Riverside County Personal Injury Law Blog

Landlords in California have certain responsibilities when it comes to how properties are kept up. But are landlords also responsible for activities of tenants that may be illegal or unsafe? This was the question at the center of a case involving an eighteen-year-old individual who died from a drug overdose while at a property owned by another individual. A complaint filed by the decedent's parents alleges that the property owner should have taken steps to keep the house in "reasonably safe" condition.

This premises liability case raises several legal questions. An argument can be made that a property owner would assume the role of police officer if they had to report all suspicious or potentially harmful activities going on within properties they are renting or leasing. There's also the question of whether or not the a landlord who knew of such activities would be obligated to report them or legally responsible in the event of someone staying at the property being harmed.

Many drivers in California remain suspicious of self-driving vehicle technology. This may be because Tesla has developed its technology in a regulatory vacuum. While a research paper from the University of Michigan last year suggests that self-driving cars should be test-driven for 11 billion miles before they can be determined safe, Tesla has hardly reached this number. Its Autopilot program has recently been running into problems.

A Utah accident this May even provoked critical comments on social media both from the Tesla CEO and the company's supporters. The substance of these comments has made some even more suspicious of where Tesla's priorities lie. The accident was minor in terms of impact; the driver of a Tesla Model S crashed into a fire truck and survived with a broken ankle. While the Autopilot was on, she crashed because she was looking at her phone.

While car accidents can occur anywhere in California, a study found that they occur more frequently in the southern part of the state. In fact, the study discovered that the Devonshire and Reseda intersection in Northridge was the most deadly and dangerous intersection in the state.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, there were more than 36,000 deadly car accidents that occurred across the nation in 2016. It was estimated that about 10 percent of those accidents occurred in the state of California. A review of the numbers found that a majority of California's accidents occurred in the southern part of the state, which includes Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, Orange County, Riverside County and San Diego County.

Drivers and passengers in California who buckle up tend to fare better when crashes occur, especially in regard to liver injuries. A research study of 51,202 liver injury car accident cases from 2010 to 2015 revealed that adult victims who wore seat belts generally experienced liver injuries of less severity and their chances of survival improved.

People wearing seat belts endured severe liver damage 21 percent less often than crash victims who did not wear seat belts. When a seat belt was worn and airbags were present, people had a 26 percent lower chance of serious liver injuries. Among more than 50,000 people with liver injuries as a result of a car crash, those with severe liver injuries were twice as likely to die as those with mild or moderate liver injuries. Severe liver injuries resulted in surgery for 14 percent of patients. Mild liver injuries by contrast only required 5 percent of people to have surgeries.