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Deadly Los Angeles Car Crash Displays the risk of speeding
Racing places everyone on the road at risk here in Los Angeles. According to data from the National Safety Council, Speeding was a factor in 29% of all traffic death toll in 2020, killing 11,258, or an average of over 30 people per day.
The NSC also reported that speeding as a contributing factor for deadly accidents decreased with age, the proportion of female drivers who were speeding is smaller than male drivers across all age groups. Young male drivers in the 15-24 year age groups were the most likely to be speeding at the time of lethal crashes. Speeding and alcohol impairment often coincide; this varies with driver age. A recent case that happened in Los Angeles demonstrates the dangers of speeding and the impact this negligent driving behaviour can have on others.
Young boy Adjudicated for Fatal Accident
A 17 year old driver crash the car and he was sentenced to spend seven to nine months in between in a juvenile facility after he caused a car crashed accident while speeding. On Feb 17, 2022, the teenager with his girlfriend driving his father’s Lamborghini started racing and was traveling at more than 100 miles per hour when he crashed into a vehicle that was being driven by a 32-year-old woman near the intersection of Overland Avenue and Olympic Boulevard. The accident caused the woman’s car to nearly be split in half, and she was noticeable dead at the scene.
The boy was accused in juvenile court because of his age at the time of the crash. He entered a guilty plea to vehicular slaying in April 2022. While the teen had requested probation, the victim’s family members claimed for him to spend time in a juvenile camp. The court apparently agreed and ordered him to serve time in the county juvenile camp. While the young man will receive criminal penalties for his flagrantly negligent actions, the victim’s family might also want to consider other avenues to hold him and his father accountable for their actions.
Potential Civil Liability
There are some cases in which the inaccuracy of a driver results in a deadly accident, the surviving family members can file unjustified death civil lawsuit. California recognizes the rights of surviving family members to chase wrongful death loss claims against individuals whose negligence caused their loved one’s death.
Different from lawbreaker matters, unjust death claims fall under the state’s civil tort laws. The civil laws of California allow certain family members to chase monetary injuries against the people whose actions caused the deaths of their loved ones. Since unjustified death claims work under a separate body of law than criminal matters and are prosecuted in civil court instead of criminal court, the surviving family members can file unjustified death claims even though the accused might face criminal accountability in a corresponding criminal action.
There are many reasons why the remaining alive family members in this and other similar cases might want to continue unjustified death claim against the accused. Civil and criminal cases involve different types of punishments and have dissimilar loads of proof. Since the punishment in civil lawsuits do not involve the potential of imprisonment but instead include financial damages, the loads of proof in unjustified death claims is lower than it is in criminal matters. This means that the remain alive family members might be able to hold a accused accountable for his or her conduct even if he or she is found not culpable in a unlawful case. The ability to file the unjustified death claim might allow the family members to hold accused responsible for his or her actions in any case of what might happen in the criminal case against the accused.
In this case, another reason why the remaining alive family members of the 32-year-old woman might want to file unjustified death claim is to potentially hold the teenager’s father liable for his actions in allowing his son to drive the Lamborghini. The unjustified death lawsuit might allow the family to hold the father liable even though he did not face criminal accountability.
Who Can File a Wrongful Death Claim?
Under Cal. Civ. Proc. § 377.60, only people with certain types of relationships to the departed victim have the right to file the unjustified death lawsuit. The relationships with the victim and the jurisdiction to file a lawsuit exist in the following order of priority:
Remaining alive spouse or domestic partner
Children
Grandchildren
People who would be entitled to the estate by intestate progression.
Parents
Judicial defender if the parents are expired.
Accused of the victim or of the assumed spouse
The assumed spouse’s children
Stepchildren
Negligent Entrustment and Holding the Father responsible
In this case, the teenager was driving his father’s Lamborghini and driving at speeds of more than 100 mph at the time of the mishap. California recognizes a type of carelessness called negligent entrustment. A person who carelessly allows someone to drive his or her vehicle that the holder knows to be inexperienced, unskilful, or careless can be held liable to pay damages when someone is later injured or killed in an accident caused by the inexperienced driver.
The family might be able to file a root of action against the father for negligent entrustment if he gave his son authorization to drive the Lamborghini in spite of the father’s knowledge that his son was too unpractised to handle the vehicle, was likely to capture in careless behaviour, including racing the car at immoderate speeds. This might allow the surviving family members to recover more. they might be able to recover by simply pursuing a claim against the teen driver who caused the collision and their loved one’s death.
This case illustrates exactly how risky speeding can be. If you have lost your loved one in an accident caused by someone who was speeding, you should talk to an skilled attorney at the law firm of CA Personal Injury Lawyers, Call us today for a free consultation.
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