heal. Infection is always a risk with a laceration, and this risk can be particularly dangerous for diabetics. Even minor lacerations may cause permanent scars.

* Bone fractures are very common in car accidents. They can be extremely painful, and may involve swelling, bruising, or bleeding as well as numbness, tingling, and the inability to move a limb. Some fractures require surgery to implant plates, pins, or screws to keep the bone in place. The impact of a fracture on daily activities is immediate and often disabling. Follow-up surgery and physical therapy may stretch the recovery period to months.

Hanford Car Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented car accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

A wrong-way driver caused a car accident on the San Tomas Expressway in San Jose.

Car accident: A wrong-way driver was killed and another was seriously injured Saturday night in a head-on collision on the San Tomas Expressway in San Jose.

•   A driver crossed the center divider of a busy expressway and continues to drive in the wrong direction.

•  The wrong-way driver slammed head-on into an oncoming vehicle.

•   The wrong-way driver died at the scene. The other driver was hospitalized.

The wrong-way crash occurred at about 9 p.m., according to a report on the San Jose Patch news site.

The California Highway Patrol said 69-year-old Jesus Huerta of San Jose was driving a 1990 Honda northbound on San Tomas Expressway when he crossed  the center divider into the southbound lanes and continued to drive the wrong way.

Just north of Williams Road, the Honda crashed head-on into an oncoming 2010 Toyota, which was traveling southbound at about 45 miles per hour.

Huerta died at the scene.

The driver of the Toyota, 68-year-old Campbell resident Yong Ling Shiao, suffered serious injuries and was taken to Valley Medical Center in San Jose, according to an update in the San Jose Mercury News. The CHP said Shiao was exected to survive, but did not release any further information about the nature or severity of the injuries.

Authorities did not know what caused Huerta to drive onto the wrong side of the expressway. The accident is under investigation.

Ask the Personal Injury Lawyer:

What happens when the driver who is at fault dies in the accident?

Sometimes in a serious accident the individual who caused the crash suffers fatal injuries. Can the innocent victim still make a claim?

The answer is yes. The case survives even when the wrongdoer doesn’t. The insurance carrier for the car that the wrongdoer was driving remains liable for damages. If that policy does not have enough coverage, additional compensation may be sought via Underinsured Motorist coverage from the insurance carrier for the vehicle in which the innocent victim was a driver or passenger.

If a lawsuit is necessary, it would be filed against the estate of the wrongdoer. If there is no estate, then the injured party can force an estate to be set up to handle the lawsuit.

San Jose Car Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented car accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

A 78-year-old man was killed in a pedestrian accident in Yuba City.

Police are awaiting toxicology reports in a pedestrian accident that took the life of a 78-year-old man Sunday in Yuba City.

•  An elderly man was crossing the street when he was struck and killed by a pickup truck.

•   Details of the accident are still under investigation.

•   Police said alcohol was not suspected to be a factor, but they are awaiting toxicology reports.

The fatal pedestrian accident occurred at about 5:30 p.m., according to a report in the Appeal-Democrat.

The Yuba City Police Department said 78-year-old  Antonio Jimenez of Yuba City was walking across Gray Avenue at Forbes Avenue when he was struck by a 1998 Dodge pickup truck driven by 35-year-old Dave Roda, also  of Yuba City.

Jimenez died at the scene.

Police said alcohol was not suspected to be a factor in the accident, but Sgt. Michael Green said that the accident is still under investigation. Toxicology test results could take more than a week to process, Greene said.

Pedestrian Accident Statistics

More than 4,000 pedestrians are killed every year — 11 every day — after being struck by motor vehicles, according to the latest National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistics. An additional 59,000 are seriously injured.

The latest NHTSA figures show that:

• 69 percent of pedestrians killed in 2009 were males.
• Almost three out of every four pedestrian fatalities occur in urban areas (72 percent).
• The top four states for pedestrian fatalities are California, Florida, Texas, and New York. These four states make up 41 percent of pedestrian fatalities nationwide while only accounting for 5 percent of the total traffic fatalities across the country.
• Nearly one-half (48 percent) of all pedestrian fatalities occurred on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday — 70 percent occur at night (4 p.m. to 4 a.m.).

Alcohol is a major factor in pedestrian deaths, according to the non-profit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). In 2009, 37 percent of fatally injured pedestrians 16 and older had blood alcohol concentrations at or above the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Fifteen percent of drivers involved in pedestrian deaths had blood alcohol levels at or above the legal limit.

Yuba City Pedestrian Accident Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully represented pedestrian accident victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.

Federal inspectors cited Harbor UCLA Medical center for unsafe conditions in operating rooms.

Poorly maintained premises: Federal inspectors found multiple safety violations in the operating rooms at Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, according to a report cited Saturday by the Los Angeles Times.

•   Harbor UCLA Medical Center is under fire from both federal and state officials for a variety of health and safety violations that could lead to infection or even death.

•   The 48-year-old building has a variety of problems, but he hospital staff also is to blame, inspectors said.

•   The county-operated hospital could lose Medicaid funding if the safety violations are not corrected right away. 

Inspectors said the health care facility ”has failed to keep its operating rooms clean and safe and to protect its patients from possible infection,” the Times reported.

The inspection was completed earlier this year, but the report was just released a few days ago. During the probe, officials found holes in the ceilings, dust and clutter in the rooms, and a humidity level that can lead to the spread of germs.  To make matters worse, the inspectors said, hospital staff members weren’t washing their hands as they should.

The infection control problems were so bad that the federal government threatened to revoke the county-operated facility’s Medicaid funding. If that were to happen, the hospital would probably have to shut down.

The hospital’s new chief executive, Delvecchio Finley, said the medical center had already submitted its plan to correct the problems and has addressed all of the federal inspectors’ concerns. The facility now does weekly audits of infection-control risks and had provided more staff education on hand washing. But the building itself will continue to face problems because it was built almost a half-century ago.

The “decrepit” state of the hospital is not news to county officials, county supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said. ”It was known that the current conditions were simply unacceptable,” he told the Times.

A new $323 million, 190,000-square-foot surgical center and emergency room is being constructed at the site. It is expected to open in 2013. In the meantime, however, hospital officials admit that the facility will continue to have safety issues. That’s bad news for the 80,600 patients who visit the emergency room every year, especially since Harbor-UCLA is the only trauma center in the area.

And it gets worse. The building’s safety issues are just the tip of the iceberg. Human errors also are a big problem. The California Department of Public Health fined the hospital four times in 2008 and 2009 for medical errors that put patients at risk of serious injury or death.

“In one of those cases, a mix-up in labeling caused the wrong patient to have his prostate removed,” the Times reported. “In another, a sponge was inadvertently left in a patient’s abdomen during an operation.”

In another case, a pedestrian accident victim died in the facility after nurses failed to monitor his condition, health department officials said.

Los Angeles Healthcare Facility Injury Lawyers

The trial attorneys at Blackman Legal Group, a California-based law firm founded by renowned trial attorney Clifford Blackman, have successfully protected the rights of healthcare facility injury victims and their families for 35 years. The nationwide toll-free number to call for a free consultation is 1-866-692-8126.