A man in Oregon has his neighbors to thank for saving his life this past weekend. Scott Lakey was doing work under his truck when it rolled off the ramps he had it set up on. It landed on Lakey’s chest, crushing him. Lakey was stuck with three broken ribs, unable to move and feeling like he was drifting in and out of consciousness. He remained that way for ten minutes, before his next-door neighbor Jose Cervantes noticed Lakey yelling for help. He grabbed some friends and rushed to the rescue.

The people responsible for helping Lakey lifted his truck off of him, while the others pulled him out from underneath it. Lakey said that they saved his life. While he was trapped under his truck, he could only think about his daughters and now he needed to get out so that he could take care of them. Cervantes said that it felt good to help Lakey out.

If you are doing maintenance on your vehicle, make sure that you are not alone, even if it is just routine. You want to make sure that someone is there to help or call for help if the worst should happen. Take all precautions, including setting blocks behind your tires to prevent your vehicle from rolling.

The post Oregon Man Saved by Neighbors | Seattle Auto Accident Attorney appeared first on .

We Seattleites are no strangers to the infamous Mercer Mess. “Mess” may just be an understatement. With construction happening since what seems like forever ago, and expected to continue until the middle of 2015, we’re used to the catastrophic Mercer Street, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Today’s commute is expected to be even worse than it was over the weekend, so prepare accordingly. We recommend avoiding Mercer at all costs if possible, but if you can’t, here are some things KOMO News recommends keeping in mind:

• Mercer Street is now reduced to two eastbound lanes between 4th Avenue and 9th Avenue
• There is only local access on Taylor Avenue
• Between 5th and Dexter, the sidewalk on the north side of Mercer has been closed
• Broad Street to I-5 is again open to traffic both ways
• The ramp from SR 99 to Mercer Street is closed indefinitely

Please be safe when driving through the mess! Road closures and detours can often be confusing, and can be dangerous if you’re not paying close attention.

The post Mondays Mercer Mess | Seattle Auto Accident Lawyer appeared first on .

Yet another driver has fallen victim to a police chase car accident that they were never originally a part of. The crash occurred just after 10:30 last night in Lacey after a 35-year-old woman ran a stop sign in an intersection. A deputy then attempted to pull her over, and conduct a field sobriety test. He asked the woman to exit her vehicle, but instead she remained in her car and drove off. The deputy returned to his patrol car and a chase ensued.

The woman was speeding away in an attempt to escape the deputy. She came to a four-way stop and neglected to stop her vehicle, causing her to crash into the side of an innocent man’s car. The man was identified as a 41-year-old from Lacey. He was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center. Details about his current condition have not been released. The suspect was also taken to a hospital for her injuries, which were minor. She is suspected of being under the influence of alcohol. Charges of vehicular assault have been filed and other charges are pending as well. As soon as she is released from the hospital, the woman will most likely be sent to jail.

We wish the victim a fast recovery. It’s upsetting that not only did this woman put her own life in danger, but she also put all other drivers on the road at-risk. Do not drink and drive. You may think you can get away with it, but you will not. You could easily end up hurting someone and landing yourself in the hospital AND jail.

The post Man Airlifted to Hospital After Being Struck by Suspected Drunk Driver | Seattle Auto Accident Lawyer appeared first on .

A woman recently picked up a pedestrian who had been hit by a drunk driver from the side of the road, put him in her car and then drove him to the hospital. “Aw, that’s nice,” you might think. Think again. The same woman is the person who had hit the 22-year-old student at the University of New Hampshire. She then lied about it, claiming she had just found him on the side of the road and was being a good Samaritan.

38-year-old Michelle Blain was driving her Toyota Rav 4 when she hit the victim, Hieu Nguyen. She then put him in her car and transported him to a nearby hospital. Nguyen had no recollection of the accident, but was luckily not critically injured. He was released from the hospital the same day he was hit after being treated for minor injuries.

Now Blain is facing charges of negligent driving, aggravated driving while intoxicated, and unsworn falsification and conduct after an accident. She could lose her license for a year and a half in addition to other punishments. To top off the whole series of bad decisions by Blain, she had a 27-year-old man come to pick her up from the police station. He showed up drunk and was arrested for drunk driving as well.

The post Drunk Woman Drives Injured Pedestrian to Hospital | Seattle Auto Accident Lawyer appeared first on .

Having a doctor that you can rely on and trust to take care of you professionally is great. After all, your health is the most important thing in your life. But one doctor took his connection with a patient too far. Dr. Mitchell Cohen of Seattle is being charged with unprofessional conduct. The Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commission pressed charges after Cohen sent a Facebook friend request to a patient whom he had just performed a colonoscopy on two days before. A colonoscopy is an especially intimate procedure.

Cohen’s office is on First Hill. The woman who he had performed the colonoscopy on was in her 30s. She reportedly works in the news and entertainment industry. Cohen insisted that he looked her up because he felt curious about her what she did for a living, and that she was not the first patient he had looked up.

For now, Cohen is still free to practice medicine, but could face punishment as severe as the revoking of his doctor’s license. The Commission said that Cohen has “violated a boundary and took advantage of the doctor-patient relationship.”

It is important to think about how your actions will be received when on social media. If you have to think twice before doing something, you probably shouldn’t do it. Once it’s on the Internet, it’s there forever.

The post Facebooking Doctor Violates Doctor-Patient Relationship | Seattle Civil Rights Lawyer appeared first on .

When you’re in a car accident, you depend on two things to save your life: your seatbelt and your airbags. Oftentimes, those are the things that can mean the difference between injuries and fatalities. That is why the discovery of a man selling counterfeit airbags is so disturbing. A man in Vancouver, WA has pleaded guilty to distributing almost 1,000 airbags from China through the website eBay. 25-year-old Vitaliy Yaremkiv sold his conterfeit airbags to independent garages. He ran a business called Vital Auto Parts and Sales from his home, and made over $137,000 by selling the airbags, which garages are believed to have unknowingly installed in several vehicles.

Yaremkiv could be sentenced to a maximum of ten years in prison, and must pay the $137,000 he made through the sales of the airbags to Honda Motors Corporation and Toyota Motors Corporation. But, it’s scary to think how those fake airbags are in people’s cars without them knowing they are counterfeit. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has estimated that over 18,000 people have their airbags to thank for being alive today. It is unknown whether the owners of those vehicles with the counterfeit airbags will be able to be tracked down and notified so that they can get proper replacements.

The post Counterfeit Airbags Sold by Man in Vancouver | Seattle Auto Accident Lawyer appeared first on .

With teens and young adults practically glued to their phones these days, it’s easy to point fingers when it comes to distracted driving. After all, they practically grew up with the technology. But, guess what: they’re not the only ones that are distracted. And they may not even be the most distracted. So who’s there competition? Parents.

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably experienced being a distracted driver. In fact, it’s most likely a part of your daily life, whether you like to admit it or not. With kids in the backseat, how can you not be distracted? If it’s not one thing, it’s another. The University of Michigan conducted a survey of over 600 parents. They asked questions about driving distractions such as talking on their cell phones and using the entertainment system.

A startling 75% of parents had phone conversations when driving. 20% of them conducted phone calls on every single trip they made. 70% tended to the care of their children, 25% of them on every trip. Thankfully, the least common activity was texting. Only 15% did that, and only 1% on every trip. Of course, we would like to see those numbers down to 0.

The researchers at Michigan found that phone-using parents were more than two times as likely to have previously been involved in a car crash. Obviously we don’t want you to completely ignore your children when driving, but if they require your complete attention while driving, make the smart choice and pull into a safe spot to tend to them. Multitasking should not be done behind the wheel.

The post Parents: Keep Your Eyes on the Road, Not the Backseat | Seattle Auto Accident Lawyer appeared first on .

A couple of weeks ago, we reported the story of a bicyclist who was killed on East Marginal Way South when he was involved in a collision with a semi-truck. That accident caught the attention of Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn. Now, he has proposed to commit $3.25 million to improving conditions for cyclists in the city, especially where the cyclist, 54-year-old Lance David, was killed on May 1. The improvements will take place if the City Council approves plans. The mayor insists that the changes will be beneficial not only to cyclists, but to drivers and pedestrians as well.

The $3.25 budget would be split amongst five different projects. $900,000 would be spent improving the area where Lance David died, according to the mayor’s office. $700,000 would go towards pavement maintenance, restriping and the exploration of an interim cycle track, which would further separate bicycles and automobiles. The remaining $200,000 would be spent on conceptual planning and pre-design for permanent road reconstruction of East Marginal Way. The remaining funds would go to Lower Spokane Street safety improvements, the Westlake Avenue Cycle Track, the Pedestrian Master Plan, and transit-oriented design in multiple neighborhoods.

How do you feel about bicycle safety in the greater Seattle area? Do you think that this $3.25 million plan is enough, or does the city need to spend more to keep our cyclists safe?

The post Bicyclist Fatality Leads Mayor to Take Action | Seattle Auto Accident Attorney appeared first on .

College campuses are often brimming with bicycling students, especially in Washington State. Between bicyclists, pedestrians and cars, there is plenty of opportunity for accidents to occur. On Tuesday, a student at Western Washington University was hit by a car when riding his bicycle. That led Carol Berry, who is the program coordinator for the university’s Sustainable Transportation, to urge bicyclists and drivers alike to pay attention 100% of the time they are riding are driving. Just a moment’s inattention can lead to serious consequences.

EverybodyBIKE (everybodybike.com) is a Bellingham-based bike resource program. They encourage safe bicycling and provide riders with brochures, videos and information on upcoming bike events. They have shared “Five Principles of Confident City Cycling”:

1. Ride visibly.
• Ride on the right, with traffic.
• Ride in the middle of the lane when necessary, for example, when riding along a row of parked cars.
• Ride in the left lane for turns.
• Use lights and reflectors at night.
• Avoid riding on sidewalks.

2. Communicate your intent.
• Choose the appropriate lane position.
• Signal before turning.
• Avoid blind spots.

3. Handle intersections defensively.

4. Beware of roadway hazards.
• Cross railroad tracks perpendicularly.
• Avoid slippery surfaces (leaves, sand, roadway markings, etc.)
• Give clearance to angle parked cars.
• Anticipate driver vision problems.
• Avoid potholes, debris and broken glass.
• Avoid car doors.

5. Prepare for bicycling.
• Check air, brakes, chain and quick release levers.
• Prep for wet weather.
• Lock securely.
• Wear protective gear.

The post WWU Student Bicyclist by Car | Seattle Auto Accident Lawyer appeared first on .

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are just three social networking sites that millions of users flock to everyday. We post statuses and pictures and tweet our little hearts out. And the problem is that we often do that when behind the wheel. While texting and driving is illegal in several states, using social media and driving is not… even though it’s just as or more dangerous than texting and driving. That’s why lawmakers in Louisiana are looking to close a loophole and ban the use of social media sites while on the road.

According to Senate Bil 147, which was written by Senator Dale Erdey, “social media use” falls within the constraints of “any web-based service that allows individuals to construct a profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and communicate with other members of the state.” Those who do use social media while driving could face fines of $175 for their first offense and $500 fines for any offenses thereafter. The social media use fines fall in line with texting and driving fines.

It seems like the state of Louisiana is definitely on to something. The bill passed unanimously and will undergo amendments before finally landing in the governor’s hands. What do you think about this bill? Should Washington State look to implementing one like it?

The post Facebook Could Get You Fined | Seattle Auto Accident Attorney appeared first on .