Zachar Law Blog

Halloween Safety Tips: Keep you and your loved ones safe!

Halloween is around the corner.

Neighborhoods will be crowded with costumed ghouls and goblins. Here are a few tips to keep your loved ones safe while trick or treating, and also for those driving on Halloween night.

Remember, Halloween is on a SATURDAY night this year.

For those attending Halloween parties, be safe and be smart.

FOR TRICK-OR-TREATERS:

1. Cross the street only at corners and don’t hide between parked cars. Make sure you look both ways before entering the street.

2. Stay in familiar neighborhoods and only visit houses with lighted porches.

3. If you visit a stranger’s house, accept treats only at the door. Don’t go inside the house.

4. Older kids going it alone should be clear about the time you expect them home

5. Stay in groups of three or more

6. Know where the Block Parent houses are

7. Cross at crosswalks and use the sidewalk

8. Carry a flashlight and batteries and a cell phone, if you have one

9. Try to keep one hand free at all times (for holding handrails or catching yourself if you trip)

10. Trick-or-treat only at homes that are well-lit

11. Don’t enter homes or apartments; the front door is as far as you need to go

12. Don’t use short-cuts through alleys, yards or parks

13. Walk, don’t run. Unseen objects on lawns or uneven terrain are tripping hazards

14. Don’t eat any treats until you’ve inspected them

15. Avoid high-heeled shoes and instead choose sturdy, well-fitting footwear Vandalism is a crime and punishable by the law even for juveniles.

Vandalism is never worth the price you will have to pay if you get caught.

FOR DRIVERS:

A. Slow down in residential neighborhoods.

B. Watch for children walking along roadways and curbs.

C. Enter and exit driveways carefully.

D. Use your vehicle’s headlights, even during the day, so you are visible.

E. When driving children to and from holiday events, have them enter and exit at the curbside of the vehicle only.

F. Don't use a cell phone or other electronic device while driving on Halloween night. You shouldn't be doing this anyway, the rate of cell phone related auto accidents has jumped dramatically since the use of cell phones and texting has risen so high. Some states have already made laws concerning this and others are working on it.

G. Drive below the posted speed limit in residential areas during trick-or-treating hours.

H. Do not pass other vehicles that have stopped in the roadway (i.e. at a crosswalk), they could be dropping off or picking up children.

For many, Halloween is the most fun night of the year. Let’s keep it that way, and safe, by slowing down a little and remembering these safety tips.

Hands-Free tech is still distracting drivers. How dangerous is it?

Hands-free tech is still distracting to drivers, study shows Think Siri is the safest way to use your phone in the car?

AAA urges you to reconsider. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released a study Thursday that states hands-free technology can distract drivers, even when their eyes are looking forward and their hands are on the wheel.

A variety of in-car “infotainment” systems, in addition to voice-activated systems on mobile phones, were tested as part of the study. Many modern cars are equipped with advanced infotainment systems that control navigation, audio and other vehicle functions.

Automakers install hands-free systems that allow drivers to operate infotainment systems with voice commands. iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices offer similar functionality, often used while driving.

The very worst systems caused drivers to be distracted for up to 27 seconds after performing an action, though AAA notes that all systems posed a potential danger to their operators.

Even the best systems could lead a driver to be distracted for 15 seconds after performing an action. To quantify different levels of distraction, AAA used a five point system, with one being considered a "mild distraction" and five a "very high distraction."

AAA provides some examples to better put the points system into context: "A category 1 mental distraction is about the same as listening to the radio or an audio book.

A category 2 distraction is about the same as talking on the phone, while category 3 is equivalent to sending voice-activated texts on a perfect, error-free system.

Category 4 is similar to updating social media while driving, while category 5 corresponds to a highly-challenging, scientific test designed to overload a driver’s attention.

AAA considers anything over a rating of two would constitute a distraction that's "potentially dangerous." A variety of 2015 model cars were tested by 257 drivers, aged 21-70, along with Google's Now, Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana tested by 65 drivers aged 21-68.

For the cars tested, the 2015 Chevrolet Equinox and Buick Lacrosse performed the best, with scores of 2.4, with the Mazda 6's system performing the worst, at 4.6. Google Now was the best phone system with a score of 3.0, followed by Siri at 3.4 and Cortana at 3.8. The findings bolster a conclusion many safety advocates have already arrived at; hands-free is not risk-free.

While a driver might seem to be doing the right thing by keeping eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, the usage of hands-free systems takes the brain away from the task of driving, especially if the systems are difficult to use.

Developers should aim to reduce mental distractions by designing systems that are no more demanding than listening to the radio or an audiobook.

Listening to radio or audiobooks are activities AAA only considers mild distractions. Hands-free systems are seen as a safe way to operate mobile devices while driving, but AAA believes this is a myth and is working to debunk it through research.

While keeping hands on the wheel and eyes looking up is a good thing, perhaps drivers should consider pulling over to safely operate their infotainment.

COMMENT: Hands Free is not Risk free. The capacity to distract without question increases the risks of a motor vehicle collision. Particularly at freeway speeds, people assume traffic will continue flowing. That is a very dangerous mindset.

We are seeing this happen more and more. Phones seem to have become another appendage, attached automatically and at all times, very prevalent in young drivers.

This technology is not going away—ever, so we must find ways to deal with it and use it safely. Even if ONE PERSON at a time, we will continue to educate.

Zachar Law Firm HAS MOVED! Please Note The NEW Address!

We've packed up our boxes and we've moved to a new location! Zachar Law Firm is now located at:

707 East Northern Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85020

Our phone number and fax number remain the same! Starting Monday October 26th, we will be open for business! Be sure to stop by and take a look at the new offices. We hope to see you! If you have a question, please feel free to contact us directly at 602-494-4800. 

 

 

707 E Northern Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85020

Tempe Town Lake Tragedy: What a horrific circumstance

A family of five including three young children are dead after their vehicle crashed into Tempe Town Lake early Sunday. While details of what led to the vehicle plunging into the lake were unclear Sunday afternoon, police said all five occupants of the vehicle drowned.

Tempe police were alerted to the scene near the north end of the Scottsdale Road bridge at 12:15 a.m. Sunday.

They found a silver SUV submerged in water and upside-down. The driver, identified as Glenn Edward Baxter, 27; his wife, Danica, 25; two of their children, son Nazyiah, 2, and daughter Zariyah, 1, were pulled out of the murky depths by police and witnesses who were unaware of another occupant inside.

Rescuers performed CPR until paramedics arrived to transport the four unconscious occupants to the hospital, where all were later pronounced dead.

During the investigation, Tempe police identified Danica Baxter and discovered her 3-year-old son, Reighn, was unaccounted for. Just before 9 a.m., divers discovered the 3-year-old still strapped to his car seat in the back row of the submerged vehicle, in what police described as a "horrible" scene.

Witnesses across the lake on the south side reported seeing the vehicle with its headlights on at the embankment. They said they later heard the crash and saw the vehicle flipped upside-down in the dark water.

Tempe Police do not yet know if Baxter intentionally drove over the embankment. The speed of the vehicle at the time of the incident was also being determined, he said.

"This is a very horrific thing. ... It touches all of us," Pooley said.

"We don't know exactly what happened. We don't know what led the driver to do this."

Authorities remained at the scene throughout Sunday morning trying to determine how or why the car ended up in the lake.

COMMENT: What a horrific circumstance. No less than 3 innocents lost their young lives due to the actions of a reckless act. What are the legal ramifications from here?

The surviving family members who have status under Arizona law can make “wrongful death” claims against the driver of the vehicle, and his/her insurance company.

There is no circumstance where money can make up for the lives lost. There is no amount of money that can truly compensate a family for a lost loved one.

However, under the law, that is all that can be done. I cannot replace the family, but it can help pay for medical bills, funeral and burial expenses, grief counseling and perhaps lost time from work the trying to cope and recover from such a horrific incident.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all affected by this tragedy.

A Tort Law Museum? Why it exists.

Ralph’s Nader's American Tort Museum When Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old grandmother, sued McDonald’s after scalding herself with hot coffee in 1992, she became the butt of countless jokes.

When a jury awarded her $2.7 million in punitive damages, the case was held up as an example of frivolous lawsuits and of juries run amok. In fact, the case was far from frivolous.

Mrs Liebeck needed skin grafts to treat third-degree burns, then only requested the fast-food chain pay her medical expenses. McDonald's said no.

During the trial, it emerged that McDonald’s served its coffee far hotter than home-brewed java. The jury also heard there were 700 other instances of bad burns from McDonald’s coffees served too hot, yet McDonald's did nothing to change their ways nor warn customers.

The jury’s punitive award of $2.7m was roughly the equivalent of two days’ worth of coffee sales. The judge reduced the damages to $480,000.

The case was later settled for an undisclosed amount. Mrs Liebeck’s case became a rallying cry for tort reform, or “tort de-reform” as Ralph Nader puts it. "Tort" law allows anyone with an injury to seek remedy in court.

It covers a wide range of issues, from car accidents to slip and falls to product liability to pollution and from workplace safety to police brutality.

Tort law became a battleground in the 1990s, when businesses became exasperated with monetary damages awarded by juries, so they sought to have laws changed and unfriendly judges removed.

Mr Nader, a consumer-rights advocate and one-time presidential candidate, says the tort-reform lobby has now made it too difficult for people to get their day in court.

His response is one of the strangest museums in the country: A shrine to tort law. The American Museum of Tort Law uses cartoon graphics to explain complicated lawsuits over asbestos and tobacco.

Interactive monitors running old news reports show precedent-setting cases, like Jackie Kennedy Onassis’s lawsuit against a photographer, which placed limits on what paparazzi could do.

A room of killer toys, featuring pointy lawn darts, is a reminder of how dangerous playthings used to be. An antique jukebox tells the tale of how a rat helped trigger a fire in 1949, which killed a worker cleaning a coin-operated machine with petrol.

The museum is in Mr Nader’s hometown of Winsted, Connecticut, a struggling mill town with a population of 11,000. Its centrepiece is a shiny red 1963 Chevrolet Corvair, the focus of Mr Nader’s 1965 book “Unsafe at Any Speed”.

The book led to congressional hearings and a string of car-safety laws. Mr Nader hopes the museum will become a resource for students as well as a tourist draw.

Early visitors included a high-court judge from India and students from China. America’s trial lawyers will hope that it also improves the reputation of tort law.

It exists for an injured victim to seek payment for damages (medical bill, lost wages, property losses) from the people or businesses that cause the harm.

Nothing more, nothing less. If Mr. Nader's museum serves to educate people regarding these concepts---to help them understand that lawsuits are not bad, but only a formal means of resolving disputes, then we tip our hat to him.

Lake Havasu Boat Explosion: What are the answers?

Eight people were injured and five sent to the hospital a boat's engine exploded at Lake Havasu on Saturday night.

The injured family was watching the International Jet Sports Boating Association's jet ski competition on the lake when their engine exploded, sending the engine hatch 20 to 30 feet in the air.

The cause of the explosion is under investigation.

QUESTION: Who can be held responsible?

Generally under Arizona law, the owner of a motorized vehicle is responsible for the safe operation, and for the safety of passengers.

More often than not, these explosion incident are caused by either 1) faulty maintenance or 2) a lack of maintenance.

If through the fault of the owner, the liability insurance policy for the boat will provide for the payment of the medical bills of the injured people, as well as compensation for pain and suffering.

If through the fault of a marine shop where the boast is serviced, then attention will be directed there for payment of the injured victims’ damages.

Boat explosion cases often require a thorough investigation with the right experts.

Careful attention is needed very early on to make sure that evidence doesn’t get lost or destroyed, which could hard a victim’s ability to make and prove a claim.

If you or a loved one or friend is a victim, look quickly for an attorney who is experienced in boat explosion cases.

Look for an Arizona Certified Specialist in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Law.

Timing is important here, and an investigation is key. Take care of your family, but protect your rights.

 

What happens if you’re hurt at a haunted house?

 

Halloween season is among us. With that, there are many haunted houses that are open, and thousands of people will make their way through them.

Haunted houses can be a fun way to spend an evening, but what happens if you're injured while in a haunted house? Who's liable?

Do you have a right to bring a claim?

There are many different variables involved here. Let’s explore the law in Arizona.

First, whenever you are injured on another’s property as a result of a condition on the property, it is called “premises liability”.

When you buy a ticket for a haunted house and enter, you are considered a “business invitee”. An invitee is entitled to expect that an owner will use reasonable care to make the place safe for his/her use.

A landowner is required to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition and has a duty to protect invitees from conditions that can result in injury.

While a landowner generally has a lesser duty to protect invitees from “open and obvious” dangers, a landowner owner may still owe a duty to protect an invitee if the risk of harm remains unreasonable.

Further, a landowner must take steps to determine the actual condition of the land in advance, looking for any dangers that might exist, and which he foresees that might not be discoverable to the average person.

If a dangerous condition exists, the owner has three obligations:

1) Fix the condition so it is not dangerous, 2) safeguard the condition in some way to protect his customer or 3) warn the customer of the danger.

Keep in mind, Arizona law makes it clear that a landowner is not a ‘guarantor” of safety. An invitee is not protected against all hazards, nor relieved of all duty to care for his/her own safety.

Certainly, in a haunted house, you assume some risk of harm, and under Arizona law, an owner may not be liable for minor imperfections which are commonly encountered in haunted houses.

An owner’s duty to keep premises safe for invitees generally applies to defects or conditions which are in the nature of hidden dangers, traps, snares or pitfalls that are not known to an invitee, and would not be observed by him/her in the exercise of ordinary care.

Halloween is a great time of the year and haunted houses seem more popular every year.

As long as you understanding what you are doing and the risks that accompany a haunted house, you will likely be just fine.

It is the unexpected that makes it fun, but “unexpected” should not concern a danger that the owner knows of and should fix, safeguard or warn you about.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

 

Body-donation company owner pleads guilty in Arizona

The owner of an Arizona company that arranged for the donation of bodies for medicine and research pleaded guilty Wednesday to a felony charge for his role in mishandling the donations.

Stephen Gore pleaded guilty in a Phoenix courtroom to a charge of illegally conducting an enterprise after his company, Biological Resource Center of Arizona, was the subject of a two-year investigation.

The 48-year-old businessman acknowledged his firm provided vendors with human tissue that was contaminated and used in ways that went against the wishes of the donors.

The company's body donation facility in Phoenix was raided by authorities wearing hazardous material gear in January 2014. He faces between 2 1/2 years to 7 years in prison.

Gore also agreed to pay $120,000 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Defense, which had arranged to use bodies from the business for research but was ultimately was unable to use them.

Jennifer Caines, whose brother's body was donated to medical research after his December 2012 death, tearfully described her unease in not knowing what Gore's business did with her brother's remains.

"We were trying to do a really good thing in a bad situation, and instead it's just going to continue non-stop forever," Caines said outside court.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, whose office prosecuted Gore, said there's a continuing federal investigation into Gore's businesses and other such companies. "We feel like this is one step on the road to justice," Brnovich said of Wednesday's plea.

The number of people whose family members' remains were mishandled by the Phoenix firm was unavailable.

Authorities say the remains have been returned to some families, while others await the return of the remains.

The Arizona Attorney General's Office sent a letter announcing Gore's upcoming guilty plea to about 1,000 people. That figure includes survivors of donors and others who called a hot line to inquire about whether their donation was handled properly.

Cadaver donation companies distribute remains to universities, medical device manufacturers and drug companies. The companies pay the associated costs and use the bodies for medical education and research, and families save burial or cremation costs.

It is illegal to sell human tissue without permission of families. "Nonconsensual appropriation" of human body parts, including tissues, bones, heart valves and other substances unique in value to the human body.

There have been a good number of cases where families of donated loved ones have filed civil lawsuits for the unlawful and unpermitted desecration of their family members.

The cause of action is recognized in the civil courts, and damages awarded are often substantial, as a result of the wrongful conduct being motivated by pure greed, and the emotional harm being severe to families who discover what has happened to their loved ones.

If you have a claim for something horrific like this, there is little doubt you need to find an experienced attorney to help you.

Find an experienced personal injury/wrongful death attorney. Find a Certified Specialist in Injury/Wrongful Death.

Valley ranks third in nation for deadly accidents. Why?

Driving in the Valley could be one of the most dangerous things you do.

When it comes to cities with the most deadly accidents, cities in the Valley combined rank third in the nation, according to information by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The ranking looked at total number of fatal accidents, not the number of deaths. Topping the list is New York, followed by Los Angeles.

It is alarming to say the least. ASU professor of geographical sciences and urban planning Michael Kuby: “Arizona has the most lax distracted driver laws in the country.”

To see us right behind New York and Los Angeles, when we're a much smaller metropolitan area, means that our rate per million people is actually three to four times higher.

The Maricopa Association of Governments says that lack of funding is an issue.

Sarath Joshua said they are finalizing a strategic plan on transportation safety.

"We've identified that we need about $8 million a year," Joshua said. Joshua said the area is only guaranteed about $1.9 million a year by ADOT, the rest of funding they have to compete for.

Joshua said that is even though 45 percent of traffic deaths in the state happen in this region. Joshua said the fixes are more dollars, better technology for cities, state agencies and car companies.

But Joshua said those are longer term fixes and what we can do right now is simple.

"Driver behavior speaks to a big chunk of the crash causation," Joshua said. He said about 95 percent of the crashes are caused by driver associated errors and behavior.

"More immediate measures are law enforcement and education," Joshua said. Joshua also said the way transportation funds are divided in the state is about to change in 2019, so he said they're hopeful a new process might be able to get the area more funding.

OK. HERE WE GO. NOT ROCKET SCIENCE EVERYONE: PASS A NEW LAW THAT PROHIBITS TEXTING AND ALL FORMS OF DISTRACTED DRIVING!!!!

As usual,government is looking for a fix that will not work.

They are looking to throw money at a problem that money will not fix. A distracted driving law will not cost a thing.

It will also have an immediate impact on driver attitudes—which Professor Kuby agrees is one of the huge problems in this equation. PASS the new law---PERIOD!!!!!